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I don't think the dress codes were ever to separate thieves from decent people. When we had them, if you walked into a fancy restaurant without a jacket, the response might be "Did sir forget his jacket? Step over here, sir, and we'll get you a loaner". The dress codes were to maintain a certain atmosphere. Now that few customers care, they've largely fallen away. And in the case of some segments, fallen away from the top before the middle. When my wife and I were looking for her engagement ring in various stores, dressed as one might would for a trip to the mall (i.e. casual) we got the snooty treatment from several stores, but NOT Cartier (which is indeed)
Things like placing the orders out and unguarded work because most people just aren't casual thieves. People who steal from stores generally aren't doing it out of opportunity; they are going in there to steal particular stuff, and customer orders (especially perishable ones) aren't useful.
Trust isn't entirely unlimited; if it's violated it can be withdawn. The Jersey Mike's (a sub chain) in my area used to put the takeout orders on a table, now they're back behind the counter, I would assume due to complaints of orders disappearing.
>Mike
>from New Jersey
>calls his sub chain Jersey Mike’s
is he stupid?
Over the recent years I’ve seen quite a few of my go-to restaurants go from self-serve unsupervised online order pickup shelf, to semi-supervised pickup shelf near the cashier or other employee, to pickup from behind the cashier or employee handoff only, or to even no pickup anymore at all.
It was great while it lasted, being able to swing into a place to pick-up my meal and swing out without breaking stride.
Maybe like a #JustGirlyThings quote, I shouldn’t be sad that such a phase happened, but happy that it happened in the first place.
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