Community

I was waiting outside a tiny local chemist, the size of a large wardrobe really, and inside a man was talking to the assistant, the pharmacist was at the back of the shop and a woman was filling her bag with whatever she could grab off the shelves. 

She saw me looking at her. I looked away and then she came outside, standing with her back to me, pulled a label off a make-up bag and stuffed bottles into it. I wasn't going to confront her. I went into the shop and the man she was with also left. 

I asked the assistant if they had CCTV. She looked alarmed. I explained what I'd seen. The young pharmacist overheard and rushed out into the street. The assistant and I, plus another man who'd come in said, "Don't chase them." The man worked in a garage, he said, and even with CCTV people were always stealing. The company had a no-confrontation policy. 

The pharmacist didn't find them but I wondered how a company could allow its staff to be at risk. I'm against most surveillance because we are far too watched and overlooked, but now Boots has sold its shop for housing, this little chemist is the only place to get a prescription on London Road and, well, the place is dodgy at times. 

I wrote to the head office and asked if they understood the risk they were putting staff under because word will have got around there was no CCTV in that tiny shop. I went past with a friend the other day. She went in to buy eye drops. There were cameras. The email worked.