Does your practice of having psuedo-security stand at the door as I’m leaving and request that I produce my receipt so they can either:
Check it thoroughly and examine every bag to see that every single item is properly paid for
or
Glance perfunctorily at it, give it a swipe with the pink hiliter while they blab to the co-worker across the doorway
really * make a goddamn bit of difference to your bottom line? Do you actually catch that many theives doing it? Did any of you stop to even consider how fundamentally rude and demeaning it is for you to do this?
Do you have any idea how much I resent the fuck out of it?
Well, now you know.
stoid
[sub]#3 in a series of heartfelt, but fundamentally weak rants.[/sub]
It isn’t designed to catch thieves, but to prevent theft. If customers know that they are going to be stopped every single time as they leave the store, they are less likely to add an extra item or two to their bag, or so goes the theory. I don’t know if it’s effective or not, but it’s a minor annoyance.
Never had this happen to me at Target, and I don’t recognize they other two, but I know the practive from CompUSA. Yeah, it’s annoying, but pretty minor as things go.
Y’know, I feel the same way. At Fry’s I won’t even stop. Fuck’em. I can’t even get fucking service out of their associates, so they can surely fuck off.
Target doesn’t check bags around here, thankfully, cause my girlfriend loves that fucking place.
Don’t try to bypass Costco’s security though…Last time I did this, I was followed to my car, where I told the kid it was unwise to leave the storefront because he had no legal muscle outside the front doors…
When I came back in for my girlfriend, I was confronted by the store manager and a big ol ape-lookin guy, who told me that in our current “political climate” it was unwise to do such things. :rolleyes:
I can’t say about Fry’s because I have never been in one of their stores. The few times that I have been at a Target store, I have never noticed any security people. Costco has a couple of guys at the door but they never even look at my purchases, they just mark the receipt with a marker pen.
Wal-Mart on the other hand…If their beeper machine at the door goes off one more time because some un-trained cashier doesn’t run my items over the de-magnatizer thingy like they are supposed to do, I’m gonna, well let’s just say that it ain’t gonna be a pretty site. It goes off every other time I go there. Incompetence, that’s what it is. Shear, unadulterated, plain old incompetence. I mean, if I really had stolen something, Mr. Wal-Mart owner person, do you think that the crusty old fart at the door could catch me? I didn’t think so.
GaWd, Costco may not have legal muscle outside their doors (not sure this is true, but I’ll not argue the point), but they can certainly call the local authorities with your car, license number, and probable cause for pulling you over on suspicion of theft.
I don’t mind the security checks. They’re a minor inconvenience, yes. But if they stop shoplifting, which in turns helps me buy a 5 pound bag of shredded cheddar cheese for $2.99, I’ll put up with the inconvenience.
I completely agree with Stoid on this issue. Most customers are NOT thieves and I certainly am not. Besides which, if I were going to steal something, I wouldn’t wait until I was checked out by a cashier and then pitch the stolen item into a shopping cart–where would I have concealed it while being checked out? Why not leave it in that place of concealment? After I pay for something, it is mine and there is no reason for any damn store employee to rumage through my stuff. If the store believes that I am a thief, they can call the police and have me searched. Then they can respond to whatever lawyer I hire.
I refuse to patronize Wal-Mart for this very reason and will refuse to patronize any other store that adopts this policy.
They do the checkpoint thing at our local Costco, but the people there don’t really seem to give you that “I’m suspicious of you” look. That’s the look I really can’t stand. That’s the look I get all the time when I go to CompUSA. I hate that.
I’ve also noticed that lots of the stores in the mall (not the big ones, but the little ones inside the mall part) will typically have security people posted just inside the doorways, and will give you those narrow-eyed, I’m-watching-you type of glares as you leave the store. Ewwwwww. Whenever that happens, I make a point to never go into that particular store ever again.
However, I’ve noticed that when I have one or more kids in tow, I typically won’t get the security people checking me out. I guess they figure you won’t steal anything while you have your kids with you. :rolleyes:
Ah the joys of England eh , we have no such practices probably because i had something to do with it for the local shops(last time I was at cosco they didn’t have this).
But a story I will share with you .I was in a local game store and I’d bought a video the trainee cashier ran the mag strip over the pad at the till.But forgot to remove the one inside , heres me have my credit card swiped paid for and reciept I go out the door and the alarm goes off. Guards dive and crush me and drag me in , I provide the reciept everybody looking thinks i am a theif . They say sorry and give me £100 cash and some free stuff as a gesture of goodwill (suing is bad in the UK it affects your chances or getting a job).
Surprisingly at the same store (they has something which no other store had so I could not go to another store) I went in and the guard stopped me before going in .He began to grill me saying he had seen me in the store stealing stuff earlier and I had friends (yeah sure all Chinese people are friends with each other and hey look i must have faked my bus ticket too with the time on it) and he had seen CCTV tapes . So I walk up to the counter demand to see the manager the guy loses his job and I get my expensive graphics card for free as a gesture of goodwill. Turned out that the security guard was in with a bunch of theives and the manager has suspected something , but the guard was trying to pin it on innocents like me.
The law changed I think recently they have to catch you on CCTV videos stealing the item before they can act as too many innocents got caught and they sued but settled out of court.
With the American thing i think if you are being pushed around by guards and know you are innocent and can prove it you say “are you trying to arrest me?” since shops pay out masses in compensation for arrests.
This is new to you? Perhaps not too many of you live in minority neighborhoods. When I was younger I was eager to prove that I wasn’t a theif. I mean, everybody knows that the residents of the South Bronx are all a bunch of theiving, drug-taking hoodlums, right? Well, not me! Look, search. See Mr. Security check guy, I’m not stealing nuttin!
It wasn’t until I was older that I realized just how wrong it was for me to feel this way and how wrong it was that, not only was it implied, it was accepted as fact.
So haha on all you outraged mall shoppers. Welcome to the club.
There was a GQ thread about this a while back, but I can’t remember what it was called to search for it.
If I recall correctly, the gist of it was that you’re generally under no obligation to stop for those people, as they have no right to stop you and search your bags unless they have a reasonable suspicion that you’ve stolen something.
I refuse to patronise any store that has a policy of searching the customer’s purchases on exit.
As for Fry’s, a couple of off-putting experiences at their North Houston outlet, plus the horror stories recounted in this thread, gaurantee that I’ll never set foot inside one of those places again.
Let’s see. Where I am, NY, we’ve got 'em in pretty much any electronics store, in addition to the warehouse clubs. Now, I think that stopping for the warehouse clubs is pretty much a good idea, as you can lose your membership… but for the other guys, every so often, I just keep walking. Nod and smile and wave. “Uh… sir… sir…” It’s like the airport security guys, with the asshole, they can’t touch you.
No, I’ve never had a problem getting back in, either. And I go to the CompUSA, specifically, fairly often. If they ever stop me, I’ll be interested in what happens.
I find Stoid’s rant quite strong. F.W. Woolworth’s used to evince the view that every customer was a possible thief; I suspect strongly that is why they are no more.
I’d like to add a recent peeve: Driving the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I stopped for gas at one of the rest-area concessionaires. Noting that in unless one was using a credit card (which I was not) one was expected to prepay, I went in and informed the clerk that I intended to fill up, which I estimated at about $15, and would be in to pay after filling. She informed me that she “would have to have some money up front.” I told her to give me $5, and paid her with a $20, which she examined carefully to determine if it were counterfeit. Had I had more than 1/16 of a tank of gas, I would have snatched the bill back from her and proceeded onward without gas.
May I respectfully suggest to my fellow SDMBers who hail from the Keystone State that they change the slogan to “You’ve got a paranoid in Pennsylvania”? :mad:
In my best Grandpa Simpson voice I say: “Those Turnpike Rest Areas just ain’t the same since Howard Johnson’s lost the franchise”.
BTW, I was heading down the T-pike to my horrifying family Thanksgiving meal when I saw a huge, state-sponored billboard saying,“You take care of the driving. We’ll take care of the tolls.” When I got to my exit, I thanked the booth attendant for covering the cost of my trip, but she demanded the $2.20 anyway. Bastards.
I also think there there is an unacknowledged social cost to all this: people really do seem to become what they are expected to be. I suspect that the assumption that all people are thieves leads to an attitude that since all people are thieves, why not me? I also suspect that this effect is intensifyed when suspicion is directed by demographics–all black people are thieves, all teenagers are thieves, all employees are thieves. Since none of these anti-theft things are really even very effective, I wonder that they don’t cost more than they save.
The employee thing is particularly bad: I have heard that it’s apparently not uncommon for department stores to insist that female employees carry only clear plastic purses to work, and I know that many (perhaps most) retail establishments insist on searching employee bags before they go home. Considering how easy it is to bypass this–anything that can be slipped in a purse can be slipped down your pants, and you can always have a friend come in and shoplift whatever you want–all I see happening are employers basically telling employees “We know you’re a thief, so you might as welll steal.”
I really hate this practice. I worked at Old Navy for two years, and was searched every time I left. It was demeaning, humiliating, and embarrassing to have to wait in line for the manager to search through my bag, jiggling about with my breath mints and tampons. I absolutely resented it, and bitched about it every time it happened. My last night, I flat out refused to let them search my bag (which was really tiny anyway) and just walked past everyone. It was a small triumph.
I simply cannot steal. I have the worst guilty conscience in the world. I can’t lie either, and stealing would involve lying. The painful eye contact, the unbiddened blush, and ringing in my ears and sweaty palms - it’s just NOT worth it. So when I get searched at stores like that, I feel like a criminal, and I get all flushed and sweaty and guilty even though I haven’t done anything wrong. I resent that a lot.
Go right ahead and think that You’re on private property. They have authority to do pretty much as they damn well please as “representatives of the absentee owner”. They most likely will not pursue you off property (this includes common areas like parking lots) unless they have definite reason to believe you have actually committed a crime. Generally even then the only reason they don’t is literally they don’t have access to the means to pursue you effectively in your vehicle.
This is a dramatic example of piss poor security. Generally they should just ask to check your purchases, if you run, fight or otherwise attempt to circumvent them then plan on being arrested and detained for law enforcemnt. They are not going to get in trouble for questioning someone who circumvents security procedures.
This shit give all security people a bad name, sorry you had to experience something like this. Like many other professions, security is not immune to abuses of authority. Thankfully they are generally held in check by our legal system.
When my husband was working at Gottschalks (A department store) loss prevention would drive me crazy. My mom also worked there. Hubby was a sale’s lead, Mom is a department manager of 5 different areas. You think you could trust them, no? Apparently not. They had to go through special doors. They had to be searched when leaving. Because they knew me to be related to two different employees, I had to go through the same crap. As a matter of fact, Loss Prevention was so concerned with what the employees were doing that customers regularly walked out with clothes and other items. But hey, at least none of their employees ever accidently took a pen home, so LP must be doing their job, right? :rolleyes:
I agree with Stoid. This practice really rankles. Unless they catch me shoplifting (which they won’t because I don’t), they can go piss up a rope.
Another thing that bothers me is having to check my backpack at the door. Never mind that I’m not carrying it; I ride a motorcycle and it stays on my back until checkout. A couple of months ago I went into a shop and they asked me to leave my pack at the front. I just said, “Oh, that’s okay. I’ve got it,” and walked in to look for what I was looking for. One of the employees follwed me to keep an eye on me. Whatever. I had my little victory, and she wasted her time. If I really need something and have to leave my pack, I’m tempted to put my money in it. Then I’ll have to make an employee go get it and hold up the rest of the queue before I can pay. If I was really nasty (which, unfortunately, I’m not) I’d claim that money was missing and that it could only have happened when the pack was in the store’s custody.
Hey, I carry my chequebook, address book, and some credit cards in my pack; plus my cell phone (which might be used while I don’t have it) and often other things. How do I know someone in the store isn’t going to rifle through my stuff, take something, get personal information, etc.? For many people, a daypack is like a purse; and you don’t see stores taking women’s purses. (Well, at least not around here.)
FWIW I have not had any trouble at grocery stores. I often use my pack as a shopping basket. This leaves a very scarce handbasket for someone else and ensures that I won’t buy more than I can carry on the bike.
Look, Stores: Unless you have probable cause that I took something, leave me the fuck alone.
