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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.
What the fuck are you talking about.
Idiocracy. Great movie, it shows the decline of society due to the lack of education and increased birthrates of those who could not care less about anything but corporations. In one scene they go to Costco and the greeter says, "Welcome to Costco, I love you."
The person who replied to my original post thought the movie promoted eugenics. I guess to a point, but it is more of a warning than a glorification.
There is nothing they can do legally besides ban you going forward. Unless you actually stole something
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.
I did this today as you suggested. I pretended I was deaf and didn't even look at them when they tried waving at me and calling me. Normal employees no yellow vest either so they're not even AP. Just kept walking
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.
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%27s_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.
It doesn't sound like they typically check for most items, just the expensive ones and the date on the receipt. That makes it even more theater and less practical.
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.
Nothing like being treated like a criminal when I go into a store to give them money.
Stores lose a huge amount of money to shop lifting. They won't risk profits unless it is worth it.
It’s actually down in most areas.
Broader claims about trends in retail theft have not panned out. Walgreens, for example, cited spikes in shoplifting as an explanation for falling profits and store closures. The claim has since been retracted. Target blamed theft for a rash of store closures. But an analysis by researcher Jeff Asher showed that, according to the limited data available, the stores Target closed in Portland and Seattle had less crime than stores that were not closing. Reporting by CNBC in September 2023 also cast doubt on retailer claims about the impact of theft, noting that “certain retailers” have “pulled back” from blaming organized theft as “a primary cause of losses.” In fact, to the extent it can be relied upon, industry data cuts against the idea of a recent national spike in retail theft.
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…
Yeah, I see them counting the times in my cart every time I leave. The receipts have total number of items listed at the bottom.
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.
Grocery stores crying about theft after firing clerks and replaced them with self check...
Fuxking idiots won't connect the two dots because paying people money for work is fucking cancer to the parasite.
It does work as it plays on your subconscious self.
Same thing with stuffed police men and parked police cars.
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.
There are other shops beside Walmart, aren't there?
They work similar to captchas... They are not there for your benefit. They are there to make a corpo parasite feel like they are doing a thing.
You can refuse the check and there is really nothing they can do beyond banning you.
If you didn't commit a crime and they try to detain you, they gonna have a fat law suit against them. So they won't really bother to do anything.
Captchas are actually a great tool for reducing spam and botting. Depending on the platform, they can directly benefit you. Captchas and manual approval for Lemmy account signups are directly responsible for the lack of spambots on this platform. The problem is that captchas got co-opted to force people to give companies free AI training data.
As with everything else big tech touches...
Benefit is for them first, always
The idea is to make people who are stealing nervous
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
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.
They can see my receipt for 10 bucks
the club stores have been doing this for awhile. normalization of it is definately another step on the road to dystopia though.
Maybe we could stop shop lifting? It costs the stores money and profit loses to do this.
My Walmart scans the receipt and then scans 3 items from your cart to verify they're on the receipt.
Good thing they didnt check that 4th item I stole
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?