Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1012, Preventing Shoplifting.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1012.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Thelma and Luis about preventing or stopping people from stealing things from a store what we call shoplifting.
Let's get started.
Wow, what happened here?
I was only away on vacation for two weeks.
While you were gone, we redesigned the store with an anti-theft system.
Is that why there are surveillance cameras and security guards everywhere?
That's right.
We're losing too much money to shoplifters, and I'm finally doing something about it.
From now on, it's zero tolerance.
I don't care if they're petty thieves or kleptomaniacs.
I'm rooting out every instance of shoplifting and prosecuting to the full extent of the law.
What are all these cases for?
I'm putting the pricier merchandise under lock and key and I've put security tags on most other items.
I'm weighing whether to do exit inspections.
I don't want to go overboard.
No, you wouldn't want to do that.
We begin with Luis saying to Thelma, wow, what happened here?
I should explain before we get into the dialogue that Luis is spelled L-U-I-S if it's a man.
If it's a woman, it's spelled L-O-U-I-S-E.
The same pronunciation is used, but we have a different spelling.
Luis then asks Thelma, what happened here?
I was only away on vacation for two weeks.
Thelma says, while you were gone, while you were on vacation...
We redesigned this store with an anti-theft system.
So, Luis and Thelma are inside some kind of store.
Luis works at the store.
However, he went on vacation and when he came back, he found that things had changed.
Thelma says that they redesigned the store.
To redesign means to design again.
Really, it means here to change the way something is organized, especially if you're talking about a project such as a store or a house or any room that you have.
You could also redesign a car.
You could redesign a program for your school.
We can use it both for physical things and for non-physical things.
Here we're talking about the store in which Thelma and Louise work.
Part of the redesign of the store was to put in an anti-theft system.
Theft refers to stealing.
Anti, A-N-T-I, is something that is against.
We use that prefix against.
Quite frequently in English you can talk about anti-discrimination laws, laws that are against discrimination.
You could talk about anti-freeze, which you put in your car in places where it gets very cold.
Anti-theft would be something that is trying to stop or prevent theft.
It could also mean that you're against theft.
You don't like it.
It's a bad idea.
But here it really refers to some change that was made in the store to prevent people from stealing things from the store.
Bowie says, is that why there are surveillance cameras and security guards everywhere?
A surveillance, S-U-R-V-E-I-L-L-A-N-C-E camera is a small video camera that is always on.
It's always recording whatever is going on in the room.
Many buildings have surveillance cameras.
Even some houses have surveillance cameras on the outside and the inside so you can see what's going on.
They are designed to produce a video of anyone who might come into the store or come into the building and steal something or do something wrong.
A security guard is a person who protects a building or a house or some place.
Security guards aren't police officers.
They don't work for the government.
Security guards are typically people who work for private companies, but who also try to protect a building or a house.
Thelma says that's right meaning yes, there are surveillance cameras and security guards as part of this new anti-theft system.
She goes on to say we're losing too much money to shoplifters and I'm finally doing something about it.
The word shop is sometimes used as a noun to describe a store, especially a smaller store.
The term shoplifting refers to stealing something from a store.
To lift something is to raise it up, usually with your hands.
Sometimes, however, we use that word lift to mean steal.
And in the case of shoplifting, we're referring to people who are stealing things from a store.
A shoplifter is a person who steals.
Thelma says, from now on, it's zero tolerance.
Zero tolerance T-O-L-E-R-A-N-C-E is a policy or a rule that says that you are not going to allow this, even once.
There are no exceptions to the policy.
For example, let's say a school has a zero tolerance policy against students who are drinking.
We're talking now about a high school.
Remember, in the United States, you can't drink legally until you're 21 years old.
If a school has a zero tolerance policy on drinking, that means that if a student is caught drinking, say by a teacher, there's no next time for that student.
The student is removed from the school.
Even one violation, even one violation, time breaking the rule is enough for you to perhaps be expelled or kicked out of a school.
That's a zero tolerance policy.
Well, Thelma has a zero tolerance policy on shoplifters.
She explains, I don't care if they're petty thieves or kleptomaniacs.
I'm rooting out every instance of shoplifting and prosecuting to the full extent of the law.
What Thelma is saying here is that she is going to catch every single person who steals something and she's going to have that person punished.
It doesn't matter if the person steals something small or something large, if a person steals something only once or many times.
She says, Petty, P-E-T-T-Y. something that is small or unimportant.
A petty thief would be a person that steals small things, maybe a 10 bracelet or a 5 t-shirt something that is not worth a lot of money.
A kleptomaniac.
K-L-E-P-T-O-M-A-N-I-A-C is a person who steals all the time because they have almost like a disease.
They need to steal things.
They're addicted, if you will, to stealing things.
Thelma says, I'm rooting out every instance of shoplifting.
To root R-O-O-T out is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to investigate and then eliminate anything that you don't want.
We're going to root out corruption in government.
Corruption is when Government officials get money from people to do things, illegally that is.
To root out corruption would be to get rid of corruption, to find it and then get rid of it.
Thelma's going to root out every instance of, every case of shoplifting.
She's also going to prosecute to the full extent of the law.
The verb to prosecute P-R-O-S-E-C-U-T-E means to pursue some sort of legal action against a person, especially a person who has committed a crime against you.
Technically, the government is the one that prosecutes in a court of law before a judge.
But you as the business owner can demand, or at least request, that the government go after this person, arrest this person and punish this person.
The full extent of something is as much as possible, as much as allowed.
The expression to the full extent of the law means as much as the law allows you to.
If the law says this person can be arrested and punished with one year in jail, That's what you're going to try to get for that person.
You're going to try to get the government to punish that person for an entire year.
That would be prosecuting to the full extent of the law.
Arresting people for every crime that they commit.
Luis says, what are all these cases for?
He's referring to what are probably metal and glass containers that are used in a store when you have something that is valuable, that you want people to see but you don't want people to steal.
If you go into a jewelry store, for example, the diamond rings are not just sitting there for you to grab and look at.
They're in typically a case and the case is locked.
You can see them, but you can't touch them.
You have to ask the person at the store to take them out of the case so you can look at them.
Thelma says Merchandise M-E-R-C-H-A-N-D-I-S-E is a general term referring to anything that you sell.
It could be a shoe, it could be a computer, it could be a car.
All of these could be considered merchandise.
The expression to put something under lock and key means to...
Take something and lock it up so that only someone who has a key to the lock can open the lock and get whatever it is that you are protecting.
To put something under lock and key is to put it in a place where it is safe.
Thelma says, I've put security tags on most other items.
A security tag, TAG, is a small device that is attached to something that a store sells.
What happens is when you walk out of the store and you don't pay for the item, and the item still has a security tag on it, an alarm will go off.
This is quite common in American clothing stores, for example.
The clothing all have security tags on them.
And if you walk out of the store without paying for it and without removing the tag, which is very difficult to remove without a special machine, the security system will be alerted and usually there'll be a loud noise made, indicating you're trying to steal something.
So it's not a very good idea to try to steal something, especially from one of the bigger stores here in the US.
Of course, you shouldn't steal from any store.
Thelma says she's weighing whether to do exit inspections.
To weigh w e i g, h here means to consider the advantages and disadvantages of something, to consider what we might call the pros and cons of some action.
Exit inspections When you go to a store and there are security guards that look at you and check any shopping bags, you have to make sure that you haven't stolen anything.
Thelma says she doesn't want to go overboard.
The expression to go overboard O-V-E-R-B-O-A-R-D here means to do too much of something, to do something at an extreme level.
We might say
Literally on a ship or a boat.
To go overboard means to fall out of the boat or fall out of the ship into the water.
But we use it in a situation such as this to mean to go too far, to do too much of something.
Luis says, no, you wouldn't want to do that.
It seems like Luis thinks that Thelma has already gone overboard, has already done too much with all of these different security measures.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Wow, what happened here?
I was only away on vacation for two weeks.
While you were gone, we redesigned the store with an anti-theft system.
Is that why there are surveillance cameras and security guards everywhere?
That's right.
We're losing too much money to shoplifters, and I'm finally doing something about it.
From now on, it's zero tolerance.
I don't care if they're petty thieves or kleptomaniacs.
I'm rooting out every instance of shoplifting and prosecuting to the full extent of the law.
What are all these cases for?
I'm putting the pricier merchandise under lock and key and I've put security tags on most other items.
I'm weighing whether to do exit inspections.
I don't want to go overboard.
No, you don't want to do that.
The script is another instance of the wonderful work done by our very own Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on...
ESL podcast.
