You saw me at the register so why the hell do I gotta show my receipt?

[Bright_Star]

So I was at the exit door covering for a door greeter & up comes this couple. They walk right past me & I tell them that I have to see their receipt. The guy looks at me & snaps..."Damn! Why you gotta see my receipt when you just saw me me being checked out at the register!!!???? He hands it to me & I say nothing & just mark it off with my yellow magic marker & he grabs it back & walks away.
For one thing I didn't see him at the register. I'm busy checking receipts. For another-I wanted to say "I'm doing my job" BUT I thought I better keep my mouth shut cause I was afraid I was gonna say something stupid & get in trouble. My "Brain-to-mouth Filter" was iffy...lol.
Why people get so upset to show a receipt when it just takes a few seconds boggles my mind.
I agree that doing this is stupid but I'm doing what Sam's Club wants me to do.

[CaptainJaneway]

We do this in costco too. I think the reasoning is to make sure that the customers do not walk out with stuff they have not paid for.

Also sometimes a cashier may forget to ring something up, which i have done in the past or the customer may have been rung up for an item twice and they only had 1.

I like the idea because it cuts down on the shrink.

[Anriana]

Some people are so silly.

I always just smile, say "no thank you" and keep walking.

I would never snap at a greeter for asking; I know they don't make the policy.

[Pedersen]

Guy was a total jerk. In a place like Sam's Club, I'd stop (since that's part of the terms of membership). Outside of that, I'd decline to show and continue to walk, but without snapping.

Sorry you got such an ass, Bright_Star.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

If you work at Sam's Club, that guy agreed to have his receipt checked when he signed up for a membership. He was way out of line.

I won't stop for such a thing in a store where you don't agree beforehand, but I'm never nasty about it. And at Sam's, the guy has no right to refuse, its part of the terms of service of his membership. (But you know that. )

[Kagato]

The only place that I know of in NZ that actively checks receipts when a customer leaves the store is JB hi-fi, most of the other places have a policy that they can request to check bags/handbags/school bags, but they do not actively have someone standing at the door checking them.

[Mordecai]

If you work at Sam's Club, that guy agreed to have his receipt checked when he signed up for a membership. He was way out of line.

Agreed. If you don't want to follow a store's rules, don't shop there. Simple as that.

[TeaHouseLackey]

I won't stop for such a thing in a store where you don't agree beforehand, but I'm never nasty about it.

I've tried to do this before, but to be snobbish about it, but I just didn't feel like being accosted by one of Beast Buy's yellow-polo-shirted LP that day. On my way from the cashier to the exit, it played out something like this:

LP : (few gruff and authoritarian) Give me your receipt, sir.
Me : (startled) um.. you have a nice day, too. (And I kept walking)

LP then blocked the exit door with his girth, and said again "Receipt, sir." I gave a quizzical look and he followed with "because it's the LAW".

Now I understand corporate probably requires this sort of behavior to shrink loss, but it's now "the law"? I've always considered that once I've paid for something, it is now mine. Can anyone enlighten me as to this "law"?

[Aethian]

Our Sam's people just mark the reciept without even looking at it or even the cart it belongs to. Of course I remember back when I was a kid we were leaving the store and the greeter ripped open a box of chips we had bought to make sure we hadn't put anything in the box to steal.

When I asked why they had to open a hot glue sealed box Mom just looked at me and then straight at the person who opened the box and stated simply, "Because bad people steal and make all people bad."

[jiarby]

At Sams & the other warehouse membership places it is a condition of your membership to allow them to check your bags on the way out.... but at a regular store, the ownership of the product conveys to me as soon as I pay for it.

You have no right to search someones personal property without their consent. I never do it... Even if you post a sign it does not trump the Constitution. Sorry!

Even so... whenever I see this being done the guy with the yellow pen is just marking receipts without even looking so what's the point!?

[EricKei]

Yeah, most of them don't really look...I think it's more to discourage shrink than actually STOP it. Part of me sees the point, tho -- if people expect to be stopped like that, they're (theoretically) less likely to steal stuff to begin with. Then again, real shoplifters know where to hide their booty where the checker won't find it, so...yeah. >_<

[mandaliz8704]

I was coming out of walmart the other day with a pizza. (you know, the huge 16" pizzas they sell, yeah...one of those. The top of the box is cut out so you can see the plastic wrapped pizza.) and some dude with 2 full carts of stuff walked through the sensormatic thing at the same time I did.

Door chick stopped ME, and was oblivious to him. Wtf? Where am I going to hide something in my holey pizza box? I gave her my receipt with the one thing on it, and she got all pokey at the box...moving my cell phone and keys that were on top of the pizza... pretty much *in* the box.

she seriously stood there moving my phone and my keys around for a full 3 minutes before I cleared my throat and asked her if I could go home and eat. Weird.

I hope the guy enjoyed whatever the hell he lifted, cause I sure as hell didn't set off the door.

[Anthony K. S.]

I've noticed that the Constitution has been mentioned on this thread, as it often is on Internet forums discussing this particular topic.

Here, I would like to clarify something :

The Fourth Amendment only protects you from unreasonable searches by government officials, such as the police.

It does NOT guarantee you the right to be free from searches (whether reasonable or not) by private citizens or organizations, such as retail stores.

Wikipedia - Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution


(In case anybody is wondering . . . This does NOT mean that the police can have private citizens conducting unwarranted searches on their behalf.

Any person, whether a private citizen or a government official, who is acting on instructions or information from the police is legally considered an "agent" of the police, and is bound by the Fourth Amendment just as the police themselves are.)


None of this means that retail stores actually have the right to search your belongings without your consent. It just means that this isn't a Bill of Rights issue, that's all.

I could be wrong about this, but as far as I know . . . There is no law that gives merchants the power to detain customers for the purpose of searching a bag, unless they have reasonable suspicion of theft.

This, in turn, means that you, as the customer, have the right to refuse to submit to a search by a retail store.

In the absence of reasonable suspicion of theft, searching a customer's bag is only legal if the customer consents to it. They can't force you to let them search your belongings.


Of course, they also can't force you to show them your I.D. at the cash register . . . But they can refuse to accept an unsigned credit card from you if you won't show them your I.D.

Likewise, they may not be able to force you to submit to a search of your belongings, but they certainly can ban you from the premises for refusing. Or, in the case of Sam's Club, Costco, or other such places, revoke your membership.

[Mnemjian]

Here, I would like to clarify something : [...]

Thanks for that! I've always wondered about it. That makes a lot of sense.

At Fry's they always do the receipt check thingy. Usually they just mark it off without looking, but once the guy actually took everything out of my bag and compared the receipt for every item. Whatever, right, but it's just a little annoying because they didn't do it to the person in front of me Are you instructed to check closer for "suspicious" sorts of people?

And it's silly to get uppity with the receipt checker person, because it's not THEIR policy!

[EricKei]

I do believe AKS is right. The primary factor here being, the stores are private businesses (who are trying to protect their profits)...if you don't like their policy, vote with your wallet by not going back (please! ). They have the right to refuse service to whomever they like, and we all have the right to tell them (corporate, not people working there) to go themselves.