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University Daily Kansan, December 4, 1981
Shoplifters create problems
Night clerks face 'bar rush'
By SHARON APPELBAUM Staff Reporter
It's when police get their most dangerous calls.
It's the time the drunks stank out of the bars. It starts about 11:30 p.m., and just as one wave dies down, the drunks in the clubs start pouring in.
It is called the graveyard shift, and those working at all-night convenience stores are used to it by now.
ALEC GRANDON works from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. at the Town & Country Market Store, 501 W. Ninth St. He's worked the shift for five months, and now he can run through the night routine casually.
With a stern expression and a deep voice, Grandon speaks beyond the limited experience of a 20-year-old KU student.
"You get your assholes, drunks and dopers from 12:30 to 1," he said. "Then the hardcore drunkers and dopers come in from 1 to 3. Then 3 to 5 is the private club rush. Four to 5 is the deadest time. Then 6 is the normal crowd going to work starts coming in. Then the shift change is at 7.
"The assholees are the shoplifters. They try to steal anything. We lose a lot of nuts, sandwiches, jerky, Slim Jims, most appetizing things, we drag to walk through." "Blood of beer."
But Grandon said the shoplifters didn't see themselves as thieves.
"The frat guys told me they do it for a game. Shoplift on the convenience store. It becomes a game for the man who now shoplifter can he catch?"
THE GAME can become pretty frustrating,however.
Judd Eustice has worked the late shift at the Seven Eleven Food Store at 2500 Iowa St. for four months. Clad in jeans, tennis shoes and an orange Seven Eleven shirt, he said that he had grown tired of obnoxious customers.
Especially the Saturday night roller skating crowd.
"After the doors close there, I got a 10-minute interval before they hit here," he said. "When they come in, it's not just one at a time. Five is usually a wave, but these people come in 20, 30 at a time.
"they go to the back. They open the packages, stick their hands down in the bags and eat. They create a mess all over the place."
"They ll rip off anything they can get their hands on. They fill the cups up all
ne way, take a sip and set them down.
They play change games with you."
Why do the locks work nights?
"I do one-third of the business and give the same pay," he said. "During the day the registrar might do $1,500 to help me pay it out to $800 tops. I just clean up the store."
Why do the clerks work night?
GRANDON SAID the job was easier.
But Gregory Hickam, who works at the Kwik Shop, 845 Mississippi, said he preferred working late because of the people.
"The quality of the people are generally better," he said. "The people are friendly, not as much in a rush. They are often 15 to 12.00. That's the heavy beer rush."
"You get regulars from other people on the graveyard shift who come in for their lunch hour. You develop a rapport with them."
EUSTICE SAID that he liked the late shift because he didn't have to do paperwork but that the people certainly weren't a drawing card.
Pointing to a group of people surrounding an "Asteroid" game, he said, "That the lotter's aisle. We have the candy, and all the porn magazines there."
'I can't get over the fact that I come in here because I get paid for it. They come in to entertain themselves.
"And look at what we sell: cigarettes, coffee, Coke. The only thing that's worth a shit is milk and eggs. That's the truth." "Can't we sell anything worthwhile?"
And Eustice said the late shift was not that simple.
"People who think this kind of job is easy are wrong. You always have to deal with the fact that maybe tonight
CRIME DOES go up significantly after 8 p.m., according to Jim O'Connell, Lawrence police dispatcher during the gravestard shift.
"The calls at night are mainly hot or important calls," he said. "In the daytime they get the dog calls and they don't have to attend with the PR calls."
Managers let their employees decide whether they're going to call the police, said Robert Doornel, who has managed Seven Elevens in Lawrence and
"It's an individual type of thing," he said.
Clerks are free to do what they think is best to control customers.
GRANDON SAID he wasn't afraid to treat customers how they treated him.
He'll even match violence with violence.
"Some guy came in and said radio waves were affecting his mind, and he had to come over the counter at me!" he said. "Two of his files (or him with an ax handle)
"That's Bertha," he said pointing to a wooden ax handle leaning against the counter. "I bought it the week before country club week.
"The first time I used it was when I was jumped by 13 frat guys in the parking lot. I had kicked them out. One tried to punch me. Iucked and hit him over the head. Then the rest of them jumped on. I got two black eyes.
but police frown on store clerks taking the law into their own hands, according to Robert Avery, crime prevention officer for the Lawrence police
Asked about the ax, he said, "That guy's going to get hurt."
guy going to get them
He said clerks should always call the police. even with shoplifters.
"Most of the time the store won't prosecute. They just make the person pay. But a shoplifter gets caught only one in 20 times."
HE SAID that if police had a hand in treating the offenders, they might be deterred for good.
"It might take two or three times. It's better than watching the profits go out the door," he said.
he door, we said Avery welcomed calls from clerks.
"They feel as if they're bothering us to call," he said. "That's the completely wrong attitude to have. When someone sees a white car with funny red lights, he tends to quit what he's doing."
Eustice did admit that clerks fighting back on their own could fire one. Of his co-workers confronted an unobvious customer.
"One guy loaded up on sandwiches." he said. "He stuck them all in the microwave and walked out the door.
... The guy made a mistake and chased the guy. It was his immediate impulse, and he got in a fight.
"When he was in the fight, the people in the store had a golden opportunity. They took the money from the register and held all the bills."
BUT GRANDON said that being tough had its merits.
"My job is getting easier," he said.
"I've gotten some respect. They say
'Sir' and 'Please.' They know I won't
健忘 to pick up Bertha there.
"At night the policy that the customer is always right switches to the clerk is always right. Even when I'm wrong, I am right."
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