Re: [Leica] Home depot and the rest

["Tom Schofield" <tdschofield@email.msn.com>]

There certainly are lots of reasons for not wanting strangers taking
pictures in your store.

I once spoke to a police officer who told me of a case in which an
individual went into a local hobby store and took pictures of the store,
which he, a model train collector, submitted with an application to become a
retailer of a popular brand of model trains.  The police were going to
prosecute him for fraud, as his objective was to buy model trains for his
own collection at wholesale.  They dropped it only because it was too costly
to fly someone from the manufacturer out to testify at trial.

Tom S.



> >If I am taking pictures in Home Depot, and they tell
> me to stop and I don't, I'm certain they can evict me,
> probably even bar me from return - but I have broken
> no law<
>
>
> There is a component to this thread that is being overlooked. All Mass
> Merchandisers spend a lot of time and money on Store design and
> merchandising plans. They prohibit photos to protect the investment they
> have made in displays, color schemes and floorplan layouts. There was/is a
> company in Columbus that specializes in developing interior store design
and
> one of there first course of actions for a new client is to survey what
> there new clients competition is doing. This mean sending people into
store
> and taking pictures.
>
> A store mangager for a Home Depot, Safeway or Walgreens is held reponsible
> for any activity that takes place in their store. Barring photos is just
one
> way to close a possible source of problems. After all they do not who you
> are or why you are taking pictures.  A little imagination is all that is
> required to think of possible problems from pictures shot in a store.
>
> I have done lot's of work for a major national retailer who employes the
> services of a "Mystery Shopper" company which sends men and women into a
> retail operation wearing lapel and button video cameras which transmit a
> video and audio signal to a video recorder in the trunk of a car outside
the
> store. Interesting point is they can do this legally only states which
> permit recording of employees and customers without consent. They use a
> variety of scenarios or "gags" to test a store staffs response to specific
> situations- "the Photographer" is one of these "gags" There is nothing
more
> damaging to a store managers career path with a company then to be
subjected
> to viewing  a video tape of a guy walking around a store for thirty
minutes
> with a Leica (OT) taking pictures of everything -that is considered to be
> "failure to protect a companies intelectual property". Most of the gags
are
> of a more serious nature -racial and sexual harrasment among others-in any
> case you might have a little empathy for the people who work at these
> companies and are under pressure to perform at a high level.