What is the Legality of Retailers' Post-Sale Spot Checks?
Reader 'Kaje' sent in an email with a couple of valid complaints about Costco, so rather than cram them all into a blockquote and see what happens, we thought we'd pull out the salient bits to get your responses about one issue at a time. In this instance, although Kaje is talking about Costco, it's could really apply to just about any big box store.
And speaking of illegal, I haven't even mentioned their acts of false arrest every time I try to leave the store. They try to FORCE everyone to stop and have their receipts & carts checked before they leave the store. I cannot tell you how much this bothers me. Once I pay for my merchandise, it is MINE - I own it! If they want to check my cart or my receipt, they need probably cause to detain me - otherwise it is illegal search & seizure. They want me to wait in one line for 30 minutes to check out, and then wait another 5 minutes to have some lackey check my receipt? FORGET IT! I have complained about this repeatedly to the store manager. They claim it is to make sure that I haven't been "over-charged" for anything. But after some argument, they admit it is used to keep tabs on their employees, and make sure that the checkers are actually scanning all items. Is that my problem? Nope! And I refuse to be have my civil rights violated because they don't trust their employees.This sounds like a job for an attorney or someone who has had at least one cup of coffee, but Kaje raises an interesting point. How can stores legally search your bags or cart after you've paid for an item? Doesn't the ownership of the goods transfer once you have been given the receipt or bill of sale? Wouldn't refusing a search on their property lead to, at worse, an ejection from the premises? (You know, like, ejected all the way out to your car so you can drive home?)
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Comments:
I agree with weaver on this one, it is an invaluable tool in preventing shoplifting. But I've never had to wait to get my receipt checked for even 10 seconds, much less five minutes. It's probably within the store's rights to check what they've sold to you because it's in their bags or their carts, but I'm not sure.
At any rate, I don't think the proper course of action is to get rid of the checks entirely. The stores should focus on making them more efficient or place more employees in that role, because to ask customers to wait that long to leave a store (if the tip is accurate) is absurd. But in my own experience it's never taken me more than 5 seconds each time.
It seems like the easiest thing to do would be to refuse to allow the store to check your receipt. Just walk out. What could they do? Even if they thought you were stealing its unlikely they would attempt to stop you as they would probably be afraid of a lawsuit.
I find not going to Costso is an effective method of avoiding the search. Seriously, you don't like a retailers business practices? Shop somewhere else.
Don't forget that Costco is a shopping "Club." While I've never read my membership agreement, I'd assume there's something in there about submitting to receipt and merchandise checks. So they can not only escort you out of the store, they could cancel your membership.
Also, I find it is VERY fast in practice at all the stores I deal with (Fry's, Costco, etc).
Often its just a quick glance ("Pack O M&Ms and a diet coke, mark receipt"), they only seem to take longer if you look to have high value items in your bag/cart.
I've been shopping at Costco for over six years now, and in that time, I've come to the conclusion that the triggers for a thorough receipt check (meaning they match item to item) are: large (>20) item count purchases, big (in size) item purchases or high-dollar item purchases.
The only time I've ever been stopped was for an incident that I identified: I purchased a case of paper that contained six packages, and was only charged for one package (in the cashier's defense, I grabbed an enclosed case, and when she scanned the UPC on the outside and struck out, she input the item number, thinking it was one item). I told the receipt checker as she was checking it ("I think I was only charged for one item") and she walked me over to a register where I paid for my five other reams. While they were doing that, they also noted the cashier information (interestingly, not my membership number, though I'm sure they could've looked that up as well), obviously for internal control.
You want low markups? This is the (reasonable, IMHO) price to pay. And yes, it's a condition for becoming a member. Per the membership agreement (item 9: General Policies):
"Costco reserves the right to inspect any container, backpack, briefcase, etc., upon entering or leaving the warehouse. To ensure that all members are correctly charged for the merchandise purchased, all receipts and merchandise will be inspected as you leave the warehouse."
I've had security ASK to inspect my packages, but when I've responded "No thank you" they've never done a thing about it. As with many things in our society, compliance is voluntary.
If you don't believe me, try it sometime.
I used to work at Kohl's, and while they didn't have someone checking your purchase at the door, they reserved the right to check a bag if they thought something fishy was going on. However, the employees had to ASK THE CUSTOMER if we could check their bag. If they said no, we had to let them go, even if we were suspicious.
This came up in the Answer Man column in the San Jose Mercury News a few years back and has been written up a couple of times since then. The short answer is that stores have no authority to stop you unless they have a reasonable suspicion of some criminal activity. I've walked right by the receipt checkers at Fry's Electronics dozens of times. I've been stopped - verbally - only twice, and in both cases they did nothing more when I refused to consent to a receipt check.
According to the Merc article, Costco is a special case because it's a membership store. In the membership agreement you consent to the check; if you refuse, they can revoke your membership. But ordinary stores don't have that right.
Frankly, I really like Costco. I have never, nor will I ever, mind the receipt check on the way out as it is one of the main reasons that they can offer low prices, low shrink.
Does anyone know if the quoted part of the Costco membership agreement is really legally binding. The language is odd \"Costco reserves the right to inspect blah blah bah.\" It suggests that they already have the right to inspect any bag you come into the store with. If there is not pre-existing right, it sounds like that part of the agreement is bogus. They could have simply said \"By becoming a member, you agree to let us search your bag,\" but did not.
In any case, I don\'t have a big problem with Costco checking my receipt. They\'re the only discount retailer that I feel good about patronizing, because their employment policies are very pro-worker. I wouldn\'t let them go through my backpack, however.
A: You are still on their property. It is probably legal. It's probably classed as a variant of the classic "check your bags" bit that some stores do.
B: It is REALLY important for the store to prevent theft, and really, REALLY effective technique.
It stops cold two VERY significant forms of theft: taking an old receipt and walking out with a duplicate set of merchandise, and conspiracy between the cashier and the buyer to ring up something incorrectly (EG, that big-screen TV as a flat of coke).
Both forms of shoplifting are very serious, because they are specifically good for stealing high value items. Thus you see it at stores with high volume and high value items (eg, Fry's, Costco, CompUSA etc).