Lloyd’s and Bean & Bagel, located in the Young Student Center of Keene State College, recently increased their preventive measures on theft because of the recent cases of food and beverages being stolen.
Josef Quirinale, the manager of Keene State College’s dining services, said the recent cases of theft are due to the new changes made to dining services this semester. “Before the break, Bean and Bagel would close at a certain time and, the reason for that is because when Bean and Bagel and Lloyds open at the same time, there needs to be cashiers in both locations. So, our retail manager devised a way we would only have one cashier, which would save us money,” he said.
Quirinale then went on to talk more about the changes his retail manager Kristen Mattheson made to increase production. “When we came back from the winter break, Kristen decided that she would leave Bean and Bagel open later and staff only one cashier, which means there wouldn’t be a cashier on the inside. This means whoever would go inside Lloyds would pay at Bean and Bagel. That’s how it all started,” he said.
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Once this change was made, Bean and Bagel employee Pepi Christopherson said that stealing began to occur. “Theft tends to happen during busy times when we’re under-staffed because we are busy taking care of the paying customers. It’s hard to keep track of everyone,” she said.
Quirinale said he noticed recurring trends of theft at Lloyds especially. “What we found was happening was students were taking beverages and drinking them while their food is being made. Then, they would proceed to leave the empty container in where the beverages are held and it’s happened on a couple occasions where they would take their food they had gotten from either the grill or the deli and put it in their backpack,” he said.
KSC sophomore Chris Pennell claimed he hasn’t seen anything like this. “I haven’t seen anyone steal from Lloyds, but I have heard of people recently stealing,” he said.
However, Christopherson said she has seen this theft take place right in front of her eyes. “If I don’t see anything, I don’t ask questions, but, a couple of weeks ago, a student was eating a box of Pringles waiting in line. Then, when I cashed her out, I asked about the Pringles and she said she forgot and took it out of her backpack to pay. I never have any situations of chasing anyone down because they walk past me,” she said.
This resulted in Quirinale and Mattheson improving preventive measures for grazing, “Kristen put up some signs and stanchions so that students could enter through one way and exit through another. That way, they would all have to face the register and not go out the second entry way that is always open when we have people working on that side,” said Quirinale.
Christopherson said she also uses a new sticker method to prevent theft to make it easier on herself. “Lately, we’ve been trying to use stickers. If someone buys something, we mark it with a circle sticker that frequently changes colors. This is proof that the customers paid for their meal. With hundreds of customers, there’s no way to keep track of who paid and who didn’t. The stickers help with that,” she said.
Pennell said he barely noticed the changes made this month. “I didn’t really notice any changes Lloyd’s has made to prevent theft. I do sometimes see the barrier on the second opening that shows no entry, but, it doesn’t really affect me either way so it’s not that big of a deal to me,” he said.
Quirinale said this is only done to benefit the students. “I’m not sure if this is well understood by the students, but we’re really trying to save the student’s money. The school doesn’t actually put any money into these programs, so the more theft or grazing that happens, it really just increases the price for everybody,” he said.
Grace Kelly can be contacted at gkelly@kscequinox.com
