WALMART shoppers are cutting loose after a local news outlet asked whether or not they stopped to get their receipts checked.
The practice has drawn the ire of many shoppers who visit the megachain to get grocery items.
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The Sacramento, California-based Fox affiliate KTXL posted a question on Facebook asking shoppers if they participate in the checks.
“Do you stop for receipt checks when you’re done shopping,” the social media post read.
The question opened a floodgate of responses.
“Nope. Walmart doesn’t really ‘check’ the receipt,” Brenda Lopez commented.
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“They just quickly mark it with a highlighter. I wave my receipt and walk right out at Walmart,” she continued.
“Except at Costco and Sam’s where they do check the items and I believe it’s a membership policy. I do stop for them,” Lopez finished.
“I sail through as I wave my receipt ~ 99% of the time they don’t even check it,” Lori Sanchez openly admitted.
“I walk out the door waving the receipt in my hand,” Mary Rose boldly declared.
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Other users wholeheartedly seemed to back the checks.
“I not only stop for the receipt checkers, I also ask them how they are doing and always tell them to have a good day,” commented Brenda Buhl-Gilday.
“I show my receipt of course. That’s what we are supposed to be doing if they are standing there,” Erin Wood-Reeder stated.
“Yes, I don’t feel it’s that inconvenient and the employees are not responsible for their company’s standards,” Tabitha Bautista said.
One Facebook user recently revealed that shoppers are not technically required to show the greeters their receipt.
“Just so you know, you don’t sign a contract with them like you do at Costco,” Trev Raff 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.
“You’re not obligated to show them your receipt. and if they detain you, that’s false imprisonment threaten a lawsuit if they insist, and they will never talk to you again.”
“Just so you know, you don’t sign a contract with them like you do at Costco,” Trev Raff wrote on Facebook.
Raff is one of several people who contributed to a post slamming the retailer’s policy.
Walmart is not the only store to be beefing up its receipt checks to stop would-be criminals.
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Target and Kroger have also implemented the policy as well.
In addition to the receipt checks, one customer was left enraged when she was forced to put her items into a clear box and forced to lug it around the store.
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https://www.the-sun.com/news/11823201/walmart-shoppers-push-back-on-receipt-checks/