Friday, February 28, 2014

A Tall Order

It seems like more stores have those height charts just inside the door.  The idea, I guess, is so that employees can easily estimate the height of a thief running out of the store.  I don't think they've thought this through:  Sure, it makes it easier to catch a criminal, but you have to weigh that against how many customers you scare off by convincing them that the store is in a bad neighbourhood.

I don't really know if they even work that well.  If someone is running out of the store, and probably trying to duck to avoid being seen too, can you really check their height very accurately?  Really, they probably have to go back over the security camera footage to try to estimate the perp's height.  So why have such an obvious height chart?  You could have something more subtle that doesn't remind everyone of crime.  Like put the screws in the door every three inches.

Anyway, the reason I'm thinking about this is that today as I left a store, I noticed something unusual about the height chart.  A possible nominee for that  "You Had One Job" meme:  If you're installing a height chart, the one thing you have to do is put it at the right height.  But as I passed it, I saw the six-foot mark at almost eye-level. I'm five-foot-seven soaking wet, and granted, I was wearing boots, but I don't think their soles are ten inches thick.  So that store should be really easy to rob, since they'll be looking for someone exceptionally tall.

No comments:

Post a Comment