We're at Code Orange....batten down the Wal Mart Bags!

The BBQ Pit
21

I once had a membership at Sam’s Club. I found myself less and less willing to renew membership because I just didn’t feel that it was the best deal for me. I was put - off by the fact that if you happened to purchase something that was not packaged in a carry friendly way, Sam’s did not feel compelled to provide a bag or a box. There were times when no boxes were at the check out. One of my last, if not the last time I shopped there I purchased over a dozen canned products. It was a nightmare getting them stacked securely and then out of the store and placed in the bed of my truck for travel. I prefer to shop where they are willing to provide stuff like bags. As for buying garbage bags or something to use… that is a great idea if you already had those in your basket. If you did not have them in there then you would have the inconvenience of stopping your purchase, getting refunded for the items already scanned, going back into the shopping area to fetch bags, and then getting in line again. I am not surprised that Sam’s does not offer bags for the customer. This fits into their business philisophy perfectly. I also felt put - off by the search / scan before you leave the store. I understand the reason for it but nobody else does this so it seems unusual… or at least I don’t shop in any other stores that search or scan your stuff when you leave …in this intrusive way.

I do not think it unreasonable to ask for a bag from Wal-Mart and it think it is unwise for them to refuse. It kinda makes one want to go to Wal-Mart and buy a few cheap items, request that they double bag, or insist that they only place three or five items per bag. I suppose the decision-makers would then write a store policy on double bagging, etc. Perhaps they already have a policy on this.

22

If the “vulture” had given you a bag, she would also have been discussing the policy with the manager, right before she was given her last check.

23

Christ, does Walmart put that much baggable merchandise between the service counter and the door?

Paul Harvey tells me (and millions of others, daily) that I couldn’t have a better neighbor than Walmart - and yet they won’t give a college girl a friggin’ bag? Put me in the indignant camp.

24

I can understand them stopping me and asking if it is a return and then the sticker. And it usually happens if I bring a previous purchase into the store and that is fine. This is the firt time they have ever felt the need to rummage through a bag.

But if they are so right in looking through a rite aid bag which you chould see through anyway upon entering the store then why don’t they look for real signs of shop lifting. 1) Women with very large with what appears to be overstuffed purses or diaper bags. 2) People who are dressed to the nines. 3) People with oversized clothing (like baggy sweater or pants

After all, someone could be “storing” something that needs to be “returned” in all of those.

If you think that being treated with respect is a sense of “entitlement” then I feel very bad for you.

Oh and the reason I didn’t study psychology: I want to do something that will help and not harm others. Psychologists have a tendency to make things up(such as when you go to one to discuss a relationship problem and all of a sudden you have five different disorders…happened to a friend of mine), have their heads in the clouds, live in Ivory Towers and not realize that what they do affects people. Didn’t the APA once say that pedophilia is a normal condition? I read it several years ago and not on the net so don’t ask for a cite. (I would give it if I could find it) (On the other hand, I know two who are really trying to make a difference but they are the exceptions not the rule)

25

Oh I did discuss this with serveral friends last night. Knowing me personally and how I am, no one thought it was unreasonable to be given a bag when I was struggling. (And they will tell me what I want to hear) After talking it out, it is funny now.

“Sense of entitlement” that is so funny from someone who doesn’t know me personally. You might want to really try getting to know someone before you state something like that. Psychology people are very into jumping to conclusions and making things up though. Don’t get me started on political science which would be really interesting if they didn’t have all the liberal “the US is responsible for everything” attitude.

26

Cite?

Cite?
How many disorders, if any, does your friend actually have?
Cite?
Cite?
“Hi, I’d like to train as a psychologist.”
“You do realise that discussing people’s problems and traumas, then providing advice and therapy will affect people?”
“No. Oh, my goodness! I’d better become a hermit.”

Cite?

Of course you would. You have a great track record of not making unsupported generalisations. :rolleyes:

Now here we finally get real ‘evidence’ and logical deductions. :confused: :smack: :wally

27

That has to be one of the more annoying “Cite?” posts I’ve ever seen.

28

When you shop at Sam’s or Costco, you go prepared. These are not places that you go on a whim. You especially do not go there on a whim and purchase numerous bulky items when you have to go home on a bus.

You really quite especially do not go there unprepared, buy a bunch of bulky stuff that you have to transport home on a bus, then bitch about another business being unwilling to help you out of the consequences of your own stupidity.

Sam’s isn’t going to run out of any food if you go home, get yourself prepared for bulk shopping, and go back. You were rewarded justly for your impatience and lack of forethought. How about trying to learn a lesson from it instead of bitching?

29

As a means of protest, you should stop shopping at Walmart right away. As their empire crumbles, I’m sure they will call you and beg you to shop there again.

They have policies in order to stop shoplifting, mainly that they check the receipt of merchandise that is not bagged. So they should violated this and help shoplifters because you didn’t think ahead? Big evil overlord corporations, death to them!!!

30

It was intended to be just that.

Even in the Pit our motto ‘Dedicated to stamping out ignorance’ applies. So silly generalisations such as:

  • Psychology will harm others

  • Psychologists have a tendency to make things up

  • Psychologists have their heads in the clouds

  • Psychologists live in Ivory Towers

  • Psychologists do not realize that what they do affects people

need to be challenged.

As for ‘Didn’t the APA once say that pedophilia is a normal condition?’, wouldn’t it be sensible to make an effort to check this before publishing it on the Chicago Reader’s site?

Next consider the logic behind ‘On the other hand, I know two (psychologists) who are really trying to make a difference but they are the exceptions not the rule’.
How many psychologists does geewhiz ‘know’ in total?
How come these two are ‘exceptions’?

And from a previous post by geewhiz:

‘Psychology people are very into jumping to conclusions and making things up though’

Pot … kettle :rolleyes:

‘…political science which would be really interesting if they didn’t have all the liberal “the US is responsible for everything” attitude’

Don’t you just love that all?
How many political science departments are there in the country?
How many has geewhiz evaluated?
And how about that use of liberal?
Liberal = anti-American. Politics made easy… :rolleyes:

31

Holy Shit. Have you ever taken a Poli Sci Course? I mean for fuck’s sake, the paragraph I’m quoting is possibly one of the most ignorant things I’ve read in a while. :rolleyes:

Let’s think here for a minute, why the fuck would Wal-Mart not think that you could be a potential shoplifter? Because people like you don’t shoplift?

Just out of curiousity, what are you studying?

32

At WalMart… and most retail outlets that use sacks… to save money on expenses… you are trained to use the least amount of sacks possible to bag any merchandise. The WalMart I worked in preached this all the time. If someone did give you a sack they would most likely be severely reprimanded.

And as Teaelle said… Sam’s Club isn’t the type of place you go on a whim. Go prepared or don’t go.

33

I work at Wally World, and I’m with geewhiz on this one. If she just wanted to take a bag and go back out the door, then Wally World is being petty by not letting her have one, especally since she had just spent money there.

Wal-Mart seems to go out of their way to inconvenience customers and employees alike. Cashiers are required to unstuff every purse or handbag purchased, every comforter or set of sheets that comes in a bag, every ice chest, every item that could even remotely have something else placed inside it.

Number of times I’ve actually found something inside? Once. And I’ve worked there nearly a year. Meanwhile, I’m holding up the line searching everyone’s purchases, and, at the Wal-Mart where I work, it is not uncommon for people to get fed up with waitng in line and abandon their purchases and leave the store without buying anything. My heart rejoices when I see an abandoned grocery cart, ice cream melting, frozen veggies thawing, meat spoiling, and I know that that cart represents a certain amount of money Wal-Mart is losing because they are too cheap to staff the stores sufficently. But, I digress.

It’s generally bad for business to treat every single customer as though he/she is a criminal and potentially lose hundreds of dollars in purchases to stop one person out of thousands from stealing a two dollar fishing lure.

The most commonly shoplifted items have security devices will set off an alarm as the "thief’ goes out the door, and since the deactivators at the registers don’t work right half the time, probably 90% of the furious beeping is a false alarm. The people who are actually stealing will just keep walking and there’s nothing the greeter can do to stop them. Often while a greeter is searching through one person’s purchases, two or three more alarms will go off, and the customers are not going to patiently wait their turns to be searched on false alarms.

Also, a determined theif knows how to remove a security device, and we frequently find packages around the store that have had items like CD’s, DVD’s, or small electronics removed from them and stolen.

Also, if what I see at the checkstands and even on shelves around the store is any indication, probably at least a fourth of our shrink comes from items that are consumed inside the store, then the packages abandoned. I’ve found opened packages of chips, cookies, children’s cold medicine (minus a single dose), disposable diapers, condoms (?), sanitary napkins, that have been ripped open, had the item (or one of the items, in the case of diapers or sanitary napkins) removed, then the package simply abandoned.

If Wal-Mart truly cared about preventing theft, they would stop having the cashiers search every package and, oh, I don’t know, maybe actually have the nice people in Loss Prevention actually watch the monitors that the cameras placed around the stores are hooked up to…

And giving someone a bag to carry purchases home that they bought at a store owned by the same company is a security issue?

Puh-leeze.

34

Thanks for this advice. However, I chose not to renew my membership around three years ago. They just didn’t fit my needs. I am single, no kids, and don’t wish to buy a ten gallon can of beans or 5 miles of toilet paper. They did seem to have some decent discounts on other items that I had interest in, but on balance, it didn’t appeal to me. I have not really practiced this…“get yourself prepared to shop” approach. I am not the type of consumer that seeks discounts with such aggression and forethought. I fit more into the mindless, shop on a whim mode. I probably spend more money that way and that is regretable. I do not enjoy shopping at all but I tend to patronize stores that are willing to comply with what I consider to be a perfectly reasonable expectation … like a bag or box to hold the merchandise I have purchased. In this case it seems that even though Wal-Mart and Sam’s are different stores, Wal-Mart chose to not provide a simple bag for this shopper. I agree that they have no obligation to do so. I am pleased that other stores feel compelled to at least attempt to go a half step beyond obligation and show a measure of understanding and courtesy.
I find it interesting that Wal-Mart has such a policy on the provision of bags. They obviously command the employee to practice this what I consider to be “ill advised” practice. Wouldn’t society be the absolute shits if everyone did only what they were obligated to do?

Oh and I believe that being “unprepared” for shopping may fall into the category of unwise. I think “stupidity” is a bit strong.

35

You didn’t ask for respect. You asked for a bag. You were given respect. You weren’t given a bag. And because you weren’t given a bag, you’re now throwing a tantrum.

As for me, I respect myself enough that I try not to ask for handouts.

So your sense of altruism guided you into your current career path of . . . business/advertising? Well, I’m sure society will be very grateful for your selfless choices, Ghandi. But I’d be very curious to hear you explain how your study of consumerism means that you’ll be better equipped to help people than studying medicine.

Psychology never helps and only harms people? What about your two friends? Do they harm people?

No.

If you only know two psychologists, that would make the two that you know the rule, rather than the exception.

Well, this is the first time I’ve ever been accused of being either liberal or anti-American.

Here’s a tip: political science includes the study of thought from all parts of the political spectrum. When you listen to Rush Limbaugh discuss the proper role and scope of government, you’re listening to a political science discussion. When you hear George Bush lay out a plan for combatting terrorism, you’re listening to a political science discussion. When you hear J.C. Watts speak out against the effects of affirmative action, you’re listening to a political science discussion. Political science includes both conservative and liberal ideologies.

And it may shock you to learn this, but fighting society’s bloated sense of entitlement is one of the main platforms of American conservative ideology. So my argument is actually advancing the conservative agenda.

So I should really get to know someone before I make judgments about their actions, but it’s fine for you – without getting to know me – to say that “Psychologists have a tendency to make things up . . . , have their heads in the clouds, live in Ivory Towers and not realize that what they do affects people;” accuse me of being “very into jumping to conclusions and making things up;” and accuse me of being a liberal with a “US is responsible for everything attitude.”

That seems awfully hypocritical of you.

36

I find it interesting that you know absolutely everything about the reasons behind Wal-Mart’s policies. Wouldn’t society be the absolute shits if everyone got everything they wanted, the same instant they wanted it?

37

I do not claim to know everything about Wal-Mart policy. I am merely speculating about much of it. I do agree with you about society being not such a great place if everyone got everything they wanted, the same instant they wanted it.

38

Okay, geewhiz, just for you, I asked.

Here in the midst of WalMart Homeland itself, within my driving distance, we have…one Sam’s and maybe a dozen regular stores, and 6-7 neighborhood markets.
I mostly only go to the main two superstores, on either end of Fayetteville, Arkansas. A college town. Limited bus service.

Today, I tracked down the roving supervisor of greeters in the south store.
She thought I was insane when I told her the reason I was asking is ‘this online messageboard, where a question was…’
But that’s nothing new for me.

So, details related, given the givens-
She said that in her personal knowledge, in that store, there was no reason someone couldn’t give anyone a bag. That it would be good customer relations to do so. That they do have their security measures, all of which she couldn’t share with me, of course. That one particular greeter or checker might be obnoxious, or unhelpful, but it wasn’t acceptable policy.

There ya go. That and a buck will buy you a soda.

Oh, also.
The recycled bag bin is still in the lobby. About half of what was in there were clumps of bags that didn’t come apart right at the registers.
What we bought was put in ten bags, even though it would have needed half that many. Two items a bag seems silly, if no danger of splitting.

[Further hijack]
My daughter worked as a Pharm Tech for years at W*W. She did fill in at different stores, and never found two of them to be the same on policy or operations…
From what I’ve seen, I would think that is the same in other departments, as well.
Depending on the supervisors, neighborhood, etc.
[/end]

39

Woman comes up to my register today with three small bags. Asks for a larger bag for consolidation.

I must make it clear at this point that if I give out a bag without receipt, it means my job. Politely, I ask to see a receipt.

“You need to see a receipt to give me a bag?” she repeats.

“'Fraid so,” I say.

“That’s kinda…sad,” she says, handing over the receipt.

I eyeball her stuff; yes, it matches up with what’s on the receipt. Satisfied, I find a medium-sized bag and start to drop her own bags into it. She installs the last one for me and says the usual…I can’t remember the exact words, but it was the standard why-do-you-need-to-see-a-receipt-what-do-I-look-like-to-you-whaddya-mean-it’s-policy yipping.

As she hefts the new megabag, her parting shot is, “I’m going to put a note in with my next payment!”

I say nothing.

What I don’t understand is why people who have nothing to hide get so upset. I’ve seen genuine shoplifters lose their shit, but that’s to be expected: they were tense to begin with. But I’m not going to agree that it’s pointless to ask for receipts when giving out bags. Because, you see…

…when I was 15, my friend and I used to go into a particular department store* with a torn bag we’d retrieved from her mom’s closet, ask for a replacement, and proceed to fill it with whatever we could.

I’m not going to do profiling, and say “This person looks like a shoplifter and this one doesn’t.” I’m just going to always ask for a receipt. Even if it wasn’t policy, I’d still ask. This is not “treating someone like a thief”. We only treat you like a thief if you are a thief.

*I don’t remember the name of the store, because it’s not the one we got caught at. We got caught at Musicland. Remember them?

40

Doesn’t Wal-Mart own Sam’s anyways?