This happened last Saturday (9/24) at 6pm, so there was still plenty of sun out. My coworkers and I have been waiting for our store manager or corporate to reach out and let us know they are aware of the issue, instead they only sent an email to our 5 team leads that reads:
Hi All,
I want to make everyone aware of an unfortunate incident over the weekend in which a customer at our ***** location was accosted when getting into their vehicle and robbed of their purchase. The police arrived shortly after, and we are very grateful that no one was injured.
As we head into the holiday season, I want to remind everyone of important security protocols –
- Security guards must have their mobile panic buttons on them at all times.
- Everyone must use their headsets and radios to allow for communication throughout the store.
- When leaving or arriving, we are reiterating to P4- and you should enforce with your guards as well, that they are to remain on-premise and visible until all employees leave the store.
- It's important that we utilize our cameras to check surroundings frequently. In particular, when opening doors for deliveries.
To re-iterate what ***** has previously stated, we have very secure buildings that provide more protection than the majority of retail/business environments, but being aware of our surroundings when leaving the dispensary is always incredibly important.
It is an unfortunate reality that crime across all areas has been on the rise recently. Although we want to ensure safety of all our customers we cannon extend security presence into public areas like surrounding streets. Hopefully our local law enforcement will increase patrols throughout the neighborhood to discourage any repeat of this event. Reminder that panic buttons, radios and cameras are all critically important tools in keeping everyone safe and that the best response is always to call our local law enforcement partners when we see something outside our store that requires their assistance.
Thank you,
**** B.
This can be summed up as “we aren't going to increase security by any means, fuck you”.
What really infuriates me is that this email is written by someone who is allowed to work in luxury. Our store manager and corporate management can send all these emails because unlike us, the staff who makes them money, they can work from home, sit in an office all day, or only work morning shifts never having to walk to their car in the dark, on top of the fact that they never have to face an irate customer in person unlike us.
As far as security goes it's laughable. We have plenty of cameras inside which is great for the company sure, but the ones that are used to monitor the parking lot are the lowest quality ones that could be afforded by the company, and they don't even have one to monitor the employee parking area (which also has no lights). At any given time we have only one (1) unarmed security guard with no previous experience in security or law enforcement who is at minimum two (2) locked doors away from the employees and customers meaning they have no way to immediately react to indoor threats. We used to have an off-duty police officer at the front but apparently that was “too intimidating” for the customers which is wild to me because being a cannabis dispensary it's a no-brainer that our location is gonna be a bigger target. Our store sits between two (2) busy expressways which means if somebody were to mug you outside of the store and immediately get into their car within fifteen (15) seconds they could be making a getaway heading straight towards Chicago.
When our store manager was asked about the situation her response was essentially “oh well, that's just how it is”
This is all on top of the fact that we get paid far less than what other dispensary workers make and our company sees us as nothing more than stupid stoners. All we want is to be able to have a good and safe time working with weed and helping out customers, we love our jobs and hate to see what should be a fun industry get stomped down by corporate monsters who only care about driving profit.
If you love weed and/or unions make sure to shop only at dispensaries that give a shit about their employees, it'll help us all.