THE SPECTER of working alone in an all-night convenienc store may send chills up the spine of some people, especially those who hesitate even to use the 24-hour markets late at night. But those who work in the stores after dark, often alone, don't necessarily live in fear.
Even in the wake of a murder last week at a 7-Eleven on 33rd Street in Waverly, most night-shifters accept the possibility of crime as something you just have to live with.
"I try not to think of it as putting myself in danger," says Patricia Weber, manager of the Wawa Food Market at St. Paul and 33rd streets. That store is just a couple of blocks from the 7-Eleven where night manager Hae Gak Chung was killed during an attempted holdup at 3 o'clock in the morning last Tuesday. No arrests have been made in that case.
"You can get robbed anywhere any time," says Weber. "It can happen when you're walking down the street. You can get murdered in your own home."
Maybe so, but the odds seem stacked against convenience stores.
There were 23 robberies of convenience stores in Baltimore in the first three months of this year, according to police reports. That's about one robbery every four days.
Still, of more than a dozen store clerks interviewed in city and suburban locations since the murder, none feared for his or her safety enough to consider changing jobs.
Their reasons for pulling the late shift are varied. Some like working alone. Others are moonlighting for extra money while holding down a day job. Many are women supplementing the family income.
Weber, who has been with Wawa nine years, working various shifts and stores, says that trouble is something you just can't predict. "We've been hit on every shift," she says. She once was robbed at 8 o'clock in the morning.
Diane Byrd is Weber's assistant manager who was on duty the night of the murder in nearby Waverly. She said police, who frequently visit her store overnight, informed her of the shooting shortly after it occurred.
"I was upset about it. You can't help but be. But there's not much you can do about it. You just have to be a little more cautious. I was in the store once when we were robbed at 4:30 in the afternoon."
Indeed, what makes stores so convenient to customers is alswhat makes them so vulnerable. Most are very close to the road and easy to get in and out of -- a plus for both customers and thieves. Because they are continually busy, there's always some ready cash in the register.
Corporate managers of convenience outlets, realizing the vulnerability of their employees, have instituted safeguards over the years. At 7-Eleven, a program started in 1976 has reportedly won praise from police departments and has been copied by other convenience chains.
Karla Leavelle, a human resources manager for the company, says employees are trained to "cooperate 100 percent" and be "non-confrontational" when trouble does occur. "We tell them don't try to subdue anyone. Get them in and out as soon as possible."
Most firms have learned to keep stores well-lighted with uncluttered windows so that what's going on inside can be seen from outside. Clerks often wear recognizable smocks, and the cash registers are located at the front of the store so they can be seen easily from outside.
In addition, most chains operate on a system where employees keep a limited amount of cash in the drawer at night, continually transferring money to a "drop safe" from which it cannot be removed.
At Wawa, company policy requires at least two people to work each shift, around the clock, says district manager Bob Pierno. "That's strictly for security reasons," he says, noting that it isn't necessarily a profitable policy.
While all these security measures seem to reassure employees, crime continues; overall, robberies in Baltimore were up nearly 15 percent in the first quarter of this year.
In Baltimore County, there were 119 convenience store robberies in 1990, says police Sgt. Steve Doarnberger, and 70 of them -- almost 60 percent -- occurred between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Only one, the well-publicized incident at the Big Red Mini Mart on Pulaski Highway in September, resulted in homicide -- the deaths of two Middle River teen-agers. John Frederick Thanos is scheduled to go on trial in those killings June 24.
"Usually, they just want money. They don't come in to kill you," says Linda Proctor, manager of the 7-Eleven at 25th Street and Kirk Avenue, which was held up by three men less than a half-hour after Chung was killed last week. Police say the trio did not fit the description of the men sought in the murder.
Proctor says being prepared for robbery has become second nature.
"The first time I was held up it was scary, but I never considere quitting," says the 21-year-old who has worked for the convenience store chain three years.
Proctor, who says most of her employees are women, points out that gender doesn't deter criminals. A male employee was on duty when the store was robbed last week, she notes. "He quit that night.
"They don't care if we have two big strapping men. They'll hold you up anyway."
Proctor, who prides herself on being street-wise, says that after a while you get to know how to spot suspicious characters. "You can tell by the way they dress and how they look at you."
While some stores avoid the overnight trade, Pierno says most managers at Wawa prefer to stay open 24 hours. Of the 38 stores in Maryland and Delaware, 33 are open all night, although he concedes that at certain sites, the company will close down the third shift if employees are not comfortable.
"We don't want our managers to operate stores 24 hours if they don't feel comfortable or safe." But, he says, most managers find it personally convenient to have stores already open when they come in for the day, with coffee and food already prepared for the morning rush, which sometimes starts as early as 5 or 6 a.m.
Many who work the overnight shift are women.
"This shift seems to be attractive to mothers whose husbands work during the day and who need extra income," says Pierno. "The women can get home from work in time to get the kids ready for school and then sleep during the day."
In addition, the overnight shift sometimes pays more than others. While it may be only 50 cents an hour, it's incentive enough for employees who generally earn between $4.25 and $6.50 an hour.
Janice Clatterbuck, a mother of two, works the 3 p.m.-midnight shift at the Stemmers Run Wawa in Essex with another working mother while her husband, who works during the day, cares for their preschoolers. She notes that only two of the 14 employees of that store are men.
"If I had to work by myself, I wouldn't care for it," says Clatterbuck. The fact that police frequent the store in the late hours gives her some reassurance.
Clatterbuck might consider herself among the fortunate. Some managers believe you can't make any money at night if you have two employees on the payroll. At 7-Eleven, which operates 125 corporate and franchise stores in Baltimore City and County alone, there is often just one person assigned to the third shift.