Seems to me that the OP was in a confrontational mindset from the beginning of this encounter to the end. He even admits being a jerk to the manager he called to address the issue with.

@wchamilton: I'm only getting even a hint of that after they follow him out into the parking lot - which is, among other things, probably against the store's policy in the first place. I'd be annoyed too, if I were followed out into the parking lot to prove I'd made a purchase, especially when they're large and bulky and the register from whence it was purchased was probably within sight of the receipt checker...

I would like to mention - Since I sent this EECB, I have been added to their Electronic Newsletter. Which I have asked three times to be removed from following their procedures. I am still on the damned thing.

A much better policy is to just keep walking. The greeters yell "Excuse me sir! Sir! Sir!!!" and I disregard them. Works every time.

Here is a cool trick that I do at my regular Wal-Mart. I keep 15 different Wal-Mart receipts in my wallet and when they want to check it at the door I just hand them the whole stack and tell them to find it. Sure, they get pissed at first but since the first time, I haven't been checked again.

@wchamilton:

Well, first of, asking for a receipt is pretty much accusing you of shoplifting, so I'd say they are the ones "starting it".

Why should a legitimate shopper be inconvenienced as he is carrying out the items he bought? Do shoplifters usually go around carrying their items in plain sight? Nope.

Seems to me that the OP offered to get the receipt out if the employee had simply helped him juggle his packages.

I'm a fairly mild mannered person, but I can understand this guys ire. They followed him to his car, and threatened him. I might have been a bit of a jerk myself.

They need to get rid of that receipt checking policy, it is ridiculous. I always decline and haven't run into any problems yet, but could easily see some asshat causing me some trouble when I refuse to show my receipt. Fry's also checks them at the exit which annoys me since I love that company so much - but have never had an issue when I decline there either. Stop treating your customers like criminals!

Last year I bought some stuff at Walmart and proceeded to the door. When I got to the exit, I was asked for my receipt and very politely said "You don't need to see my receipt you old hag". I know - not appropriate nor polite, but I was in no mood to be harassed.

As I was getting close to my car, I see some guy running out the store after me. I stop, turn and give him the "come on" look and he stops and walks back to the store.

I now have a new method: I crumble MY receipt and jam it in my pocket. If they want to see it -- Good Luck!

@poolejc: Haha ... that is very funny

@winstonthorne: we really need more people to do this, if only to convince walmart that this is just a bad policy and that people won't yield to intimidation. Unfortunately, walmart takes advantage of the fact that most people respect "authority" unconditionally, regardless of whether there is any legal basis for that authority, either because of ignorance or just wanting to make the big scary man to go away.

I hate when they require you to show a receipt, but the clerk does NOTHING to inform you that you need to keep your receipt out. I put it away, only to have to take it out moments later.

If they told me "please leave your receipt out for the door checker", it would be less of a pain!

A bit offtopic but the other day my son went to BB to buy a game for his DS, and it turns out that they have come up with a new and interesting way to ensure that you show your receipt at the door - the check-out cashiers no longer remove the theft-prevention cases around the games themselves. In order to get the cases removed, you have to ... guess what? Yep. Take it to the door, and show the door receipt checker your receipt, and he/she removes the case.

@winstonthorne: I've never been stopped. It's amazing because if I can fit it in my purse or it's a single item I don't use a bag. I had a Walmart giftcard and used it for in-store pick up of Windows for Mac and walked out with it coming from the back of the store (the pick up area) in my hand, no bag and the "receipt checker" just waved me through. Best Buy never seems to care either. The most I've gotten from them is a nod.

@winstonthorne: Headphones FTW!

There's an easy solution to the problem, spend your money in a store that respects it's customers.

I haven't stepped foot in Walmart in years, and just added Home Depot to my list of places I don't spend my hard earned dollars.

Why spend money in a place that doesn't support their customers?

I understand them wanting to see a receipt when someone is just carrying something out. It is just different than a cart full of bagged items.

I hate it though, for all the reasons ever mentioned here.

With all the cameras Walmart has - and they have TONS of cameras - and with facial recognition software, why don't they just have checker ask, and when you won't they just click a button and the system notes time/place.

Security can find your face - or a computer does it in a couple nanoseconds - and it watches out for you in the future.

When you come back, security watches you on cameras, and gets bored because your just a regular shopper.

I have no problem with this - I'm in your store, I don't expect privacy while I'm picking out my breakfast foods. Film me. Enjoy.

on the few occasions in which i find myself in walmart, i've never been asked for a receipt. i've never seen anyone asked for a receipt. rarely do i even see anyone in a walmart smock standing by the exit door (and when i do, they are usually messing around with the carts).
i guess this receipt checking thing is standard practice elsewhere?

@alexanderpink: At least Frys (the ones I've been in, anyway) let you know with that big red sign that they'll ask for your receipt. Other places it's a crapshoot.

The worst was being asked to show my receipt at WalMart when I clearly wasn't carrying anything. I tried not to laugh as I walked away from the insistent geriatric.

Now I feel bad for laughing at an old guy.

Umm, I have to maybe agree with Wal-Mart here (except for leaving the store).

He stated in his email he didn't want to wait in line, so he went to customer service....

So out he walks from Customer Service, no cart, receipt not in hand, and tries to walk out the door. I'd think that was suspicious too, since merchandise that comes in for return they should be marking with a colored tag.

Was the milk in a bag? I don't think it was. The greeters around here usually check receipts when there is a potential for something to have gone wrong. Such as unbagged merchandise, or merchandise on the bottom of the cart. While the ACMs have sensors looking for a cart (It prompts to make sure you've taken everything from the bottom of the cart), I don't think the regular lines have that sensor.

If you want to be taken seriously, please don't include "y'all" as the ninth word in your *executive* e-mail carpet bomb.

Are there any circumstances where retail stores have the right to search you? I understand Sams Club has a contract, but is it that they do not have the right to search you unless you sign a contract stating you agree to it? I believe some stores have signs saying they have the right to search you.

@humphrmi: I hope BB doesn't implement that with all their stores. I'm just the type of person to ask for the key to security case. If it's not taken off at the point of sale, then I can safely consider that as part of my "purchase".

If they were to decline that, then back to the returns department I would go!

I've never had a receipt-checker ever actually look at the receipt carefully. I usually just waive it at them and they waive me on through. It seems rather pointless.

@wchamilton: I actually found it kind of refreshing that he was owning up to being a jerk. In so many of the articles that get posted the OP tries to frame themselves as a perfect angel who would never even consider raising their voice to their fellow man, while the CSR they're dealing with is the spawn of satan himself. Stories with some grey areas (ie., the OP admitting he didn't handle things optimally on his end either) are generally much more believable.

@humphrmi: At that point, I would just assume I've purchased the game AND the case. I'm pretty sure I can get the case open at home. :)

I don't quite understand the policy anyway. The guys are standing there, they can see that you went through the line and paid for whatever you paid for. Do they think that you slipped a TV into the cart while no one was looking? It would be easier for the store to just have the cashiers do a more thorough check of your cart to make sure you paid for everything. This way they don't need to have some senior citizen have a WWII flashback when they try to tackle me for not showing the receipt.

@humphrmi: I wonder how that would work if you refused to show your receipt. Would they refuse to give you your item? What if you then wanted to return it? Would they give it back to you to return if you refused to produce the receipt again?

@triscuitbiscuit: Why not? In the state of Arkansas, that's a legally recognized pronoun.

In this instance, the guy was asked because he had an unbagged item; this I can understand. However, most stores that I've been to that are not WalMart have a very advanced system for indicating that an item to large to be bagged has indeed been paid for: A piece of brightly colored tape they affix to the outside of the box. This saves anyone the inconvenience of being stopped by LP on the way out the door.

Surely WalMart has the resources to implement such a plan? If Sears can do it in the sorry state they're in now, why can't WalMart?

@j-o-h-n: I'm with John. If I buy the game, and they leave the case on - well free case! It is not like the thing is made of adamantium, after all. Just some plastic.

@wchamilton: His attitude is irrelevant. They had no business following. I'd be feeling a bit 'comfrontational' myself, in that situation.

@Kris123: Since they're not officers of the law and couldn't get a warrant for any reason, I don't see how they could legally search you whatsoever.

@humphrmi: I'd just keep the cases. enough of that, and they'll learn.

@Al Swearengen: If the cashiers had to take an extra few seconds to check out someone's cart, everyone would start whining and crying about how long the wait is and how the cashier is accusing them of being a criminal and they just wanted to buy some food and how dare you waste their time.

I like using something like the following:

"So, if I was stealing something, what would you do? What COULD you do? If I were a theif, I would just take off. If you came after me, you could get badly hurt. So is it really worth it? To find out if I actually bought these? Oh, just ask register #(insert register number here) to verify i actually did buy these. You'll be safer that way."

@humphrmi: Best Buy isn't the only place that sales DS games. If the cashier refused to give me access to a game I purchased (e.g. unlock the case) then I would request an immediate refund, buy the game across the street at gamestop/walmart/target, and never buy DS games as Best-buy again.

@RecordStoreToughGuy_DragonsAreForSlayingNotPlaying: Probably cause he wasn't willing to wait the 5 minutes in line and made the customer service desk check him out instead. This guy seems a bit unreasonable; he requires special treatment cause he doesn't want to wait in line, but then won't let the guy at the door check his receipt while he tries to walk out with unbagged merchandise from a direction other than the checkouts. He seems more than a bit entitled.

@Kris123: Not really. The constitution applies as much in retail as anywhere. Numerous people have sued over receipt/bag checks and prevailed. If they suspect theft, they can detain you, but they can also be held liable for false arrest and harassment if there's no cause.

Stores in my area are generally very good about backing off. After I was hassled twice at target (and complained both times), the security guard demanding receipt checks was fired.

@poolejc: I usually throw it out if it's something I don't plan on returning. Go fetch!

@triscuitbiscuit: And don't call the stores products Cheap

I recently broke one of those cheap bookcases y'all sell...

So I find a shelf that looks ok (beggers can't be choosers at this point in the evening)...

Maybe that is why he hasn't gotten a response. We have seen some very well written EECB's here and this is not up to snufff. You would think that a reader of the site would have read how to write a good EECB.

@wchamilton: No, I'd say he didn't get confrontational until after the security guard started running after him and yelling. Regardless, they have no legal right to stop him. He was willing to show the receipt, if the guard was willing to hold his bookcase. Honestly, the loss prevention folks need to use some common sense - is someone carrying a cheap 25-lb. bookcase the one you really need to worry about?

@339point4: It's definitely regional; for example, in the predominently white, middle-class western suburbs of Chicago, never. In the more ethincally diverse southern suburbs, often.

I absolutely agree that the store has no right to demand to see your receipt. That said, my "policy", which, unlike WalMart's, is binding on me, is that if I am carrying something not in a bag, or that I can't just put in my pocket after paying, I'll show them my receipt. If not, I politely decline and walk by.

I made up my mind to ignore this silly policy a couple Christmases ago, when I snuck away from my son to buy him the new Rock Band game. I left the store with the game, paid for back in the electronics section, unbagged (of course) up on my shoulder, and no one challenged me.

I went back inside and retrieved my son, who wanted a 79 cent pack of gum, which was purchased and bagged. As we left the store, they wanted to see the receipt. Sigh.

@wchamilton:
I don't think, by his description, he was in a confrontational mood. Had he been in one, he wouldn't have told them the receipt was in his pocket. He would have immediately told them to f*ck off.

@squinko:
I was thinking the same thing. You can just say "No, thank you" and move on. Calling someone an old hag is completely unnecessary in this situation.

@winstonthorne: I tried to just keep walking the last time I was asked for my receipt and the checker grabbed my cart and yanked it back. In the process, she woke up my 5-month-old who was sleepingin her carseat in the cart. I returned my purchase and haven't been back since.

@Bgft-ngs: Ww, y snd lk hg jrk.

@mizike:
That's a giant leap to make. He doesn't say he made the customer service desk check him out. Chances are, they opened a register because the store was busy and they only had a few registers open. I doubt he could "make" them check him out at customer service.