Okay, not literally. I'm working on a book with a string of robberies. They start off small-time and escalate. The first is a candy shop, then a clothing boutique, a rent-to-own shop, an electronics shop, and a jewelry shop. I need something between the electronics shop and the jewelry shop, but I'm drawing a blank. Does anyone have any suggestions? My other option is to swap the order of the rent-to-own and the electronics shop, but would that seem like a step down in the value of the products?

Due to planned interactions between the owner of the electronics and the main character I don't want the electronics shop to be second to last.

Pawn Shop

I would think a pawn shop would be the place they fail on an epic scale. Guys in a pawn shop will shoot you. I think they stand around hoping for a robbery so they can get some target practice in. A jewelry store might be difficult, they are either so insured they don't care, or they have auto-locking doors. Some places I would hit if I were a petty criminal:

Yogurt Shop - usually only some young girl on the register, no resistance and worth maybe sixty-bucks in cash, and a pint of yogurt as a bonus.

Cell phone store - you'd get nothing, but it would be a hoot watching them trying to steal tied down fake phones.

A street food vendor - no security cameras, only one bank drop at the end of the day, and easy get-a-way.

One of the big pet stores - they pull in some serious cash. One trip to a pet store will cost you upwards of $200, and they always have a long line, so a pretty good haul.

A vet clinic - no security, complete shock that they're getting robbed, a decent cash haul.

Never any fast food place, gas station, supermarket, drug store - that's a guarantee you'll get caught.

Now, when you're ready for the real big time - Barnes and Nobles book store - they pull in a lot of cash.

Now, how to get away with a robbery - first, you need a distraction that will have all the police occupied - simple, some fireworks and m80's daisy-chained together, drive past an elementary school and toss your firecrackers and m80's onto the front lawn, keep driving. The school will go into immediate lockdown, which has a domino effect of causing every school in the city to go into lockdown - every on duty and off duty cop in the county will be deployed to the attacked school, and a security attachment sent to all the other schools - and poof, your chance of pulling off a bank heist goes up 30% or so.

Now, in today's world, getting away with a robbery is pretty slim. You can increase your odds by doing it the smart and safe way, and become a politician.

They're hitting these places at night after they're closed and either taking merchandise, whatever's in the safe, the office computer, security cameras,  etc. So a school wouldn't work as a diversion. Cash registers aren't reliable. Even during business hours, they make safe drops to keep losses down.

lol, that's what my main character said. Which immediately got him questioned by the police.

You know they monitor the internet for keywords. I would imagine writers discussing plots must drive them nuts. Hey, that might be a good plot. The bad guys use the internet to make the police watch the right hand, while the left-hand pulls off the heist of the century.

Oh, here's an idea. I bet police blogs/reports are online somewhere. You could probably get ideas from that.

I'll stick with scifi/fantasy though, it's more fun than reality.

That could get interesting. I imagine monitoring everyone and all the writers must drive them nuts. I may have to do some looking around.