You go to Target, Walmart, Best Buy or any number of other such stores. You pay for your item after recieving the usual crappy service and little-no assistance. When you get to the door WITHIN CLEAR VIEW OF THE GOON, he says “Wait, I need to see your reciept”
Here’s my question.
Whatever is in the bag, it’s mine. I paid for it. It’s mine the moment the transaction occurs, not when I put it in my car.
Does the goon have any right to see my reciept, or will a stern “No, I’d rather you didn’t” suffice.
Could I say “Do you wish to accuse me of anything? If yes, my lawyer will be present here on out. If no, then get out of my way.”
I’ve never seen any signage stipulating that I submit to search by the high school dropout at the door if I choose to shop within.
It’s policy in some stores which have a big theft problem. Some people make a purchase, and then slip stolen merchandise into the bag. Some of these people are so talented with slight-of-hand, they should be working the tables in Vegas. It’s not necessarily an invasion of privacy: after all, you just displayed your purchases to the cashsier.
Once, at a Best Buy store, I got busted for “shoplifting.” My husband and I bought a TV, a DVD player, and miscelaneos DVDs, at a register at the back of the store, all the while chatting with the cashier about the pros and cons of Tivo. As the cashier and Hubby discussed the loading of the TV into our vehicle, I took the player and the DVDs and went up to the front door, intending to go get the vehicle and pull it around back. A security person asked to see my reciept, which I gave him. He then told me that the DVDs were not paid for. “Oh yes,” I said, “I took care of it in the back,” and headed for the door. Immediately, I was surrounded by big, beefy security people, muttering ominously into walkie-talkies. I was scared to death!
Our cashier came running, explaining between pants and gasps that he had forgotten to ring up my DVDs, apologizing profusely. Had they not checked, however, I would have been out the door with about $100 worth of “stolen” merchandise. I would not have noticed.
If you refuse to be checked, you can count on a “scene.” Could be they’ll either detain you, or call the police. Of course, they’ll find it was all a mistake, but who wants the public embarassment?
Not in most cases, they don’t. Once the transaction is completed, they have no control or right of control over the merchandise you just bought.
Doesn’t matter if you’re in their store or not, they don’t have a right to search or require anything of you.
The obverse of it is, if the store has probable cause to think that you ARE stealing stuff, then they’re entitled to detain you until they can get the police there to sort it out. The police CAN require you to show said receipt.
Most places won’t really hassle you if you just ignore the guy and walk past. The checker will try and get you to show it, but shouldn’t try to physically stop you to get you to show them.
I thougth the bag inspection practice was especially intereting at the Super Target just west of Orlando, Florida.
The reciept checkers went out of their way to inspect the purchases of middle class-appearing whites. African-Americans never had their reciepts or purchases inspected. I’m not advocating racial profiling in reciept checking, but it shouldn’t be used as a way to “get whitey,” either.
That’s a good question. What they’ve just done is accuse me of theft and demand that I prove my innocence by having everything on hand.
In NSW, the retailers that display a sign saying “do not enter these premises unless we may search your bags” are only able to ask to look in your bag. If you refuse they may ask you to leave the store immediately or they may arrest you. If they arrest you and do not take successful legal action against you, they have detained you illegally and exposed themselves to a lucrative wrongful arrest suit. Even if they do arrest you, however, they still can’t look in your bag without a properly issued warrant.
Shops that display signs saying that they “reserve the right” to search your bags are of course incorrect, as they have no such right, and may expose the shops to sizable fines in the same way that signs saying “no refunds” or “no refunds on sale items” do, although this is debatable.
These goons can be ignored at your leisure, except for stores where you have signed a membership agreement in order to shop there. Examples would be Costco or Sam’s Club. Anywhere else, I simply give them a smile and a “No thanks” and I’ve never had any trouble. I am not a thief and do not appreciate being treated like one, so I have very little respect for any “store policy” that they try to push on their customers.
At Fry’s Electronics, there is usually a horrible 20 person line to wait to be “checked.” After I walk through, at least five will follow me through. The look on the faces of the goons is usually priceless.
I have a friend who used to work at the local Sam’s Club. One of the reasons that they checked receipts is to do a quick count of how many items are in the cart vs. how many are on the receipt. This is certainly an anti-theft measure but it also let them catch mistakes that were in the store’s favor - 10 items in your cart and 11 on the receipt means that you were double-billed for something - and correct them.
My point, simply, is that it takes you what 5 seconds to show the person your receipt. Easier and probably less time consuming than standing there professing your rights as a consumer.
If you feel strongly about that fact that you are being singled out because of your race, religion, etc., and accused of being a thief than I can see how you would be upset about the practice.
When I worked for a department store back in the early 70’s (God that was a long time ago) the store security people had to have probable cause to arrest a shoplifter.
I was told by the security manager that just seeing a person carrying an item out of the store might not be enough for probable cause. Example security person see a lady leaving via the front door, lady open purse to get car keys, and security person observes a bottle of makeup in her purse,and no receipt in sight. According to him this would not be probable cause as she may very well have paid for it and put it and the recipt in her purse. he went on to tell me that if he arrested this lady the court would not proscute and the store could very well get sued for false arrest. If on the other hand he observed a guy running toward the door carrying an armload of suits (yes it happened once) That would be probable cause to believe a crime had been commited.
Getting back to the OP. I don’t know the legality of receipt checks at the door. I don’t mind them too much, but I have wondered about probable cause. Perhaps we could get a legal eagle in here to help clarify this issue.
Also yhou might want to read about my experience with a receipt check.
The point, I think, is NOT whether it only takes a few seconds to show the guy at the door your receipt. The point IS, I think:
whether a consumer should be insulted this way after giving a retailer his/her money,
whether retailers would stop this odious practice if enough consumers made a stink, and
whether stores have a LEGAL right to such checks.
Obviously, putting (2) into practical widespread practice depends a lot on whether (3) is true. So–what’s the LEGAL right of retailers to check consumers’ bags and receipts? Any lawyers out there? Legal experts? Anyone?
Well, in seems simple in my (equally simple) mind.
As long as they do not require a bag check, or have a sign saying “Your bag will be examined upon exit,” they have no right to so a search on your person without cause. The things you carry in your purse/bag are yours. Once you make a purchase, the item becomes yours. Therefore, you can put it in your bag and walk away.
I see no right of theirs to perform a search of my personal property. What right could they possibly have to detain me?
I am a former Target Protection Specialist, the fancy term for the guy that does this job. There are some ground rules to checking your stuff.
*If your stuff is in a bag, and you don’t beep going through the EAS posts, the TPS can’t do anything. This only makes sense. The customer (“guest” in Target-speak) has a bag, and is not setting off the anti-theft alarms.
*If you have a bag and you beep when going through the EAS posts, the TPS is obligated to check your bag. S/he will ask to see your receipt, look for any merchandise on the receipt that may have caused the alarm, check the bottom of the cart (inside and out) and “detune” any EAS tags on anything that you have paid for that was not properly detuned.
In the event that any of the merchandise in your bags or cart have not been paid for, S/he is to remove said merchandise from your bag/cart and ask if you would like to purchase it. S/he will then take you to the nearest cashier (Security people are not allowed to use cash terminals due to being part of the investigative process) and have you rung up, or place the item(s) in the bins for stuff to go back to the floor.
If you have something large that is not in a bag (vacuum, stereo TV, etc.), you WILL be asked for your receipt. This is SOP, and something the TPS has to do. Remember, the cameras watch these people, too, and they can get fired for not doing their job right. I understand that you just came off a lane with said product, but the security person has more than one lane to watch, and might be looking somewhere else when you are checking out.
Sorry about the length. Hope this answers your questions and clears any misconceptions up. Please be civil to these people, it is the most tedious job in retail, but one of the better paying.
I don’t have a problem with showing my reciept and having my bags checked. I don’t have a cite but have heard that annual theft costs usually wind up being passed on to the consumers.
If it saves me a buck or two on my bill I can spare an extra 30 seconds!
I don’t understand what the big deal is with showing the receipt. This is theft prevention, for God’s sake, and is intended to keep operating costs down, and therefore (hopefully) your costs down too. When shoplifting is rampant, the store has to charge more. Anything I can do to prevent shoplifting is therefore a-okay with me.
What’s “SOP”? Are you saying that if it’s not in a bag the security can search but if it is in a bag they can’t (without probable cause)? I’m not sure I understand that paragraph.
Does the law vary by state?
Unless the quantity shoplifted is a function of price, then I don’t see why prices would change as a result of it. Imagine it this way: Retailmart is a profit maximizer. If there is no theft, Retailmart sets prices to maximize profits. Now add theft. They can’t change prices to increase profits, because prices are already set to bring maximal profits. Retailmart thus eats the cost of the theft.
Of course, if theft changes as price changes, then that will be another factor in determining profits and you can expect prices to act accordingly. Whether theft pushes prices up or down is not obvious to me. If theft is very sensitive to price, lowering prices might reduce theft by an amount greater than the amount of revenue lost from lower receipts. That’d be ironic, wouldn’t it? “Consumer protection through theft!” What a battle cry.
I guess I don’t have a problem if the store does it for every single person. I just won’t wait in line to have my bags search. Feel free to chase me down 14th St if you like. I have a bigger problem with being asked to give my address when I purchase batteries or return a sweater. That’s one of the reasons I will never shop at The Gap. That and the clothes suck.
Since I have no job and plenty of free time, I plan to purchase a new printer cartridge from Circuit City tomorrow. I will see what happens when I refuse to allow the bag to be searched and let you know what happens.
Is there relevant case or statutory law that would help us? I’ve seen at least a couple of these threads before, and each time it seems like a consensus was never reached as to could they or couldn’t they.
I just don’t see this on as widespread a basis as some of you guys do. I do shop at Sam’s Club and they check receipts, but the only other place that’s checked me was when I bought a VCR at Best Buy. Hell, I’ve even had places wave me through beeping doorframes without looking at my receipt.