Supermarket security: the job from the inside

• Entrance: a greeting, visible presence, an eye on the exit flow too. People ask you where things are — that is part of the job.
• Aisles: walking with no fixed pattern, paying attention to the spots the store manager has pointed out.
• Tills: presence when queues or tempers build, support for the cashier when needed. You never handle cash.
• Back door and stockroom: the door opens for an announced delivery and closes again. You log who came in and out, if your instructions ask for it.

Why the store is laid out this way — entry and exit flow, high-risk aisles, tills — is explained from the client’s side in supermarket security. Here it’s about how you live it, and what your post orders ask of you.

• The break: when daily working time exceeds four consecutive hours, a break of at least 15 and at most 30 minutes is given, during which you may leave your post. It doesn’t count as working time and isn’t given at the start or end of the day (Labour Code, P.D. 62/2025, art. 172 §1).
• The guarding exception: the same Code allows derogations from article 172 for guarding and surveillance activities that need continuous presence, “in particular for guards and caretakers or security firms”, by collective agreement or agreement with workers’ representatives — with equivalent compensatory rest or, in exceptional cases where that is objectively impossible, appropriate protection (art. 182 §2–3).
• What to ask: when and how you take your break at your post, and who covers for you. If the post stays empty during your break, the store manager must know.

For shifts and hours in general see security guard shifts and working hours; for pay, security guard salary.

• Help: point out an aisle, call a staff member, help an older customer with a trolley.
• The same eye on everyone: you don’t follow anyone because of what they wear, the language they speak or their age. You watch behaviour, not appearance.
• Calm under pressure: with a slow queue or a shouting customer, lower your voice, listen, call the manager.
• You are not the police: you wear your ID card and badge (Law 2518/1997, art. 6 §1) and use no words that present you as a public authority (art. 4 §2c).

• Suspicion is not certainty: unless you saw the item taken and hidden yourself, and kept the person in sight all the way to the tills, there is no theft to speak of — only an observation.
• No searches: you don’t search bags, trolleys or clothing. If the store has a bag rule, it works as a condition the customer accepts or refuses — see bag checks.
• Caught in the act: every citizen has the right to arrest the offender (Code of Criminal Procedure art. 275 §1) — you have no more than that. The arrested person is taken without delay to the prosecutor (art. 279 §1): you call the police at once and hand them over; you don’t keep them in the office, question them or photograph them.
• When there is violence or danger: keep your distance, let them go, call the police. No merchandise is worth an injury.

How to approach, when not to step in and what to write afterwards is set out in a guard and shoplifting. Read it before your first shift in a store.

• The policy belongs to the store’s employer and is known to staff in advance. You don’t invent rules.
• The same procedure for everyone — cashiers, stock staff, managers. The colleagues you see every day are the hardest case, which is exactly why the rule must be the same.
• If someone refuses, you don’t pressure, hold or search them; you log it and inform the manager, as your instructions say.
• Goods an employee bought leave with a receipt, if the policy says so.

1. Opening: outside check — doors, shutters, signs of forced entry. If anything isn’t as it was left, nobody goes in; you report as your instructions say.
2. During the day: the back door opens only for an announced delivery and closes right after.
3. Closing: a round of toilets, changing rooms, stockroom and aisles so no one stays inside; emergency exits closed but clear.
4. Report: closing time, who locked up, what is pending for the next day.

The two-person procedure and why the store needs it are explained in supermarket security.

• Everyday incidents: a customer who faints, a lost child, broken glass in an aisle, an aggressive customer at the till.
• Aggressive customer: keep your distance, speak calmly, move others away, call the police. Self-defence is lawful when needed to protect yourself or another from a present and unlawful attack, and the necessary measure is judged by the danger and the circumstances (Penal Code art. 22).
• What you write: time, place, what you saw, what you did, whom you called, when they arrived. See incident report.
• Cameras: if the incident was recorded, tell the manager so the footage is secured before it is overwritten.

At OVIT, patrols, incidents and reports are logged in the Guardly platform, which gives the guard, the operations team and the client one live picture. In a real incident the police decide; for a real case, get legal advice. If you’re just starting, see also your first day in a security job.