Charlotte Observer, The
(NC)
1995-02-25
Section: METRO
Edition: FOUR
Page: 5C
1995-02-25
Section: METRO
Edition: FOUR
Page: 5C
CLERKS FIGHT NEW BOSSES OVER SECURITY
DEBORAH PARKHILL MULLIS, Staff Writer
Convenience store clerk Deborah Walker remembers when business as
usual turned scary. An angry customer had smashed two quarts of beer on the
counter.
``He'd had enough,''
said Walker, who refused to sell him beer. ``There was glass everywhere - it
came up under the security shield where you pass the money. I even had glass in
my uniform pockets,'' said Walker, assistant night manager at the Conoco store
on East Independence Blvd.
Walker and other Conoco
employees at the East Independence store and
another in Matthews asked customers to sign a petition on Thursday and Friday
to stop the store's security shields from being removed.
Petro Express is
purchasing 11 area Conoco stores on Tuesday and the new owners plan to
eliminate the thick plastic shields surrounding cash registers at some
locations.
``Maybe being a
convenience store clerk is more risky than being a librarian,'' said Tom Hall,
one of three Petro Express co-owners, ``but the security shield doesn't fit the
type of motif we want in those stores. We're going to take them down.''
``It (the shield) is
very user unfriendly. It gives you the impression that you're in a bad
neighborhood and maybe you don't want to stop at this store. The shields are an
affront to a lot of the people that use those stores.''
``I'm not a wimp,'' said
Walker . But she
added that convenience store employees are threatened all the time.
``People are not just
out for money these days - they're out for everything - including the person.
Shields may be impersonal but sometimes you have to be impersonal this day and
age,'' she said.
Nearly 1,000 customers
had signed the petitions stating they were not offended by security shields
when employees were ordered to stop involving customers in company business
yesterday.
``The shield doesn't
make the service go any slower,'' said Ernest Morgan, a customer who signed the
petition at the East Independence store.
``This store is on the edge of town. It would be an easy target. I support the
employees - the shields make them safer. It's too complicated to rob a person
behind a window,'' he said.
Conoco spokesman Jim
Bailey said Conoco installed the shields when they bought the stores two years
ago.
Hall said in nearly 10
years there have only been a handful of robberies at the six Charlotte
convenience stores Petro Express owns and he thinks employees at the East
Independence and Matthews stores are being ``silly.''
``We've never had an
occasion for anyone to hide behind bulletproof glass. The shields are very
low-class in my opinion.''
``It's a
shame you have to have it but you have to put safety first,'' Walker said. ``I think every cashier that
works behind that shield would tell you the same thing.''
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