police to meet you

I had my first encounter with the Pasadena constabulary yesterday, and very revealing it was - not so much about our wonderful local police so much as the people that called them, the Apple store in Colorado Boulevard.
No, I was not trying to steal an iPhone or any of their other ludicrously overpriced gadgets for which you might, just might, get a $100 voucher to spend in one of their stores if you happen to catch them gouging in a particularly greedy way.
My son, Andrew, wanted to buy one of the new iPods and went in while I waited outside in the car on a red line. I was staying in the car in case we were moved on, and he said he would be only a couple of minutes. That's all it had taken him when he was last here. But not this time.
The minutes ticked on. And on. And on.
After half an hour and no sign of Andrew, I thought I'd better go in and see if I could help, or at least see if he was anywhere near the head of the line.
There he was, at the cash desk, looking flustered while the assistant talked on the phone to what turned out to be the third credit card center.
'Can I buy it on my card instead?' I offered.
'If you wouldn't mind, Dad. I can't understand why they are declining the cards, I'm way under my spending limits.'
So my card and driving license were passed across the counter, and everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly. Then I noticed a police officer standing at the end of the counter.
'How you doin' sir?' he asked politely.
'Fine,' I replied, not thinking he had anything to do with me. Then two others arrived and it was a case of 'Step outside the store, sir.'
'Why?' I asked as a blue-sleeved hand grasped my arm a little too tightly for comfort.
'We'll explain outside.'
And, out on the sidewalk, we had a pleasant conversation about how this was happening all the time, Apple were particularly nervous because they were afraid of shoplifting, sorry to delay you. Eventually the Apple store manager said he was happy and I was allowed back into the store to make the purchase.
This was a result of Apple trying to have it both ways. They want to leave their products lying around in a relaxed, informal environment to encourage you to pick them up and buy them. But, because they are relatively high-priced and extremely fashionable, they are scared stiff of theft and everything that goes with that.
This all stems back to the supermarkets, who more than 60 years ago started saving on sales staff by simply putting their goods on shelves and leaving it to the customers to serve themselves. Naturally there are precautions in place to deter thieves, but supermarkets generally sell low-priced items and they budget for a certainly amount of stealing (known euphemistically as 'shrinkage') and in any case most of what vanishes does so in employees' pockets.
Next to jump on the bandwagon was bookshops, who also wanted customers to sample the merchandise, even providing armchairs so they could browse that much more comfortably. Slightly dearer goods, but on the whole bulkier than the average can of beans, so it has worked OK.
Retailers of the really expensive stuff either continue to keep it behind glass cases, as with jewellery and watches, or the goods are too bulky to walk away with, like furniture or TVs.
That leaves Apple with the dearest goods that fit in your bag or pocket. Eventually their appeal will fade, once we all have phone and computer implants and the fashionistas will have to move onto something else. But meanwhile they are trying to do the dance of the seven veils with a stiletto in their shoe. It's not a pretty sight.
Nor is the craven behavior of the banks, who were the other villains in this story. Low-cost travel has made it difficult for them to keep track of many of their customers, so they apply some crude assumptions about spending patterns. Anyone that steps outside the pattern can expect to be refused - something the real crooks know only too well and therefore take account of, unless they are complete amateurs. OK, a store like Apple will get more than its share of such amateur con merchants, but it's hardly good customer relations. Best to either pay cash or phone the bank in advance and tell them where you are going shopping. They hate suprises, see, or else they'd have chosen more interesting careers than telling people they can't use their credit cards.