A WALMART shopper has warned others about receipt checks, saying the practice is ruining the retail giant.
Walmart and several other retailers have turned to receipt checks in response to rampant theft.
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Shoplifting and organized retail theft have cost the industry billions, leading to higher prices and locations closing for good.
One shopper shared a recent experience on Facebook after being stopped by an employee asking to see her receipt as she left.
Skye Lajaunie said she was at her local Walmart when she saw two employees standing by the checkout area talking to one another.
“They are laughing and socializing. Ignoring me as I check myself out,” she wrote.
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After she completed her transaction, Lajaunie went to exit – but was stopped by a receipt checker.
“So three people has to supervise me as I checked myself out and exited the store? What’s the point??”
The post received several comments, including one person who has worked as a store manager for 15 years.
“Walmart is its own worst enemy,” they wrote.
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“They are cutting off their nose to spite their faces. Today’s employees aren’t as self-sufficient as yesterday’s and Walmart keeps believing it’ll fix itself.”
Another person wrote that self-checkout is “definitely lacking in customer service.”
“I also don’t think if you are going to make people check themselves out that you should be checking their receipt at the door.”
A third person wrote: “Many retailers are realizing the cost of self-checkout…”
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While some shoppers tend to avoid receipt checkers or outright refuse them, one person was approached by an angry security guard at the parking lot.
Some stores have implemented extra security to check receipts with one approaching Micah McDowell in March 2020.
McDowell usually opts out of the checks but decided to mess with a security guard during one of his trips.
“For the past few visits, I’ve simply said ‘no thanks’ when the security guard asks to see my receipt,” he wrote on Facebook.
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.
“I’m definitely not handing it over when he stops a line of six people with carts to check their receipts.”
However, while at self-checkout McDowell crumpled his receipt to the smallest size he could and walked past the security guard who demanded to see his receipt.
“I say, ‘here you go,’ and drop the pea-sized receipt in his hand, then walk out,” McDowell explained.
After this encounter, McDowell says the security guard follows him all the time, walking out of the store to see which car he gets into.
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“Why? No clue,” McDowell wrote.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Walmart for comment.
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https://www.the-sun.com/news/11825426/walmart-receipt-check-shopper-warning/