“If you sold us a copy of Hot Fuzz, I guarantee it will be with us for… a while.
“At my last count, we had 13,000 copies so turnover time for something like that could be… God only knows.”
It’s a nationwide count. But it’s as Connor Hill builds images of shoogly Pegg movie-mountains that the scale of Cex Aberdeen’s problem becomes clear.
Staff at the Union Street second hand shop were this week freed from “trip hazard” stacks of DVDs and video games.
Company representative Mr Hill convinced rulemakers to drop a decades-old legal requirement to pile them – and big ticket tech items like phones and laptops – up for at least 48 hours after they’re bought in “on the off-chance” something was stolen.
“Irate” customers, who could still see the products online, are said to scream at staff as they’re told they can’t leave with their prized finds due to the cooling off period.
“And it prevents us from selling items, especially when they have just come out and are most valuable,” Mr Hill adds.
Second hand argument from Aberdeen Cex
Introduced in 1982, the troublesome law was brought in to allow police time to check stock for stolen goods.
But it has been applied differently by councils across Scotland, putting “strain” on international and online retailer Cex.
Councillors this week considered the Aberdeen second hand shop’s second shot at ridding themselves of the trading restriction.
Last May, police objections led licensing chiefs to refuse Mr Hill’s pleas for change.
But since, Cex has convinced officers that their safeguards “provide a higher level of security” than the 40-year-old legislation.
How much stock does Cex Aberdeen move?
Cex Aberdeen can buy in as many as 4,000 items every day, with DVDs and video games “padding out numbers pretty aggressively”.
Until now, all items purchased in the shop have been subject to the 48-hour cool-off period.
“[It could be sold or move] within a couple of weeks. It could be months,” Mr Hill said.
“I would say it’s the DVDs and games, not the high ticket items, that can be most problematic.
“If somebody trades in 200-300 penny DVDs from their collection, we need to keep them for 48 hours, somewhere safe so they are not blocking pathways. Even though their value is a couple of pounds overall.
“For something like a brand new device, let’s say an iPhone on release, we could turn that over in a couple of days.”
While Cex Aberdeen accepts that the thousands of duplicate DVDS are unlikely to shift within the 48 hours, the change will end the bother of separating them all out.
How often do police track down stolen goods to the Aberdeen Cex shop?
For all that effort, Mr Hill said only eight of more than 300,000 second hand items bought by the Aberdeen Cex shop in the last five years had been seized by police.
Of those eight, only one was tracked down with the legally required 48 hours.
And, on that occasion Cex Aberdeen staff contacted officers due to their own suspicions.
They check items against national police databases “on multiple occasions”.
“As such, the police get this information in real time,” Mr Hill said.
“The point of the 48 hours was obviously created at the time to give police time to come to stores and check if anything has been stolen.
“However, now they can do this from their own desk.”
If police do flag any issues, and depending on their concern, stock is taken aside or stored in the safe.
Sometimes officers rush to the shop “within the hour,” Mr Hill said. Other times they can take “a week or two”.
Mulleted PC Gary Forbes told the licensing committee meeting that Cex Aberdeen would have access to the force’s stolen goods database.
The company can check it using product serial numbers.
Self-made headache? Why has Cex been listing items for online that it can’t sell?
The 48-hour period has posed troubles for staff faced with frustrated customers, who have turned up to collect goods listed online before they can legally be sold.
“It’s something we have looked into with our website team. But I am told it is incredibly difficult,” Cex rep Mr Hill said.
“There is no real way for our international company’s system to indicate to customers that ‘this must be held’ – especially given the legislation is between 48 and 96 hours depending on the day and time it is bought in.”
Taking items off stock during the cool-off period is another no.
A trial of that strategy lasted “not very long”.
Internal investigations began due to the apparent stock losses and impact of price changes on the books.
“We have tried a few different ways to avoid this problem. However they all come with their own set of issues,” Mr Hill conceded.
‘If it’s good enough for the chief constable…’
Last May, police worried relaxing the rules for Cex Aberdeen would set a precedent for other second hand shops.
The majority of councillors were convinced by the absence of police concern at the second time of asking.
But SNP councillor Neil Copland urged the committee to “stick with what we’ve got”.
“Quite frankly I wouldn’t be inclined to start chopping and changing licences: ‘you can have an exemption’, ‘you canna’.
“I think we need uniformity across the city,” he said.
He lost the vote 7-2 as Labour’s Gordon Graham summed it all up: “If it’s good enough for the chief constable, it’s good enough for me.”
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