Walmart near me has started using receipt checkers lately and they don’t even really do their job, it’s kind of a gimmick really. They just look at the receipt for a second Don’t even look at your cart, but they stop you every time. It’s just such a waste of my time when I’m in a hurry. I had one person even tell me that it was required by law. No it’s not! There’s no law in the USA that says they have to check your receipt.
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Every time they try to stop me at Walmart, I just say, no thank you, and keep walking. Nobody’s ever tried to stop me from leaving the store.
Sam’s club and Costco are a little different. I begrudgingly stop there because of the membership. We technically agreed to it in the terms of signing up.
Walmart receipt checkers infuriate me but Costco receipt checkers do not because Walmart is a predatory shithole while Costco is the opposite of that. It’s the same reason why I don’t give a shit if people steal from Walmart.
Costco is just as predatory. It is all about profit and they aren’t your friend.
“Welcome to Costco, I love you.”
Please don’t promote a movie that encourages eugenics.
Does it though? To me, it shows the horrors that it leads to. It does promote the idea that even the most average person can have ideas that can improve living conditions if given the chance.
As everyone has said, they have no legal basis to stop you from walking out, unless they’re asserting shopkeeper’s privilege, which has certain limits and opens them up to possible liability. This is why employees are trained that only managers and Loss Prevention can do that.
However, they absolutely are able to ban you from a store for not complying. How effective a ban is at a store that sees thousands of people walking in every day, I’m not sure. But it’s something to keep in mind if you have limited other options nearby.
However, they absolutely are able to ban you from a store for not complying. How effective a ban is at a store that sees thousands of people walking in every day, I’m not sure. But it’s something to keep in mind if you have limited other options nearby.
This.
Don’t take the advice of ‘Ignore them and push past them’. You can get trespassed by LP and if you’re caught in that store again it is a misdemeanor and you’ll be arrested, processed into the local jail and have to post bond.
Your store may not do this but it is completely within their right to trespass anybody for any reason and if they’re a store with a lot of theft then they’re more likely to target the people who are attempting to bypass their screening.
They’re standing there during time periods where there is likely to be theft so that, if they’re clued in by LP, they can stop an individual and check their receipts. The average customer they’re going to simply look at your receipt and let you go on your way because they have no reason to suspect you. If they thought that you specifically were stealing then they’d be inventorying your cart.
you’re full of shit… i’ve declined every time at many different stores….
it’s your property once you buy it, they can’t compel you to show them your underwear either… if they started banning people for that they’d get sued and lose.
the ONLY caveat is at membership stores like costco, where you sign an agreement that includes the receipt checkersIf a private business decides to trespass you for any or no reason, what would be the basis of your lawsuit?
You are correct that you own the items after you purchase them, and the store has no right to stop you unless they are asserting shopkeeper’s privilege. For that, I believe they would need reasonable articulable suspicion just like any investigatory stop by law enforcement.
But at the same time, a private business has every right to ask you to leave for any reason at all, as long as they are not discriminating based on a protected class. They can tell you that you’re not welcome back, and if you return then you will almost certainly be breaking your state’s trespass law.
In reality, I don’t really see any store wanting to start the widespread trespassing of customers who are just walking out of a store with their purchased items (assuming no prior agreement with the store to stop or show receipt). It would be a big customer service risk on behalf of the store. However, it’s also untrue to say that just walking past a receipt checker is completely devoid of the risk of a store banning you.
To put it another way: you’re at a friend’s house, and he says you must stand on your head and sing the alphabet. You refuse. He has no legal way to compel you to comply. But he can ask you to leave his house and not come back. Your refusal to comply with his ridiculous alphabet related request is perfectly valid, but doing so can also bring some amount of risk that you’re no longer be welcome.
I once sat and chatted with one of these guys waiting for a bad downpour to stop. Being stopped sucks, I know, but here’s some insider information:
They are stopping you for appearances. They absolutely are skimming your receipt, they really don’t care about you personally. It’s all circus.
If they are looking, they are looking for the big loss items. That TV that gets rung up in the back, was it actually rung up? The water case under the cart coming from self checkout? Another big loser for the company. Coming with a tote or loaded cart from the wrong direction is a little obvious to everyone.
Every other stop is for show. To remind the tote runner they are watching. To make the TV thief skittish. It’s all about appearances and breaking down resolve. The door guys can’t stop you, but they can make you afraid that they are vigilant and someone who can is waiting(and the salarymen can, shopkeeper’s privilege apparently in the US). It does work, loaded carts abandoned near the doors apparently testify to the effectiveness.
Some door hosts get by with being passive, they are supposed to be pretty chill and friendly, and dial up the theatrics when someone is reported to be suspicious or when a “frequent flyer” walks in. But that just makes it seem discriminatory and unbalanced so apparently some managers want the theatrics 24/7 to avoid the complaints of unfair treatment.
But that just makes it seem discriminatory and unbalanced so apparently some managers want the theatrics 24/7 to avoid the complaints of unfair treatment.
This was in the back of my mind the entire time I was reading your comment. They may want to stop shoppers based only on when they see red-flag items in their cart, but that would leave things open for the door hosts to (consciously or not) stop shoppers based on the appearance of the shopper themselves. To mitigate that gray area, they decide to just stop everybody.
someone who can is waiting(and the salarymen can, shopkeeper’s privilege apparently in the US)
Can you elaborate on this? I’ve never heard of it.
I understand that each state makes adjustments to this which may grant more or less powers, but here’s a Wikipedia on the overall concept:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopkeeper's_privilege
So for example during the aforementioned security theater at the doors, someone who is legally a representative of the company ownership(generally the managers making salaries are bonded to this) is doing their best to catch someone in the act of stealing, putting something in a coat, loading a cart and bypassing the register, etc, and this gives them grounds for some mild detainment. This apparently covers them stopping you at the door or firmly requesting you join them in their office to clear things up(and wait for the real authorities), and means no one questions if they grab the cart which is company property and doesn’t let you leave with it.
Of course, it’s perfectly reasonable that if you know someone stole something, you can stop them. Under the prerequisite conditions section, it is stated that:
The shopkeeper has reasonable grounds to suspect the particular person detained is shoplifting.
Wouldn’t that mean that someone who has done nothing suspicious other than refusing the check would not be giving anyone reasonable grounds to stop them? Or does just refusing count as reasonable grounds and make the check effectively legally mandatory?
I think you have it right. Refusing the check is not alone sufficient grounds, and that is why if you (politely, no reason to be a jerk, they’re just cogs in a machine working for a pittance) refuse and walk away, they just turn to the next one.
It is, as many have concurred, for show. The idea that you may get asked, the anxiety that develops thinking you might get caught, deters all but the most hardened thieves. Same with exterior lights on a home; before cameras what good did a lightbulb do to stop a thief? Does a lightbulb injure or detain a thief? Call the cops for you? No. It upsets their resolve. The light may make them visible to a witness they aren’t aware of. And a witness might call the cops or hurt them. On to a darker house, then!
It’s not just about what’s legal for the store employees to do either. Were I a thief, I wouldn’t be worried the manager is going to ban me from the store, or the frail old lady they have at the door is a threat, I’d be more concerned what vigilante schmuck is going to “help” the store by taking matters into his own hands after he overhears me arguing with the greeter or manager. The store gives up after you leave the sidewalk, “hometown heroes” don’t.
Straight theft aside, I imagine it does also help them recover some losses from mistakes. Any time they catch somebody with legit missed items under the cart and guide them towards fixing it, loss averted. Start noticing it happens a lot from a particular cashier or self checkout supervisor and get them corrected, more losses averted. I imagine you’d need a fairly wide sample set to figure it out?
It’s not a…totally unfair concept in theory, but they really aught to find a way to make it feel less adversarial and it would be more tolerable.
Just… Don’t stop? Keep walking. They legally can’t stop you and they know it. It’s a psychological barrier, not a physical or legal barrier. Make direct eye contact, smile, say “No, thanks” and keep walking. It’s worked for me so far.
Iirc they just check the date to make sure you arent using an old receipt so that might explain why they look at it so briefly, not that they really get paid enough to do anything more
The idea is to make people who are stealing nervous
It’s security theater. They have a whole department, loss control, that watches the cameras and double checks the inventory counts to find thieves and track stuff, plus RFID detectors for high value stuff. Anything that slips through the cracks ends up either insured or a write off that their accountants can use to justify not paying corporate taxes.
So when you see the receipt checker, derisively say no and keep walking. And if they lay so much as a finger on you, file assault charges.
After all, if the corporations can abuse the system, so can you.
Considering that the walmart near me uses exclusively elderly and/or special needs people to do receipt checking, I’m not so sure the “charge them with assault if they so much as touch you” is a great idea.
Decades ago, my father would have some fun with the receipt checkers at Costco. After a shopping trip, we’d commonly have lunch at the cafe in Costco. When leaving the store, he’d hand the receipt checker the receipt for lunch rather than the receipt for the items bought. More than half the time, the checker would just swipe the receipt with a highlighter (their way of marking it “checked”) without noticing that it was the wrong receipt. So ya, it’s complete security theater. Anyone with a modicum of thought can figure ways around it, and it only accomplishes inconveniencing the people who aren’t trying to get away with anything.
I’d be surprised if that worked these days. They do much more than just a cursory check whenever we go. And they also now scan your membership when you enter, and your photo pops up on their tablets. I’d be curious what would happen if the photo didn’t match…
You don’t have to stop. I never do. I might say hi in passing when I walk by them and catch eye contact. If one ever tells me I need to stop for them to check, I would tell them to check the security cameras. We are tracked the entire time we are in there. I’m not stopping for them to pretend to check for shop lifters.
I’ve seen people in line waiting to be checked. WTF is wrong with people. They are not entitled to your time. You already paid for it. The transaction is done. If they want to do something else with my stuff, go check the tapes.
I only experience this at Costco and my theory is that they just check that it’s a receipt from today, and that it is about the right length for your size of cart. On top of just making sure you have a receipt at all, this would make it harder to walk out with a pirate cart. Plus there’s just an overall deterrence because you don’t really know how much they are checking. Maybe every 10th person gets a real look-over.
Security theater, just like the TSA. They don’t need to stop bad actors, they just need to convince their shareholders that they are taking action against losses.
It does work as it plays on your subconscious self.
Same thing with stuffed police men and parked police cars.
They can see my receipt for 10 bucks
I read that as recipe checker and got more and more confused reading that. Are they now having people checking your recipes in the shop to make sure you got all the ingredients?
A lot of the time they just peek into the bag for like two seconds and look at the receipt and wave you off. What’s the point? If you’re THAT concerned with what’s in the bag, you know it would take much longer than seconds. The entryway would just be a TSA-like checkpoint, but with your purchases. You’ll almost never get out in a timely manner.
My Walmart scans the receipt and then scans 3 items from your cart to verify they’re on the receipt.
Nope, unless you’re speaking about Sam’s, Walmart cannot force you to submit to that search. You are willingly allowing them to stop you. A no thanks have a nice day is more than enough
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