A Little Warning To Other Shopowners

[Cyberstar]

It has never happened before in those about two years, I've been running a street level business in this town. However today, for the fourth time in less than three weeks, I saw a customer hastily leave his chair and walk out without paying. Since we're talking about "bills" amounting to 5, 10, 10, and 15 bahts - those guys must be desperate ... (successfully shoplifting some second hand book from some sponsor's book shelves, must be quite a haul).

Won't talk about nationality, but none of the culprits looked neither "typical-Westerner-like" nor "typical-East-Asian-like".

And here's a little warning to the culprits: My wife is a hawk, she caught up on 3 of you guys and made sufficient noise to get the dough (one even had to pay his guesthouse a deposit, in case a towel should be missing at check out time).

[Rasseru]

. . . . . none of the culprits looked neither "typical-Westerner-like" nor "typical-East-Asian-like".

[mcgriffith]

Last time this was up, it ran 300 pages.....

Soooooo... they were Bolivian tin miners, in hard hats with carbide lanterns, right?

McG

[Cyberstar]

. . . . . none of the culprits looked neither "typical-Westerner-like" nor "typical-East-Asian-like".

Sorry, that's as accurate as I feel like getting ... In case you have no personal relation to the subject - why don't you just find another thread to post in?

[Cyberstar]

Last time this was up, it ran 300 pages.....

Soooooo... they were Bolivian tin miners, in hard hats with carbide lanterns, right?

McG

Could you provide a link, please?

[nidge]

Won't talk about nationality, but none of the culprits looked neither "typical-Westerner-like" nor "typical-East-Asian-like".

I work in the land of the sand, (aka the armpit of the world). Many of my workmates are locals and fit this description. Are you suggestion i should not open a small eating establishment for fear of light fingered snackers?

[Cyberstar]

Won't talk about nationality, but none of the culprits looked neither "typical-Westerner-like" nor "typical-East-Asian-like".

I work in the land of the sand, (aka the armpit of the world). Many of my workmates are locals and fit this description. Are you suggestion i should not open a small eating establishment for fear of light fingered snackers?

I'm suggesting absolutely nothing! --- I'm just reporting fours events, I've personally seen ... If you - for some obscure reason - should feel hit ... Go, talk to a doctor.

[Blinky Bill]

Won't talk about nationality, but none of the culprits looked neither "typical-Westerner-like" nor "typical-East-Asian-like".

Sorry, that's as accurate as I feel like getting ... In case you have no personal relation to the subject - why don't you just find another thread to post in?

I'm suggesting absolutely nothing! --- I'm just reporting fours events, I've personally seen ... If you - for some obscure reason - should feel hit ... Go, talk to a doctor.

Having a bad day are we? Not making a great deal of sense there.

[nidge]

i don't feel hit at all, i am afraid i fit in the "typical-Westerner-like" part of the equasion. I was only asking advice as it seems there are many of the undesirables you mentioned living and working near me!

[chuchok]

Won't talk about nationality, but none of the culprits looked neither "typical-Westerner-like" nor "typical-East-Asian-like".

Sorry, that's as accurate as I feel like getting ... In case you have no personal relation to the subject - why don't you just find another thread to post in?

I'm suggesting absolutely nothing! --- I'm just reporting fours events, I've personally seen ... If you - for some obscure reason - should feel hit ... Go, talk to a doctor.

Having a bad day are we? Not making a great deal of sense there.

He never does.

[BLUENOSE]

It has never happened before in those about two years, I've been running a street level business in this town. However today, for the fourth time in less than three weeks, I saw a customer hastily leave his chair and walk out without paying. Since we're talking about "bills" amounting to 5, 10, 10, and 15 bahts - those guys must be desperate ... (successfully shoplifting some second hand book from some sponsor's book shelves, must be quite a haul).

Won't talk about nationality, but none of the culprits looked neither "typical-Westerner-like" nor "typical-East-Asian-like".

And here's a little warning to the culprits: My wife is a hawk, she caught up on 3 of you guys and made sufficient noise to get the dough (one even had to pay his guesthouse a deposit, in case a towel should be missing at check out time).

Am I reading this right? You had 4 customers on 4 occasions leave your establishment without paying and you had a total loss of 40 baht? That's a disgrace. How can you survive with that level of losses? Did you inform the authorities?

In consideration of the safety of others, I think you should be more specific about the nationality of the culprits, because these people should be captured asap. As you said they must be desperate, so we should be wary of approaching them. Probably best to leave it to the proffessionals.

[Rasseru]

. . . . . none of the culprits looked neither "typical-Westerner-like" nor "typical-East-Asian-like".

Sorry, that's as accurate as I feel like getting ...

I wasn't seeking greater accuracy, just the intended meaning of the phrase. The best I could do was take out the double negative, and find that it was another way of saying that all of the culprits looked both "typical-Westerner-like" and "typical-East-Asian-like", but that does not make any sense to me.

[ThaiPauly]

In the two months since we hve had our place we have had 2 runners.

The first had his meal and asked the waitress for a doggie bag (no puns-we don't sell dog)...while she went downstairs he legged it to his car and drove off.

The second was a guy who just ordered a botle of Chang and a bucket of ice.

Unbelievable the small amount of money that people could risk being banged up for stealing

Both were Thai and both had cars, so they were hardly broke

[Ulysses G.]

(successfully shoplifting some second hand book from some sponsor's book shelves, must be quite a haul).

One thing that we really have to watch out for is backpackers who try to bargain to change the price of a clearly marked book - including brand new books that are priced and marked by the distributer that we only get 20% off on. Some people ask us to cut the price in half and then get quite angry when we tell them that our prices are fixed even though there are signs to that effect hanging in front of the check out counter.

Of course, if they sell something, they want five times what they could get for it from a bookshop in London.

They seem to think that because, "This is Thailand, man", we have to sell our products at whatever price they have decided is acceptable to them, and will quite happily steal it if you don't watch them carefully until they leave the store.

Edited July 4, 2007 by Ulysses G.

[ThaiPauly]

(successfully shoplifting some second hand book from some sponsor's book shelves, must be quite a haul).

One thing that we really have to watch out for is backpackers who try to bargain to change the price of a clearly marked book - including brand new books that are priced and marked by the distributer that we only get 20% off on. Some people ask us to cut the price in half and then get quite angry when we tell them that our prices are fixed even though there are signs to that effect hanging in front of the check out counter.

They seem to think that because, "This is Thailand, man", we have to sell our products at whatever price they have decided is acceptable to them, and will quite happily steal it if you don't watch them carefully until they leave the store.

UG you outta add another big sign up saying

IN THAILAND THE PENALTY FOR SHOPLIFTING IS DEATH

Might save you a few dollars

[Ulysses G.]

I have a sign with a picture of Warren Fellows (of Damage Done fame) in chains with a police escort; It says "Shoplifters Prosecuted"!

[cdnvic]

You need to find a realistic copy of the skeletal parts of a hand, chopped at the wrist. A few of these mounted like trophies above the door labelled "Shoplifter, Jan 2004" "Shoplifter, Sept 2006" should drive the point home. May just attract some extra business from curiosity seekers too.

Edited July 4, 2007 by cdnvic

[chanchao]

Jesus FC, he was being perfectly clear. Does anyone else need a USB braille machine perhaps?

Shalom!

[cdnvic]

Why didn't he just say they were Israeli? If it's a fact then there's nothing wrong with being open about it.

It was beginning to sound like "I've brought you all here to tell you who the murderer is, but first......."

Edited July 4, 2007 by cdnvic

[Ulysses G.]

For what it is worth, the shoplifters we have caught over the years were a few British men and one German girl.

We do watch Thai teenage boys closely if they are not regular customers, so they probably just don't bother.

[malcy]

For what it is worth, the shoplifters we have caught over the years were a few British men and one German girl.

We do watch Thai teenage boys closely if they are not regular customers, so they probably just don't bother.

so that was you i saw watching those small thai teenage boys swimming in the klong was it ? you should be ashamed of yourself , being a fine upstanding local buisness man and all.

[Ulysses G.]

I have watched Thai boys swimming in the Klong many times and I promise that there was no lust in my heart - or anywhere else.

Can't say the same about their sisters though!

[PeaceBlondie]

I can be so naive. I was trying to unravel that double negative in the OP, but my folks never taught me about long noses, swarthy complexions; they never used terms like "Christ-killers" (which would historically refer to the White, Gentile, Roman soldiers). That time I was walking down the road in Mexico with my son, his girlfriend of unknown heritage (she could have been Slovakian!), a full breasted Korean girl, and two veterans of the IDF, it never dawned on me to guard my backpack against theft from those nefarious young men who shared their provisions with us. Or when my younger son came home with a girlfriend who was descended from Holocaust survivors with names like Abraham Lefkowitz, I forgot to count the silverware......I guess I'm not cut out to be a second-hand book seller among the Burmese and the Akha whose girlfriends come from Lebanon or London or...God forbid...Greenwich Village!

[Ulysses G.]

Translation please?

I don't think of any group of Farang customers as being any more likely to steal than any other and I have had no problem with Israelis at all - they are some of our most well read, most interesting customers - however, there are large gangs of young Thai boys that go into bookshops in Chiang Mai and Bangkok and steal guidebooks and books about South East Asia and resell them at other stores.

There have been numerous arrests in the past in Bangkok, but they operate in Chiang Mai too and have offered to sell me 50 copies of the same guidebook in perfect condition, so it is not difficult to figure out who they are - at least the ones who do the selling.

Nothing racist meant, but, If we didn't pay close attention to teenage Thai boys who hang around for hours and only seem interested in our most expensive books, we wouldn't be in business very long.

[cmsally]

Worst case of "shoplifting" which made me feel really disgusted was last month. I was walking over to some street vendors and saw some guy walk away with a banana and the vendors looked pretty irate.

I went over to buy something and asked what was going on. One old lady was selling bananas and apparently he came over and asked how much (I think it was 15bt for a bunch - just your normal local bananas). He said he wanted to buy only 1 banana - she gestured no , only sold 15bt/bunch. He promptly grabbed a bunch, ripped off one banana and chucked a 1 bt coin at her. Don't know what nationality he was, only saw him walk away - in his early/mid 20's dark hair.

But just found it unbelievable that someone could behave like that.

Almost beats my husband's story , when he was in Luang prabang; he likes to go to the early morning market. Saw a farang trying to bargain for one of those filled french bread kind of sandwiches - something like 5 bt. He just kept going on and on at the woman to get it for something like 2 bt less. My husband walked over, paid her the money, gave the guy the sandwich and told the guy how much of a shame it was that he came all the way to Laos and couldn't afford a 5bt breakfast.

[Donnyboy]

we once did a runner out of a thai restaurant, well sort of. During Loy Khatong a few years back we went to dinner by one of the restaurants by the river. After we finished our meal we asked for the bill, it never came. We must have waited 30mins waiting, and asked at least 8 times to about 4 different staff. No bill came. Admittedly, they were very busy and understaffed, so we dropped 400 baht on the table and walked out.

note to any restaurants; when people ask for their bill, get it to them-pronto.

[Donnyboy]

Why didn't he just say they were Israeli? If it's a fact then there's nothing wrong with being open about it.

It was beginning to sound like "I've brought you all here to tell you who the murderer is, but first......."

dont get me started on that subject

[realthaideal]

This topic is silly. First, the OP didn't speak straight. He used some cryptic doublespeak and then the follow-ups were just as confusing. You should tell it like it is. Done. C'est c'ast. And then... what are we supposed to do ? Look for roaming bands of Israeli thieves ?? Hey great warning. Thanks alot. All people commit crimes - as all the following posts show. All people of all ethnicities across all socio-economic strata. So really..... be on the lookout: FOR EVERYONE !!! And sometimes you'll lose a thing or two, to whoever feels like pinching something. This is business as usual.

[PeaceBlondie]

Ulysses, I'm not sorry if my explanation of my experience with Jews and anti-Semitism needs translation. So did the opening post. I was trying to say that I wasn't taught to hate Jews or to blame them for killing a Jew who was killed by Gentile soldiers. I haven't had any negative experiences with veterans of the Israeli army, even if my buddies have almost been killed by active duty Israeli soldiers numerous times. I get your point, based on your extensive professional experience, that if there's anybody that booksellers in Thailand should watch with a hawk's eye, it's Thai boys. And since your opinion is based on your experience, it's neither prejudice nor racism!

[Ulysses G.]

In my opinion, hating Israelis comes from the same place as hating Jews and promoting one promotes the other. The "reasons" that bigots give for hating them are exactly the same for both.

The problem is that political correctness promotes hating Israel and Israelis as acceptable and so anti-Semitism is being spread again by some of the very "liberals" who would have spoken out against it in the past.

Edited July 5, 2007 by Ulysses G.