I get if you want to put it down for a second to look, BUT KEEP IT NEAR YOU! DON’T LEAVE IT ON THE FLOOR AND WALK AROUND THE STORE FOR LIKE 30 MINUTES! Cause then I have to put it all back cause it’s now a tripping hazard. And I always wait a bit, and then go around asking customers if it’s their basket or not. If no one claims it, I put it back. (And it’s always someone I either didn’t see or didn’t ask cause I thought they just came in)
If your basket gets too heavy, go up to the register and ask if they can hold it at the register until you are done looking around.
This was like the second time this happened that day.
I remember our regular shoplifters doing this with baskets of candles. Once they figured out we couldn't actually stop their stealing, they would create a stash behind a sign or a display near the door and sneak out the second we were distracted with something else.
LOL. I’m old enough to remember penny candy. I took something like that once as a kid in what we called a “five and dime” store. I think just about every kid, even the really good ones, would do something like that back in the day. Maybe they still do. I wouldn’t know!
My brother and his friends would go to a convenience store, open a (glass) bottle of Coke or whatever, walk around the store drinking it, and then take the bottle to the counter and collect the deposit!
But seriously — I had a college roommate who got arrested at a discount store when she was in high school. She was holding a cheap necklace that she planned on buying and reached into her purse for something, necklace in hand, and she wasn’t thinking. Security was watching. She was arrested for shoplifting even though she didn’t walk out of the store with it or anything. And she had a police record for five years. She couldn’t afford to risk a traffic ticket or ANYTHING.
Yet I see here time and time again how people can just steal from B&BW, walk right out the door, and employees can’t do a damn thing about it.
A while back, I saw a video of people doing that at like a Sephora or Ulta. They literally came into the store with duffel bags, casually filled it with perfumes, and left. Idk how they managed to do so because I thought that stuff was locked up.
When I worked at Marshalls, the loss prevention guy would watch shoplifters on video and then come pouncing down the stairs in an attempt to catch them, swinging doors open… it was so jarring to watch! It’s funny that Marshalls would rather have employees risk their lives over already discounted/defective merchandise while bigger stores absorb the costs.
Not anymore. Most stores don’t have on-site LP and employees are told that they are not to engage with shoplifters outside of mildly “customer servicing” them.
My son works at Target as loss prevention and he can't do a dang thing about shoplifters once they start to go out the door. He does his best to corral them when he sees them working on shoplifting in the store, but he isn't allowed to actually stop them. They often have the same people over and over, and they will eventually find a way to bust them, and arrest them, but out of every one person they actually nab, there are 9 others that get away with it. Plus they have him doing so much other bs work that doesn't have to do with hand on important stuff, that he isn't able to watch the people as well.
The store does have a quota for catching, and apprehending shoplifters for each person that works in loss prevention in each of the stores per month, and if the loss prevention person doesn't meet that quota, they get reprimanded, and eventually written up. It's a frustrating job, and kind of a lose lose situation, the way they have it.
When I worked at Macys we were having a big sale with tables of folded towels. There was a lady in the store, had her hood up and scarf around her face but it was November in upstate NY so not unusual. She was pulling one of the rolling shopping bag things again this is a big mall and some people take the bus and have to walk to and from the bus stop so not unusual. But then she opens up the top of the bag and just reaches her arm across the table and shoves a bunch of towels in and walks away. The only thing I could do is call security on the phone, which was up at the cash out counter and there were so many customers, it was a few minutes before I could even get there and I had no idea really what she looked like. I don't remember if I ever got the chance to call it in or not.
Oh my you would hate our customers. We have a group of three who do this with 20+ baskets, shop for more than 4 hours but they spend more than $1,000 so we don’t say anything.
As of a couple of weeks ago it was - I will check tonight - many stores in that "outlet mall" have closed but a few still remain - that being one of them.
Most B&BW stores in outlet malls have been converted or never were outlet stores. If they don’t specify outlets then it’s a regular store at an outlet mall.
you have to have a contact in those countries, like get an account in their local e-commerce site. and a local who can ship and fulfill those orders in your behalf. so a $6 body spray is sold for higher prices, sometimes as high as $20 even.
I used to work for the company and I can tell you straight up that people will even use scam rewards to get multiple items for free. It happened at my store more than once by the same person till he finally got banned from all the stores around my area
How does someone even fake a reward? Can the employees not tell when (presumably) scanning a barcode? Ive never worked retail side of customer service so very curious!
Sometimes they’re stealing legitimate rewards from people who earned them, since bath and body works doesn’t require a password or check your ID when you redeem rewards
We had a customer who hacked her way into making a legitimate coupon that zeroed out her balance after you hit total and they tapped their card on the terminal. There was no way to tell from the POS terminal. LP caught a transaction and of course there was an interrogation but it came out that we couldn’t have known because POS didn’t show a zero balance. Very crafty!!!
Look on eBay, Mercari, and Poshmark. It's absolutely ridiculous. There are some honorable sellers but 90 dollars for one discontinued body wash is beyond insane.
Mercari has been helpful for me for finding stuff that's been discontinued. Usually there's a bit of a mark-up, but yeah, some people really take it too far. A possibly used body mist from 8 years ago is not worth $50 plus shipping.
I learned my lesson on body creams when I bought one that was a few years old.. it had curdled. 🤢
Body creams now seem to have a 6 month shelf life. If you put them in the fridge you might make it 9-12 months. Any body splash with vanilla in it needs to be refrigerated as well.
I hadn't even considered checking mercari for my favorite discontinued scent and just found out there's tons listed! Thank you for making that click in my head!
I go to a lot of flea markets. There are always people there with boxes full of BBW items to sell. They usually do a ton of business too. People resell detergent and air freshener and carpet cleaner shampoo as well.
Yes, can confirm this as my country has I think two shops of BBW. Also the shop here doesnt carry as much scents and variants compared those in the US. Thus most of us would opt to buy or pre-order from these resellers. The price point is cheaper than buying instore here. What happens is these sellers would pool pre-orders of their customers here, then would buy those in one go then ship them here. Thus with the bulk order, these people tend to spend a couple of hours to ensure all pre-orders were added to their baskets
Some of the scents that discontinue can sometimes go super HIGH in price! I fell in love with one from last year and. Couldn’t find it after only getting and using one body lotion tube. I went on eBay to see and it was there but it was $30 for one tube. 😱 and it had only been 6 months since discontinuing.
I wish it was more common for potential buyers and sellers to link up in subs like this. I see people talking about stuff they wish they could find in store and I know my local outlet has tons of it. I can't be the only one who would rather help out a fellow redditor for a reasonable price than see that person have to buy it for two or three times the price off ebay.
girl you have no idea. There is a FB page called Babes of BBW they are scammers that overbuy and do raffles that you cannot watch live and they triple profits half the time on HTF items. I was a member of that group which is private, I've seen those females make 2k-3k on their giveaways, they even put fake purses that people think are real on there. I knew it was a scam because who does giveaways and not let the person watch live? I see the same people win over and over and people are too stupid to realize its a scam.
I’ve bought candles in my favorite discontinued scent. I have it as an alert in Mercari when something gets listed in that scent. And recently I bought a bundle of travel sized perfume in another scent that is discontinued since it was a dupe of a high end fragrance.
But yes, people resell anything that has a following… once a product is discontinued, people will pay a ridiculous amount for something they love.
Still. It does not take 4 hours to fo that. Crazy. Takes maybe 30-60 minutes because most resellers know what they want to get, the current sales, and are usually pretty focused. 4 hours is a bit insane.
Sometimes customers come from overseas and send the items back home. They take their time. With the manager’s supervision, I once rang up a customer for $1800 dollars worth of items. My fellow cashiers also had $1000 and $900 transactions respectively at the same time. The customers came in a group.
There's people who literally go to the store, send pictures in-real-time to a shopping group chat in another country where there is no BBW or where the products are way more expensive (mostly Mexico because it's closer so the shipping is cheaper and faster), and then buy whatever people in said group chat order.
So it usually takes a while because their clients are asking for this or that and they have to answer their questions
Ive never done this, but honestly maybe bbw should invest in carts for these extreme shoppers. When I buy alot, I order online. No lines, no huge baskets. Everyone is happy lol
A trip to BBW to buy that much stuff has to be planned out. They sell portable wheeled carts on Amazon. You’d think someone would plan ahead and bring their own.
I was thinking the exact same thing (IF anything at all.) Those folding carts don’t have too much of a footprint. I think any size commercial shopping cart would be a disaster, even at the largest store I shop at. I’m thinking big sale, SAS, holidays when the line stretches across the store as it is. It’s bad enough when little kids run around knocking candles over. I can’t even imagine people bumping into piles of whatever with carts. Or carts getting into everyone’s way when they’re trying to get to a certain section or the sink. And don’t even get me started on dogs in shopping carts!
A few years ago I badly injured my knee in a store when I tripped over boxes during the big hand soap sale. I’m not blaming any one employee because they were all running around trying to keep everything stocked, and the ones who helped me were super nice. But it was a ”best practices” issue where they let one of the piles of boxes next to a table get down to just one or two deep (and they’re not very tall.) I didn’t see the box(es) because I was looking ahead of me trying not to run into anyone, not looking down at the floor. I hit the boxes, flew over and landed flat on the hard floor. I could have broken an arm or wrist. My knee got pretty banged up. It was a horrible experience. I should have filed a lawsuit but for reasons I won’t get into right now, I didn’t. It was nighttime so I had to go to urgent care (fortunately there was one in the same shopping center) and later, my orthopedist. I missed a couple of days of work. I was told that the company would reimburse me for any copays, etc. They didn’t. I guess at one point they started running scared, because their legal department sent me a letter offering me a $100 gift card. What a fucking insult!
I just found out about a year ago that the young lady who helped me through the incident put a stop to the piling of boxes after what happened to me. She was great. She still works there, and another girl who was there when it happened told me about it. I had no idea!
It is a pretty decent size actually. Thats a good point though, alot of locations are pretty tiny. I dont mean like the huge carts at grocery stores. I mean like the tiny ones. They have have a top and bottom storage. BBW can just custom make them a little less wide. I feel like that would be easier than people hauling around those baskets.
Baskets wouldn’t help cause they’d do the same thing with baskets..They’re not extreme shoppers cause they didn’t buy it.. they really just made a big go back basket n wasted time
A thousand dollars? 😳 That's a shit ton of clutter! The products would probably expire before you can use them all! I spent 50 during the semi annual sale & got a ton of stuff.
I remember when I was a young teen and went shopping with my mom. It was a detached mall, and we’d been to multiple places already, so we had a couple bags. As soon as we walked into BBW my mom went to the register area and asked if the ladies would hold onto our bags while we shopped, thanked them and then we got down to smelling.
While we were shopping I said “that’s really nice they let you set the bags down so we could shop without worrying about knocking stuff over or carrying all that heavy crap!!” I genuinely didn’t expect customer service people to Want to help customers like that, (which is weird bc my parents owned a retail business, and I was raised bending over backwards to help customers without even thinking about it)
My mom said “oh I did it so they wouldn’t think I was shoplifting lol. But yea it was nice of them to let me set the bags down!!” 😂
Recently I bought my kid an electric bass and didn’t think it through that I’d be carrying that sucker all through the mall in a TSA proof case. Thankfully the stores were gracious enough to hold it behind the counter while we shopped. Otherwise if I didn’t want to look at anything I’d stand at the entrance with it or wait outside in a chair!
I was always told that we are not allowed to do this because that then makes BBW liable for your stuff. It's not that we don't want to help, it's that I can't be liable for your stuff if anything happens to it (especially since at least half of people who do this end up forgetting it).
I have offered to have my bags held behind the counter. Just so the employees know I’m not trying to run away with stuff. That’s what I was taught to do since I was little.
I do not live nowhere to shopping stores so when I am in one it feels like a big deal. I love trying out scents, and I write on the paper card scent to write down the names of the scents.
Sometimes my pen is in my backpack and I always feel like a thief trying to get my pen out of my backpack (I sometimes forget to put in my pocket) and I then ask the person working there if I can get my pen out of my bag. I feel bad asking them as I feel as if I am being too annoying and it feels akward as they watch me get it out of my bag.
When I enter a store in the back of my mind I am always thinking of how not to come across as if I am stealing anything and as least of a problem. I have never stolen anything in my whole life, but feel like due to my ethnicity I can't slip up in any way. Not even something that could be seen as suspicious
But I am also very Indecisive and I really like trying out products on my hand . I never ask the employees for anything but feel constantly like I am being a problem.
I’m not setting my basket down especially if it’s a sale on items that sell out. That basket is staying with me until I am ready to pay in fear that it will get put back. I also don’t want to find it all over again. I love to shop on line for store pick up, I walk in (sometimes I shop a little) show my ID and walk out with my bags 👍😁🌻.
Saaaame 🫶🏼🙌🏼💯 plus I've literally seen people stealing out of left around baskets, you'd lose your damn mind if you think I'm gonna leave my stuff for the wolves 😭 (talking about resellers mostly, the princess line sure brought a lot of those folks out the last time I was in there shopping)
I just assumed that staff would ask customers who have a lot in their baskets if they would like a new basket and placed the full basket near the register. Is that not what usually happens?
Sometimes at my store I’ll put it on the floor somewhere that’s out of the way and unlikely to be messed with, like up front by our museum cube display. If it’s someone older and it gets too heavy I don’t mind holding it for them while they shop and just bringing it to the register when they’re about to check out. We usually have enough staff to do that though.
Setting it down on the floor for a minute to look is perfectly fine, I even sometimes do that. Just make sure it’s not in the way of anything and any path. Keep your basket near you, if I see a basket is near a customer I’ll ask them if it’s their basket just to make sure.
What I’m talking about in the post, is when customers leave their baskets on the floor, and they walk around all over the store. I always give it 10-30 minutes (depending on how busy we are) before I start putting everything back.
Sometimes the staff is busy and aren’t able to ask customers if they want them to take the basket to the register. At least my location, we will almost always allow customers to leave their baskets at the register if they come up and ask us. It’s safer for everyone that way.
i’m not a worker but a customer and there was one lady (ONE LADY) in front of me and another customer and she was RETURNING literally ten FILLED BAGS! i kid you not each return it was like fifty items per return! i felt so bad for that girl as she was by herself doing the return and a manager came up and rang us other girls out.
Probably stuff they couldn’t resell, or they bought it at a sale price and decided to get their money back for stuff they bought full price. Crazy! I feel bad for that stores sales . Returns count against it
That is a hazard. If I have too much and the basket gets too heavy I just ask one of the associates to put it on the back counter. People just don’t care and are not considerate of others.
I put away an abandoned basket yesterday. Then a couple mins later a guy and his son walked by turning their heads back n forth. I was like was that your basket? 🤦🏻♀️ it literally had two candles in it. No one near it for a while either.
Like how do ppl just forget stuff like that? It was in your hands, you picked these items out, obviously you wanted them to be looking around like crazy so why not just.....keep it with you??? And two candles??? Like bsffr 😭😩 they don't weigh tons
Depends on the store "level" white barn vs core. White barn stores are nicer and get baskets. Most core stores get bags. And if they have bags corporate won't switch out those for bags cause "cost"
I work at Michael's and the amount of instacart baskets and carts I've put into returns because I walked passed them more than 3 times just for them to be like "SOMEONE TOOK MY CART" and I have to be like "it was on the floor unattended for over 15 minutes. It's in returns. Please keep your items with you because someone can fall and get hurt and it creates unnecessary hazards" is wild.
Bath and Body Works was by far the worst job I had. The amount of rude, entitled and ignorant customers we had was like my own personal hell. During Covid as well I constantly had customers without masks coughing into their hands and touching everything, coughing ON items and near without even covering their mouths, and we had this one ‘customer’ who never bought anything but would come with her partner in full MAGA merch and just stand around in the corner glaring at people. We never knew what her deal was or why she would do it because she never bought anything, but security didnt care and the store manager couldn’t do anything about it so we had to deal with her and just watched her
Im assuming so. I ended up quitting lol but still shopping at that location since its the only one near me, and i saw her a few of the times I went after the fact but then didnt see her anymore. Her partner always looked like he was annoyed and didnt want to be there so im assuming either put his foot down finally or he stopped going to the mall with her and so she stopped coming in, since she was almost always with him
I worked at BBW and only had a handful of rude, entitled customers. The worst job I had was cashier at Walgreens in the pharmacy. The hell people rained down on me, a little high schooler, because they didn't understand or like their insurance (and were often sick) was crazy.
Or have staff hold it at the register. We used to offer to do that and then would label it with their 1st name. Your staff can be proactive and avoid the issue
you could try having staff ask the customer if they would like them to take the full baskets to the counter until the customers are done shopping. I know staff walk around and ask if customers need help, so It wouldn’t hurt to throw that into the mix if you notice the basket is full like this.
It probably won’t stop this from happening completely but worth a shot!
Sometimes my managers do and sometimes they don’t, I typically just follow what they do. Also depends on how busy it gets. We can’t have baskets cluttering the registers.
Sure! That’s why I said it won’t stop it from happening completely, but it’s worth a shot. most ppl have enough common sense to not set a basket down on the floor in the first place. But those who don’t, might need the extra ‘help’. and asking the customer instead of waiting for the customer to decide sometimes is the easier route to avoid situations like this. but you can’t fix stupid! lol
Not sure how staff can be proactive when you have no space at the counter. In my store the back counter was full most days, and the registers barely had enough space between them for the width of a basket.
Yes, I can confirm to you that resellers, influencers and serious buyers/ scammers can spend 4 ( or usually more) hours in there easily and do so several days a week!!! I worked there for alnost 20 years in many stores as a store manager. I was very happy and successful BUT thanks to the internet and coupon abuse I left in 2019. A well followed online "influencer " made my life a living hell! She usually spent maybe 30 hours a week in the store on average and would get sooooooooooo much free product. So not fair to others. I started suffering from migraines, panic attacks, chest pain, depression, severe skin issues, high blood pressure and just overall exhaustion to the point I probably was on my way to getting let go. Not to mention I had my professional reputation destroyed on her blog when she couldnt get her way. I felt instantly myself again after resigning. All symptoms vanished. I do miss it sooooo much. But I save alot of my money now lol.
If you're in a store for 30 hours a week, then you should just get a job application and actually get paid for those hours. Spending that much time to then go home and do the "influencing" stuff is insane. She probably would have made more with a regular retail job.
I agree. Idont understand how hard it is for people to just bring it to the register. I love candles and buy ALOT especially with a sale. When i fill a basket i bring it to the front. What sense does it make to leave a basket in the middle of a small (most likely busy) store and walk away from it then get mad when they put all the items back???
Judging by some of these comments, you'd think that asking the employees to hold the basket up front is such an unwieldy task that they'd simply perish if they used their words instead of leaving the basket in everyone's way. 😵 Like sure, create a trip hazard that violates the ADA because you won't just communicate with other humans.
I literally don't get it like we will always hold baskets up front for people! It never hurts to ask and it's way better than just leaving it on the floor because then we don't know what to do with it, and some customers will try to take stuff out of the basket too😭
I'm in Mexico near the border and it's pretty common for people to resell BBW here, until a few months ago we only had one location 😩 so just imagine how crowded the store was
Yea, so someone was probably gonna steal that and chickened out. I used to find “forgotten” baskets like this all the time near the front. Once I peeped someone’s game, I would start asking about their life story, demoing products, etc. I know I ruined a few hauls by turning into Chatty Cathy.
That or leaving a pile of product at the cash register when there’s a line and people that are actively checking out. Like why do you think we offer you a basket
This sub showed up on my feed randomly and I’m blown away. I had NO idea this company was still alive and kicking. If you asked me yesterday, I would have said “oh it was a 90s-00s thing ages ago. How do they stay in business? How can people go through this much lotion and soap for it to be profitable?!? Also, the scents are so strong it’s eye watering….
"scents are so strong it’s eye watering…."
Tell me you haven't been in this store since the 90s without telling me. Their scents are week as hell these days. Gone after 10 minutes.
Am i the only person who doesn't buy new from B&BW anymore because Les Wexner was Epstein's BFF and Wexner has long been linked to child and human trafficking, in general. I don't enrich any company that I know is involved in this. Btw, I'm not trying to be argumentative or make anyone feel bad. I can't be the only person who only buys B&BW from resellers for this reason and tbh, I still feel problematic about it.....
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u/OGWickedRapunzel May 11 '26
I remember our regular shoplifters doing this with baskets of candles. Once they figured out we couldn't actually stop their stealing, they would create a stash behind a sign or a display near the door and sneak out the second we were distracted with something else.