And if they didn’t witness you committing a crime and physically detained you?
If you were witnessed committing a crime. Exiting a store after having made a purchase is not a crime, and I really don’t think they want to roll the dice and guess that I ‘might have’ committed a crime, especially since I can make a damn big stink since I don’t shoplift.
How nice of you to assume that I am a shoplifter. Since I am not a shoplifter, I would not tolerate being detained by anyone who works for a store I shop in.
And if a store is going to treat me like a criminal for buying things there, I don’t want to shop in that store. In fact, if they raised the issue I’d probably tell them that I want to return everything I just purchased anyway. What makes you think that I’d want to shop in a store that falsely accuses me of shoplifting? Oooh ban me from the store. Big threat there, to be banned from a store where, as a paying customer, I was treated like a criminal!
The last time a security buzzer went off when I exited a store it was after I had bought a few pairs of jeans at the downtown Pittsburgh Kaufmann’s and the clerk forgot to take off a security tag. I brought the bag back up to the register, showed her the recipt and the pants, and she took the tag off. Easy to tell why she missed it. It was on the inside seam and not easy to see.
This posting reminded me of something I witnessed back in Japan about 11 years ago.
I’m on my way into the Navy Exchange at Atsugi NAF. There are two individuals exiting. The first individual is holding a plastic NEX bag with his purchases in it and the second individual, a memember of my unit, was walking just behind him with his hands in his jacket pocket. The anti-theft beeper sounded as they passed through the scanner. The guy with the bag turned around and looked at the cashier as the the security guy in civvies ran up. The cashier said, “No, it’s my fault. I forgot to deactivate the tag.”
So, you’d think eveyone would be happy? Nope. The guy from my squadron pulled out a video tape he’d just shoplifted and said, “No, it was me!”
At the XOI on his way to Captain’s Mast, the XO said, “I really wish we had a charge for ‘incredibly stupid.’”
Somewhere above, somebody posted about the customers having to suffer because the stores don’t trust their employees. Hey, the customers have to suffer (pay extra prices) because the stores don’t trust their employees, their contractors, or their customers.
A while back, I was listening to talk radio out of San Francisco. The issue for the talk show was receipt checking at the door. All I recall from it is that the store needs to have just cause to suspect you in particular of shoplifting to demand that you present your receipt to them. Now, that was a few years ago, so the law may’ve changed. Somehow, I doubt it has.
Speaking of Wal-Mart and theft prevention…
I am making no such assertions about you personally, chill. If you didn’t shoplift, then none of these things are going to be any huge ordeal beyond 30 seconds of inconveninece. If store security goes as far as detaining you for anything more than asking a question or two, they probably have sufficent legally defensible cause to do so. As Bricker pointed out, at least in Virginia your assertions are completely incorrect.
Don’t worry I don’t take it personally that you are disinclined to debate the law with a lawyer, I am the weaker link in this regard so feel free to ignore the facts presented elsewhere and go after me, I’ll just note your plate number and hand it over to the uber secret enforcement arm of the Benificent Paternal Order of Security Guards for further processing and flagging you for closer monitoring on our vast database of difficult individuals.
They probably can be charged for some kind of assault/false arrest/kidnapping/etc.
Most store policies are built so that they have satisfied all needed probable cause for detention before security makes the decision to detain a suspect. If they do not all they have is the same types of bluster and bravado that serves many police officers so well. If you consent to a search, nobody needs a warrant. If that search turns up evidence of a crime, guess what…
Ah, statistics…
If you had said “In a hefty percentage of those scenarios in which a crime has been committed…”, no one would likely disagree. But what percentage of all transactions are actually criminal? I think that that is what people find objectionable; that they are considered to be potential felons by merely being customers.
They’re not even getting 30 seconds. If they don’t have enough to outright accuse me of shoplifting, then I’m headed out the door and to my car. Again, I’m not talking about a buzzer going off or anything like that. I’m talking about the ‘We are going to search your bag merely because you are exiting the store.’ policies. If I didn’t agree to it in writing, I am not stopping.
Which I’m not consenting to at all when I leave a Wal-Mart or a BestBuy and the alarm doesn’t ring. Do you think I should have to consent merely because they ask? And if I have to consent because they ask, then that doesn’t really make it voluntary does it?
Simple…don’t shop there. Vote with your wallet or stop complaining. If you want the services that store provides, the little inspections come with it. If you continue to shop at a store that performs these inspections, you condone this by coninuing to shop there. If a couple hundred people started a campaign bitching about it and the store actually saw a decrease in sales you might see a store back off. Until then tempest in a teapot.
I am a business owner, I completely understand and accept that if you do not like my policies you will go elsewhere. There are also unfortunately plenty of businesses, myself included, who have been burned badly being the nice guy and giving someone a break.
What would you do if I didn’t stop and let your door-bag-checker go through my bag when no alarm went off?
I suspect anyone filling up a bag in the aisles would get followed by a parade of security guards, just waiting to pounce. I can hardly think of more suspicious behavior.
I go to WalMart once per presidential election cycle, at most, so I don’t know if they do it here. My only objection to those who do is their justification - we want to make sure you’re taking home all the stuff you paid for. Right. They should just be honest, maybe.
Yeah, a lot of stuff gets thrown around and broken in my house when the election returns come in. Even so, it’s Target for me. 
It worked pretty good for a friend’s B-I-L, he made off with quite a bit of swag before he became known to them.
And for the sanctimonious out there, that’s when we realized what he was doing, when he was finally caught. That’s why nobody reported him or tried to stop him. He detailed his “Wal Mart Shopper” techniques after the fact and most of the booty had been traded for drugs.
Never underestimate the cleverness of a determined crook, the key is to not look suspicious.
Regarding the people who don’t mind having their purchases checked on exit, have you no dignity? They’re treating you like a criminal.
Secondly, why would door checkers result in lower prices? Yes, I know that’s what the sign says, but you’re being naive to believe it’s anything other than a lie to pacify you.
A large store’s prices for goods has little to do with the profit they make. The prices are mainly set so they’re competitive. If a store was going into the red every month because of theft, they wouldn’t raise prices – that would be suicide. Prices would stay the same until the business was bought out, restructured to be profitable, or closed.
Door checkers only ensure the business makes as large a profit as possible, there’s no upside for you.
I do apologize - I clearly overestimated how much WalMart employees give a shit - not that I blame them. Still seems to me something that would stand out.
Just not important enough to me to care. As I said, it doesn’t happen at my Wal-Mart, only at BJ’s Wholesale Club, which we dont’ pay for the membership for ourselves (we are on as a guest of his mom) and we understand that’s part of the contract. I mean, we knew it when we joined. It’s not as though they sprung it on us.
Pick your battles, I always say.
Stores do suffer losses. Prices are set both to be profitable and based on competition. If all stores eliminated losses, then they would be able to cut prices and still make a profit, since competitive pressures would mean that at least some of the savings would go to consumers.
If checking bags actually cuts losses is another matter entirely. I’ve never seen evidence that it does.
Er, well, no, they are not. A criminal would be charged with a crime and thrown in jail. Asking you to present a receipt for a big unbagged item is hardly the way you’d treat a criminal, is it?
Reducing shoplifting lowers prices; that’s just a fact. Or, more precisely, more shoplifting increases prices. Shoplifting is in effect a direct cost of carrying a good in a retail environment, as defined by the total cost of shoplifted items divided by the total number of items carried. I mean, higher direct costs result in higher prices, that’s Econ 101.
Now, it would be true to say that shoplifting does not affect all prices equally. The price of an item is, for the most part, affected by the incidence rate of shoplifting of that item; shoplifting a TV doesn’t really affect the price of Colgate. But since ALL items are shoplifted to one extent or another - especially in a Walmart - it’s true to say that pretty much everything has its price raised by shoplifting. Walmart concentrates receipt checking on large unbagged items because they’re generally the higher cost, lower volume items, and therefore their theft has the greatest impact on per unit direct cost and price.
Well, duh. The entire point to running a store is to make a profit.
As far as I’m concerned, the transaction is complete when they have my payment and I have their product. I don’t remember being consulted about paying extra time or my dignity to Best Buy, so I walk right past the checkpoint. If they’re paranoid enough to take that as admission of guilt, they are happily invited to call the police, and if they get there in the time it takes to leave the premises, I’lll happily cooperate with them 100%.
When I signed up for my Sam’s Club membership, there were these amazing signs everywhere which stated that if the lines are over 3 members deep, they’d open up more registers. Lines started getting longer and signs disappeared. In their place was this receipt malarky. After waiting 10 minutes in line to pay for my purchases, I refuse to wait in line to have my receipt checked (as there’s always a fucking line to get out). If Sam’s Club doesn’t like it, they can refund my membership and I won’t darken their door again. Get enough lemmings to change their minds and know their rights about not having to stop and this retail fad won’t gain footing.