I went to Walmart today. All I bought was a large kitchen knife, Band-aids, and a mop. I did not get a bag. (Plastic bags are illegal here and retailers must charge 10 cents apiece for paper bags.) I saw that the receipt checker at the door was checking everyone. I said “Hello” as I approached the door. She just looked at me and said “Hi” and that was it.
Lately I’ve only seen receipt checkers go to work for I unbagged items in carts. Which makes sense, because those tend to be large, bulky items placed at the bottom and would be easier to forget/miss in the checkout line since they often don’t fit on the conveyor either.
Im thinking they’ve moved away from being an anti-shoplifting position (if they ever were that) to a anti-forgetfulness position for honest mistakes.
They are not checking the receipt to make sure that you have paid for everything. They are doing a double check of the cashiers, to see if they are charging properly and looking for mistakes. It is an inventory control thing. Loss Prevention (anti-theft) is a different thing that you are probably not going to notice.
It was never about catching you, It was always to catch cashiers.
Cashier error is a big component of shrink.
It always amazes me that they have enough of a problem with cashier error that it’s worth the salary of a full-time employee at every store in the chain to double-check the receipts.
It’s not error, it’s “error”
The salary of a full-time employee is not that much, and cashiers do make mistakes.
But: not everything has a price tag on it, some things don’t even have UPCs. Like, I bought a Dutch oven at a Walmart because it had the one I wanted for the cheapest price, which was $40. I found it on the website for that price, and also the store that had it in stock, which was a long drive for me. No tags on it, no code. The cashier asked me how much it was, and I said $40, and she rang up $14. Now, I corrected her. But had I not, the receipt-checker wouldn’t have known either. So if I hadn’t done that, the receipt checker could have saved $28, but probably wouldn’t have. Probably three hours’ worth of full-time salary, or so.
I don’t think that’s what’s going on at all. Anytime I’ve shown my receipt, they look at it for all of 2 seconds and say thanks. They are not processing the information in any way that I can tell.
My position has been, and remains, that anyone who wants to delay me to check my receipt needs either probable cause or something more intimidating than a blue vest.
I never had anyone check my receipt at my local Walmart. Or even noticed a person doing it to someone else. I live in fairly rural area so maybe that has something to do with it.
I’m also rural and have not seen any checkers. But once I’ve paid, I ain’t stopping.
I live in a rural area. They check receipts at every Walmart around here. They actually dumped a sack of tiny cans of Fancy feast cat food and counted them in my buggy one time. The cashier overcharged me one can. It was less than $1, the door person wanted me to stand in a long line at the service desk and get my change. I declined. I rolled out to my car and was putting things in when a floor person sprinted up to me with another can of Fancy feast. I thought that was pretty nice.
The local one hasn’t done receipt checking in a while, but yesterday they had one.
We just walked on out like we always do.
Then train the security cameras on the checkout lane & have that employee watch the video. If you’re not paying me to be your security don’t expect me to work to catch your cashiers doing something they shouldn’t be doing.
I was at one store that was had started their going out of business sale. The store never had that receipt check policy. However, when they’re going out of business frequently it isn’t that store anymore; they are taken over by a liquidator. I got my receipt & change (why do they always hand you coins, bills, & receipt in one stack? :mad:) & jammed them all in my pocket. I got about 4-5 steps & someone stated that they ‘needed’ to see my receipt, yet there was a line so I kept going. As I walked past, I saw they were verifying each & every item on the receipt.
Two of the employees followed me into the parking lot. They called out that I would be banned from shopping there again. (Ummm, you’re going out of business, I just bought everything that was worthwhile on clearance sale; I literally won’t be coming back to that store ever again.) & that I would be detained & the police called. (I didn’t steal anything, I didn’t know the cashier, either, which means that we weren’t in cahoots to get something wrung up for a ‘discounted’ price. In short, there was no video or other reason to suspect me of anything other than not complying with their {new} policy.) Luckily, for them, their manager [del]told them to ‘heel’[/del] called them off just before they got to me because I would have pressed charges had they accosted me.
The greeters/checkers at our local Walmart know me by sight and we always exchange hellos. Sometimes when I am driving out on the electric shopper with an uncovered item like a bag of kitty food I point it out as I sail past, “Stealing another bag of Chow!” They just laugh. Ours are all real nice.
Dennis
Walmart and Sam’s Club checks receipts pretty carefully in my area. I don’t give it much thought. Just one more step before I’m done shopping.
Sam’s is much stricter. They check the cart thoroughly.
Sam’s Club requires a membership, and when you sign up you explicitly agree to have your receipt checked.
Walmart is open to the public and you are not required to let them check your receipt. I suppose that if they put up a huge “we reserve the right to check receipts”, (or some-such) sign at every entrance they might get away with it in some jurisdictions, but even that would be iffy.
There are two Walmarts near me, about equidistant from my house. One asks to check receipts and the other doesn’t. If they ask I just politely say “no thanks, not now” or something similar and go on my way. They never pursue it further.
OP here. What I was wondering was why was checking literally everyone’s receipt except for mine? My receipt was in my shirt pocket where she couldn’t even see it. She wasn’t busy with other customers.
Maybe you have an honest face.
Costco has consistently checked receipts here since forever, Walmart more recently & then not consistently.