Today I caught my first shoplifter. Regular customers, a pair. Always come in together. One of them starts photographing my plants and the other presents me with a list of plants from my online catalog to gather for him while he looks around. This is normal for the pair. Today while I am gathering plants from the list I notice one of the guys carrying a plant from my Paph bench in the greenhouse into the checkout area/potting room. A few minutes later I notice it is not among the pile of plants I am collecting for him and then spy it tucked inside the bin of large potting mix hidden in a shadow. So I am watching.... During checkout one of them wanted me to get another plant from the greenhouse and as I was going back in there I glanced to see if the hidden plant was still in the potting bin. It was. One of guys followed me into the greenhouse to take more pictures and tried to talk to me but I hurried back into the checkout area. The plant in the potting bin was gone and so was the guy who sent me back into the greenhouse. I caught up with them (the plant and the guy) in the parking lot as he was going around the corner of his van trying to keep the plant he had hidden in the potting bin hidden from my line of sight by his body but he was caught and he gave it back.
Well, I don't think these regulars will be regulars anymore. And I don't want to talk about them anymore. It makes me feel icky.
What I wanted to talk about was the OPPOSITE of shoplifting. While these two guys were here in my greenhouse doing their thing so was another couple I see on a regular basis. This couple are friends, not just regular customers. One of them sits on the "orchid widow bench" and knits socks and hats while her husband looks around the greenhouse. (There is a bench in my greenhouse for the non-orchid collector of the couples who come in. I can always tell who the orchid collector is in the family by who DOESN'T eventually sit down on the orchid widow bench).
This guy went nutty into orchids when he first got into them a few years ago and he over-bought. I tried to warn him... I try to warn all my friends... Anyway, he bought not just from my greenhouse, but from everywhere and everybody. He bought some of everything. He used to come help me repot orchids when I got behind and would not let me give him money. Very eccentric, dude. Way back when I told him I knew the pattern and could see the future....and that one day he was going to show up with his whole collection and try to sell it to me and I was going to say no because that's the rule: "I don't buy orchids back when people are done with them," and that unwanted orchids belonged on the table at the local orchid society meetings. That's what those monthly Orchid Anonymous meeting are for....right?
I also have another strict rule, a corollary to the above rule: Plants left in my greenhouse for any reason belong to me. Period. This rule may make sense to some of you and seem rude to others, but it is how I separate MY plants from all the orchids that try to come live in my greenhouse. All my orchid collecting friends are well aware of my rule. Next time one of you is shopping here and brings me a plant and asks how much it costs and I say, "That's not for sale and I don't even remember which of my friends it belongs to", you may understand the frustrated look on my face and the reason for my rude rules. Nobody ever pays any attention to me and my rules.
Anyway, now this guy with the huge orchid collection has gotten control of the addiction and is quietly downsizing it to a more manageable level. To accomplish this, every few weeks while the orchid widow distracts me with a colorful ball of yarn he sneaks a few plants into my greenhouse and hides them among my stock because, well...see above rules and portends.
It is an open secret. I am not suppose to notice. So far nobody has tried to buy one and I have not had to face any of the ethical questions his abandonment of his plants has created.
Anyway, to make a long story short....I don't know what to call him and his strange habit... Today I had the Bizarro World experience of watching one couple shoplift while another couple...what? Shopdropped?
Well, enough from me.