EDITORIAL - Elephant in the room

It has been written somewhere that if the only tool you can give a person is a hammer, then that person will likely see every problem as a nail. No saying comes to mind more aptly than this one to underscore the reaction of authorities to that mall incident in Manila involving the use of hammers to rob a jewelry store.

In that incident, robbers breezed through security at the mall because they were unarmed. They brought nothing with them that would attract suspicion. In other words, they were just like ordinary shoppers. It was from the hardware store inside the mall that they bought their weapons and tools of choice -- hammers.

With the hammers they bought, they entered the jewelry shop and started smashing the glass display cases. After picking up several millions worth of jewelry, they quickly lost themselves in the ensuing panic to make good their escape.

The response of the authorities is, of course, to be appreciated. Here in Cebu, police met with business owners and mall security officers to discuss ways of preventing a similar incident from happening. Among the suggestions was for objects like hammers to be claimed outside the premises after a sale.

That is a suggestion naturally worth considering. But as said at the outset, that is only because we have reduced everything to a hammer and nail situation, when actually the problem is so much bigger and yet, uncannily, has not been recognized and acknowledged even to this day, so much like the elephant in the room.

The problem in retail establishments is not really about hammers or whatever. The problem is that retail establishments focus too much on customers. Customers are checked going in, and then checked going out. Customers are the ones who are being scrutinized by security officers as if they are suspects.

To be sure, retail establishments have to guard themselves against shoplifters. But too much focus on customers as potential shoplifters takes too much attention away from the other criminals -- be they robbers who smash jewelry cases, or pickpockets who prey on customers.

Retail establishments put a premium on guarding their own interests against shoplifters. But has there ever been a pickpocket who has been accosted, much less arrested, inside a store? The answer is, of course, never.

And do you know why no pickpocket who preys on customers is ever arrested? Because security officers are afraid of these criminals. Guards who go off duty become vulnerable to reprisals. Stores themselves become likely targets for vandalism. The hammer is not the problem. It is the business culture.