I was making the rounds of a few consignment shops here in Sarasota recently, being all cheery and sociable (I have to, now that my hair is purple. No standing in the background possible.)
I found a little something in a vintage shop (remind me to go back with my camera… they do incredible vignettes) and a great shirt from a favorite designer in a womenswear shop across the road.
Then came my moment of shame. In the next consignment shop, just past the Heavenly Cupcakes store, I died. Of embarrassment.
You see, she had her “designer” purses on the shelf above a double rack. I reached for the Coach (really? It looked like plastic?) and managed to pull all six bags down and tangle them in all the clothing and make a racket and everyone looked at me. She had them chained together. Honest, I didn’t see her anti-shoplifting device. I just wanted to look at a piece of merchandise. One. Not the whole bloomin’ rack.
I slunk out of there, apologizing profusely, face as red as hair is purple. And that’s saying a lot.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
Kate…feeling chatty….you are the BEST sistah I ever had…creative and with purple hair…..GET OUT !! ( have seen it in person and LOVE it..) xoxo NOEL
very cool idea (not the grab and everything falls thing…) but the binder rings…i’m having some theft problems (sweet mother of mercy, REALLY????) thanks for sharing….
Jackie, don’t feel alone in your theft incidents… it’s everywhere. I had a good, almost daily customer switch the shoes she was wearing (which were very distinctive) with a pair she liked better from our shop. I waited for several more visits from her to give her the chance to say “Oh, BTW, I mistakenly walked out in your shoes, here’s the tag and the money.” Needless to say, that never happened.
why is your hair purple? lol…you do make blog reading fun!
I think the question is, why wouldn’t my hair be purple? Gotta have fun with your appearance. I still haven’t worked up the courage to have black fingernails though. Maybe because I read too many murder mysteries with unattractive corpses 😉
And no extra piercings. Waited until I was 22 to do the ears, and that’s plenty for me. And I do love temporary tattoos; often have a dragonfly somewhere on my body.
There’s one body modification I won’t do, though, no matter how much I “need” it… and that’s Spanx! Love me, love my blubber.
Oh, how embarrassing! She’s going to lose a lot of customers!
How embarrasing, but you survived. Can you tell us more about the binder ring solution to grab and run? Thanks in advance
Suzy, not more to say besides what’s in the photo. Designer/prone-to-theft bags are hung by their handles from a clothing rod, using binder rings, which require 2 hands and a bit of concentration to open. In this way, each bag can be looked at without bringing the others down in a heap like I did, and if a customer’s more interested, a single ring is easily managed, and doesn’t un-secure the rest of the bags. Binder rings are in office-supply stores.
“Grab-and-run” is the technique by which a thief grabs a handful of whatever and makes a mad dash… which both the shopkeeper’s chain I encountered, and this individually-secured idea prevent.