Convenience stores becoming safer, according to FBI

Jay Martin, a night clerk at a local 7-Eleven, knows that many people see his job as a quick ticket to the graveyard, but the 69-year-old isn't worried.

Known to his regular customers as "pardner" because of his penchant for dropping a howdy to customers at the 7-Eleven at Charleston and Nellis boulevards, Martin has developed a simple way to deal with the anxiety that comes with his 10 p.m.-to-6 a.m. shift.

"I just try not to think about it," Martin said. "There's always a chance something could happen but you can't worry about it all the time."

Convenience store clerks are considered a high robbery risk because they deal in cash and are open long hours, but the chances that Martin and other overnight workers will be robbed are dropping, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report for 1997.

The report, which was released in November and compiles local crime statistics from across the country, notes that of the 351,096 robberies of businesses, residences, streets and highways in 1997, only 19,884 occurred in convenience stores, representing a 5.2 percent decrease from 1996.

The National Association of Convenience Stores reports that about 80 percent of convenience stores in the country are not robbed in a given year, and that the majority of robberies are in stores that have been repeatedly robbed.

That finding seems to fit with what Martin and 7-Eleven store owner and manager Rick Szuran have found in their experiences in Las Vegas.

"If we have 1,000 customers come in on an overnight shift, I'd say less than 1 percent of those people pose any kind of threat," Szuran said. "In my four years at this store we've never had a robbery, knock on wood."

The experience of the Metro Police robbery detail, which sees every case that's reported, is somewhat different. It gets a report of a convenience store robbery nearly every day, according to Sgt. Lori Crickett. But that number can be misleading.

A convenience store robbery report for every day of the year may seem like a large number, Crickett said, but those reports come in under a wide variety of circumstances and don't mean that somewhere in the valley a clerk is facing down a gun every day.

For example, if someone pretends to have a weapon while taking a carton of cigarettes, the case will make its way to the robbery detail.

Metro also fights back by teaching store owners like Szuran how to make their stores less attractive to potential robbers.

"One of the worst things that stores do is clutter their front windows with displays and posters," Metro crime prevention specialist Kathryn Ojeda said. "The clerks can't see out to see what's going on and officers driving by can't see in."

In addition, Ojeda said, forewarned is forearmed and owners need to research the neighborhood they are moving into.

"Many times someone will buy a store without doing their homework on the neighborhood," Ojeda said. "It's a lot easier for them to identify possible problems if they take the time to get to know the neighborhood."

Police also give the expected advice: Keep a low amount of money in the register, keep the store and parking lot well lighted, have alarm switches in more than one location and use video surveillance equipment.

Szuran has taken that advice to heart.

"We try to provide an environment that not only protects the store, but more importantly provides a safe and comfortable place for the overnight workers," he said. "Bright lights, low cash amounts in the drawer, alarm buzzers and video cameras are some of the precautions we use."

The overnight shift at Szuran's store has emerged as not only a safe shift, but a shift that allows workers more freedom than they would have during a day shift.

"The night shift has a more relaxed pace and allows a clerk a few extra minutes to talk to the customers and be a little more personable," said Szuran, who reports to work at 4:30 a.m. "We get a lot of regulars that come in during that shift and are on a first-name basis with us. They talk with us about their upcoming work days, sports, Clinton or a number of other things."

Regulars like Dennis Peterson, a construction worker who comes in every morning for coffee and a handful of atomic fireballs to give to the guys on his construction shift, are the reason that Martin enjoys his job so much.

"All the regulars know my days off and I know what they always get," Martin said. "When someone tells me something, I try to remember it so I can ask them about their job or how their sister is doing next time they come in. The majority of customers we get in are just regular people."

Wages for night clerks usually start at a slightly higher level than other shift workers at convenience stores still owned by their parent companies because of the smaller pool of people willing to work at night, 7-Eleven spokeswoman Margaret Schabris said.

But franchise owners like Szuran are responsible for setting their own wages. Szuran opts to determine wages on a person-by-person basis, not based on the shift they work.

When looking for a person to work overnight, there are some special traits that Szuran says managers look for.

"It needs to be someone who doesn't mind being alone and can take care of things on their own," Szuran said. "Also they need to have a good personality because of the regulars that come in and want to chat. We try to greet everyone that comes in because it's good service, and the last thing someone planning to do something wants is attention."

Whether that greeting prevents robberies is unclear, but it seems to help Szuran's employees turn customers into something more.

"One young lady who works the day shift married a regular and another is engaged to a regular," Szuran said. "We're still looking for someone for 'pardner,' but we'll find her."

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