by Patrick Appel
Laura Bennett reviews The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting by Rachel Shteir:
Shteir’s survey of the paranoid world of “loss prevention” is eye-opening and unnerving. For instance, salespeople who actively greet customers as they enter the store are often employing an anti-shoplifting tactic called “aggressive hospitality.” Before electronic sensors were invented in the mid-1960s, catching shoplifters was a formidable task. Some stores hired detectives to stand in hollowed-out pillars paneled in one-way mirrors and look for thieves.
One supermarket positioned mannequins above the meat section so that the detectives could peer through the eye holes and catch customers pocketing beef. Equally disquieting are Shteir’s reports on the ingenuity of professional thieves, or boosters. At Woodbury Common, Shteir sees a “booster bag,” a purse or shopping bag designed for stealing, that had been seized by guards. It has tinfoil lining to prevent sensors from detecting stolen goods, and a decoy Christmas present is suspended by a wire attached to the handles. A trapdoor leading to a false bottom allows a shoplifter to suck piles of clothes up into the bag simply by placing it on top of merchandise.
The Dish 