A recent story on Digg got me thinking about the policy of retail stores having employees check your receipt at the door. Assuming that the store has no legal recourse to hinder you in any way if you don’t want to show your receipt (which I believe to be the case), why bother showing your receipt at all, especially if there’s a line?
I completely understand why stores would want to check receipts. Unpaid for big-ticket items would fly out the door if they didn’t. But I’m wondering what’s in it for you, the customer to wait in another line to have your receipt checked? What benefit does having your receipt checked have over just walking out the door? Is it just as a favor to the store? A personal favor to the employee at the door?
The only benefit I can think of is that the ease and rather unobtrusive nature of the receipt check is outweighed by the possible unpleasant confrontation of being chased after by a security guard. For all the possible high-minded reasons for avoiding the receipt check, this is the actual reason I submit to the check, and why I believe why most people do.
If you think you get some benefit out of it (such as making sure you got everything you paid for), consider this scenario: If some Bizarro-world store had two exits, one where you had to wait in line to have your receipt checked, and one where you can just walk out the door, no questions asked, which door would you go through?
This isn’t really a rant or even a complaint about the policy. As I said, I do submit to the check. I’m just wondering what others think.
This happened to me in Walmart onces. I had just checked out using a self checkout in the aisle right next too the exit. The lady checking the receipts had looked at me a few times while I was checking out. After I paid for everything, I moved to the door. When I got there, the receipt checking lady (we had made eye contact a few times) asked me to check my receipt while letting three other people and carts out of the store. My buddy had checked out right next to me and had put his stuff in my cart. We were buying stuff for a cookout, ya know beer, hamburgers, chips and what not and pooled it all together in my cart. He had already walked out the door and threw his receipt away in the trash can outside of the door. The lady wanted to check the receipt for all the items. I told that lady he had just walked out and thrown the receipt away for his stuff and that I only had the receipt for mine. She told me she had to check for all items.
A confrontation ensued that led my buddy and I to the security office and culminated with an employee digging out the receipt and walmart stating they were sorry. I was extremely heated. The lady had told my buddy to dig the stuff out of the trash. I told her she was going to have to call the police. I did express that I was not angry at her but at the policy and what not. I understand she was just doing her job but damn . …
Are you kidding me? I’ve never heard of this.
I would go throught he door where they didn’t check receipts.
Come to think of it, I wouldn’t shop at a store with this policy. Is it a Walmart thing? I don’t ever go there.
AFAIK, with the exception of “club” stores, Walmart is the only one to do this. If there’s a line, I’m not about to wait to have them confirm my purchases match my receipt. It’s a waste of my time, especially since a trip to Walmart is stressful to start with when you’ve got two under-five kids.
I’ve never had anyone chase me, asking for my receipt. I think it’s just the sheep mentality. As a shopper who pays for everything I choose to buy, and in all cases also any stray items in my little one’s hands, I feel it insulting.
If we’re ranting here, what about the darn coupon nazis @ walmart? You’d swear that the 50 cents off my detergent was coming directly from their paycheck. I was just there, bought precisely what was described on the coupon, and their stupid system wouldn’t recognize it. We stood there with the items clearly in the cashier’s hand, she KNOWS that I should get the coupon, yet she’s unable to do so because the stinkin’ register won’t allow it. UGH! What I REALLY don’t get is why they don’t immediately call for a supervisor when faced with an issue they can’t figure out. I had to tell her to call the manager as soon as she started having troubles. Manager never made it. Finally I said the hassle just wasn’t worth $.55. She gratefully handed me my receipt and sent me on my way.
Sorry to get off OP, that situation just burned me up. I emailed Wallyworld and have yet to hear back.
I have not shopped at Wal-Mart since they insisted on a receipt check and one of them even grabbed hold of one of my kids to stop him leaving the store.
I agree receipt checks are demeaning & I avoid shopping at places that do it. I’ve also never given so much as a nickel to wally-world, nor do intend to ever change that policy.
To the OP: You do understand that stores do in fact, in most jurisdictions, have a legal right to detain someone they reasonably suspect of shoplifting? Search SDMB for “shoplifting” for several threads with significant lawyerly (not me) contributions on this point.
The store’d have a hard time defending in court a policy that considered bypassing a line at the receipt check to always constitute reasonable suspiciion. But you can bet that’s how the policy would play out action at the front door.
This is one thread where my sig line is particularly appropriate.
A couple of points to clear up some misinformation from the above posts. Walmart policy says that receipts are checked only when items are not bagged. If there are any large items that cannot be bagged, they just want to check the receipt. I have never had my receipt checked if all my items are bagged. Some assume they have to be checked and will stop and wait. If there is a line I just walk by and I have never been stopped. As far as the legal standpoint, till you leave company property, the store employees have the legal right to check your purchases and receipts. Many folks think that once they leave the checkout store employees cannot do anything but they are wrong. Most shoplifters are caught after going through the checkouts. My step daughter worked for store security for a Walmart for a couple of years.
The only place we show our receipt is BJ’s, and we buy very little there, so it’s an easy check. But I have to wonder about folks who load the big ol’ carts to the max - there’s no way the kid at the door can do a thorough check - it seems such a waste.
What really kills me is when the alarms sound, and no one reacts. I’ve seen this in WalMart, Hope Depot, and Lowe’s on a number of occasions. Seems to me that’s when you want to check what’s going on. But what do I know - I’ve never worked retail…
Really?
Checking to see that you have a receipt at Walmart is to ensure that you haven’t put an item of worth in yesterdays? bag and are slipping it out the door unpaid for.
Sam"s check the # of items in cart against receipt to prevent putting in two TV’s or computers or …
You should be glad they do. Shoplifting, i.e. stealing, hurts everyone!
I’ve seen the receipt check at lots of places, including Kmart, Fry’s Electronics, Walmart, Best Buy, CompUSA, etc. But I don’t like it and decline to participate. Usually all that requires is walking past the line of people waiting patiently for the receipt check. Sometimes I walk past the person while hearing them call out, “Sir, sir, I need to check your receipt.” I always ignore them. It’s my understanding that one is not legally obligated to submit to the receipt check.
On the other hand, I’ll bet that you explicitly agreed to the receipt check when you signed your membership agreement at BJ’s, Sam’s Club or Costco. There, I’d stop and let them check the receipt.
And then there’s the question of what the receipt check accomplishes. Not much in my opinion.
So you submit to the check on the off chance that you temporarily lost your mind and shoplifted, then forgot doing it, and being caught will help keep priced low? I’m really trying to understand.
This is the story that they were “discussing” over at Digg. It has since erupted into a flame war and was banned from the front page.
I know I’m not a thief… that’s why I don’t care about receipt checks. Thieves do care, which is why they prefer not to go to places that stop you as you’re walking out the door. In short, because you find this hard to follow, the theory is that the policy itself keeps prices lower as it deters a larger percentage of thieves by its very existence (compared to stores w/o the policy).
And as far as another issue that’s been raised: It’s not a matter of personal honor that “they” don’t trust “me.” Why should they trust me more than any other person in the store? WTF does the Wal-Mart door checker know about my background or character? Why should I expect “special” treatment because I know I didn’t steal anything?
I’m subjected to this at Costco, but it’s no more than a formality. The checker gives a passing glance at the receipt and another passing glance at the cart, then marks the receipt. What I don’t understand is, if I really shoplifted something, how would I get it past the cashier? The cart goes behind him, I go in front of him, and he looks to make sure everything’s out of the cart. And it’s highly unlikely that I’d find anything to pilfer between the cashier and the exit.
I think the purpose of it is not to actually catch shoplifters, but to intimidate people into not attempting it in the first place.
Well one of us is finding it hard to follow the other anyway. The question is not why the policy is in place - that’s obvious. The question is why ***you personally * ** submit to it, assuming they have no legal right to stop you if you just walk out the door without stopping.
Back when I was a kid, the local grocery store would do this sporatically to make sure the cashier’s weren’t ripping off the store (this was waaaayyy before scanners).
Turns out one cashier was giving her friends free food (nobody liked her anyways). For every one item she’d ring up, she’d push 4-5 through. She was fired on the spot.
I don’t mind the receipt checks at Costco. One time they actually noticed we’d been charged twice for an item we’d only bought one of. It was like $12 but we’d spent closer to $250 so we didn’t notice. They refunded the money and sent us on our way.
I rarely shop at Wal-Mart, but in my experience, they don’t just check unbagged merchandise. They rummage through the bags and glance at the receipt. I think they’re just nosy about what you buy.
