I'm a SC and I'm proud of it:

[Crazyredhead]

Why? Because there protecting themselves? I normally don't see them during the day, mostly at night. I was in WalMart the other day, and the door alarm wouldn't stop. It kept going off every couple of minutes. It was annoying after awhile. I beleive there is a big theft problem around here. They never stop me, even when I don't have anything in bags. I have big ticket items in my buggy and I just cruise right out the door, while someone behind me, who doesn't have hardly anything, gets pulled over.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you can just call the police if somebody sets off an alarm and just keeps walking. Because 9 times out of 10, it's an honest mistake like the cashier forgot to remove or deactivate a tag.

Plus how do you tell who set it off if a bunch of people go through the door at a time?

[ditchdj]

First of all, no company or person has the right to detain anyone. The police cannot even do that, unless there is enough probable cause to believe that he or she has broken the law. That's a constitutional right. Nobody, not even someone working for a company, has any legal right to "play cop" and forceably detain anyone without suspicion. Ask an LEO about that and I'm pretty sure they'll tell you the same thing. There was a case not too long ago in Michigan which a security guard tried to detain a suspected shoplifter and accidentally chocked him to death. I can tell you right now that store is facing a big lawsuit over that, and should. If you feel someone is breaking the law and stealing then call the cops and let them do their job.

[Crazyredhead]

And this is why the police is there. I just figured that there is a bad theft problem there. I don't know how they would figure out who is lifting something if a bunch of people are there at the time it goes off. I have seen then stop the whole bunch. I set off the alarm when me and my kids were there, but I did nothing. I didn't mind stopping. I once had the alarm go off when I went through with five buggy load of groceries.

I can take 5 buggies at once out the door and to my car, all by myself. That was the only time I left without stopping. Mostly because all the buggies were on a roll and I couldn't have stopped them in time, if I tried. By the time I would have stopped them, I would have been out the door and in the middle of the road. I felt so guilty about it, but unless she wanted to try and stop 5 heavily loaded buggies (would have been interesting), I wasn't stopping.

No swat team came after me, the FBI wasn't waiting on me at home. I was a little paranoid for a day or two and during my next trip there, but nothing happened.

I am on (falsley) probation and don't want to push the issue so I will stop and let them search. I ain't hiding nothing.

[Anthony K. S.]

Wait, hold on a second . . .

One of the stores he was complaining about was Costco, wasn't it?

I've never shopped at Costco and I don't know much about them, so I could be wrong about this . . . and if I am, I am more than willing to be corrected, but . . .

According to what I've heard about Costco, you need to sign up for a membership in order to shop there.

And you have to agree to let them search your packages and check your receipts upon leaving the store, as a condition of your getting a membership with them.

It is, in fact, stated in their membership agreement.

That being the case, I have to wonder . . . If he has such an issue with this procedure, then why did he agree to it in the first place?


"Costco is one of my favorite stores in the world, from a purely fiscal perspective. You do indeed save money there. Moreover, the employees at this well-organized, disturbingly efficient warehouse are consistently cheerful and helpful. The butcher shop is cleaner than those I see at the major grocers in town. You can get a case of Coke in glass bottles for just over $10."


Ah, now it makes sense. He likes to shop at Costco because he saves money there, and because he gets good service. Even taking into account the battles he has had with the store over this issue, he still seems to like Costco enough to continue shopping there.

The good points about Costco apparently outweigh the bad, at least in his mind.

And that, to me, is the whole point. Shopping at ANY store is a package deal. There will be things you like about it, and things you don't. You have to take the bad with the good . . . And if you decide that the bad really outweighs the good, then take your business elsewhere.


You are, of course, perfectly within your rights to express your views about whatever you don't like about a particular store.

Make a complaint, talk to the manager, write to corporate, if you wish . . . And if they consistently fail to address your concerns, then you have to decide whether or not shopping at that store is really worth it to you.

What you do NOT have the right to do, however, is to simply ignore the store's rules and policies because you don't like them or don't agree with them.

That is especially true when you specifically agreed to follow said rules as a condition of your being able to shop at that store.

As far as Wal-Mart and the other stores he complains about are concerned . . . I would say that he might have a valid point, but he is taking it out on the wrong people. He should be addressing his complaints to the corporate offices, the people who make these rules, rather than to the front-line employees who have no choice but to enforce them.

I also agree with the people who have said that he should be getting angry at the shoplifters who have caused all of this to happen, rather than at the retailers who are trying to protect themselves against such theft.

And when all is said and done, nobody is forcing him to continue shopping at these places. If he doesn't like their policies, he is free to take his business elsewhere.

But when he chooses to shop at Wal-Mart and the other retailers he mentioned, he also implicitly agrees to abide by their rules. He doesn't have the right to ignore those rules because he doesn't like them.

And with Costco in particular, he has NOTHING at all to stand on.

He specifically agreed to submit to these searches as a condition of his getting a membership with them, and he has no absolutely no grounds on which to be refusing to do so now.