Bullshit, and fuck you. If you treat someone as a theif they will steal.
One of the greatest things about this country is that we are supposed to be assumed innocent until proven guilty.
Monster, I’ve seen your attitude before and it only makes things worse. I don’t mind security tags, I don’t mind security cameras, what I object to is having MY THINGS searched when the buzzer didn’t go off. I shop in the city I live in, and it is fucking humiliating to have security give you shit in front of people you know.
Who said anything about lax security? Rummaging through my things is not security. It doesn’t work and it pisses off customers. I have no beef with cameras or security tags. I don’t care if you have guards ever 2 feet.
But I didn’t steal from your store! You have no reason to believe I stole from your store! This is no small fucking point. Why the hell are these guys checking my bag if they didn’t think I stole something? Because somebody else stole something before?
Shoplifters are rarely caught this way. They know the stores check bags. This does not stop them from stealing. What it does do is intimidate and demean every single paying customer a store has. All because the store owner just knows his customers are a bunch of petty theives in waiting.
For those arguing that checking carts is demeaning, do you believe that the practice has a measurable effect upon store losses through theft?
Also, for those who do not object to security tagging, cameras, and omnipresent sotre security personnel–how do you see the implication of these measures as different from the implication of item checks? You personally are being watched/observed/examined for improperly cleared items upon leaving the store. These measures are applied for exactly the same reason and in hopes of acheiving exactly the same result. The implications behind all such measures are identical. Is it simply the fact that a you have to deal with another human being (after the cashier) that makes the difference? Is it the fact that you can ignore passive measures more easily and thus pretend that the “implication” does not exist?
How about this: when you go to an appliance store, you usually pay in one place and then drive around to pick up your purchase. Do you feel demeaned if the person at the pickup counter checks your receipt against the item before you put it in your car?
Spiritus, the unobtrusive observers are one thing, and an understandable one. They are scanning the whole store, looking for someone doing something wrong.
When they search MY bags, they are intruding on me personally, and searching my belongings, to make sure I did not steal from them. That is presumptuous, rude, and insulting.
I see the two as very different things. It is the difference between cops watching the highway for drunks and being randomly pulled over at a checkpoint and subjected to a drunk test.
I am being asked, in essence, to * prove I did not steal * the items in my bag. Therefore, * the presumption is that I did * , until I show otherwise.
I live in good ol’ America, where we are all supposed to be presumed innocent. These store owners are presuming me (and every customer they have) to be guilty. Ugh!
If everyone is checked, then you are not being singled out.
Is there a reason that nobody railing against this practice has addressed the analagous practices of searching all carry-on bags?
No–that is the whole point. You are not being singled out. Nobody is.
Most stores that use item checks at exit do not use RFID or other security tagging methods.
Fact? Do you perhaps have a cite for this? It will be wonderful to learn that we can end theft by removing all security measures and placing everyone on the honor system. The swords-into-plowshares thing will be nice, too.
I’ll start off by saying that I have gone through the “receipt check” vairly often, but I never consider it more than a minor annoyance – to give the stores some credit, they stop and check all customers, regardless of race, gender, appearance, or anything else. I see nothing discriminatory or demeaning about it, and can’t understand the disdain of the folks who do.
I should also mention that I heard the real reason for these checks is to stop shoplifting by the store’s own employees. As it was told to me, disreputable (Costco/Frys/whatever) employees or their friends can pocket your receipt, then revisit the store, load up a shopping cart with the same stuff you bought, then waltz out with your receipt as proof that he has “purchased” the stuff. To break this system, those receipt-checkers mark the receipts as you leave, so they can’t be recycled. Dunno how much truth there is to the story, but it may shed some light on the motivation behind the practice.
It may offensive, but why take it out on the poor minium wager at the door?
One day I went to my local, friendly moke computer store. I bought a sound card, walked directly from the register, not 10 feet from the door.
I was stopped by an employee who asked for my receipt. “Seig Heil” I replied. and handed over not only the reciept but the flimsy platic bag that obviously contained only the item I had just purchased. Not ten feet away.
I then opened my jacket and asked if a search was in order. Did the store suspect me of theft? I offered to drop my pants, “I will cooperate fully with this theft investigation” I said.
The poor girl gave me a look I remember to this day, “dont you think I feel bad enough doing this as it is?” she asked.
I hate it. I make a scene every time I am imposed on. Will I back off? No. You accuse me of theft, back it up. you want clear unimpeded exits? stop doing this.
Stop making obviously untrained security people participate in this farce. Call the cops, I got nothing in my bag I didn’t pay for.
I do however, have basis for a lawsuit if you attempt to force me to remain in your store. Unless you have someone who will state he saw me take something you have no case.
Thats why you take it out on the poor fuck at the door. It’s not his fault but it is sure his problem. The fucks upstairs make sure of it.
If enough people flat out refused to be treated so, the retailers would be forced to abandon this practice.
If this were true, you would see an increase in shoplifting after the security measures are put into place. Since this is obviously not the case, you are wrong.
Here’s a simple fact, people: Some people steal. How, pray tell, are you to tell a thief from a non-thief? Is there some sort of facial feature that all thieves have? Do they all dress differently? Nope.
The only way - ONLY WAY - a store can discourage thievery is the “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best” method. What it comes right down to is, all sensibilities aside, all of us are potential thieves. All of us. And don’t give me any self-righteous bullshit. You are potentially a thief. I am potentially a thief. Ergo, you (and I) will be treated as potential thieves.
So are the folks checking your items upon exit. they scan all customers looking for discrepancies.
I just don’t get this. Can you address the airline analogy and show me where the disjunction lies? They are not searching anything you brought into the store with you. they are examining the items you purchased as a final check upon the transaction. I feel neither presumed upon not insulted when somebody double checks a financial transaction to which I am party.
I see it more analagous to driving through a roadblock in which all motorists are examined for signs of impairment. You are not being randomly or particularly selected. The fact that you deel personally insulted does not change that fact.
No. You are being asked to wait until the details of your transaction are verified. The presumption is that discrepancies occur on both sides of the transaction, both through mistake and intent. I assure you stores recognize that theft is not the only component of retail loss. Item checks can catch some of the more common employee mistakes, too.
No more than the airlines are assuming that all passeners are hijackers or the police assume that all traffic vilators have outstanding warrants.
The presumption of innocence applies to government prosecution. Market transactions have generally been better served by the exercise of prudence on both sides. caveat emptor meet caveat venditor.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by grendel72 *
**Bullshit, and fuck you. If you treat someone as a theif they will steal.**Dumbest thing I have ever heard. As a reformed theif, I can tell you theives steal wherever they think they can get away with it. Someone matching merchandise with reciepts at the door is a detterent.
you do realize that has nothing to do with Costco??? That’s a legal distinction concernng going to trial, right?
Hey, if you’re unhappy about the practices of these stores, don’t go there. Your only other option is whine and moan and get blood pressure up. The stores are not gonna change a practice they think works for them.
I can see some misunderstanding here, the stores I’ve been to that do this don’t check everyone. Specifically, at Best Buy, where they do have the magnetic door thingies you walk through I have been stopped while others walked by. I have also walked by while others were stopped.
[/quote]
**Fact? Do you perhaps have a cite for this? It will be wonderful to learn that we can end theft by removing all security measures and placing everyone on the honor system. The swords-into-plowshares thing will be nice, too. **
[/QUOTE]
The only cite I have for this is experience, but cites won’t clear up this issue. I see people stop at red lights all the fucking time, with no police around. Hell, even when there are no cars going the other direction I’ve pulled up next to someone at a red light without either of us even considering breaking the law.
Argh! Lost a beautiful post to the maw of board maintainence…(You all get to suffer the mediocre replacement instead).
And since we can’t tell you or anyone else from the thieves, we’re going to be intrusive bastards in attempts to prevent loss/theft. It’s called smart business: You protect your assets.
Bullshit, and fuck you, and give me a fuckin cite, asshole.
And a cite to show what my attitude is, and an explanation of how it makes things worse.
Considering I’m only getting $180 extra instead of $1500, well, that must means there’s a whole lotta miscounting if there’s not a measurable effect from theft.
Stoid, that is your opinion. And in my opinion, your opinion is wrong. Back to square one again.
No, we’re making sure you got what you paid for. Surely an honest person like you wouldn’t want to receive something you did not pay for? And surely you want to make sure you receive everything you did pay for? Because, you see, these are other important reasons to check. Don’t be presumptious and insulting by saying we don’t respect our customers.
EvilGhandi, you sound like a real fuckin asshole. With that kind of treatment of employees, I hope you get lousy service for the rest of your life. It makes me kind of wish that Karma concept was real.
I am guessing that most of you here do not straddle the fence racially.
what I mean by that:
I am half Mexican and half Anglo. I have seen both sides and I do believe that you are treated differently. THAT is what pisses me off.
I have experienced this for myself. I look “white”, so if I feel discriminated, I can only image what people of different ethnicities feel like.
I went to Sur La Table with my husband (anglo). spoke English with him. all was fine. was asskissed the whole time. oh ma’am, how may I help you? We bought a food processor and mixer. In fact I had been there quite a few times to by items.
My mom comes into town. We go there. speak spanish the whole time. We get watched like a hawk. EVEN by the dumbfuck who rung me up a few days prior.
Sadly, this isnt the only time something like this has happened.
The same thing happened in Sams (like a cosco).
with husband: a quick check of items.
with mom: each and every item is checked.
so now, I don’t go to either store, nor does my mom.
FUCK them.
Yr responses in this thread reflect a negative, and EXTREMELY MOTHERFUCKING RUDE attitude. But what I was refering to above is the attitude that everyone has done something wrong, the attitude that everyone is looking to get away with as much as they can. For a cite, I can’t find anything to support either side, but from personal experience, I think we all know that people live up to what is expected of them. Remember that girl in school, you know the one, who had a reputation for as long as you could remember? Remember how she grew up to be the town whore? Guess what, she had that reputation long before she started sleeping around. In high school science class, my lab partner and I were the two smartest kids in class. The teacher didn’t call on him, in my opinion because he was black, and he never lived up to his potential.
**
Umm, could I get an explanation of what you are talking about? From the context earlier I thought you were talking about a corparate reward for loss prevention. Meaning, are you rewarded by the number of people you catch? by the amount of inventory?
I have a question for you that will probably make me look stupid, but have you ever seen an actual shoplifter caught by exit screening? how often?
Just for the record, I never hassle the guards. They’re just doing their job, I have no problem with them, What annoys me is the view that we’re all criminals trying to get away with whatever we can.
Wow. Major non-sequitors.
Look , these places have a right to combat theft anyway they see fit, so long as it doesn’t violate law. And this doesn’t violate the law.
BTW, any of you ever see someone complain that they were charged for something they didn’t buy??? I’ve known people who pulled that scam