January 14, 2025 • 39 mins
Have you been to your local grocery store or retailer lately and found some of the items you need locked up? Apparently, more stores are locking up not only expensive items but everyday essentials like toothpaste and deodorant in an effort to curb shoplifting. Have you experienced this and has it changed the way you shop?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBS Costin's new radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
All right, welcome back everybody. As we move into the
talk portion of the program. I do not have any
guests scheduled for the night for tonight other than you.
You will be my guest when you call six one, seven, two,
five four ten thirty or six one seven nine three
one ten thirty. And we have a couple of topics
that I'd like to talk about tonight. At ten o'clock.
(00:30):
Our intention is to talk about the US Surgeon General's
new advisory on a link between use of alcohol and
cancer risk. We'll get to that after ten o'clock. However,
this hour I want to talk about something that's been
going on for a while and it seems from what
I see, to be spreading more and more and more.
(00:55):
And that is you go into certain stores and you
want to buy an item, something relatively simple, maybe I
don't know, health of beauty products, maybe toothpaste, the odorant, shampoo,
some cosmetics, not the most expensive items. And you go
(01:16):
there and you realize the toothpaste is under lock and key,
so you have to find some of the store clerks,
which can be difficult and you're telling me you'd like
to buy some toothpaste or shampoo or whatever, just the
normal sort of stuff that people buy every day at
a pharmacy. And they'll say, well, I got to go
get the key, and they go and they get the key,
(01:38):
and then they unlock the case, and so you then
can spend your you know, six dollars, eight dollars, whatever
you want, fourteen dollars on the toothpaste or on the shampoo.
And this is happening across America, and I think it's
a very troubling trend. Now, my understanding is that these
(02:00):
and companies are doing this is because they're being ripped off.
According to one article I have from CNN, business retailers,
I guess, have suffered so much loss of theft that
they're willing to take a reduction in sales when they
lock up items. According to the CNN article, retailers see
(02:23):
up to a twenty reduction in sales when they lock
up items. They also face higher labor costs because employees
spent additional time unlocking and locking cases. I was recently,
maybe a couple months ago, uh in a Target store
over in Watertown, and nice store lots of different stuff,
(02:47):
and I was looking just for some men's socks. Uh.
And they're they're they're locked up, they're under lock and key.
So I had to find somebody, you know.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
You.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
To just to look at the store. You can look
at them through the glass, okay, but that doesn't tell you, you know,
how comfortable they might be, what what the material is,
difficult to figure out what the cost is because generally
the price is fixed. So I kind of just walked
away and I figured I'll get, you know, the next
next time I'm in a store where there are socks
that are available. This is a really discouraging trend in
(03:24):
this country. Uh, I am, you know, been around for
a long time. Uh. And you know, you go into
liquor stores and not that I'm buying high end you know,
uh liquor, but they're they're worried about Pilfridge. We did
the story a couple of weeks ago, well a few
(03:45):
weeks ago with Gary of Gary's Liquors over in West Roxbury,
where they're getting hit time and time again by thieves
just walking in, people walking in and having the audacity
to just to walk out. Now in some of the
and of course we saw what happened in San Francisco.
Some of the sorees basically tell the employees don't interfere.
(04:08):
If someone comes in and they're grabbing, they got a
bag and they're throwing items in it, get out of
their way. What sort of a message does that send?
Bottom line is I'm wondering. I'm wondering if with a
new administration maybe things might change a little bit. I
think a lot of companies are cowardly. Cowardly. Now, I
(04:31):
don't think they have a right to order their employees
to interfere with shoplifters, but I think that they certainly
should encourage the employees to yell at the individual ian
to if necessary, you know, call the police. Why not?
Why not? In every store in America have a buzzer
(04:52):
in which an employee can literally hit the buzzer and
the local police department can be alerted immediately, maybe maybe
even alerted before the left the cars. You know, a
couple of kids come into the store, and my understanding
from the store owners that I talk to that you
pretty much can figure it out and it's got nothing
(05:12):
to do with profiling. But you'll see people looking around,
furtive looks. Who's looking who's watching. These are stores that
have cameras. I mean, these people who are doing this
with impunity. They feel they can get away with it
and guess what they can, and somehow, some way, we're
(05:33):
all paying for it. I mean, in one form or another. Obviously,
if a store is putting in cases which have locks,
well the store's not gonna absorb that cost. That's going
to be passed on to you and me as loyal customers.
I'm a lower customer of CVS, but I got to
tell you, you know, now, I'll say to myself, Gee, if
(05:55):
I go into a CVS and it's all stuff walked up,
I don't want to waste my time. I'm I'll buy
the same thing I can buy a CVS I can
buy at the grocery store. Now, I don't know why
it's locked up at CVS and it's not locked up
at the grocery store. I don't know why it's locked
up at Walgreens and it's not locked up at market Basket.
(06:17):
I think that these companies better start to kind of
get a hold of themselves and figure this out. So
I'd love to know what have you tried to buy recently.
I'm sure that if you went in and looking for
a five hundred dollars bottle of champagne, as if I'm
sure all of you do that all the time. Of
course not. I can understand where they might say, well,
the five hundred dollars bottle of champagne, we really don't
(06:38):
want people handling it because they might drop it on
the floor. No, we keep that separate. I get that.
But just a tube of toothpaste, a bottle of shampoo,
a candidate odorant, come on six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
thirty six, seven nine three. Love to know if this
(07:00):
bothers you. It certainly says to me that this is
a corrosive element in our society. It should not be
this way. Okay if because this to me has a
Third World sense to it. I want to be able
to walk into a store in Boston, in Greater Boston,
here in New England and pick items up, look at them,
(07:22):
see how much they cost, make sure they marked properly,
go to the counter, put them on the counter, pay
for them. That's all I ask. Is that too much?
We'll take a break. We'll get to phone calls right
after the break again, no guest schedule tonight. You are
my guests. I'd love to know if you think that
we are doomed and this is the future. I hope not.
(07:45):
I hope that maybe maybe we're going to have some
sort of a renaissance here and turn things around. Back
on Night's Side joined the conversation right after these messages.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Night Side Studio. I'm WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You know, Rogers said something which is really interesting. I thought,
very insightful. I wish I thought of it. Rob said,
the same stores that lock things up under lock and key,
they allow you and in some cases force you to
do self checkout. So wait a second. You don't trust
me to pick a tube of toothpaste off a shelf
(08:24):
and bring it up to the counter, but you trust
me once you've given me the tube of toothpaste, I'm
gonna walk up to a self checkout and I'm gonna
ring everything up. There's an inconsistency here, folks, Corporate America,
wake the hell up. Let's go gonna go to Angelo
and Newton. Angelo, you are first, is our Nightside. Let's
(08:45):
kick it off. Angelo, go right.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Ahead, Hi, Dan Ring, how you doing? I believe it
everything you were saying. But let me tell you something.
There has been a lot of sailing going round, I know.
And I've been to CBS and I've seen a person
waiting for the guy to come just to get some
twope or whatever he wanted to shave and queen. He
had to wait for the guy to come to open
(09:08):
that up, and then somebody else came over, and you
had to wait for somebody else to come over to
open up the next one, though. And I don't know
if you ever, I don't know if you ever know
have you ever been to home Depot?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I stay away from home Depot because I find I'd
rather go to a local community drug store, a cardware store.
Excuse me, uh, but I've gone to home Depot and
it's it's never been a good experience for me. Tell
tell me about your experience.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Well, let me tell you. I was shocked. One day
I went to buy something there and they came out
with the carriage and I passed the cashire and no
sooner I got to the door, the wheels on the
carriage locked up. And here you have tried to push
the garage and I had to call a guy, says Hey,
what's going on here? I said, heels on the cabbage
locked up on me. I can't get out of here,
(10:03):
he said, I said, what's this all about? It? He says,
believe it or not. He says, you wouldn't know how
much ceiling we have going out of this door on cabbages.
He says, we had to do this. He says, somebody,
these people come here, they load up the cabbages and
we don't even know it, and they walk right out
of the building.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Well, that's the hire. Some people hire a security guard.
There has to be some way. I have a good
I have a good friend of mine who's a restaurant
owner in Boston. Okay, I'm not going to tell you
the name, but you'd know. The restaurant tells me that
they have seen more people. And what the scam is.
(10:40):
The people go in, they ordered dinner, they order wine
or whatever you know this is. This is a high
end restaurant, and then they order dessert, and when the
waiter leaves to go get them to this the dessert tray,
they move they take off. It's they call that shot
and screw. I mean I.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Heard a lot that. Believe me. Believe me, it's it's crazy,
it's insane when we're going here and it's like unbelievable.
I had, I had, like.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
We don't have food programs for people. It's not like
we don't have EBT cards, and you know, it's not
like we're not in the in the depression of the
nineteen late twenties and early thirties where no one had food.
I just think we have. We have lost so much
as a as a society. That's all.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Somebody careful. Yeah good, the people in the door, Yeah good.
I'm sorry, Dan, No, no.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I was. I was gonna say. I tend not to
go to home people because it's it's too aggravating. I'd
rather pay a couple of extra bucks than go to
ACE Hardware or what are the local hardware change.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
That's yeah, I don't go there off and I just
I just go there from when I really need something,
because that's the only place that's opening nights, some guys,
that's the only time I go. The other than that,
I go other places all.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
The time. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
You know how many people again ceiling vehicles, you know
how many vehicles I had stolen putting into my property unbelievable.
What's going on in this world? I have the police
here and I had the detective here. Two vehicles and
one had full of blood inside of it.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Someone just dropped up the vehicles on your property.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
They dropped them off for my property man, and the
neighbors and the neighbor, the neighbors next door. They are
they caught. They had cameras and they caught somebody with
a mohawky haircut trying to break into their cars. Yeah,
it's unbelievable. What's going on, Dan? I haven't seen so
much going around. It's like where we going in this world?
(12:54):
Who do you tuck anymore? In this world? You're gonna
be afraid. Who even say anything to anybody today? You
don't even know what they have and what the hell
they're gonna even do with you?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
And you made some great points. Thanks very much, buddy,
I got full lines. I gotta keep rolling here. Thanks
so much for calling.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Okay there, thank you for taking my call. You have
a Bret.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Easy by, good good strong call to get a started.
Let me go to Tim in Ruber and Tim you're
next nightsacker right ahead.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
The CBS is unbelievable to get raizor blades after shaved
on the locking locking key. And they're in two different areas.
Now they have nobody walking the floor. Employees to behind
the redges of cashiers. You gotta wait for the cashire
right to be done, waiting on four or five people.
(13:40):
Then they go over and then they unlock things. Right,
I go. Now, I go to market basket. Nothing's under
lock and key.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah, I have. There's a whole bunch of reasons why
I like market basket. I don't know. Do you have
one that's close to you in Ruber and.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Tim, Yes, I do, about a mile from my house.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Oh man, you're you're lucky, You're lucky.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I just seen this and it just seems that that
it just seems to be getting worse and worse and worse.
And the stores, why don't the stores have a security
guard in there? I mean, why not hire you know,
off duty police officers on the detail.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
You're right, you're right. Why don't they money?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Money? I guess money, but they might to spend money
on law and they're driving customers away.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Why why are they doing it this way? Have a
police officer there on a detail. If you think, you
know the pilfridge on a Friday night, or you know Thursday, Friday,
Saturday nights are bad. Have a police officer there the wall,
get around and they'll go. They'll go hit other stores
and other communities.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
I used to get my greeting cards down the cvs.
What you got to go through with that, right, So
I get them at Family Dollar and move them square.
But anyhow, I'm done with CVS. I go with a
market basket. That's where I go.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, well, I think a lot of the pharmace sees
their understand that when I say the pharmacies, the drug stores,
what if you want to call them, but they have
a pharmacy, they're understaffed, and yes, it's just it's it's interesting.
They make it difficult. They want you to be a
loyal customer and and but they make it difficult for
you to be a loyal customer. And we're losing. We're
(15:20):
losing what this country, in many respects always was that
you went into a store and you felt comfortable in
the store, You felt welcome, you felt that people wanted
you to come there. I used to go to Home
Depot all the time. But you get to home depot.
Now it's changed totally for me, and it's got nothing
(15:40):
to do with that pilfridge. But the CBS stores they've
also changed because now much more stuff lock and key.
When I was in Target that day, I was stunned.
Men's socks. What do they charge you if it's set
men's socks? Ten dollars up here and they're putting that
under lock.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
And key, under lock and key a pair of sacks
and you imagine that.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, we got it.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
An I'm done with CBS and I love my mug.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Right, enjoy the coffee in the morning. Okay, Thanks, Thanks.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Dan, Okay, thanks Dan.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Let me go next to Hank is in Chelmsford. Hank,
you're next to Chelmster. Go right ahead, Hank.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
Hey, good evening, Dan. I was thinking, I was thinking
about your comment about the Third World and having lived
there as a volunteer teacher for a year. You're exactly right,
and to the point of the root cause of it
to me is lawlessness. And I'm not going to appoint
(16:40):
it to a specific group, but a popular lawlessness that's
part and parcel of the anti religion sentiment that has
grown up and more dismissive comments are made about people
who believe in the supernatural. But you know something I
don't disagree. Getting back to the point, as John Adams said,
(17:05):
you know, the Constitution was written for a religious and
moral people and is unfit for any other. So the
country was founded on men of goodwill, not their belief
in the supernatural. But men of goodwill was the foundation
of our country.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Henk, give me a favorite. I'm having a conversation with
you here for a second. Hold on for a second.
I agree with you. I think that as fewer and
fewer people have found themselves associated with a religion, either
through a church or a set of beliefs, that you
know what what's called moral relativism comes along and the
(17:43):
idea is, well, that company doesn't need the money that
I'm paying for this this you know U tube of
toothpaste or this shaving cream. I'll just stick it in
my pocket. So there's moral relativism, and that's you know,
that's not right. I mean, And I think we're exactly
on the same page, whether you realize it or not.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
Yeah, yeah, I do. I think it's on a more
abstract level. Is in my moment because I want to
they won consulation of an example, and this lawlessness that's
become popular, it degrades life for all of us. The
common good is degraded by that. And for example, it
(18:23):
is against the law in Massachusetts for teachers to go
on strike. A group did against the law. They got
what they wanted as a result. Now, what did they
teach all the children about obeying the law when that happened.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Obviously the question gives the answer. And by the way,
not only did they go on strike, which is against
the law, but in one city, a couple of communities
in Newton, they were out for eleven days last January,
and then up in the Beverly Gloucester area out for
(19:00):
two weeks in November. I mean, that's yeah, that's as
a solution.
Speaker 6 (19:05):
As a solution, I only have a question is how
can we make obedience to the law cool again? Because
it used to be cool for people to obey the law,
and then if became uncool, and now we're going in
a you know, the spirals down to the third world.
And if you keep adding these security costs, like laughing
up every little item just like the third world, will
(19:28):
you go into a tienda You don't get to put
your hands on anything. Everything's behind a bulletproof puxiglass screen
and you talk to their man and that's how you shop,
you know. So we're heading in all which drives up
the cost of everything.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
Right.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Well, I remember as many as long as twenty years ago,
when I worked in television at night, there were certain
gas stations that you pull into and you put your
your money. You know, there's like a little slat, you know,
twenty bucks, you get twenty dollars. You couldn't even you
(20:03):
try to talk to them, to the guy behind the counter,
and the plexiglass was so strong. What'd you say? I
got to understand that, no, we are going in the
opposite direction of where we should as America. And I'm
hoping that we're gonna do a U turn A real quickly.
And I hope, Hank, that you become a more frequent
caller on this program, because I hear I need to
hear voices like yours more often. And I mean that honestly.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Okay, well, be careful.
Speaker 6 (20:28):
You might get what you asked for.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Nothing wrong with that. I'm smart enough to know the
callers that I will like, and I share a lot
of you know, one of the things again, it's moral
relativism that we're concerned about here. It's like I'm going
to steal that toothpaste because the company makes so much money,
they're not going to miss one one tube of toothpaste,
and I'm gonna grab a cup set of razors there.
(20:51):
Because that's moral relativism. It doesn't harm anybody. Yes, it
does harm people. It's as simple as that. Thanks Hank.
We'll talk soon and appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Thank you, Dan.
Speaker 7 (21:01):
Appreciate it by.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Well, what what country did you work in?
Speaker 7 (21:04):
Belize?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Belize? Oh, I have a friend who had a place
in Belize. Actually, some night we'll talk about Belize. It's
a very interesting country. Many people don't know where it is,
but it's not far from our southern border. Thanks any man,
Thanks bye bye. Six one seven two five four ten thirty.
One line there and one line at six one seven
(21:26):
nine three one ten thirty. Yeah, if you do not
understand the concept of moral relativism, feel free to join
the conversation. Okay, that's the idea of Yeah, I can
take this because what doesn't really matter. You know, it's
only a candy bar, but a candy bar leads to
a pack of cigarettes. And a pack of cigarettes leads
to more and more and more, and then eventually you
(21:47):
got to go in and uh and carry a gun
to make sure that you can get out. This is
we're hitting, and we've continued ahead for a long time
in bad in a bad direction, and you're seeing it
right now with this the stuff in stores locked up,
simple as that. I got Joe Patrician, Gary got some
room for you. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty.
(22:08):
You're my guest tonight, no guests, all callers coming back
on night Side, Night Side.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
He's Dan Ray ONBS Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Let's keep rolling. The're going to go to Joe and Joe.
Speaker 8 (22:21):
You were next time, night Dan, Thank you for taking
my call. I've talked to doctor Frankie. He's very helpful.
I have trouble with my legs. I know insurance can't
pay for it, but if I ever get the money,
I'm going to have him try it on my legs,
you know, standing up.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Fortunately, yeah, unfortunately it is not covered by insurance. But
he tries to work with people too, so oh yeah, he's.
Speaker 8 (22:44):
A decent man. Okay, maybe you should have the guys
on from some of these stores. That do this, because
I've noticed this in Walgreens. I went to buy an
electric toothbrush the heads and they're locked up and all
the razors are locked up, and they told me it's
because of stealing. And I don't like. By the way,
these self service checkouts, I can't use them. I can't see.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
But I told them, yeah, neither do I. I can
see and I don't use them. Yeah, and I understand it.
The problem is their solution is is almost as bad
as the problem. I mean, for them just to lock
up stuff, make it more inconvenient for you, who has
some inconvenience already. Being someone who is.
Speaker 8 (23:26):
Blind, I have to wait. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
And all they have to do is, you know, have
enough employees there who are watching when people come into stores.
The average person is coming in to shop. There are
people who are coming into shoplift, but it doesn't take
long to spot them. Generally, they're coming in, they're looking around.
They kind of have some that is the coast clear.
(23:51):
You have all sorts of cameras, you you can you
can figure that stuff out. But what they've done is
they said, don't stop them, don't even yell them, let
them go out. The door, that it's a cost of
doing business, and now they figured the solution is to
lock everything up.
Speaker 8 (24:08):
Years ago, they would have the products on the shelf,
but they would be tied down and somebody would come
over and help you. And they had plenty of employees.
I go to CBS occasionally, there's not many employees in there.
I couldn't believe it. One or two people.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
I think CBS is in trouble. And the other thing
is they have these as Rob said to me during
the break, they have these self checkout machines.
Speaker 8 (24:32):
Well, I hate you.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
You're telling me. Well, I don't like them either, but.
Speaker 8 (24:36):
I mean you can use them as the sight of person.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
But they using them.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
You're telling me that somebody who goes into that store
and is willing to steal something doesn't look at the
opportunity of a self service machine. I'm going to go
up there, I'm going to put one I'll pay for
one item and I'll put another item in. I'll pay
for one item, I'll put two items in. I mean,
that's the gam thing.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
One.
Speaker 8 (25:00):
Yeah, well, maybe you can have these people on as
I guess some of the If the course, probably.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
The local manager is going to say you got to
talk to corporate, and corporate won't talk to you, so
I gave up. I mean I would have had someone
on from Home Depot a long time ago, but I've
given up on Home Depot. I will go to True
Value or ACE Hardware, their local stores. They may cost
a little bit more money, but guess what I saved
(25:28):
the aggravation of parking.
Speaker 8 (25:30):
And ask you one question, Dan, I have a local
hardware store around here. They don't have a lot of
stuff like I'm looking for a good ice maker for
on the counter. I had one. It broken six months,
one hundred over one hundred dollars down the tubes and
I can't find it. And the ones you find are
four or five hundred dollars and their counter because the
(25:51):
landlord won't let us put them in here, and the
hardware stores don't tell them.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I would suggest what you do is try have someone
get you on Amazon and see what ice makers are available.
Speaker 8 (26:02):
That's where my cousin and I got this from. I
paid her and it didn't last. It was just it went.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
But that would be my advice. Joe, that's all right,
probably the very nice person to ask. Okay, thanks you, Okay,
talk to you soon. All right, we're gonna go next.
You've gotta get one more in here before the break.
And it is Patricia in win Her PI.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
Patricia welcome, well zackly Tricia.
Speaker 9 (26:24):
But that's fine Tricia.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Well okay, then we'll make you know Watricia. If it's Tricia.
There's no reason why I can't call you Tricia. It
says Patricia, but it's Tricia.
Speaker 9 (26:33):
That's okay, that's okay, Dan, I've talked to you before,
so going back with CVS, and I would like to
know if I'm correct on this. I, you know, questioned
about you know, the things being locked up. Now this
saying you can get an app on your phone to
(26:53):
unlock the door of the thing, and I'm like, what,
why would I do this?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Exactly all of these companies, I'm sorry, Yeah, well I
go crazy with a Star Market. You have the app
and you can clip coupons, and they just make it
so confusing. It's like, why don't you just give me
the best price you want to give me? Okay, and
I'll be a lawyer customer. No, they want you to
thank you download the apps and guess what, I'm pretty good.
(27:24):
I'm pretty good technically I'm not the best, but I'm
pretty good.
Speaker 9 (27:28):
And a lot of people on especially and everything. And
the thing that gets me, why walk it and then
give permission for an app to open that? So I
don't know if I'm talking, turn.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Talking and you're righting the money. Because as a matter
of fact, I noticed that today when I was doing
a little research on this, and as a matter of fact,
it was an article I think out of let's see
a CNN and they were talking about, uh, retailers are
testing what they can call a freedom case. So far,
twenty six retailers are using this security device. Uh uh,
(28:07):
And I guess what it is. You download the app
and then you're standing there and you got to put
you got to also have your cell phone with you,
so they're going to send you a code that you have.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
To put in activate the app.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I mean it's ridiculous. I mean, you're trying to write paste.
Speaker 9 (28:25):
The other thing is to what infuriates me the most,
as bad as that is when you have a lot
of items. Oh and it's not the it's not the clerk.
It's because they've been trained do you need a bag?
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Oh? Yeah, Now it's they're asking you do you need
a bag because they're going to charge you ten.
Speaker 9 (28:47):
Cents, right, But I got to change the subject for
one moment, and I hope I'm not offending you. You
know how you say, Charlie Ray, fourteen years everything?
Speaker 2 (28:58):
You know when you're seen years, they're spend.
Speaker 9 (29:00):
Yeah right, yeah, I got to ask you, did you
ever get another dog?
Speaker 2 (29:05):
No? I didn't. However, my son and his wife have
a dog. It's a shorty. It's part Shitsu and part Yorkie. Uh.
Great little guy looks like Willy the Wonder Dog. And
my daughter and her husband have a dog that's a corky.
His name is Mustard. And I love both those dogs.
So I you know how they say when you have grandchildren,
(29:28):
children and then you send them home, same way with dogs.
I mean I could play with Willy the dog. I
can play with Mustard dog. Uh. And then then I
have when I retire, I'll get a dog. But I
just ya, I got to tell you. I work all
day long. I mean, I started nine. I'm not crying here,
(29:50):
but I'm telling.
Speaker 9 (29:53):
Because God bless you's saying that. And I've always had cats.
Right now, I live in a condo. I had two cats,
and I had a put one down.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
But do you know why I said? Do you know
why I said?
Speaker 9 (30:06):
Yeah, I'd like to know why.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
I say it for two reasons. Well, when I started
doing this show in two thousand and seven, Charlie was
with me. He stayed with me for about two and
a half more years, and we usual, oh yeah, oh yeah,
sleeping in the control room at that point. He was
about seven and a half years old, and he would
he was so what a good dog and cavalier King
(30:32):
Charles Spaniel Blenham Cavalier, which I love that that particular breed,
So I do it as a tribute to him. But
I'll also tell you, I can't tell you how many
listeners have called me and told me that they lost
a pet. And then when I wrapped the show at
midnight every night that all dogs, all cats, all pets
go to Heaven. I do believe that, because what would
(30:55):
Heaven be like if our pets weren't there? Huh?
Speaker 3 (31:02):
No?
Speaker 9 (31:02):
Is that every animal? And Noah that on the boat.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
That's what I'm saying. I mean, I really don't and
pray that that we're all up there with our you know,
eventually with our parents and our siblings. And our our ancestors,
and uh, I really animals. Sorry, you can call people,
call me crazy, but that's what I believe, and that's
why I say it every night.
Speaker 9 (31:26):
I appreciate that. And I said if I call tonight
because it wasn't a specific subject. And I know a
both cvs and everything, but I don't know. It's getting koogle,
my mother used to say. And I'm going to leave
you with this. You can do anything in this world, anything,
but if you can put your head on the pillow
and have a good night's sleep and not feel bad
(31:48):
about something.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Oh, let me tell you, a clear conscience is a
right important commodity. Well, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 9 (32:00):
Okay, all right, bye, Happy New.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Year, Thanks, good night, quick break, coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
KEB Rolling, You're gonna go to Gary and Wuber and
Gary next on Nightside, go right, hit sir.
Speaker 7 (32:18):
Oh, I'm very familiar with this category. I'm gonna give
you a compliment. That's why your show stands out when
you do the human side of stories like this instead
of politics. That's why it makes your show number one
way back when, when I was about twenty five years old,
I used to steal. I'll talk about that after if
you want to know more. But one thing you did,
(32:40):
you were like in shock about employees are not doing
anything with somebody shoplifts at nighttime. Correct.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
No, I'm not in shock about it. I'm in shock
that the that the businesses don't have some sort of
a buzzer, particularly at night, where they can immediately contact
the police without having to pick up the phone. Obviously,
if somebody walks in the store at eleven o'clock at night,
and you can tell by looking at the person, they're
(33:09):
looking around and they're looking pretty pretty sneaky, you know,
be give them a buzzer ben up to say I'm
calling the police. Just hit the buzzer and have the
police there within a couple of minutes.
Speaker 7 (33:20):
You'll explain yourself nicely. Now, my question is this. Let's
just say somebody's working at a CBS Walgreens and it's
the third shift, and you know, it's twelve thirty at night,
and they clearly see somebody stealing something and it's worth
a value eise anywhere from twenty five to fifty dollars
and they're walking in fast motion and heading to the entrance,
(33:42):
and your opinion, what should that employee do.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
I think it's up one to the employee, and obviously
it's up to the employer to direct the employee. Now again,
I think the best solution is not to put the
employee in a confrontation, a physical confrontation where he could
be injured. He or she could be injured or worse,
because at that point they could have a lawsuit against
(34:07):
the employer. But again, a little what they used to
call them in banks, like joy buttons where the person
is robbing the bank and all the you know, you're
not going to say to the robber, excuse me for
a second, I need to press this button here so
I can alert the police. You could do that. I mean,
it'll cost a few bucks probably to get it installed,
but I think it's a hell of I think it's.
Speaker 7 (34:28):
Worth it, very good because I was going to say,
confrontation between employees and shoplifters could mean death and physical
damage to themselves. So that's why the companies still don't
confront them.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
As far as.
Speaker 7 (34:45):
Restaurants are concerned. I was at all of Godden today
doing my chicken the usual chickennoki type of soup if
you've ever heard of it.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
My favorite restaurants. Go ahead, right.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
What happened was the way that comes.
Speaker 7 (34:58):
Up to me and he brought me my food. I
paid my bill, and he goes, wow, you're an unusual customer.
I said, well, I want to make sure that you
know I'm not someone who's gonna show a screw run
out the door. And they go, oh, that's so nice
of you. You know why, because we have a share
of people that do that. They eat their meal and
they pretend to go to the bathroom, they go right
(35:20):
out the door.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
All right, they got a bunch of calls. They got
to get a hit Gary before the break. Okay, man
to talk soon. Thanks, I appreciate your call. Let's up next.
Let me go next to real quickly. If I came
Corin Krinn in Bridgewater, Krin, welcome back, how are you?
Speaker 5 (35:35):
How you doing?
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Ray?
Speaker 5 (35:36):
Thanks for taking my call. I'm gonna bring me Dan Dan.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Go ahead.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
The ironic of this is because I'm not in detail,
so I don't appreciate having to do it after I've
already worked my job all day. So yeah, But at
the same time, do you remember, it's like, where are
we going to? I'm gonna bring you way back, oh,
at least thirty years ago to remember service merchandise. Yeah,
(36:05):
they remember that door where they had everything so you
could see it and then you had to fill it
out and then you had to pay for it and
then go wait for it. We're either going to go
to that story or everything's going to be stores are
shutting down left and right, and maybe everything will just
be Amazona. We'll have to worry you're stealing from our
front doors. Yeah, it's just crazy.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yeah, I think I think that. I guess probably the result.
The result is all we do is do you know,
grocery shopping over the phone, and we showed everything comes
out of warehouses. I think that's unfortunate in my opinion.
(36:48):
You know, I just let's yeah, let's let's let's let's
try to get back to a decent society, a decent
group of people who you know, who work and and
who pay for what they for what they owe, you know,
for what they buy. I just think that exactly that
(37:09):
we are going in the wrong direction. Let's keep let's
see if if we can get this country back on track.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Simple as that that's right, the ethics aren't there. But
my girlfriend who does work down in Florida, actually she
worked for a sporting goods store, which we're all familiar with,
and she ended up leaving there because she was so
angry because she was told told to You see them
(37:35):
stuff in their bags. You see them stuffing their shirts
with all sorts of clothing and expensive items, and they
don't want anybody saying anything. They just let them go it.
So the store has a reputation for this, and she says,
it's not just us, it's all around us. This is well.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Once once that they know, once that the bad guys
know what the stores are not going to do, they'll
go right ahead and and they make themselves a target.
It's like open season. I got to keep rolling here, Corina,
I will talk toon. Okay, thank you so much? All
right by about all right? Let me, I gotta go
quickly here. I'm gonna you know what, I don't want
(38:14):
to short change these guys. So that's that's not fair.
What have we got? Only a minute? Phil and Alex
you stay there. I'll take you guys on the other side.
I don't want to short change anyone I'm willing to
carry this topic over simply because I think people are
interested in it, so I can reset it. On the
other side of the ten, Phil and Alex will be
first up, and I'd like you to join the conversation.
(38:37):
What can we do about this? This is something that
is corrosive to the core of our society, that there's
a certain element of people who now feel they can
walk into stores and walk out, and we're all paying
a price. We're paying a price in terms of more
expensive products that we pay for when we buy them,
and also more inconvenience when we have to wait to
(38:59):
have a store item like toothpaste or deorder it. Someone
come with a lock and key to open it up
so I can buy a nine dollars item. That's ridiculous.
Back on Night's side, got a couple of lines open.
We'll keep going six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty,
six one seven, nine, three, one ten thirty. I wasn't
going to show change either Fill or Alex. They'll be
(39:21):
first up. You'll be after that. Give us a call.
It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBS Costin's new radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
All right, welcome back everybody. As we move into the
talk portion of the program. I do not have any
guests scheduled for the night for tonight other than you.
You will be my guest when you call six one, seven, two,
five four ten thirty or six one seven nine three
one ten thirty. And we have a couple of topics
that I'd like to talk about tonight. At ten o'clock.
(00:30):
Our intention is to talk about the US Surgeon General's
new advisory on a link between use of alcohol and
cancer risk. We'll get to that after ten o'clock. However,
this hour I want to talk about something that's been
going on for a while and it seems from what
I see, to be spreading more and more and more.
(00:55):
And that is you go into certain stores and you
want to buy an item, something relatively simple, maybe I
don't know, health of beauty products, maybe toothpaste, the odorant, shampoo,
some cosmetics, not the most expensive items. And you go
(01:16):
there and you realize the toothpaste is under lock and key,
so you have to find some of the store clerks,
which can be difficult and you're telling me you'd like
to buy some toothpaste or shampoo or whatever, just the
normal sort of stuff that people buy every day at
a pharmacy. And they'll say, well, I got to go
get the key, and they go and they get the key,
(01:38):
and then they unlock the case, and so you then
can spend your you know, six dollars, eight dollars, whatever
you want, fourteen dollars on the toothpaste or on the shampoo.
And this is happening across America, and I think it's
a very troubling trend. Now, my understanding is that these
(02:00):
and companies are doing this is because they're being ripped off.
According to one article I have from CNN, business retailers,
I guess, have suffered so much loss of theft that
they're willing to take a reduction in sales when they
lock up items. According to the CNN article, retailers see
(02:23):
up to a twenty reduction in sales when they lock
up items. They also face higher labor costs because employees
spent additional time unlocking and locking cases. I was recently,
maybe a couple months ago, uh in a Target store
over in Watertown, and nice store lots of different stuff,
(02:47):
and I was looking just for some men's socks. Uh.
And they're they're they're locked up, they're under lock and key.
So I had to find somebody, you know.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
You.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
To just to look at the store. You can look
at them through the glass, okay, but that doesn't tell you, you know,
how comfortable they might be, what what the material is,
difficult to figure out what the cost is because generally
the price is fixed. So I kind of just walked
away and I figured I'll get, you know, the next
next time I'm in a store where there are socks
that are available. This is a really discouraging trend in
(03:24):
this country. Uh, I am, you know, been around for
a long time. Uh. And you know, you go into
liquor stores and not that I'm buying high end you know,
uh liquor, but they're they're worried about Pilfridge. We did
the story a couple of weeks ago, well a few
(03:45):
weeks ago with Gary of Gary's Liquors over in West Roxbury,
where they're getting hit time and time again by thieves
just walking in, people walking in and having the audacity
to just to walk out. Now in some of the
and of course we saw what happened in San Francisco.
Some of the sorees basically tell the employees don't interfere.
(04:08):
If someone comes in and they're grabbing, they got a
bag and they're throwing items in it, get out of
their way. What sort of a message does that send?
Bottom line is I'm wondering. I'm wondering if with a
new administration maybe things might change a little bit. I
think a lot of companies are cowardly. Cowardly. Now, I
(04:31):
don't think they have a right to order their employees
to interfere with shoplifters, but I think that they certainly
should encourage the employees to yell at the individual ian
to if necessary, you know, call the police. Why not?
Why not? In every store in America have a buzzer
(04:52):
in which an employee can literally hit the buzzer and
the local police department can be alerted immediately, maybe maybe
even alerted before the left the cars. You know, a
couple of kids come into the store, and my understanding
from the store owners that I talk to that you
pretty much can figure it out and it's got nothing
(05:12):
to do with profiling. But you'll see people looking around,
furtive looks. Who's looking who's watching. These are stores that
have cameras. I mean, these people who are doing this
with impunity. They feel they can get away with it
and guess what they can, and somehow, some way, we're
(05:33):
all paying for it. I mean, in one form or another. Obviously,
if a store is putting in cases which have locks,
well the store's not gonna absorb that cost. That's going
to be passed on to you and me as loyal customers.
I'm a lower customer of CVS, but I got to
tell you, you know, now, I'll say to myself, Gee, if
(05:55):
I go into a CVS and it's all stuff walked up,
I don't want to waste my time. I'm I'll buy
the same thing I can buy a CVS I can
buy at the grocery store. Now, I don't know why
it's locked up at CVS and it's not locked up
at the grocery store. I don't know why it's locked
up at Walgreens and it's not locked up at market Basket.
(06:17):
I think that these companies better start to kind of
get a hold of themselves and figure this out. So
I'd love to know what have you tried to buy recently.
I'm sure that if you went in and looking for
a five hundred dollars bottle of champagne, as if I'm
sure all of you do that all the time. Of
course not. I can understand where they might say, well,
the five hundred dollars bottle of champagne, we really don't
(06:38):
want people handling it because they might drop it on
the floor. No, we keep that separate. I get that.
But just a tube of toothpaste, a bottle of shampoo,
a candidate odorant, come on six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
thirty six, seven nine three. Love to know if this
(07:00):
bothers you. It certainly says to me that this is
a corrosive element in our society. It should not be
this way. Okay if because this to me has a
Third World sense to it. I want to be able
to walk into a store in Boston, in Greater Boston,
here in New England and pick items up, look at them,
(07:22):
see how much they cost, make sure they marked properly,
go to the counter, put them on the counter, pay
for them. That's all I ask. Is that too much?
We'll take a break. We'll get to phone calls right
after the break again, no guest schedule tonight. You are
my guests. I'd love to know if you think that
we are doomed and this is the future. I hope not.
(07:45):
I hope that maybe maybe we're going to have some
sort of a renaissance here and turn things around. Back
on Night's Side joined the conversation right after these messages.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Night Side Studio. I'm WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You know, Rogers said something which is really interesting. I thought,
very insightful. I wish I thought of it. Rob said,
the same stores that lock things up under lock and key,
they allow you and in some cases force you to
do self checkout. So wait a second. You don't trust
me to pick a tube of toothpaste off a shelf
(08:24):
and bring it up to the counter, but you trust
me once you've given me the tube of toothpaste, I'm
gonna walk up to a self checkout and I'm gonna
ring everything up. There's an inconsistency here, folks, Corporate America,
wake the hell up. Let's go gonna go to Angelo
and Newton. Angelo, you are first, is our Nightside. Let's
(08:45):
kick it off. Angelo, go right.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Ahead, Hi, Dan Ring, how you doing? I believe it
everything you were saying. But let me tell you something.
There has been a lot of sailing going round, I know.
And I've been to CBS and I've seen a person
waiting for the guy to come just to get some
twope or whatever he wanted to shave and queen. He
had to wait for the guy to come to open
(09:08):
that up, and then somebody else came over, and you
had to wait for somebody else to come over to
open up the next one, though. And I don't know
if you ever, I don't know if you ever know
have you ever been to home Depot?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I stay away from home Depot because I find I'd
rather go to a local community drug store, a cardware store.
Excuse me, uh, but I've gone to home Depot and
it's it's never been a good experience for me. Tell
tell me about your experience.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Well, let me tell you. I was shocked. One day
I went to buy something there and they came out
with the carriage and I passed the cashire and no
sooner I got to the door, the wheels on the
carriage locked up. And here you have tried to push
the garage and I had to call a guy, says Hey,
what's going on here? I said, heels on the cabbage
locked up on me. I can't get out of here,
(10:03):
he said, I said, what's this all about? It? He says,
believe it or not. He says, you wouldn't know how
much ceiling we have going out of this door on cabbages.
He says, we had to do this. He says, somebody,
these people come here, they load up the cabbages and
we don't even know it, and they walk right out
of the building.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Well, that's the hire. Some people hire a security guard.
There has to be some way. I have a good
I have a good friend of mine who's a restaurant
owner in Boston. Okay, I'm not going to tell you
the name, but you'd know. The restaurant tells me that
they have seen more people. And what the scam is.
(10:40):
The people go in, they ordered dinner, they order wine
or whatever you know this is. This is a high
end restaurant, and then they order dessert, and when the
waiter leaves to go get them to this the dessert tray,
they move they take off. It's they call that shot
and screw. I mean I.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Heard a lot that. Believe me. Believe me, it's it's crazy,
it's insane when we're going here and it's like unbelievable.
I had, I had, like.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
We don't have food programs for people. It's not like
we don't have EBT cards, and you know, it's not
like we're not in the in the depression of the
nineteen late twenties and early thirties where no one had food.
I just think we have. We have lost so much
as a as a society. That's all.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Somebody careful. Yeah good, the people in the door, Yeah good.
I'm sorry, Dan, No, no.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I was. I was gonna say. I tend not to
go to home people because it's it's too aggravating. I'd
rather pay a couple of extra bucks than go to
ACE Hardware or what are the local hardware change.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
That's yeah, I don't go there off and I just
I just go there from when I really need something,
because that's the only place that's opening nights, some guys,
that's the only time I go. The other than that,
I go other places all.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
The time. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
You know how many people again ceiling vehicles, you know
how many vehicles I had stolen putting into my property unbelievable.
What's going on in this world? I have the police
here and I had the detective here. Two vehicles and
one had full of blood inside of it.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Someone just dropped up the vehicles on your property.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
They dropped them off for my property man, and the
neighbors and the neighbor, the neighbors next door. They are
they caught. They had cameras and they caught somebody with
a mohawky haircut trying to break into their cars. Yeah,
it's unbelievable. What's going on, Dan? I haven't seen so
much going around. It's like where we going in this world?
(12:54):
Who do you tuck anymore? In this world? You're gonna
be afraid. Who even say anything to anybody today? You
don't even know what they have and what the hell
they're gonna even do with you?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
And you made some great points. Thanks very much, buddy,
I got full lines. I gotta keep rolling here. Thanks
so much for calling.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Okay there, thank you for taking my call. You have
a Bret.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Easy by, good good strong call to get a started.
Let me go to Tim in Ruber and Tim you're
next nightsacker right ahead.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
The CBS is unbelievable to get raizor blades after shaved
on the locking locking key. And they're in two different areas.
Now they have nobody walking the floor. Employees to behind
the redges of cashiers. You gotta wait for the cashire
right to be done, waiting on four or five people.
(13:40):
Then they go over and then they unlock things. Right,
I go. Now, I go to market basket. Nothing's under
lock and key.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah, I have. There's a whole bunch of reasons why
I like market basket. I don't know. Do you have
one that's close to you in Ruber and.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Tim, Yes, I do, about a mile from my house.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Oh man, you're you're lucky, You're lucky.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I just seen this and it just seems that that
it just seems to be getting worse and worse and worse.
And the stores, why don't the stores have a security
guard in there? I mean, why not hire you know,
off duty police officers on the detail.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
You're right, you're right. Why don't they money?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Money? I guess money, but they might to spend money
on law and they're driving customers away.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Why why are they doing it this way? Have a
police officer there on a detail. If you think, you
know the pilfridge on a Friday night, or you know Thursday, Friday,
Saturday nights are bad. Have a police officer there the wall,
get around and they'll go. They'll go hit other stores
and other communities.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
I used to get my greeting cards down the cvs.
What you got to go through with that, right, So
I get them at Family Dollar and move them square.
But anyhow, I'm done with CVS. I go with a
market basket. That's where I go.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, well, I think a lot of the pharmace sees
their understand that when I say the pharmacies, the drug stores,
what if you want to call them, but they have
a pharmacy, they're understaffed, and yes, it's just it's it's interesting.
They make it difficult. They want you to be a
loyal customer and and but they make it difficult for
you to be a loyal customer. And we're losing. We're
(15:20):
losing what this country, in many respects always was that
you went into a store and you felt comfortable in
the store, You felt welcome, you felt that people wanted
you to come there. I used to go to Home
Depot all the time. But you get to home depot.
Now it's changed totally for me, and it's got nothing
(15:40):
to do with that pilfridge. But the CBS stores they've
also changed because now much more stuff lock and key.
When I was in Target that day, I was stunned.
Men's socks. What do they charge you if it's set
men's socks? Ten dollars up here and they're putting that
under lock.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
And key, under lock and key a pair of sacks
and you imagine that.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, we got it.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
An I'm done with CBS and I love my mug.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Right, enjoy the coffee in the morning. Okay, Thanks, Thanks.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Dan, Okay, thanks Dan.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Let me go next to Hank is in Chelmsford. Hank,
you're next to Chelmster. Go right ahead, Hank.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
Hey, good evening, Dan. I was thinking, I was thinking
about your comment about the Third World and having lived
there as a volunteer teacher for a year. You're exactly right,
and to the point of the root cause of it
to me is lawlessness. And I'm not going to appoint
(16:40):
it to a specific group, but a popular lawlessness that's
part and parcel of the anti religion sentiment that has
grown up and more dismissive comments are made about people
who believe in the supernatural. But you know something I
don't disagree. Getting back to the point, as John Adams said,
(17:05):
you know, the Constitution was written for a religious and
moral people and is unfit for any other. So the
country was founded on men of goodwill, not their belief
in the supernatural. But men of goodwill was the foundation
of our country.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Henk, give me a favorite. I'm having a conversation with
you here for a second. Hold on for a second.
I agree with you. I think that as fewer and
fewer people have found themselves associated with a religion, either
through a church or a set of beliefs, that you
know what what's called moral relativism comes along and the
(17:43):
idea is, well, that company doesn't need the money that
I'm paying for this this you know U tube of
toothpaste or this shaving cream. I'll just stick it in
my pocket. So there's moral relativism, and that's you know,
that's not right. I mean, And I think we're exactly
on the same page, whether you realize it or not.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
Yeah, yeah, I do. I think it's on a more
abstract level. Is in my moment because I want to
they won consulation of an example, and this lawlessness that's
become popular, it degrades life for all of us. The
common good is degraded by that. And for example, it
(18:23):
is against the law in Massachusetts for teachers to go
on strike. A group did against the law. They got
what they wanted as a result. Now, what did they
teach all the children about obeying the law when that happened.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Obviously the question gives the answer. And by the way,
not only did they go on strike, which is against
the law, but in one city, a couple of communities
in Newton, they were out for eleven days last January,
and then up in the Beverly Gloucester area out for
(19:00):
two weeks in November. I mean, that's yeah, that's as
a solution.
Speaker 6 (19:05):
As a solution, I only have a question is how
can we make obedience to the law cool again? Because
it used to be cool for people to obey the law,
and then if became uncool, and now we're going in
a you know, the spirals down to the third world.
And if you keep adding these security costs, like laughing
up every little item just like the third world, will
(19:28):
you go into a tienda You don't get to put
your hands on anything. Everything's behind a bulletproof puxiglass screen
and you talk to their man and that's how you shop,
you know. So we're heading in all which drives up
the cost of everything.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
Right.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Well, I remember as many as long as twenty years ago,
when I worked in television at night, there were certain
gas stations that you pull into and you put your
your money. You know, there's like a little slat, you know,
twenty bucks, you get twenty dollars. You couldn't even you
(20:03):
try to talk to them, to the guy behind the counter,
and the plexiglass was so strong. What'd you say? I
got to understand that, no, we are going in the
opposite direction of where we should as America. And I'm
hoping that we're gonna do a U turn A real quickly.
And I hope, Hank, that you become a more frequent
caller on this program, because I hear I need to
hear voices like yours more often. And I mean that honestly.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Okay, well, be careful.
Speaker 6 (20:28):
You might get what you asked for.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Nothing wrong with that. I'm smart enough to know the
callers that I will like, and I share a lot
of you know, one of the things again, it's moral
relativism that we're concerned about here. It's like I'm going
to steal that toothpaste because the company makes so much money,
they're not going to miss one one tube of toothpaste,
and I'm gonna grab a cup set of razors there.
(20:51):
Because that's moral relativism. It doesn't harm anybody. Yes, it
does harm people. It's as simple as that. Thanks Hank.
We'll talk soon and appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Thank you, Dan.
Speaker 7 (21:01):
Appreciate it by.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Well, what what country did you work in?
Speaker 7 (21:04):
Belize?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Belize? Oh, I have a friend who had a place
in Belize. Actually, some night we'll talk about Belize. It's
a very interesting country. Many people don't know where it is,
but it's not far from our southern border. Thanks any man,
Thanks bye bye. Six one seven two five four ten thirty.
One line there and one line at six one seven
(21:26):
nine three one ten thirty. Yeah, if you do not
understand the concept of moral relativism, feel free to join
the conversation. Okay, that's the idea of Yeah, I can
take this because what doesn't really matter. You know, it's
only a candy bar, but a candy bar leads to
a pack of cigarettes. And a pack of cigarettes leads
to more and more and more, and then eventually you
(21:47):
got to go in and uh and carry a gun
to make sure that you can get out. This is
we're hitting, and we've continued ahead for a long time
in bad in a bad direction, and you're seeing it
right now with this the stuff in stores locked up,
simple as that. I got Joe Patrician, Gary got some
room for you. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty.
(22:08):
You're my guest tonight, no guests, all callers coming back
on night Side, Night Side.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
He's Dan Ray ONBS Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Let's keep rolling. The're going to go to Joe and Joe.
Speaker 8 (22:21):
You were next time, night Dan, Thank you for taking
my call. I've talked to doctor Frankie. He's very helpful.
I have trouble with my legs. I know insurance can't
pay for it, but if I ever get the money,
I'm going to have him try it on my legs,
you know, standing up.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Fortunately, yeah, unfortunately it is not covered by insurance. But
he tries to work with people too, so oh yeah, he's.
Speaker 8 (22:44):
A decent man. Okay, maybe you should have the guys
on from some of these stores. That do this, because
I've noticed this in Walgreens. I went to buy an
electric toothbrush the heads and they're locked up and all
the razors are locked up, and they told me it's
because of stealing. And I don't like. By the way,
these self service checkouts, I can't use them. I can't see.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
But I told them, yeah, neither do I. I can
see and I don't use them. Yeah, and I understand it.
The problem is their solution is is almost as bad
as the problem. I mean, for them just to lock
up stuff, make it more inconvenient for you, who has
some inconvenience already. Being someone who is.
Speaker 8 (23:26):
Blind, I have to wait. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
And all they have to do is, you know, have
enough employees there who are watching when people come into stores.
The average person is coming in to shop. There are
people who are coming into shoplift, but it doesn't take
long to spot them. Generally, they're coming in, they're looking around.
They kind of have some that is the coast clear.
(23:51):
You have all sorts of cameras, you you can you
can figure that stuff out. But what they've done is
they said, don't stop them, don't even yell them, let
them go out. The door, that it's a cost of
doing business, and now they figured the solution is to
lock everything up.
Speaker 8 (24:08):
Years ago, they would have the products on the shelf,
but they would be tied down and somebody would come
over and help you. And they had plenty of employees.
I go to CBS occasionally, there's not many employees in there.
I couldn't believe it. One or two people.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
I think CBS is in trouble. And the other thing
is they have these as Rob said to me during
the break, they have these self checkout machines.
Speaker 8 (24:32):
Well, I hate you.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
You're telling me. Well, I don't like them either, but.
Speaker 8 (24:36):
I mean you can use them as the sight of person.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
But they using them.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
You're telling me that somebody who goes into that store
and is willing to steal something doesn't look at the
opportunity of a self service machine. I'm going to go
up there, I'm going to put one I'll pay for
one item and I'll put another item in. I'll pay
for one item, I'll put two items in. I mean,
that's the gam thing.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
One.
Speaker 8 (25:00):
Yeah, well, maybe you can have these people on as
I guess some of the If the course, probably.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
The local manager is going to say you got to
talk to corporate, and corporate won't talk to you, so
I gave up. I mean I would have had someone
on from Home Depot a long time ago, but I've
given up on Home Depot. I will go to True
Value or ACE Hardware, their local stores. They may cost
a little bit more money, but guess what I saved
(25:28):
the aggravation of parking.
Speaker 8 (25:30):
And ask you one question, Dan, I have a local
hardware store around here. They don't have a lot of
stuff like I'm looking for a good ice maker for
on the counter. I had one. It broken six months,
one hundred over one hundred dollars down the tubes and
I can't find it. And the ones you find are
four or five hundred dollars and their counter because the
(25:51):
landlord won't let us put them in here, and the
hardware stores don't tell them.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I would suggest what you do is try have someone
get you on Amazon and see what ice makers are available.
Speaker 8 (26:02):
That's where my cousin and I got this from. I
paid her and it didn't last. It was just it went.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
But that would be my advice. Joe, that's all right,
probably the very nice person to ask. Okay, thanks you, Okay,
talk to you soon. All right, we're gonna go next.
You've gotta get one more in here before the break.
And it is Patricia in win Her PI.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
Patricia welcome, well zackly Tricia.
Speaker 9 (26:24):
But that's fine Tricia.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Well okay, then we'll make you know Watricia. If it's Tricia.
There's no reason why I can't call you Tricia. It
says Patricia, but it's Tricia.
Speaker 9 (26:33):
That's okay, that's okay, Dan, I've talked to you before,
so going back with CVS, and I would like to
know if I'm correct on this. I, you know, questioned
about you know, the things being locked up. Now this
saying you can get an app on your phone to
(26:53):
unlock the door of the thing, and I'm like, what,
why would I do this?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Exactly all of these companies, I'm sorry, Yeah, well I
go crazy with a Star Market. You have the app
and you can clip coupons, and they just make it
so confusing. It's like, why don't you just give me
the best price you want to give me? Okay, and
I'll be a lawyer customer. No, they want you to
thank you download the apps and guess what, I'm pretty good.
(27:24):
I'm pretty good technically I'm not the best, but I'm
pretty good.
Speaker 9 (27:28):
And a lot of people on especially and everything. And
the thing that gets me, why walk it and then
give permission for an app to open that? So I
don't know if I'm talking, turn.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Talking and you're righting the money. Because as a matter
of fact, I noticed that today when I was doing
a little research on this, and as a matter of fact,
it was an article I think out of let's see
a CNN and they were talking about, uh, retailers are
testing what they can call a freedom case. So far,
twenty six retailers are using this security device. Uh uh,
(28:07):
And I guess what it is. You download the app
and then you're standing there and you got to put
you got to also have your cell phone with you,
so they're going to send you a code that you have.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
To put in activate the app.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I mean it's ridiculous. I mean, you're trying to write paste.
Speaker 9 (28:25):
The other thing is to what infuriates me the most,
as bad as that is when you have a lot
of items. Oh and it's not the it's not the clerk.
It's because they've been trained do you need a bag?
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Oh? Yeah, Now it's they're asking you do you need
a bag because they're going to charge you ten.
Speaker 9 (28:47):
Cents, right, But I got to change the subject for
one moment, and I hope I'm not offending you. You
know how you say, Charlie Ray, fourteen years everything?
Speaker 2 (28:58):
You know when you're seen years, they're spend.
Speaker 9 (29:00):
Yeah right, yeah, I got to ask you, did you
ever get another dog?
Speaker 2 (29:05):
No? I didn't. However, my son and his wife have
a dog. It's a shorty. It's part Shitsu and part Yorkie. Uh.
Great little guy looks like Willy the Wonder Dog. And
my daughter and her husband have a dog that's a corky.
His name is Mustard. And I love both those dogs.
So I you know how they say when you have grandchildren,
(29:28):
children and then you send them home, same way with dogs.
I mean I could play with Willy the dog. I
can play with Mustard dog. Uh. And then then I
have when I retire, I'll get a dog. But I
just ya, I got to tell you. I work all
day long. I mean, I started nine. I'm not crying here,
(29:50):
but I'm telling.
Speaker 9 (29:53):
Because God bless you's saying that. And I've always had cats.
Right now, I live in a condo. I had two cats,
and I had a put one down.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
But do you know why I said? Do you know
why I said?
Speaker 9 (30:06):
Yeah, I'd like to know why.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
I say it for two reasons. Well, when I started
doing this show in two thousand and seven, Charlie was
with me. He stayed with me for about two and
a half more years, and we usual, oh yeah, oh yeah,
sleeping in the control room at that point. He was
about seven and a half years old, and he would
he was so what a good dog and cavalier King
(30:32):
Charles Spaniel Blenham Cavalier, which I love that that particular breed,
So I do it as a tribute to him. But
I'll also tell you, I can't tell you how many
listeners have called me and told me that they lost
a pet. And then when I wrapped the show at
midnight every night that all dogs, all cats, all pets
go to Heaven. I do believe that, because what would
(30:55):
Heaven be like if our pets weren't there? Huh?
Speaker 3 (31:02):
No?
Speaker 9 (31:02):
Is that every animal? And Noah that on the boat.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
That's what I'm saying. I mean, I really don't and
pray that that we're all up there with our you know,
eventually with our parents and our siblings. And our our ancestors,
and uh, I really animals. Sorry, you can call people,
call me crazy, but that's what I believe, and that's
why I say it every night.
Speaker 9 (31:26):
I appreciate that. And I said if I call tonight
because it wasn't a specific subject. And I know a
both cvs and everything, but I don't know. It's getting koogle,
my mother used to say. And I'm going to leave
you with this. You can do anything in this world, anything,
but if you can put your head on the pillow
and have a good night's sleep and not feel bad
(31:48):
about something.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Oh, let me tell you, a clear conscience is a
right important commodity. Well, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 9 (32:00):
Okay, all right, bye, Happy New.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Year, Thanks, good night, quick break, coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
KEB Rolling, You're gonna go to Gary and Wuber and
Gary next on Nightside, go right, hit sir.
Speaker 7 (32:18):
Oh, I'm very familiar with this category. I'm gonna give
you a compliment. That's why your show stands out when
you do the human side of stories like this instead
of politics. That's why it makes your show number one
way back when, when I was about twenty five years old,
I used to steal. I'll talk about that after if
you want to know more. But one thing you did,
(32:40):
you were like in shock about employees are not doing
anything with somebody shoplifts at nighttime. Correct.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
No, I'm not in shock about it. I'm in shock
that the that the businesses don't have some sort of
a buzzer, particularly at night, where they can immediately contact
the police without having to pick up the phone. Obviously,
if somebody walks in the store at eleven o'clock at night,
and you can tell by looking at the person, they're
(33:09):
looking around and they're looking pretty pretty sneaky, you know,
be give them a buzzer ben up to say I'm
calling the police. Just hit the buzzer and have the
police there within a couple of minutes.
Speaker 7 (33:20):
You'll explain yourself nicely. Now, my question is this. Let's
just say somebody's working at a CBS Walgreens and it's
the third shift, and you know, it's twelve thirty at night,
and they clearly see somebody stealing something and it's worth
a value eise anywhere from twenty five to fifty dollars
and they're walking in fast motion and heading to the entrance,
(33:42):
and your opinion, what should that employee do.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
I think it's up one to the employee, and obviously
it's up to the employer to direct the employee. Now again,
I think the best solution is not to put the
employee in a confrontation, a physical confrontation where he could
be injured. He or she could be injured or worse,
because at that point they could have a lawsuit against
(34:07):
the employer. But again, a little what they used to
call them in banks, like joy buttons where the person
is robbing the bank and all the you know, you're
not going to say to the robber, excuse me for
a second, I need to press this button here so
I can alert the police. You could do that. I mean,
it'll cost a few bucks probably to get it installed,
but I think it's a hell of I think it's.
Speaker 7 (34:28):
Worth it, very good because I was going to say,
confrontation between employees and shoplifters could mean death and physical
damage to themselves. So that's why the companies still don't
confront them.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
As far as.
Speaker 7 (34:45):
Restaurants are concerned. I was at all of Godden today
doing my chicken the usual chickennoki type of soup if
you've ever heard of it.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
My favorite restaurants. Go ahead, right.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
What happened was the way that comes.
Speaker 7 (34:58):
Up to me and he brought me my food. I
paid my bill, and he goes, wow, you're an unusual customer.
I said, well, I want to make sure that you
know I'm not someone who's gonna show a screw run
out the door. And they go, oh, that's so nice
of you. You know why, because we have a share
of people that do that. They eat their meal and
they pretend to go to the bathroom, they go right
(35:20):
out the door.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
All right, they got a bunch of calls. They got
to get a hit Gary before the break. Okay, man
to talk soon. Thanks, I appreciate your call. Let's up next.
Let me go next to real quickly. If I came
Corin Krinn in Bridgewater, Krin, welcome back, how are you?
Speaker 5 (35:35):
How you doing?
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Ray?
Speaker 5 (35:36):
Thanks for taking my call. I'm gonna bring me Dan Dan.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Go ahead.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
The ironic of this is because I'm not in detail,
so I don't appreciate having to do it after I've
already worked my job all day. So yeah, But at
the same time, do you remember, it's like, where are
we going to? I'm gonna bring you way back, oh,
at least thirty years ago to remember service merchandise. Yeah,
(36:05):
they remember that door where they had everything so you
could see it and then you had to fill it
out and then you had to pay for it and
then go wait for it. We're either going to go
to that story or everything's going to be stores are
shutting down left and right, and maybe everything will just
be Amazona. We'll have to worry you're stealing from our
front doors. Yeah, it's just crazy.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yeah, I think I think that. I guess probably the result.
The result is all we do is do you know,
grocery shopping over the phone, and we showed everything comes
out of warehouses. I think that's unfortunate in my opinion.
(36:48):
You know, I just let's yeah, let's let's let's let's
try to get back to a decent society, a decent
group of people who you know, who work and and
who pay for what they for what they owe, you know,
for what they buy. I just think that exactly that
(37:09):
we are going in the wrong direction. Let's keep let's
see if if we can get this country back on track.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Simple as that that's right, the ethics aren't there. But
my girlfriend who does work down in Florida, actually she
worked for a sporting goods store, which we're all familiar with,
and she ended up leaving there because she was so
angry because she was told told to You see them
(37:35):
stuff in their bags. You see them stuffing their shirts
with all sorts of clothing and expensive items, and they
don't want anybody saying anything. They just let them go it.
So the store has a reputation for this, and she says,
it's not just us, it's all around us. This is well.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Once once that they know, once that the bad guys
know what the stores are not going to do, they'll
go right ahead and and they make themselves a target.
It's like open season. I got to keep rolling here, Corina,
I will talk toon. Okay, thank you so much? All
right by about all right? Let me, I gotta go
quickly here. I'm gonna you know what, I don't want
(38:14):
to short change these guys. So that's that's not fair.
What have we got? Only a minute? Phil and Alex
you stay there. I'll take you guys on the other side.
I don't want to short change anyone I'm willing to
carry this topic over simply because I think people are
interested in it, so I can reset it. On the
other side of the ten, Phil and Alex will be
first up, and I'd like you to join the conversation.
(38:37):
What can we do about this? This is something that
is corrosive to the core of our society, that there's
a certain element of people who now feel they can
walk into stores and walk out, and we're all paying
a price. We're paying a price in terms of more
expensive products that we pay for when we buy them,
and also more inconvenience when we have to wait to
(38:59):
have a store item like toothpaste or deorder it. Someone
come with a lock and key to open it up
so I can buy a nine dollars item. That's ridiculous.
Back on Night's side, got a couple of lines open.
We'll keep going six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty,
six one seven, nine, three, one ten thirty. I wasn't
going to show change either Fill or Alex. They'll be
(39:21):
first up. You'll be after that. Give us a call.
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