# Outrage over receipt checking!?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 6, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093 "2016-05-06T19:37:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2016, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/81 "2016-05-11T22:45:47Z")
NC has unusual alcohol laws which means you can buy alcohol at Costco or BJs without being a member. Of course they don’t generally tell people this unless you ask. So if you go in without being a member you can say you want to buy beer or wine.
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### Author:  [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2016, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/82 "2016-05-11T23:31:13Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> How does that work, though? You empty your cart out onto the conveyor belt, they scan everything and put it into a new cart. Every single item gets taken out of your cart. The only way to steal something that this would catch is if you (a) hide it on your person, (b) make it cagily past the checkout stand without any noticing the 13 USB sticks you’ve got tucked into your cummerbund, and (c) take them out and drop them into the cart between the cashier and the door, rather than just leaving.
>
> Does that really happen often enough (if they don’t check) to justify the full-time salary of an employee at every store in the country?
>
> Or is it to check up on the cashiers, to make sure they’re scanning everything correctly? Do they have enough of a problem with people getting _under_-charged for items that it’s worth paying somebody to check your receipt so they can send you back to pay for that third flat of canned peaches you’ve got in your cart? If so, after 20 years or so of this being in place, how are things progressing on, oh, I don’t know, _training people better?_
>
> Or maybe the problem is _over_-scanning, where they bill you for 2 toaster ovens when you only bought one? In that case, they’re _losing money_ by sending people back to get that fixed. You could argue that they’re improving customer loyalty by catching their screw-ups more often, but seriously? How often does that have to happen to make it worth having somebody checking every single receipt, every minute that the store is open?
Or a friend at the store who rings you up “forgets” to on an item or 3. It seems to me quite a bit of those posting in this thread have never worked retail.
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### Author:  [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2016, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/83 "2016-05-11T23:44:48Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#):
>
> I continually hear this mantra from people who don’t understand how pricing works. The only thing that controls prices is how much the market will bear, not the cost of production. The retailer could have a magic machine in the back room that craps big screen television sets for a nickel, and if the market would support a price of $2,000 that’s what they would cost.
>
> I have personally taken millions of dollars worth of cost of production out of my employer’s products, and we have never cut prices by a single dime as a result. Why would we?
>
> The availability of items is affected by the cost of production. If the market price will not allow the retailer to make back the cost of production that item will disappear.
You are correct. But if the store suffers too many losses and fails to make a profit it might just go out of business. Preventing a loss helps with the balance sheet.
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### Author:  [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2016, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/84 "2016-05-11T23:50:07Z")
> [@octopus](#):
>
> You are correct. But if the store suffers too many losses and fails to make a profit it might just go out of business. Preventing a loss helps with the balance sheet.
Sure, it helps the store stay in business. But it puts no money in the customer’s pockets, and loss prevention doesn’t make prices lower. That’s a red herring.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/85 "2016-05-12T00:10:08Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#):
>
> NC has unusual alcohol laws which means you can buy alcohol at Costco or BJs without being a member. Of course they don’t generally tell people this unless you ask. So if you go in without being a member you can say you want to buy beer or wine.
I’m pretty sure that you can buy alcohol at Costco nationwide (not just in North Carolina) even if you’re not a member. And you can also buy prescriptions from there as well.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/86 "2016-05-12T00:11:17Z")
> [@DrCube](#):
>
> Stop treating your customers like criminals. Save that for the actual criminals.
>
> I absolutely refuse to buy anything that is in a locked case in a store. If you actually wanted to sell it to me, I wouldn’t have to beg someone to unlock it for me. A locked case tells your customers “we don’t want you to buy this”. If that’s the way you want to run your store, I suggest just having a window where people can make orders, and someone brings it to you from the locked warehouse in back that you call a “store”.
>
> Also, I never stop when the theft alarms go off. I know I didn’t steal anything, and if you want to accuse me of it, you can talk to my lawyer.
>
> I’m not a thief. Anyone who treats me like one can go to hell. There are a million other stores plus the internet I can go to that don’t treat their paying customers like that.
I’m with you, buddy. The other day, I stopped by a local store in the morning, and the door was locked! Sure, stores have hours and all, but they don’t have to lock the door on me like I’m some sort of _burglar_!
Never went back there again.
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### Author:  [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/87 "2016-05-12T00:14:46Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#):
>
> Sure, it helps the store stay in business. But it puts no money in the customer’s pockets, and loss prevention doesn’t make prices lower. That’s a red herring.
I agree. Just like wages aren’t linked directly to productivity or the worker’s expenses. Supply and demand is a useful concept.
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### Author:  [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/88 "2016-05-12T02:02:44Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#):
>
> Sure, it helps the store stay in business. But it puts no money in the customer’s pockets, and loss prevention doesn’t make prices lower. That’s a red herring.
It does allow the company to sell the item for less. In general no way a retailer is going to discount something because it costs them less, they want maximum value. In a competitive market where stores are dropping the cost of items as low as they can the store with less losses has more room to work with.
All the principled stances against demeaning loss prevention pale in comparison to price. Time and time again it’s proven people will suffer huge indignity to get cheaper goods. It’s great people want to say they’ll refuse to shop at retailers that lock up goods or check receipts but the bottom line is if that retailer is selling things at 20% less, more people will wait around for someone to unlock the items and will comply with receipt checks. You offer 50% less and they might let you do cavity searches.
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### Author:  [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/89 "2016-05-12T03:21:06Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#):
>
> It does allow the company to sell the item for less. In general no way a retailer is going to discount something because it costs them less, they want maximum value. In a competitive market where stores are dropping the cost of items as low as they can the store with less losses has more room to work with.
Do you have any evidence of a store actually using this as their procedure, or is this just one of those ‘magic of the free market’ things that certain groups insist logically should happen but doesn’t actually happen?
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### Author:  [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/90 "2016-05-12T03:35:44Z")
> [@Pantastic](#):
>
> Do you have any evidence of a store actually using this as their procedure, or is this just one of those ‘magic of the free market’ things that certain groups insist logically should happen but doesn’t actually happen?
What exactly are you looking for evidence of? A store not dropping their price below what is profitable to them? Stores dropping prices below that of thier competition? Stores not dropping prices just because thier costs are less?
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### Author:  [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/91 "2016-05-12T04:04:30Z")
Fry’s has been doing this for years. I never had a problem with it.
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### Author:  [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/92 "2016-05-12T04:11:45Z")
I remember linking to a story a guy told of responding to an insistent checker with physical force in “self defense”.
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### Author:  [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/93 "2016-05-12T05:16:52Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#):
>
> What exactly are you looking for evidence of? A store not dropping their price below what is profitable to them? Stores dropping prices below that of thier competition? Stores not dropping prices just because thier costs are less?
I want evidence of a store dropping the cost of items in a competitive market and factoring in their losses through theft into the limit on how low they will lower prices, which you implied actually happens. I’m not aware of any stores that operate in that manner.
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### Author:  [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2016, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/94 "2016-05-12T05:55:17Z")
> [@Pantastic](#):
>
> I want evidence of a store dropping the cost of items in a competitive market and factoring in their losses through theft into the limit on how low they will lower prices, which you implied actually happens. I’m not aware of any stores that operate in that manner.
I doubt anyone is looking at losses through theft specifically to establish the lower thresh-hold, but they do factor in shrink of a given sku. A lumber yard might be willing to make 0 profit on their 2x4x8’s but they aren’t willing to actually lose money on them. The minimum amount they are willing to sell them for will factor in cull and shrink.
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### Author:  [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/95 "2016-05-19T16:53:59Z")
> [@Eureka](#):
>
> Yes, I have worked retail, and know a little something about thieves. And jerkfaces who decide not to buy the ice cream, and then set it down where it will melt and (potentially) get all over the other product they didn’t want, so we can’t sell those items either.
I did that once. At a Wal-Mart. It was late at night, and my wife and I wanted some ice cream. The only place open in the area was a Wal-Mart Supercenter. I stood in line with my pint of Ben & Jerry’s for, oh, I don’t know, 10 or 15 minutes while the three or four customers in front of me were checked through. Just as it was my turn, the manager came by and closed the register, and told me I’d have to use another one. Which also had a line of 3 or 4 people. I half-handed, half-threw the pint at him and walked out of the store.
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### Author:  [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/96 "2016-05-19T17:10:19Z")
I’ve left carts full of items at the checkout because I was buying alcohol and, while I had my ID, my girlfriend didn’t. And so I couldn’t buy it. I’ve never had this problem when my 9 year old accompanies me to the grocery store. Also, when I moved back here after living in Kansas for awhile, they wouldn’t accept an out of state ID to buy alcohol. Don’t want my money? Restock all the shit you refused to sell me. Not my problem at all.
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### Author:  [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2016, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/97 "2016-05-19T17:16:00Z")
As many here have noted, I have no problem showing my receipt at BJ’s, because that’s the deal. You agree to it when you sign your membership agreement. I do have a problem with being asked to do so at a non-membership store, and Wal-Mart is the only one I’ve had ask me for it so far, that I can recall. Until yesterday, it had been quite a while since I had been accosted in this manner at Wal-Mart, as I noted earlier in this thread. But they seem to have re-started the practice. I’ve pretty much always complied, but yesterday, I decided to make a stand.
After checking through the register with all my stuff - mostly bottled water, but all small items with nothing in the cart valued much over $3, I headed for the door. Another guy ahead of me walked right out, but the “greeter” walked right by him to approach my cart (for the record, I’m a white male, and so were both the guy ahead of me and the greeter).
He asked “Can I see your receipt, please?”
I just responded, “nope,” and kept walking.
I heard huffing behind me, so I looked back and he said “You have to let me check your receipt!”
I said, “No, I don’t.”
When he protested again, I said, “Call a cop if you have a problem with it,” and kept walking.
That was the end of it; he didn’t push any farther. I left the store, went to my car and started loading my items into the trunk.
Which was when I found the can of grill spray (price: $2.72) that had fallen into a corner of the cart and that I hadn’t noticed as I was putting my stuff on the belt. I guess if he had called a cop as I suggested, I could have really been in trouble. But at that point, there was no way I was walking past that guy to go into the store and pay for the can of spray. I’ll take care of it next time I’m there; probably by grabbing a can of the same stuff off the shelf and paying for it, then letting them put it back on the shelf.
None of which negates for a second my objection to their practice. I didn’t agree to a search when I entered the store. The stuff in my cart is my stuff, not theirs, when I leave the store (at least generally, my accidental shoplifting on this occasion notwithstanding). I don’t need their permission to leave their store with my property. And if they don’t like it, there’s a Target store about a half-mile up the street. If they continue the practice, this could get interesting…
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/98 "2016-05-19T17:42:47Z")
Frankly, in your case, a receipt check was warranted. Perhaps the greeter actually noticed that you hadn’t moved an item from your cart to the belt.
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### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2016, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/99 "2016-05-19T18:01:00Z")
> [@NeonMadman](#):
>
> If they continue the practice, this could get interesting…
And in less time that it takes someone to be a dick about being asked, they can just hand them the receipt and be done with it.
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### Author:  [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outrage-over-receipt-checking/754093/100 "2016-05-19T18:38:32Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> Frankly, in your case, a receipt check was warranted. Perhaps the greeter actually noticed that you hadn’t moved an item from your cart to the belt.
I doubt it. If he had, I’d think he would have pointed that out to me, and then I would have stopped and investigated it with him. I wasn’t looking to steal anything; it was an honest mistake, and, as I noted, I will attempt to rectify it next time I’m there. Same thing if an alarm goes off; then there’s really a reason to take a look, and I wouldn’t object to that. It’s when there is no reason to believe that I’ve done anything wrong or that there is a mistake of any sort that I resent the presumption that I’m a thief. I’ve never shoplifted in my life (at least not intentionally), and I’m certainly not going to start now.
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