OT - Walmart receipt check - what's the point?

[dqpowell]

To expand on my last post just a little bit:

Circuit City (or Walmart, or any other store) gain probable cause to detain you only if very specific conditions have been met. These conditions vary from state to state, but in NO circumstance is simply declining a bag check good enough to establish probable cause. Again, if it were, then the protections of the fourth amendment would be meaningless.

Typically what's required is that a store employee must witness somebody concealing store property and then not pay for it. Furthermore, in most states that witness must maintain constant, unbroken visual contact with the perpetrator to ensure that they didn't have a change of heart and put the item back when the witness wasn't looking. Then they have probable cause to detain somebody. There are states that have laws against concealing items (even if the person doesn't try to exit the store), but I don't think these laws have been tested in the higher courts.

In any case, the point remains that declining to have your bag and receipt checked upon exiting the store is not probable cause to detain you.

David

 

[dqpowell]

One last comment. For many people, having their bag checked against their receipt upon exiting a store is a minor hassle at worst, compared with the potential hassle that could occur if the store employee requesting the bag check doesn't understand the law. That's exactly what happened to Michael Righi -- the store employees were under the mistaken impression that they had a legal right to detain him for refusing the bag check.

In an ideal world, everybody would understand the law and correctly apply it in any given situation. However that's a sorta ridiculous standard to apply to minimum-wage employees watching the exits of a typical Walmart. Typically, they only know that they were told by management to check receipts against the contents of a bag, and figure if they don't do it they could get in trouble.

So even though in principal I agree with Michael Righi's stance, I don't know that I myself would go to the extreme he did in his case. He was right, but it has cost him tens of thousands of dollars to fight the good fight.

Sometimes I comply with bag/receipt check requests, particularly at BJ's Wholesale Club, which I am a member of. I agreed to allow such checks when I got the membership card.

In other stores, I have occasionally complied with bag check requests, simply because I didn't feel like arguing if it came to that. On other occasions I have declined bag checks, but have never been challenged on it. If I were challenged, my solution would not be to stand my ground according to the strict letter of the law as Michael Righi did. Instead, I would tell the employee that if they insist on a bag/receipt check (i.e., if they're going to treat their customers like criminals), I will be happy to comply at the returns counter of the store -- they can search my bag and compare it to my receipt upon the condition that they refund my money for all items in the bag at the same time. I will not do business with a store that tries to force compliance with a policy that violates my civil rights.

David

 

[MM27]

BJ's and Costco do it. At BJ's I always go to the self check line because I prefer to ring up my own sale. The receipt notes that it was done at the self check lane and it makes sense for them to check your cart there because a cashier did not see your cart.

At Walmart, the only time anyone has ever checked my receipt was when I had something too large for a bag that they, I guess, wanted to see if the cashier rang up.

 

[dqpowell]

BJ's and Costco do it. At BJ's I always go to the self check line because I prefer to ring up my own sale. The receipt notes that it was done at the self check lane and it makes sense for them to check your cart there because a cashier did not see your cart.

It still doesn't "make sense." It only makes sense if they want to assume that everybody using their self-checkout lines is a criminal. The scales built into the checkout belt prevent any obvious theft by comparing the weight of the item put on the belt to the database entry for the item that was just scanned.

That said, BJ's members did sign an agreement when they got their memberships permitting receipt checks at the exit. I comply with the receipt checks at BJ's, but frankly the reasoning behind them is deeply flawed.

David

 

[Mono~rail]

They do those receipt checks at the WMs around here, and it gets on my nerves. I just don't have the time to argue with them if I were to refuse. That said, I rarely shop there. I prefer to do my shopping at Target and Kroger.

Our local CC doesn't do it, but BB does. I very rarely go to either one of those stores though.

It is easier for me to use my double side by side stroller as my shopping cart because my twins aren't big enough to walk around the store yet. I'd never get any shopping done. None of the employees anywhere have ever given me a hassle, but it sounds like they could if they wanted to. I use the basket underneath the seats as my "cart".

 

[Mouse House Mama]

This really doesn't do anything. Even if you stopped me with a cart full of unpaid merchandise and asked to see my receipt, if I didn't have it, you couldn't do anything about it until I was out your front door anyway. Even if you see me blatantly put a big Christmas Ham down the front of my shirt, you can't do anything about it until I walk out the door. Because if you do, I can just say that I hadn't paid yet and had every intention of paying.

I learned this ever retail place I've ever worked.

Kimya

I have this insane picture of a woman with a white button down shirt on with a ham in it dancing around a security guard like it is New Years Eve. I don't know why but that is what my head instantly conjured up. Think Charo.