I've never
shoplifted anything in my
life, but even so, those little
alarm gates present me with a challenge that I must overcome. Oddly enough, I've found that many stores actually don't even have anyone around to do something when the alarm goes off. Several times, a
clerk has forgotten to remove one of the magnetic strips from something I've bought (this seems to happen with
books at
Barnes and Noble a lot), and I'll inadvertently set off the alarm.
At least 75% of the times this has happened, nobody has even so much as glanced in my direction. One time the alarm went off and I stopped and waited for someone to come search my bag. Nobody came. So I passed the bag through the pillars again, setting off another alarm. Still, nobody came. Again, I set the alarm off. Again, I was ignored. Finally I just went on my merry way and waved at the security camera on my way out.
Methinks that, at least to some extent, these alarms have attained the same status as your average car alarm. When was the last time you called the cops because you heard someone's car alarm go off?