Wal-Mart sightings

[South Texan]

And if cops find you did nothing that merits arrest, Wal-Mart's on the hook.

Do not expect too much to come of that should it happen. Most police officers and judges grant a lot of latitude to employees who witness something suspicious and want it investigated - even if whatever the suspect did ends up not being enough to support an arrest.

It has to be a situation in which the LP detained someone for absolutely no reason or for something no reasonable person ever would have thought merited suspicion of a crime.

[Blade_Raver]

Let's all just be the bane of the guard at the door..

Just walk in.. buy *one* thing only.. check out.. go directly to the guard and force him to check your receipt...

Go out, put item in your vehicle.. go back in.. lather rinse repeat.

I'm sure if you can get a big group of people to do this.. and keep it up for like 5-6 hours... that guard will hate life and would probably stop checking receipts.

If they stop doing it for even a minute, put an exclamation point to this hard lesson by demanding to speak to a manager because your receipt was not checked. Be as much of a sucky customer about it as possible.

[smileyeagle1021]

Let's all just be the bane of the guard at the door..

Just walk in.. buy *one* thing only.. check out.. go directly to the guard and force him to check your receipt...

Go out, put item in your vehicle.. go back in.. lather rinse repeat.

I'm sure if you can get a big group of people to do this.. and keep it up for like 5-6 hours... that guard will hate life and would probably stop checking receipts.

If they stop doing it for even a minute, put an exclamation point to this hard lesson by demanding to speak to a manager because your receipt was not checked. Be as much of a sucky customer about it as possible.

or... just skip to talking to the manager... it's not the door person's fault that their manager and corporate policy sucks... besides... with the economy tanking it's likely that receipt checks will only become more common as shoplifting becomes more of a problem.

[MyEccentricHell]

Let's all just be the bane of the guard at the door..

Just walk in.. buy *one* thing only.. check out.. go directly to the guard and force him to check your receipt...

Go out, put item in your vehicle.. go back in.. lather rinse repeat.

I'm sure if you can get a big group of people to do this.. and keep it up for like 5-6 hours... that guard will hate life and would probably stop checking receipts.

If they stop doing it for even a minute, put an exclamation point to this hard lesson by demanding to speak to a manager because your receipt was not checked. Be as much of a sucky customer about it as possible.

The person at the door is just doing their job & chances are they are already being given a hard time about it at least a dozen times daily. Remember it's not their fault.

[bainsidhe]

Now wait a minute, why are so many people seemingly going out of their way to be jerks about it? I can understand if you were met with rudeness (as in Smiley's case), but politely asking to see your receipt? C'mon, I've played the part of "door guard" myself. Had someone two weeks ago conveniently "forget" to purchase the TV in their cart (they used self-checks). Yeah, mmhmm. And when they swear the TV is on the receipt and I ask them to show me where, I really mean it. Suddenly they didn't want the TV anymore. Had another guy trying to walk out with beer. Beer. Dropped it and ran out the door, right after handing me a receipt for Nyquil (methinks he picked it up from the floor). I didn't think Keystone was even worth trying to steal

Point is, I understand it's an inconvenience. Take it for what it is, a deterrant to theft. Instead of trying to take it personally and willfully causing problems for the poor employees and store, please be more understanding and get off the high horse. I agree with Smiley about extending courtesy regarding a company's rules while on their property.

And regarding the question about checking receipts for dog food, bottled water, etc.. A cashier's focus is what's in front of them. The merchandise, belt and customer stand between the cashier and cart. It's very easy to miss seeing even large bags of items placed underneath or in the cart. Should this happen? Of course not. But I'm also not the most observant person by hour seven in my shift.

Thanks all for letting me voice my opinion, even if it's a dissenting one to many I've seen here.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Thanks all for letting me voice my opinion, even if it's a dissenting one to many I've seen here.

Well, I agree with you. The door person is just doing what they are instructed to do. If you really want to get into it, take it up with management or corporate. And as amusing as it is to think about getting all your friends to come in and give them a hard time, or call the police, would you really bother? Regardless of the technical legality of it, is it really worth the time and energy to drag the police out to the store when you could just take 5 seconds to flash your receipt and be done with it?

[AmericanKryptonite]

bainsidhe said: "Point is, I understand it's an inconvenience. Take it for what it is, a deterrant to theft. Instead of trying to take it personally and willfully causing problems for the poor employees and store, please be more understanding and get off the high horse."

Receipt checking is a minor visual deterrent for greenhorn kleptos, but real shoplifters will steal regardless. The practice, then, is like the old cliche about outlawing guns -- it penalizes honest people, not the scofflaws who will simply ignore it.

Because shoplifting laws require a store to meet a high established legal standard (usually probable cause, in a few states, reasonable suspicion) to detain someone, all the door guards can do is ask to see your receipt. If you politely decline and leave the store, you're not causing them any problems -- you were pleasant, and it's your right to refuse their inspection.

The biggest misconception is that their job is to check receipts. Wrong. Their job is to ASK to check receipts. It's just like sales and telemarketing -- their job is to ask, but it's my right to say no.

[Kyree]

Thanks all for letting me voice my opinion, even if it's a dissenting one to many I've seen here.

No, thank you.

Reading this, and many other threads that this topic comes into, and reading the answering posts makes me sad.

Most of us work in retail here. All of us on this site deal with sucky customers coming to us day after day, yelling at us about stupid corporate policies. They take it out on us. Us peons, who CAN'T do anything about it, accept stand there and take it. We come here, and we vent about those people. We type time after time saying how we wish those people would understand that we can't do anything about it, and it does absolutely no good to complain, moan, whine, yell, stomp their feet, raise hell over it.

And now you guys want to turn around and do it to others. Over something they have no control over. They're trying to make money to support themselves and their families. The guy in Smileyeagle's post was in the wrong, but the ones who come and politely ask to see your receipt?

It's pathetic. And all of you who really think it would be fun to play jokes and make those door checkers day hell? I really, really hope a horde of sucky customers come up to your job and do the exact same thing to you.

Be mad at the company, not at the poor person who has to enforce the policy, just like every one of us has to do at our jobs.

[Misanthropical]

Personally, I would keep walking. I wouldn't give the door person a hard time, but they are going to have to follow me to my car and tell me on what grounds they want to see my receipt.

There aren't any signs when going in saying that by shopping there you agree to be stopped on the way out to show your receipt.

Now, my husband, on the other hand, is much nicer than me and does show the receipt.

One time, he accidently handed the greeter our Wegman's receipt, which she caught right away and told him she needed to see the Wal-Mart receipt, which he dug out and let her look at it.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

No, thank you.

Reading this, and many other threads that this topic comes into, and reading the answering posts makes me sad.

Most of us work in retail here. All of us on this site deal with sucky customers coming to us day after day, yelling at us about stupid corporate policies. They take it out on us. Us peons, who CAN'T do anything about it, accept stand there and take it. We come here, and we vent about those people. We type time after time saying how we wish those people would understand that we can't do anything about it, and it does absolutely no good to complain, moan, whine, yell, stomp their feet, raise hell over it.

And now you guys want to turn around and do it to others. Over something they have no control over. They're trying to make money to support themselves and their families. The guy in Smileyeagle's post was in the wrong, but the ones who come and politely ask to see your receipt?

It's pathetic. And all of you who really think it would be fun to play jokes and make those door checkers day hell? I really, really hope a horde of sucky customers come up to your job and do the exact same thing to you.

Be mad at the company, not at the poor person who has to enforce the policy, just like every one of us has to do at our jobs.

I agree 100% with this. If you object to receipt checking, complain to management or write a letter to corporate. Part of their job is addressing customer complaints and issues.

If you make a scene and berate somebody who's just doing as they were told, you're no better than the SCs you claim to despise, and you'd better not complain if somebody else berates YOU for a policy you had no say in implementing, because I'd hate for you to be a hypocrite or anything.

[smileyeagle1021]

Kyree and IPF... thank you.

I have no problem with receipt checks... what I had a problem with was the guy being a dick about it when I made no indication that I was even going to try to avoid the check. That and I have no right to bitch about a door person doing a reciept check if I'm going to complain about people who bitch at me about our policy of not printing receipts for 3rd party bookings... guess what, both policies have been in effect longer than either me or the door person have been in either of our industries, yelling at us won't do anything other than earn you a post on this site.

[ditchdj]

You dont have a right to "detain" me for anything unless you SAW me shoplift something. I don't think a cop can even do that without a warrant.

Besides, that's really stupid anyway. How do you know the person you're detaining doesn't have a weapon???

Besides, if that kind of shit was legal then you could have LP guys barging to people's houses without warrants and arresting people. The REAL WAY to handle it is to take them to court. Bury their asses in front of a judge where it matters.

[wanderingjoe72]

I have no problem showing receipts at (membership) box stores. If I do find a regular store that feels they need to do that, I just don't shop there. Especially wal mart, but then again my city is big enough that I have choices. I feel for the people that have only a walmart as their choice. My heart goes out to you.

[Kogarashi]

Thank you, IPF, kyree, and bainsidhe.

As a former Wal-Mart cashier, I've filled in for the door-greeters before and had to do the receipt check on exiting customers. The only policy I'd ever been told at the stores I worked (in upstate NY and CT) was that we needed to check the receipt if the customer had a large, expensive item (TV, furniture, etc.) because those were big-ticket theft items. We also had to check if a customer set off the door alarm while leaving. Otherwise, if the item was unbagged, we could usually ignore it. Most customers were fine with showing the receipt quickly on their way out. A few times, this actually deterred thieves of things like televisions, stereos, and alcohol.

Most of the door alarm stops were because new cashiers had forgotten (yet again) to deactivate the security tag in an item, or the item was too large to deactivate, or the register's deactivator was broken. We needed to keep record of these things so the cashiers in question could be given further training and the broken machines fixed, because Corporate was really on our cases about reducing the number of times the alarm went off in one day. (Nevermind the door-greeters who, for some reason, insisted on standing between the sensors while checking the bags, thus resulting in the alarm racking up a good 5-10 counts for one item.)

Shame on those of you who want to give the door-greeter a hard time about it when they're just doing what Corporate tells them. If you've got such a problem and want to bring up the legal issues, talk to management or Corporate. Don't take it out on the minimum-wage peons.

[JustADude]

Shame on those of you who want to give the door-greeter a hard time about it when they're just doing what Corporate tells them. If you've got such a problem and want to bring up the legal issues, talk to management or Corporate. Don't take it out on the minimum-wage peons.

Once again: if I have something un-bagged (especially something huge) or if the alarm goes off, I have no problem, repeat NO PROBLEM, with presenting my receipt. However, as you yourself have mentioned, the greeters are NOT supposed to check receipts if everything is bagged and nothing sets the alarm off.

In that situation, I am going to assume that I'm being targeted because they think I 'look like a thief' or (for the 'old fuddy-duddy' types) just to hassle me because I'm a guy with long hair... and that is not going to fly with me.