Concierge Services – Periodic Stealing in Supermarkets
Those shopping from superstores risk having their items missing at concierge services. Last Saturday, Beryl Yamak, a resident of Yaounde went shopping in one of the popular supermarkets around the Yaounde Central market. Before entering the supermarket, she kept her plastic bag of items she had brought from another supermarket at the doorkeeper service, where she was given a ticket which carried the number (26)of the locker in which her things where kept. After shopping for close to 45 minutes, Beryl forgot to collect the items she had kept at the doorkeeper service and went home alongside the ticket of the locker which contained her things. After the weekend, Beryl rushed to the supermarket with the ticket number to indicate that she had forgotten her items at the concierge service. To her greatest dismay, the doorkeeper did not seem worried over the fact that she had the ticket of items that he could not trace at his keeping. The doorkeeper impolitely told her that there was no item like what she was looking after and began accusing her of having collected the items but forgot to drop the ticket.
Even when Beryl approached the authorities of the supermarket, nothing major was done. Till date, Beryl’s items have not been seen; neither have the supermarket authorities looked into her case with seriousness. This has brought sad memories in the mind of Beryl and many others whose items have been stolen in supermarkets; an area which many thought is supposed to be more secure for shopping than open markets. Francois Fernand Belinga, chief of the concierge service in a supermarket in Yaounde, says in a bid to avoid confusion over what people bring into and buy from a supermarket, there must be a concierge service at the entrance of each supermarket. But, unfortunately, the service seems to function contrary to its caretaker duty. Concierge services in some supermarkets have become a hide-out for thieves found within and out of the supermarket. One just needs to forget an item at such services, and it is gone forever, without any trace.
Belinga says normally when somebody forgets an item at the doorkeeper service, the item is supposed to be kept at the storeroom for some weeks before being sent to the archives department if nobody comes for it. He added that due to unexplained reasons people’s items at times get missing at the concierge service. “At this point, authorities of the supermarket have to take sole responsibility to pay back the stolen or missing item” Belinga underscored.
Cameroon Tribune
There is one simple solution to this problem. All such supermarkets should have lockers that can be locked with a key. Shoppers leaving items at the concierge should pay a small fee for their items to be locked up. Each shopper should be receipted and given a key to their locker where their items are kept. After shopping, they could then redeem the key at the concierge for their items. There should be clear rules that if keys were not returned say after two days or so, shoppers may forfeit their items or pay another small fee to get their stuff. I think something on these lines will help. I guess there may be other solutions to this, including fitting a recording CCTV or camera to monitor interactions between concierge staff and shoppers who wish to leave their items there. Such recordings could be reviewed during disputes for resolutions.