Checking your receipt at the door

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

I hate Wal-Mart trying to stop and search me when I leave their store. I am not a shoplifter, and have never “accidentally” taken something that I did not pay for.

The Wal-mart near here installed the “tattle tape detectors” or whatever they are called at it’s exit doors. The first weekend, they went off on every single solitary customer who left. I defy someone to tell me that searching through the bags of every single customer is a reasonable thing to expect. It was very sad in many ways - especially since they had as many people “checking bags” as they did ringing people up.

Then, they “fixed” whatever was wrong, so it only goes off about one time out of every 10 people (yes, the lines are that long I can stand there and count). And you know what? In witnessing these occurances every week for more than half a year, I have never seen anyone caught with something shoplifted. But hey, what’s a few thousand false positives relative to the one true positive?

Now let me explain to you all why this is a bad idea.
(Warning - the following innane anecdote is true, and may not directly address the issues being discussed in this thread. Always practice safe sex.)

I was only beeped at twice - the weekend when it beeped at everyone, and a few months later. The first time, I had to “submit” to the search, because of the congestion. The second time, I refused flat out, and demanded to see the manager. A security person was called, and demanded to search not only my bag, but my person. I folded my arms and demanded that he call the police, that I was waiting right here. He sneered at my suggestion that I call the police, and then grabbed my arm hard and tried to yank me with him.

Hmmm…let’s see…I want to go all alone in a back room with a Wal-Mart rent a cop, where I can be strip searched, abused, raped, or whatever, with no witnesses? Uhh…no fucking thank you.

I jerked my arm back, and screamed at him that if he touched me again I would personally kill him. I then started yelling as loud as I could for someone to help me, and call the police. People started to gather and stare. And thank god, someone took out their cell phone and did call the police. It was starting to get comical, and it was dawning on the security guard that he might have made a big mistake. He then started trying to reason with me, saying “just let us look in your bag, what do you have to hide?” I told him “fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me, and I’m going to file assault charges against you, you pathetic shit! I asked for you to call the police, and you wouldn’t. What do you have to hide!?”

After 10 minutes of us staring each other down, during which several other security guards and management “tried to talk some sense into me”, the police showed up. Wal-Mart presented their side of the story (which basically painted me as a madwoman), and I told the cop “You are law enforcement - you have the right to search me and my possessions - please do, so I can get to filing my assault charges against this guy.” So the cop did - he laid everything from my bag out on the table, checking it off the list with the manager, and then patted me down, then asked me to walk through the tattle barrier.

What a surprise - it didn’t beep. In fact, I walked through it several times - no beep. The manager turned his back on me and walked off - no apology offered. The security guards evaporated. So then I tried to file assault charges against the guard, but the cops wouldn’t do it, since just grabbing my arm was not “serious enough” (left marks on my arm, if it was a domestic violence case he would have been in jail…oh well). By this time I was tired, and my self-righteous indignation had cooled, and I realized that I had publicly said I was going to “kill” the guard anyways, so I gathered my things, told Wal-Mart to fuck off, and left.

And then I went back the next week to a different Wal-mart. Sigh. I know, but the prices are so low…and FTR, they were just as low before they put the barriers up.

And you know what? I don’t care even if the store thinks it has a “right” to haul you off to a dark room and strip-search you. I’ve seen/read a great many lawsuits won against stores for doing just this, because in most jurie’s minds the store does not have that right. If I stay where I am, make no attempt to flee the store, and demand that they call the police instead, what right do they have to 1) not call the police to resolve the issue, and 2) drag me off somewhere to be “interrogated” by leering, 19-year old rent-a-cops?

We have police for a reason after all.

Sorry for the long rant…I guess it doesn’t deal with specifically the question of searching bags, but rather of stores labelling all customers not a customers but as “potential shoplifters”.

22

I’m right there with ya, Anth. But you can come to the store here in Harrisonville. They have a tiny old lady who sits and sleeps. They haven’t ever checked a single bag that I’ve seen.

Sorry, Falc, I should have clarified, this was just at my store, not necessarily nationwide.

–Tim was drunk

23

Well, thank y’all for clearing that up for me. You are personally offended because you have integrity. You know what? I can see now why you would be. I mean, it must be a massive conspiracy against you, and all people with integrity!
What they did was this. The head honchos of all major department stores got together. Then they said, “What can we do to annoy Johnny LA, Una, and others with integrity” That’s when they had this brainchild! Easy! Spend millions of dollars on security, NOT to stop theft, but to simply annoy their customers! OF COURSE! It’s all clear now! Why ddin’t you just say so to beging with?!
Because of course, all stores main objective is to push customers away, not to make money. This system they have deviced must work at least some of the time, or else they wouldn’t continue to use it! It costs money! Money is the bottom line here!
I’m glad in the world that all of you live in, there is no theft, or reason to distrust your fellow man. I’m glad you can live like that. However, some places (Such as Walmart, Target etc) would like to protect their goods from their fellow man. And I don’t blame them.
So maybe you should stop taking it so personally. I promise you, they are NOT out to simply annoy YOU. YOU are just another customer, potential shop-lifter. They don’t KNOW you have “integrity” or that you are “honest” They don’t do a personal screeing of all consumers as they walk through the door. They don’t call your boss or your SO and do a background check. They don’t put you on a trial of your peers. Instead the stores chose action instead of reaction. They decided to prevent the problem. I’m deeply sorry you take that as a personal affront.

24

Anthracite, of course you have the right to demand the police be called. That the store would treat you like that is inexcusable.

Having said that, life is not perfect and we are often faced with choices. If you really feel very strongly about this (and I would) you would not ever return to buy there, so I guess low prices are more important in your priorities. Well, the price you pay for lower prices is shitty service. I often have to remind myself of this when I am waiting in line with my groceries and the line seems to not have moved in 20 minutes.

I guess you would still have other courses of action like writing to the store manager or their headquarters. I often start letters but I soon get tired and drop them.

By the end of the day the fact is that they have the right to run their business any way they like and you have the right to go shop elsewhere.

25

Thank you, pepperlandgirl. It’s comforting that there are people out there who can tell me what to think.

26

I understand your point pepper. I guess I don’t have too much of a problem with them just checking everyone’s bags and receipts per se.

But if they are going to put into place the radio barriers that go off with a siren and announce to everyone that you are a “shoplifter”, they need to make damn certain that there are NO (or almost none) false positives. And when there are false positive, treat people in a polite manner and apoligize honestly when it turns out to be a false positive.

27

If it goes off, we check it. And we don’t act like it’s a theft, we just say oh, must not have fixed that!
Sheesh people!

28

I have to pay someone…

By the time of the second check, I already own the stuff…

The checks in the airport are for my safety and the safety of other customers, but most importantly, MY safety.

The cashier checks how much my stuff should cost and what I actually have. The store is not paying me to wait in another line at the door with products I actually own. I actually was prompted for a reciept in a compusa for products I bought somewhere else (a healthfood store- very different products), I told the security guy to stuff it.

**

This is true.
**

Only once, twice is obnoxious.

**

Yes, but sometimes they make mistakes. I love confusing people by handing back the excess change they gave me.

29

I have a keycard that sets off certain anti-theft detectors. I know which stores beep when I enter and leave. It amazes me how many of these stores have no reaction to the anti-theft thing going off.

Nothing more fun than setting off the shoplifting detector while going in while someone else is leaving. The facial expressions of confusion are fabulous!

30

Ok, I’ve kinda skimmed through the rants here and I haven’t seen this , which is what always goes through my mind at Sam’s when I am exiting the store.

How in the heck can the receipt checker person tell when looking for maybe 2 seconds at my receipt and a glance at my cart full of $300 worth of stuff that I am trying to steal a stinking $5.00 (or whatever) item?

Sidenote: This is in no way an admission of guilt, as I didn’t know I did it until after the fact.

When you have a child in a car carrier seat thing on your shopping basket, and a toddler in the basket itself. Putting a magazine in the basket (or anything else that said toddler can destroy-fruit, soy milk containers, cookie packaging) is pretty much a dumb thing to do. So, placing it under the car seat, makes it safer. And invisible, as you forget about it as you go through check out and try to keep the toddler from being the spruce goose in the implus candy section and the baby from having a melt down because her diaper is poopy.

That said, I have accidently walked out of several stores, unbeknownst to me, with magazines, kids books, bananas and a few other things under the car seat. Not all at once, but the nickel and dime stuff.

And no, I haven’t gone back in because by the time I load up the van, secure Child number 1 into his seat and turn to place child number two into her designated spot after lifting her car seat up and out, I’ve discovered the loot.
Unloading the pair to go stand in line at the customer service for twenty minutes is not appealing at all.

I should be locked up. I am a master criminal. Next week I am going to try this method at the cadillac dealership.

31

Most of the time they’re only looking to make sure your receipt hasn’t been checked-off already. They’re not expecting to nab you for $5 worth of stuff, what they are after is the person who buys $500 worth of wood flooring (just an example), loads it into his car and then goes back into the store and tries to get out with $500 more of the same product by showing the same receipt. All they have to do is mark your receipt to know that you’ve already left the building once with these items.

In many Costco & Sam’s Club type stores, it’s easy to get large items around the cashier area and make it to the exit. So checking your receipt proves that you did go through the checkout within the last few minutes and that your receipt hasn’t already been checked by somebody else (meaning that you’ve already cleared the building once with that mechandise.)

32

My feeling is this: I have paid for the items. They are mine. No one, including the store where I bought the items has the right to rumage through my stuff. My choice is simple, I will not go back to Wal-Mart and if more people made that choice, the invasion of our privacy would stop.

And for those who believe this practice is going to stop shop lifters, good luck. It ain’t gonna happen. And for those people who think reducing shop lifting is going to reduce prices, good luck. It ain’t gonna happen. And if shoplifting was completely, 100%, absolutely eliminated I do not believe prices would be reduced one damn bit–but I am a cynic.

33

One thing that’s offensive is when you are singled out to have your receipt checked - because you are young or minority or whatever. I once had this happen to me at Staples when I was 21 or so and I was really annoyed, although I complied at the time.

If I had it to do over again, I’d be tempted to say something like “Sure, I’ll show you my receipt, but you have to agree that if I have a valid receipt, you’ll give me the item for free.” (I have no idea if I’d be on firm legal grounds in such a situation . . . )

A few stores I have shopped at check everybody’s receipts. That doesn’t really bother me.

As far as the Walmart incident described above goes, that’s really unpleasant. I know that some of those security guards can be pretty difficult.

Here’s how I handled a similar situation:

Once I was walking out of a bookstore in Manhattan, and that electronic sensor went off. So they wanted to search my bag. This didn’t really bother me, so I opened up my bag for them, and right near the top was the wrapper from something or other I had just bought at another store, with one of those sensor-thingies on it. They passed the wrapper through the sensor, and sure enough, it went off.

I figured I was now “free to go,” but the security guard said he had to search my whole bag. This seemed unreasonable and offensive to me, especially since I would have to pass through the sensor (sans wrapper) on my way out.

I asked the man, “are you holding me here?”

He answered, "No, but . . . "

And I walked out with my bag :slight_smile:

34

While this is certainly a valid reason for having a receipt check, I can’t help but wonder how much cheaper(and easier) it would be to simply put up a barrier/move the cashier’s booths/etc and remove that problem. I personally doubt that in your average WalMart (or pretty much anywhere not included in the above situation) checking receipts etc would be at best completely ineffective at catching shoplifters.
Let’s play a little game here: I am taking the role of a shop lifter- so I take <item> and I place <item> in my pocket/down my shorts/up my rectum/wherever will get it past the checkout counter. Then as I clear the register I take <item> out of whereever I hid it and place it in the bag? No, I really don’t think so.

Second situation: I don’t go through the register- but rather bring in a bag with me and fill it up, then attempt to leave. The problem with this is that the store (unless they’ve been watching you go through the aisles) really has no way of knowing (at least from a casual search) that I didn’t bring those items in with me, rather than getting them off the shelves. (Shoplifters can easily remove tags if they have distinctive store names on them (as versus, say, simply bar codes) How would the store conclusively demonstrate that I had stolen those items rather then, say, simply bringing them in in an exercise in comparison shopping?

Either way, I don’t think receipt checking is awfully effective. I’ve seen it work in some places, but those were places where the security guard was carrying an AK-47 (seriously) which, I feel, contributed to its success.

The more effective way(and nothing is fool proof) to prevent shoplifting is to have electronic tag/detectors at the exits. Of course, then you have the problem of adequately addressing what happens when they go off. As an experiment a friend of mine concealed one of those tags on his person and exited the store(it was a Borders Book Store as I recall). The alarm went off, of course. None of the clerks(standing approx. 10 feet away) even looked over to see what was happening. My friend then walked back through the door(setting it off again) and asked one of them what had happened. Since none of them had been paying attention the first time they asked him to walk through the doors a third time. When it (yet again) went off they then asked him if he had bought a book (adding that occasionally the demagnetizer doesn’t completely negate the tag). Upon his response of “no” they told him that some keys will set it off and to have a nice day.

This is, of course, not a very effective response, at least in preventing shoplifting. However, I feel a balanced response(no psychotic gestapo security guards, no obviously apathetic clerks) to an alarm would be an effective way to reduce shoplifting.

35

I will admit to feeling a little peeved when I have to do the receipt-check thing at the door of such stores, but when I get outside and think about it, I conclude that my irritation is unjustified. If I object strongly enough, I shouldn’t shop there. I don’t, so I do. (Except for Fry’s Electronics, but that’s for other, much more sinister reasons.)

What I’m hearing in these rants is good, honest people who are offended when someone who doesn’t know them from Adam fails to somehow perceive these qualities. I think opus has nailed the real reason that they do those receipt checks, and it just seems silly to me to object to that. Selective checks based on ethnicity, apparent affluence, and whatever are either illegal or just distasteful, depending on your perspective, so the choice is to either check everyone or do away with them altogether.

The attitude I’m hearing is that, if I manage to successfully get a box of stuff into my backpack while on Aisle 19 without getting spotted, I’ve earned the right to walk out the door unmolested with it. Finders keepers, and all that. Whatever.

If you’re offended by loss-prevention techniques, I don’t know what to tell you. The store has no reason at all to trust you, and in fact has considerable evidence to support the notion that they should not - all one must do is look at the loss figures that they suffer even with the safeguards in place.

36

Wow. This has NEVER happened to me. Granted, I tend to shop in smaller stores, but I live in a huge city and no one in any store I have ever been has asked to check my receipt. I imagine I would feel taken aback and humiliated if my bag and receipt were checked in front of the whole store. I understand the policy but I certainly wouldn’t shop there again.

37

What amazes me is that even with all these tactics in place, they don’t work. I had an aquaintance that was a little less honest than me, who bought a whole shopping cart full of computer stuff and a DVD player at fry’s. They forgot to ring up the DVD player, one of his hard drives, and something else(about $500). on the way out the door, they stopped him, went through his receipt, took half the stuff out of his cart, and still didn’t catch it. He noticed, but didn’t bother to point it out to them. If there isn’t a line, I ususally stop and let them check it, but if there is a backlog of people I just walk past them and ignore them. At least here in texas, they cant stop you.

38

Having been in the military, I’ve been subject to more than the casual sort of security checks one sees in stores. The store is entitled to make some sort of effort to prevent shoplifting. I’m on their side when it comes to that. As a customer, I like to know they are making an effort to ensure I’m really getting the lowest price, and put up with the occasional check when their security tags give a false positive at the door. After all, I want them to catch the guy with 15 video tapes concealed in his backpack.

Having said that, I also demand that when the store’s security system goes off, the store’s personnel keep in mind that I am the most important part of their business equation. I am a customer. Without paying customers, the store is just a costly warehouse. I expect to be treated with courtesy. I expect that their efforts to determine what set off the security system be handled quickly, efficiently, and in a minimum of time. I expect not to be treated as a criminal in the absence of evidence.

Anthracite – that Nazi security guard at the Walmart who accosted you should have been fired. His rudeness, hostility, and violent behavior were unconscionable. Did you consider suing the store? After all, the store is responsible for the actions of it’s employees when they are acting on its behalf. (If you didn’t have the time to consult an attorney and let him go to work on them on your behalf, I can understand, but) The manager of that store would very likely have learned the value of good customer relations (or possibly been fired himself).

I really don’t like the attitude of some stores where they view the customer as an inconvenience they have to put up with. I (and others like me) am the sole reason they are in business and making a profit. Sure, there’s more customers than just me, but if you offend too many of us the percentage of people they should check as they leave will likely increase.

~~Baloo

39

I don’t know about the laws where you are at, but in Texas, that is assault by contact, and you have every right to file charges against him. Most cops are hessitant to arrest security personell, as they sometimes have to work with them. If this were to happen again, ask the officer to speak with his suppervisor, in texas, you could even make a citizens arrest(im sure the laws are similar in most states). One my my many previous jobs was in security(although mostly in bars), and I pressed assault charges/made citizens arrests for less than that. Failing the cop arresting the guy, you can go to the district attorney or city attorney depending where you are and file charges yourself. I know people who have done this when the police officer on the scene refused to do his job.

40

Although it pales in comparison to Anthracite’s story, I had an interesting thing happen to me at Camelot Music a couple of months ago.

I was with my friend Tina, at a mall in Oklahoma City. Earlier we had hit the Hot Topic, and I bought a couple of records. It was a complete waste of money, I know, because I had it on CD but I just liked the novelty of it. (And still do :P) This record had set off the detectors at the front of <i> every </i> store that we went into after leaving Hot Topic. Nobody payed much attention, since I set them off going IN the door, obviously I couldn’t have taken anything. The guy at Hallmark even de-magnetized it again for me, but it didn’t work.

We were bored, and I had a few dollars to blow so we walked into the Camelot, and, predictably, set off the detectors in the front. There was a bitter man behind the counter, and he walked up to me right after I came in the door. I showed him my receipt for the record, but he still asked to hold the bag while I was in the store! Okay, I thought, that’s not too bad. Kind of ridiculous, but what the hey. So, I bought a CD, paid for it, got my receipt, and asked for my record back. He would not give it back to me! He actually made me walk through the detector without the record, and then handed it through, where it set it off again, of course.

I still don’t quite know what to make of this. How could me setting off their system walking IN the door possibly make him think I was more likely to shoplift? grumble