Assistants who don't asset - years ago when we encountered this situation we would pick up an item off the shop floor and walk towards the doors
However: "standing on the pavement" - these are people who are walking 2wards me without being aware of anything going on around them, easy pickings - have seen a cyclist snatch a mobile from the user's hand, twice! and was gone. Leaving a very shocked person wondering WTH …….
