Am I Required by Law To Show My Receipt When I'm Leaving Wal-Mart?

Factual Questions
21

You dont’ seem to understand my point. You’re offering several reasons why it helps the store out for me to show my receipt, (admitted), and ways it might indirectly benefit me (sure. )

That doesn’t change the fact that I don’t have to show my receipt, and that I am helping the store more than it is helping me by doing so. If I think the benefit to me is enough, I’ll do it. If the cost is low enough, I’ll do it. But nothing of what you say changes it from my choice to my obligation.

Yup. It’s something they ought to want to do. The store is better off from preventing theft. I am not, directly.

Doesn’t make me obligated to help them out. The store is certainly not obligated to pay me the benefit they get.

Yup. they’re entitled to raise their prices if they want. They won’t–it will probably hurt them against their competitors. But it doesn’t matter–it doesn’t make me obligatedto help the store out.

And that is my problem because?

Not my problem. I may feel like doing them a favor. I often do them a favor. But I have no obligation to do so.

First of all, that’s five extra minutes–five minutes I wouldn’t otherwise spend there. It doesn’t matter if I spend three hours in the store–that’s my choice. If I choose to spend another five minutes, that’s fine. If the delay is something necessary (like checking out), that’s fine.

If someone else makes me spend five minutes doing something I don’t have to do, and don’t want to do, that’s not fine. They can ask me to do that–but I don’t owe them the five minutes. If they want to demand it, they can pay me for my time.

Furthermore, I’m not telling you you should value your time more. That’s your call. You don’t get to tell me to value my time less. I have stuff I’d rather do than taking five minutes to help the store out. What right do they have to make me choose to help them out rather than do the stuff I’d rather do?

22

They started it – I was just calmly walking out after making my purchases when they rudely interrupted me. So I have no obligation to be polite to them. And the I was just following orders defense doesn’t play in court, nor with me.

And they chose to take a job that includes rudely accosting customers – they have to expect a hard time. The same way I don’t feel any obligation to be polite to telemarketers. I accept that they’re only trying to make a living, and in a low-paying job, but that job involves interrupting me, and (usually) telling me lies to try to sucker me into buying something. If you accept a job doing shady things, you will be treated as shady.

23

Do you consider the very act of asking to check your receipt to be rude? The vast majority of the time for me they are quite polite about it.

24

Yes.
Don’t interrupt others was something my parents taught me as a child.

25

I’d hate to see what happens when someone asks you to please pass the salt during dinner.

26

I absolutely love how this is the “right” that the lumpenproletariat of middle america chooses to get indignant over.
Get. the. fuck. over. it. It’s 5 seconds - you’re not doing them a favor and they’re not trampling over your rights.

27

Don’t be ridiculous.
Do you really think the friends & family I am dining with are the same as some Wal-Mart drone I have never seen before?

28

j/k. relax. :wink:

29

I don’t see it as rude to ask politely—as long as asking is all it is.

I’m not sure I’d say the vast majority have been polite to me when asking, but certainly a majority.

Well, I’m not indignant. But i am amused by the hordes of people who seem to care so much that I value my time differently than they do–and seem to get indignant that I don’t feel obligated to do things I don’t have to.

It’s not at all clear what you mean. If you mean I’m not doing them a favor because I have to show my receipt, you’re just plain wrong (outside of costco and membership agreements).

If what you’re saying is it doesn’t burden me much, that’s true. That’s the principal reason that I’m often willing to do them a favor–because it helps them out, and doesn’t bother me much.

That, however, simply doesn’t change the fact that I am doing the store a favor by showing my receipt. The store is checking receipts to protect it from theft.
It doesn’t matter if it takes one second or one hour–the store is asking me to do something I don’t have to do. I will only do it if I feel like it. I often do–but that’s not the point.

If it takes an hour, and you feel like taking that hour to help the store out, that’s your choice. Good for you. If it takes a second, and you, or I don’t want to do it, what right does it (or anyone) have to make us?

30

I learned long ago that anyone who bleats about their time being valuable has a sorely mistaken view of their own worth.

Favor connotes goodwill - you’re doing it because you’re nice and you expect recognition of such. I’m suggetsing that “doing something because you’re nice” and “doing something because you’re legally obligated to do so” are not the only two reasons why people do things in society - there is a third reason: because it’s not a big deal.

do you really feel like you’re doing a stranger a **favor **when they ask you for directions or you hold a door open for someone? would you speak of such an occurence in those terms - as if they owed you some sort of gratitude? like i said - inflated view of one’s worth.
you’re not being nice to wal mart, and you’re not giving them anything when you let them look at your receipt for 3 seconds - it’s just one of those de minimis acts that has no cost to it whatsoever, and no expectation or reality of some sort of social payoff.

31

No, you are not legally obligated to show your receipt as you leave Wal-Mart.

The Greeter likewise is not legally obligated to allow store merchandise to leave the store without proof it’s been paid for.

They cannot legally detain you. They can assume the goods in your possession are theirs until proof otherwise is shown. They can keep the cart and it’s contents and let you go. Ditto, store bags you are carrying. Your purse, they can’t touch without formal accusations of a crime and a warrant or permission.

They cannot search your person without permission or a warrant - even if they call police and they cannot detain you at all without accusing you of a crime - at which time they can hold you while they call police.

32

9 times out of 10 I don’t mind and will happily provide the receipt. There is that one time out of ten were it becomes an inconvenience. Like at Wal-Mart were the line of people waiting to get out is twice as long as any one line at the cashier.

the last time that happened, I side stepped them, and when I was given dirty looks by the bovines with nothing better to do than wait in an optional line to get the heck out, I educated them briefly about their rights. About 4 people quickly joined me on the way out, the rest looked confused, and the Wal-Mart employees looked upset, but did nothing.

33

He is absent reasonable suspicion that it hasn’t. See Kimmy’s post above.

34

I’m fairly certain that this is incorrect, but I would appreciate a cite showing otherwise.

35

I think people are getting bogged down, focusing on the 2 second flash of the receipt to a smiling greeter as they leave, when I suspect the OP was thinking of the implications of dealing with Ogre store guards who may think they can detain you at their whim.

Put me down with those who would show my receipt if it doesnt inconvenience me too much, though rest assured, the bar for that inconvenience is set pretty fucking low.

36

Think what you will–I don’t much care what you think of my worth. And whatever you think of it, doesn’t rebut my point–without regard to how much my time is worth in absolute terms, if I feel I have things I’d rather do with my time than help walmart out, why should I help them?

You’re reading something into my argument that isn’t there, and then trying to rebut me based on what you’ve read in.

To me, doing someone a favor doesn’t require recognition. In this case, the store is asking me to do something that helps them out, and doesn’t benefit me, when I have no obligation to do so, and are not offering me anything to do so. What they are asking me to do is to do them a favor.

If I asked for something like that, I think I’d naturally say “can you do me a favor?”

Also, I don’t seem to be suggesting anywhere that it not being a big deal isn’t a reason to show a receipt. I have said repeatedly that I do generally show my receipt when it’s not a big deal.

However, I’d push back on you saying it’s not because I’m nice. In fact, the very reason I help people out when it’s not a big deal is because I’m nice.

In the first, sure. They’re asking me for help, and I’m providing. In the second, nope–nobody asked me to.

Again, with the proviso that when I say a “favor” I do not imply an obligation of gratitude.

On the other hand, let me pose a question for you: Would you give directions to someone who says “You! Give me directions!” or someone who asks you for ten minutes of directions when you will be late to something if you do?

Again, I’m not asking for a social payoff. I’m saying “absent a payoff, or an obligation, they have no reason to complain if I say ‘no.’”
More importantly, have you ever been to wal-mart? Sometimes it takes three seconds. Sometimes there’s a line for the receipt checker, and it takes a few minutes.

37

I would file this under “making stuff up.” :dubious:

38

The fundamental error in the post you quote is the belief that it’s store merchandise. It’s not. I paid for it. They have my money, I have the stuff I bought. The transaction is over. It’s not store merchandise–it’s my property at that point.

As a more general response: Has wal-mart ever asked you to prove you own your shoes? They sell shoes–let’s imagine in the brand you’re wearing that day. You have shoes coming out. Why shouldn’t you have to prove you bought the shoes. How about underwear? If Wal-Mart truly has the right to demand that I prove that I own my property, why stop with the stuff in my shopping bag.

39

I routinely shop at wally world
I have been asked to show a receipt maybe 3 times
It has never lasted more 5 seconds
I have never had to wait in line to get my receipt checked
they do not make demands or interjections - they ask politely

now, granted I don’t go in on fridays when welfare disbursements are made, and I don’t go on saturdays when the majority of people shop, either, so i’ve never experienced slight inconvenience at it - its so insignificant that it doesn’t even register on the “do i really need to do this, or should I be nice and just do it” meter.

40

Nice dodge. I didn’t ask you, and don’t really care about what you do when they’re polite and it doesn’t take long. Most people do the same thing.

What I’m asking is whether you would still show your receipt if the checker was rude and demanding, or if it took a substantial amount of time. I have contended that I would not, unlike the situation with a nice greeter and no inconvenience. You seem to take issue with what I’m saying. I want to know if you’re consistent.

So, I’ll ask again:
Would you give directions to someone who says “You! Give me directions!” or someone who asks you for ten minutes of directions when you will be late to something if you do?