A WALMART customer has complained that one of the retailer’s security measures is so bothersome he nearly requested a manager.
The shopper explained that they were confused about why some Walmart stores have employees stop customers on their way out the door to check their receipts.
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On X, formerly known as Twitter, a user stated that associates who work at the big box retailer “ask for our receipt like they are going to check everything on the receipt.”
“Give me a break,” Edwin Johnson (@Body13ag__) stressed in a post.
“That is a bunch of crap, screw that store. I’ll go to the other Walmart next, and if they pull that again…”
The shopper then went on to express what they would’ve done about the inconvenience if they weren’t in such a rush to get out of the store.
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“I’m asking for the manager and they can rescan all my items,” Johnson said.
“If I wasn’t in a hurry, I would have then. Lol, it was so stupid. She didn’t even check them. She just looked at my long receipt and my face and said ‘ok.'”
Another consumer who shops at Walmart recently shared why she doesn’t appreciate the company’s anti-theft method involving the receipt checking for herself.
“The first and last time I stop for a receipt check at @Walmart,” Monique (@sloppytortilla) said in a post.
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“And their employee about got the s**t slapped out of them for grabbing my cart to prevent me leaving AFTER I showed the receipt,
“After checking out at self check out right f*****g next to them. Thats harassment.”
Another Walmart fan chimed in.
“My son gets checked every time, they never check mine,” a shopper said under Monique’s post.
“They admitted under the the cursory look doesn’t stop theft anyway. Waste of time and the greeter could be more use actually helping customers.”
“I’d be much cooler with it if they didn’t stop me after checking out right next to them,” the original poster responded.
Legality of receipt checks and detention
In an effort to curtail retail crime, stores are increasingly turning to receipt checks as shoppers exit.
Legally, stores can ask to see a customer’s receipts, and membership-only stores have the right to demand such checks if shoppers agreed to terms and conditions that authorize it.
Many legal professionals have weighed in and come to similar conclusions, caveating that all states do have specific laws.
Generally speaking, stores have Shopkeeper’s Privilege laws that allow them to detain a person until authorities arrive when they have reasonable suspicion that a crime, like theft, has been committed.
Declining to provide a receipt is not a reason in itself for a store to detain a customer, they must have further reason to suspect a shopper of criminal activity.
Due to the recent nature of the receipt checks, there is little concrete law on the legality of the practice, as it takes time for law to catch up with technology.
Setliff Law, P.C. claims that “there is no definitive case law specifically relating to refusal to produce a receipt for purchases.”
For stores that improperly use their Shopkeeper’s Privilege, they could face claims of false imprisonment.
“The primary law that applies to these types of wrongful detention cases is called ‘False Imprisonment’,” explained Hudson Valley local attorney Alex Mainetti.
“Of course, you’re not literally imprisoned, but you’re detained by a person who has no lawful authority to detain you and/or wrongfully detains a customer.”
It is likely that as altercations in stores over receipt checks continue, more court cases will occur giving clearer definitions and boundaries to the legality of receipt checks.
“With another employee actively watching me do the check out process and pay. With multiple cameras watching also. They can roll it back and call the cops if I steal, [I don’t care] anymore lol.”
A Walmart customer has even gone as far as vowing to boycott the retailer over the reciept-checking practice.
The enraged shopper noted a foolproof way to quash soaring crime in the retail giant’s stores.
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“I am no longer shopping at your pathetic store,” the user wrote.
“If you want to make sure merchandise is paid for then use cashiers.”
https://www.the-sun.com/news/11534598/break-walmart-shopper-worker-demands-receipt/