Walmart Steals Your Cart Because You Won't Let Them Check Your Receipt

[Bob Hubbard]

Walmart Steals Your Cart Because You Won't Let Them Check Your Receipt

Lisa says a Walmart greeter grabbed onto her cart and and wouldn't let her leave because she refused to let the greeter check her receipt. That, my friends, is not legal. Sure, it would make life a lot easier if people just acquiesced to the receipt-checking, but it's not the law. It is against the law, however, to unlawfully detain a customer. Here's Lisa's account: More »

 

[Carol]

Bizarre. I'm just pissed at my local Wal-Mart because they are about to go from 24 hour operation to closing at midnight every night. This means the only retailers open when I leave work are a couple of tiny convenience stores and a Walgreens.

 

[MBuzzy]

Doesn't matter, it isn't like they actually look. They've been checking carts at our wal-mart and Sam's club as long as I've been going there and NOT ONCE have they actually looked at anything. They take a highlighter, cross off the receipt and let you go. Shows what happens when your workers don't care.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I asked the door ding at a BJ's why they were looking at receipts. She said to verify the counts match. So, I asked, "How many items in the cart?". I got a blank stare, and she started to reach for my receipt. I said, "No, how many items are in there?" This was a hugely piled cart i might add. No way you can count without emptying it. Short version, manager comes over and wants to know the hold up. I said, "She's having difficulty counting". So I was told to just show the reciept and go. I folded it over twice, and held it so it wouldn't open so she could punch her little hole in it, and left.

 

[Carol]

I've only had my receipt checked at BJs. I've never had it checked at a Walmart.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I got stopped at a KMart. I told the individual that I wouldn't be returning. Haven't.

 

[Thesemindz]

I've only had my receipt checked at BJs. I've never had it checked at a Walmart.

At my local walmart they only check your receipt if you don't have a cart, like if you're just "free hand" carrying items out of the store. If you have a cart they don't check.

I know because they were checking some teenagers receipts one day and I noticed they just waved adults through, so I challenged them and asked why they were profiling teens. That was the reasoning I was presented with.

I'm ok with it. If I don't like it, I don't have to shop there.


-Rob

 

[arnisador]

After they give you the receipt for having given them the money...it's yours, right? I suppose all they could do is ban you from returning to the store?

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Legally, once you pay for it, it is yours. That includes them no longer having any legal right to take your property to deactivate that anti-theft tag the cashier failed to hit with the magnet. Door buzzer goes off, I keep walking. Slowly. They touch me, I'm filing for assault...then 'm buyin more ram for the server.

 

[tellner]

At Fry's they actually check every item.

 

[shesulsa]

Costco gives a quick visual check. I thought it was bunk too but one of the door checkers actually found an error on my receipt in my favor - was rung for two of an item when I only purchased one. Got my refund in cash within 5 minutes.

I've never actually been stopped at Walmart except for having a large item in the cart available outside the registers near the doors - she looked for that item on the receipt; also when I set the buzzers off, I voluntarily stop ... now THAT guy DID go through every item in my cart.

 

[harlan]

Just a small aside: the Walmart where I work last year was missing almost $250,000 in merchandise. 'Shrinkage' is the euphimism...for theft. Quarter of a million dollars of merchandise missing...from ONE store.

The problem with Walmart...is the management. Not unskilled, underpaid door 'greeter', or whatever current boob may be listed as 'manager' at your local Wal-Mart...but the management centered at Bentenville, Arkansas.

 

[Steve]

Just a small aside: the Walmart where I work last year was missing almost $250,000 in merchandise. 'Shrinkage' is the euphimism...for theft. Quarter of a million dollars of merchandise missing...from ONE store.

The problem with Walmart...is the management. Not unskilled, underpaid door 'greeter', or whatever current boob may be listed as 'manager' at your local Wal-Mart...but the management centered at Bentenville, Arkansas.

I can't speak to the quality of the management, but large scale theft hits everyone hard. It's big business. From baby formula to glasses frames to toothbrushes, entire shelves are cleared.

For anyone interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organized_retail_crime

Checking receipts does help keep entire carts full of merchandise from walking out the door.

 

[Kreth]

Checking receipts does help keep entire carts full of merchandise from walking out the door.

It's understandable. The fact that they profile is annoying though. I can stop at Wal-Mart on my way home from work, dressed in business casual, and they wave me by and tell me to have a nice day. But if I stop there on a weekend, wearing jeans and a concert T, with visible tattoos, I get stopped every time.
The loss prevention guys are just as bad. I posted in another thread about some of the fun I have with them.

 

[clfsean]

It's understandable. The fact that they profile is annoying though. I can stop at Wal-Mart on my way home from work, dressed in business casual, and they wave me by and tell me to have a nice day. But if I stop there on a weekend, wearing jeans and a concert T, with visible tattoos, I get stopped every time.
The loss prevention guys are just as bad. I posted in another thread about some of the fun I have with them.

Same here except I don't get stopped... unless the wife & kids are with me. If it's just me, I never get checked for anything.

 

[jks9199]

Just a small aside: the Walmart where I work last year was missing almost $250,000 in merchandise. 'Shrinkage' is the euphimism...for theft. Quarter of a million dollars of merchandise missing...from ONE store.

The problem with Walmart...is the management. Not unskilled, underpaid door 'greeter', or whatever current boob may be listed as 'manager' at your local Wal-Mart...but the management centered at Bentenville, Arkansas.

Not exactly...

Retail shrink is the total loss in inventory from what's supposed to be there on the records. There are many causes; outside theft is only one of them. (And, depending on who you ask, not even the largest!) Other factors include inventory errors, like receiving 1 box of an item, when each individual item was supposed to be counted, improperly documented store use conversion (grabbing a roll of tape or whatever for legitimate in-store use that's not credited properly), employee theft (everything from misuse of employee discounts, false tagging, failure to ring up items for friends, to outright theft by walking merchandise out the door), and other factors.

Which is why the "checkers" at the doors piss me off. Do it right, and I don't have a problem... but too many are insulting or random in how they do their job. And that doesn't help...

 

[jks9199]

Bizarre. I'm just pissed at my local Wal-Mart because they are about to go from 24 hour operation to closing at midnight every night. This means the only retailers open when I leave work are a couple of tiny convenience stores and a Walgreens.

Lots of places are cutting back 24 hour operations... I don't know that it's really going to save much money, because most of them actually have overnight crews working anyway... I'd keep the doors open (reasonable security permitting, of course) and have someone able to run the register because even a few sales offset some of the cost of the night crew, to me...

 

[harlan]

Yes, you are correct.

But as an employee, the atmosphere we operate in is one where theft is the aspect that is constantly in the foreground. The other aspects, such as inventory procedures, depend on management. Train, and retrain. The old Sam Walton slogan, 'Value your employees...' has become nothing more than lip service. Security suggestions from the floor/salespeople...go nowhere. For an example, 6 laptops walked out the lawn and garden door from a ring in one theft. The door had been left unmanned. Why? Because management cuts back on floor coverage (=payroll) in the search for constant 'profit'.

Not exactly...

Retail shrink is the total loss in inventory from what's supposed to be there on the records. There are many causes; outside theft is only one of them. (And, depending on who you ask, not even the largest!) Other factors include inventory errors, like receiving 1 box of an item, when each individual item was supposed to be counted, improperly documented store use conversion (grabbing a roll of tape or whatever for legitimate in-store use that's not credited properly), employee theft (everything from misuse of employee discounts, false tagging, failure to ring up items for friends, to outright theft by walking merchandise out the door), and other factors.

Which is why the "checkers" at the doors piss me off. Do it right, and I don't have a problem... but too many are insulting or random in how they do their job. And that doesn't help...

 

[Archangel M]

If there weren't so many thieving losers out there there wouldn't be such a big issue.

I really don't know what these stores are willing to do if you refuse to show your receipt. I would think that the options are..let you go or return your money and bar you from the store (which they can do as a private property) depending on policy.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Circuit City's called the cops a few times. Best Buy's done it as well.