I’m sure it is in some cases. But at this store, the checks are posted facing the customers and not the clerks.
I would argue that although you can expect that it pass between many hands, and even face financial and possibly criminal penalties if dishonored, it was never your intention to be posted for public display so that any passersby could see your name, routing number, and bank account number.
I’m not sure what you mean by the superseding cause. The criminal act was the passing of the bad check. That is outside the negligence calculation, as it occurred before the negligent act: the posting of the check.
The negligence occurs when a merchant posts a check and thereby proximately causes a person’s bank account to be hacked. I could see that working; I would at least try it.
You don’t have a problem with me telling everyone about your recent ass-beads purchase? 
More seriously, though, the checks have the ABA and routing number printed on them, as well as the account holder’s name, address, and often phone number. There’s also a convenient signature to help a would-be forger. In the event that someone bounces a check accidentally (hell, I’ve done it once or twice), posting that information for all the world to see can/will tarnish their reputation, provide the public with a general impression that one is financially bereft, etc. Trick is, this may not be the case (and even if it is, that’s still sensitive financial information).
Merely a reference to the episode with that situation being relavent.
There’s still no reason to keep this information secret. Don’t give people checks if you don’t want that information known. You don’t violate any one’s privacy rights by disseminating information they’ve provided to you outside of any explicit contractual obligation. If you want something to remain a secret, don’t tell anyone.
This is a scapegoat answer. Similar to “If you have nothing to hide, why are you objecting to the search.” The individual who bounced the check may be a jerk for doing so but they are still entitled to respect and privacy. If a business is into this type of public shaming, using what could a real person’s real bank account information, they really do not not care about any of their customers. None of us know the details behind the bounced check; it could be an honest mistake all the way to it being from a real jerk. Let’s not forget that a business that displays their bounced checks may have a problem with their business practices. Seems to me they should quit taking checks altogether and stick with just cash, or cash and debit/credit cards. That they continue with displaying bounced checks says to me they are more concerned about always completing the sale and getting the money above all else. If your business needs jerk customers to keep going, the business is about as bad as their worst customers.
As a business owner, I agree.
Then again, I stopped accepting personal checks as payment three or so years ago. I’ve never been paid with counterfeit currency, and while credit card payments are not 100%, they are a surer thing than checks IME.
(As an aside, when I stopped accepting checks, some people were pissed. I pointed them toward my competitors, who gladly accepted checks. My check bouncers all went to the competition and within 6 months they all stopped accepting checks as well.)
I would think that a business that has the practice of displaying bad checks cares very much about his customers. I don’t want him to lose money from deadbeat customers and then pass on the added cost to me.
The business accepts the check as a convenience for the customer. The business has every right to expect that payment in a timely fashion. A customer who takes willful advantage of that fact is at best a bad customer and more likely a thief. Just because a bad check is displayed doesn’t mean that the business operator didn’t check first to see if it was an honest mistake.
I had a check bounce once and the proprietor called my phone number since it was printed on the check. I thanked him and then drove to his shop and paid the debt in cash. On his wall were bad checks. He took mine out of his register. My check never made it to the wall of shame because I corrected the error. Why did the check bounce? A bank transfer from employment to bank was delayed. An honest mistake so no wall of shame.
I find it interesting that somebody would try to fault a business for the fact that it provides convenience to their customers and tries to limit the abuse of that convenience.
That looks like a dog with a glove on his head.
Of course, for a lot of small businesses, the practice started (or copied from) well before the time when that was sufficient information for identity theft. I remember seeing this in the 1980’s.
Nowadays everyone has a cell-phone camera and a con has an inkjet or laserjet that can reproduce cheques, if they can’t figure out how the use the information online.
Generally, businesses tend not to take cheques in the days of credit cards and debit cards. Rather than being ripped off by customers, they are ripped off by the banks and their fees.
That’s different. Those were prescribed for me, and HIPPA applies! 
But seriously, bouncing a check can be a criminal matter in some jurisdictions. What is the civil or criminal law principle at stake with displaying a check, or a store revealing that I buy far too many boxes of strawberry miniwheats than is good for me? I’m just not aware that retail transactions have any legal expectation of privacy. (As compared to medical or even legal matters, which obviously have some legal and ethical privacy requirements.)
Providing a payment convenience to customers is smart business. Posting deadbeat checks isn’t. What I find interesting is those businesses with better than average customer service don’t stoop to the level of their deadbeat customers. I guess I wasn’t clear on that.
They aren’t “deadbeat customers”. They’re fucking thieves.
I provide goods/services. The recipient of those goods/services fails to pay me, per our agreement. How is that different than someone walking into a store, pointing a 9 mm in someone’s face and demanding what’s in the drawer?
That’s just a bit of an exaggeration. 
Surely you see the difference between the two.
Effectively I maintain there is no difference. At least in its effect on me, the merchant. I repair your sink. You pay me with a check that bounces. I’m out $100 for parts and my time. Someone else points a gun at me and takes $100.
I’d actually prefer the stick up, as I’m out less time.
(I’m talking about people who bounce checks and never make good on the debt, of course)
No, they’re not.
I am in no way obligated to respect them nor to hide their crime.
What if the deadbeat/thief’s check really was good and the bank made an error in bouncing the check? Is the merchant going to prominently display an apology letter stating that the customer was not at fault? It seems to me that the practice of displaying the check is not primarily to recoup the loss or warn other customers, but rather to damage a customer’s reputation.
Places where I’ve seen bad checks posted are stamped by the bank, “do not present again” or similar. These are thieves who bounced a check, we’re repeatedly notified, and never made good.
Let’s put it this way: Have you EVER seen or heard of a lawsuit against a retailer over this practice? I certainly have not.