Coin store locked?

Most of the coin shops I go to in small Northeast Connecticut towns are not locked. Even a big store in Worcester, MA isn't locked. You just walk in like any other place. But drive over the state line into Rhode Island and all the coin stores are locked with bars on the windows. You have to ring a doorbell and get buzzed in. I fail to see the purpose of this. Is it just hype? I get the feeling I have just been admitted to some secret inner sanctum of Fort Knox.
Who is not let in? Have you ever been refused entrance to a shop with a locked door? What's the deal here? You mean they actually turn away potential customers?
I suppose if a gang of punk thugs rang the bell the owner could refuse to let them in. Or if a mean looking guy with a gun drawn rang the bell. Maybe if the owner didn't like you?
But given the scenario of an empty store, a dealer hungry for sales, wouldn't everyone be let in?
And if someone really wanted in they could just hang out near the door and run in on the coattails of another customer who gets buzzed in. Is your coin store locked?

 

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The only one I have run into around here is one that specializes in bullion. They only permit one customer at a time and if they already have one when you ring, you are told to come back in ## minutes!

 

There's one in my town, I had to explain what I wanted and why I was there then show them my want list before I could get through the door, the next time I went, same procedure, that was pretty much the last time I'm going. I don't need all that even if they have a slightly better selection than the guy I frequent.

 

I can understand security, but....
if bq went thru that each time, I'd pass also.

 

The particular setup probably reflects the crime rate in the area and the personal experiences of the owner.

 

It must be crime rate. You should try to go to a mad gold jewellery / bullion shop in Singapore. Last time I remember seeing, they had two full stories selling gold and when I did a mere calculation, they must have at least 100,000 USD worth of gold in there!!! Come on, they even had two of 1kilo gold Aussie bullion coins on display and a kilo bullion bar and various bars in smaller sizes. I don't think I need to elaborate how much more bullion there was. Obviously Singapore is a very strict country and if any robbery were to occur, cops will be right after your head.

 

The naivet'e is refreshing. Your thinking is reversed. It's not who gets let in but who does not get let out. With the door lock is rigged to a button, if the place is robbed and the gun man kills the owner...how is he getting out? Have you ever tried to find one of those buttons? Also, if the gun man is working alone, good luck hitting the button and making it to the door before it relocks. The silent alarm has been triggered and the cops are on the way. Bars on the windowa a steel cage door, you might as well have a seat.

Security proceedure may seem like a laughing matter to some and Internet topic fodder for others but there is usually a reason for it and that reason is not always obvious. Personally, I would never fault a man for trying to protect his business. You either respect the proceedure and follow along or go someplace else. In my opinion a coin dealer with a locked door is only common sense.

 

I hate to say it, but it reminds me of an adult book store my frat brothers and I frequented in college...

That being said, there is a high end shop near me that does that. It's not in a bad part of town or anything, but their stock is mostly high value bullion, so I guess they take security seriously.

 

I can understand locking the store, especially if there's only one person there. My pet peeve is coin stores that aren't open during their posted hours. One coin shop I went to to browse was closed in the middle of the day. I called the store on the phone. The owner answered but said he wasn't on the premises and wanted to know what I was interested in before he would consider opening the store.

If I'm typical at all, coin shops lose a lot of business by not being available for customers to browse. I almost always find something I want.

 

My favorite coin shop, whp I need to visit again soon, has bars on all the doors and windows. For that area that is pretty common however. It wasnt necessarily there for protection now, but wrought iron bars were popular for doors and windows for a good chunk of years in some places.

Now they do have two different types of motion detectors and an alarm network for after hours, but during the day the shop is protected my this lil lady packing a Desert Eagle. For some reason her husband wouldnt show me what he used......

I think there may have been a little pistol envy there rofl

 

I think that may be an oxymoron. Isn't bullion worth, well, bullion?

In my opinion, unless the shop is in a REALLY bad part of town (but why on earth would it be?). Then the extreme security measures some of you have mentioned seem a little over the top. Sure, they may help in the event of a robbery, but I think it'll turn off customers, especially walk-ins.

 

The one closest to me has locked doors and two rottweilers that roam the store. Not a bad area but it is inside an office building and cannot be seen from the street.

I don't have an issue with it as I understand the owner has a right to protect his business and it's staff. Someone looking to hold a place up will probably look for an easier target.

Most of the very high end jewelers do the same thing - keeps the rift-raff out. If I'm in buying a really expensive piece of jewelery - do I really want some window shoppers floating around me distracting the staff - no...

Same thing, if I'm in selling all my gold coins to the shop owner, do I want some customer sitting over my sholder buying coin supplies waiting for me to conclude my business - not really. BTW: I'm the one buying the supplies as I don't have much to offer on the selling side. I would feel uncomfortable entering a store where a deal like this was in progress. It's none of my business and I can generally wait or go to a different shop a few miles down the road. - Just my opinion.

 

Even though you say my thinking is reversed, I did think of that but didn't add it to my first post.
Myself, if I owned a store that was robbed at gunpoint I don't know if I would like to be locked in the same room with a gunman. It could mean that he would get anxious reaching a locked door and only turn around and shoot me. The actions of desparate robbers can not be predicted. And the arrival time of police can vary. I myself would probably let the guy get out of my store and away from me.

 

If only robbery were restricted to the bad parts of town. all of the folks who live in the good parts of town wouldn't need to lock their doors at night and could leave their car keys tucked up under the sun visor and the windows rolled down. It would be unthinkable to rob the the nice places.

If customers are turned off by the security of their local shop, they can always take their chances on ebay ...lol.

 

The coin shops in my immediate area are a mix of some and some. I think one has bars on the windows. Three of four have buzzer entrances. One of those three doesn't always use it.

Two other stores with buzzer entrances come to mind, one was in an upscale shopping neighborhood in Northern California and the other one in an upper middle class business district in New Jersey. At the CA shop, Thalia Elizabeth and I were the only customers; at the NJ shop, there were already five people in the store but it was more of a social group than a group of customers (and I actually had a nice conversation with them, now that I think about it).

I don't find the physical security in place to be as much of a turnoff as the attitude of the owner/staff. If I get the impression that you are assuming I am trying to rip you off or waste your time, I won't be back. This isn't limited to coin shops; model railroad (my other hobby) shop owners can often be the same way, for example. If you already have cameras posted everywhere and can see everything I don't see any reason why you need to follow me around the store as I browse.

 

in the future (i hope not) we may be told we have to go thru x-ray machines before entering a store!

grizz

 

yeah,. and my fillings will set it off!

 

The store I used to frequent in MA was in a super-nice town (Newton) and you still had to be buzzed in. Didn't bother me much, but I did have to get used to the fact that I couldn't just walk in.

In Denver, most of the coin-shops you can just walk into. However, some of the smaller ones that also double as buy/sell used-jewelry places have bars and buzzers.

 

Where I normally go to coin shops there is a range of security measures. One shop I know often leaves the door propped open and anyone can just breeze in. The worst is the shop where after I get buzzed in I am basically standing in a barred cage surrounded by glass cases, and have to ask for specific coins just to see them closer than 2 feet away.

Almost without exception coin shops here are located in lower-end strip malls. I would assume anything such as a jewelry or guitar store would take similar precautions.

 

I used to frequent many towns in Wisconsin and was always amazed at how stores, people's houses, barns, garages all are unlocked. I remember wanting to ask a farmer something once and his neighbor said they weren't home but just go in and wait. They have home made beer in the refrig so help yourself. I didn't believe him but when that farmer did come home that is what he said also.
Now I'm in the Chicago area. Here everything is locked up. You should see an atorney I know. His office has solid steel stores front and back and still, someone broke in. A coin shop left open. Not a chance. Many, many places also use that press button routine for admittance and even then, some require you to have identification to show a camera. How about an armed guard by the door. We are proud here that the murder rate in the city limits has dropped below the 700/year mark lately. Also, 50,000 cars a year stolen in the city is exagerated. Probably closer to 45,000.
A store with the doors unlocked? WOW. Not here.