(Mingo.nl)
Let’s say you’re in a rush after buying a fan at Costco. You look past the line packed with people and carts and spy a lone employee standing by the exit. Do you walk over and show your receipt? What’s the worst that could happen? Let’s ask Reader Shay.
On June 23, 2010 at the [redacted] Costco Center at around 11am I made a quick stop in to return a couple items and to pick a fan. Both the returns process and the checkout went wonderfully as usual. It only took me 2 minutes to get in line and pay for the one item I had.
However when I reached the exit door there was a line of 8 people with baskets of stuff waiting to get out the door. So I went to the other door which does have exit illuminated above it and showed the lady standing there my receipt and one item. She shook her head at me and pointed at the line. When I started to walk out the exit anyways she grabbed a hold of my arm and told me to go to the other line. I told her that I was already running late and the line was moving very slowly, so I continued out the exit. At this point her hand slipped off of my arm and she grabbed a hold of my purse. The first time I politely asked her to let go of me, to which she promptly ignored me. So I continued to walk out the door as she still held onto my purse, eventually grabbing onto it with a second hand and began tugging it. I finally started yelling at her to let go of me when we were in front of the exit area (directly center to both entrances). Even after people started stopping and staring at us, She continued to tug on my purse and would not let go no matter how loud I yelled. She finally let go when I knocked her hands off of my purse with pretty reasonable force.
I was honestly pretty shaken up over this. I really couldn’t believe someone would do this in a public place especially an employee of that store. I sat in my car for about 5 minutes and calmed down. Then I had to find the number for Costco, because no where on my receipt does it list a phone number. I finally got a hold of the stores assistant manger and explained what had happened. He was polite and apologetic and end up meeting me in front of the store so I could point out who had done this to me. He said that he would speak with this Employee and that the Store Manger would call me when he came in.
True to his word the store manger did give me a call a few hours later. He once again apologized for the situation. I explained to what had happened and he confirmed that the statement that the employee had to fill out stated exactly what I had told him.
I have also mailed a letter to the regional manger letting him know exactly what happen as well. This should have never happen to me and I will continue writing to members of Costco Management, to ensure that this doesn’t happen to anyone else. There should be a Zero Tolerance Policy for this type of employee behavior.
The lone employee may not have been a loss prevention officer, but that doesn’t excuse her from using common sense. Still, was Shay wrong for trying to cut the line? Should Costco do anything else? Let us know in the comments.
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This isn’t hard people…
She signed a contract saying that she has to show her receipt as she exits.
It is understood, by people who are not a-holes, that you show said receipt to the employee by the big sign that says “EXIT.”
Yes, she did show her receipt to someone else, but that doesn’t change the fact that this idiot decided that HER time was better than EVERYONE else’s. She can piss off. And if you agree with her, then you’re an idiot too.
Don’t like the lines? Then complain about them. But don’t assume that because you’re YOU that you don’t have to stand in them. Get over yourself.
Costco should apologize for the poor service with the receipt checker, fix that, and take away this jerk’s membership. Her time is obviously too valuable for them anyways.
This isn’t hard you,
Even if she broke the Cosco rules, they are not allowed to grab or detain her.
They can only do so if they suspect her of shoplifting, (or if she committed a felony in their presence).
There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. If Cosco does not like how she is behaving, they can ask her to leave, or force her out if she refuses to go.
She was leaving, Cosco has no power to stop her.
I never said the employee was right, I said that I have no sympathy for wastes of humanity like her. She’s a freaking jerk, idiot and rude POS for assuming the other rules of life don’t apply to her! She gets no sympathy from me. This is the same kind of jerk who cuts you off because she’s “running late” tries to merge late because she’s “busy” or puts 20 items in the express auto-checkout because she “doesn’t have time.” Maybe she was running late because she’s an idiot.
And of course, you’re believing her version of events. Since she already found herself too freaking important to wait in line like all us normal people, I bet she finds herself too freaking important to tell the truth.
I have no respect for people like this. Screw her.Sure, the Costco employee was out of line, but who gives a crap? What goes around comes around. She was flaunting her BS “I’m better than the rest of the world” attitude and it came back to bite her in the ass. What a joke. The fact that anyone here believes, trusts, or sides with this worthless piece of garbage is pathetic.
This woman is a prime example of what’s wrong with America, and a stupid a-hole. When you’re stupid and rude, this is the kind of thing that happens to you. Boo-freakin’-hoo. She wants a zero tolerance policy for employee behavior? Well, I have a zero tolerance party for a-hole behavior. And she qualifies.
1) One receipt checker sucks. If there were eight people in line that sounds like a back log.
2) Don’t cut line
3) Op was in hurry, but sat in car for 5 minutes to cool down, searched for phone number, met with the manager etc. Yeah.
4) Op broke rules. Back track with security cameras. Identify membership. Revoke membership and return unused portion of membership. Alternately mail a warning.
“3) Op was in hurry, but sat in car for 5 minutes to cool down, searched for phone number, met with the manager etc. Yeah.”
I’m not sure why this part of the story is so unbelievable.
Before she was assaulted and detained, which made her emotional, she had one set of priorities.
After she was assault and detained, her priorities shifted.
This is normal, logical, human behavior.
Also, she didn’t cut in line. Cutting the line makes it sound like she did so at the expense of anyone else. Other customers were not slowed down be her not getting in line, and Cosco lost nothing by her leaving without having her receipt checked.
Cutting in line is morally wrong because it hurts the other people in the line, not because you did not have to wait.
Besides, the line is not for exiting the building, the exit is huge – everyone could leave at once (and should have after seeing this), the line was for receipt checking.
It did slow down the line since the receipt checker was busy trying to restrain her. Not saying that was the correct action.
And if the repercussions of you being late aren’t so severe that you are able to change your priorities perhaps you shouldn’t be in that much of a hurry. Lots of people are “in a hurry” because they are trying to get all of their errands run, but unless there is some financial penalty for you being late then it isn’t really different from any other day, not that it would be an excuse either way.
One year ago this month at the Rohnert Park, CA Cost-Co my family and I casually walked out the unattended exit only to have the man apparently whose responsibility it was to guard the door catch up to us nearly at the parking lot while calling at us. After I showed him my receipt I put my groceries in my car, walked back to the man and asked him his name. At home I complained online to Cost-Co customer service and because that was the third such embarrassing incident at a Cost-Co store, the other two occurring at the Cost-Co in Santa Rosa, CA, which is why I had traveled all the way to Rohnert Park, I did not renew my membership and do not intend to shop as Cost-Co ever again until their ridiculous policies checking cards on entry, having hierarchical membership levels preventing me from using the store when it’s open, and checking receipts on exit are abolished.
Boo hoo. I’m sure Costco is much better off without you.
While this employee was totally wrong for what amounts to assaulting you, you were a total wad for behaving as you did to begin with. Your egocentric, self-centered attitude was the direct cause of this entire episode, you alone were responsible for the fact that you were “running late”, hopefully this will teach you a lesson about behaviour in public, but I doubt it.
Internet tough guys are such solely on the internet because they can be. Behaving as they claim in meatspace would likely get them either locked up or killed. Plus there’s the whole ‘never leaving mom’s basement’ thing which usually prevent any real-life episodes they fantasize about.
Granted it was an unfortunate situation and a bad decision by the Costco employee. I’m guessing too that both the regional manager and the store manager are embarrassed that this happened.
But. Costco is not a public place. It’s privately owned property, and, generally, under the law, according to the US Supreme Court, when you enter private property you’re obligated to follow any non-discriminatory or legal rules imposed upon you by the owner. So as late as the complainant may have felt, her decision to enter Costco bound her to its rules.
Plus, everyone else was waiting in line. She could too. Should there be a zero tolerance policy for people who think they don’t have to follow rules everyone else follows?
In the first place, it was wrong to cut in line. The shopper JOINED Costco on there own accord and Costco has a policy of checking departing members. If you don’t like the policy, shop elsewhere, otherwise suck it up and stand in line like everyone else.
Secondly, if you only need one item, why waste the time going to a megabox store.
As for the Costco employee, she was in the wrong for grabbing the shopper. There’s a compromise between the store and the shopper here somewhere.
What makes you so special you don’t have to wait in line like everyone else, that fact you asked was not a problem, but when you were told what to do; you should have done it. What makes you think you can do what every you want, and treat the employee like a doormat; which is exacly what you did. I see this behavior on the roads driving all the time, people just driving however they want/breaking rules, cutting off, pulling out in front of people because they are ‘in a hurry’, and have the attitude of “I’m more important then everyone else”. You are the same person who see’s a lane ending in the road, but will pass 20 cars, go to the end of the lane that’s ending, and then expect people to ‘let you in’; why should they, they have been waiting, and are all going somewhere too. You are also the same type of person who at a checkout lane in a grocery store who is at the end of a line of people, and the store opens a new register; the clerk says “I’ll take the NEXT person in line”, and you (the last person), darts over there like a 2 year old. NEXT means NEXT, not you you. Grow up.
What makes you so special you don’t have to wait in line like everyone else, that fact you asked was not a problem, but when you were told what to do; you should have done it. What makes you think you can do what every you want, and treat the employee like a doormat; which is exacly what you did. I see this behavior on the roads driving all the time, people just driving however they want/breaking rules, cutting off, pulling out in front of people because they are ‘in a hurry’, and have the attitude of “I’m more important then everyone else”. You are the same person who see’s a lane ending in the road, but will pass 20 cars, go to the end of the lane that’s ending, and then expect people to ‘let you in’; why should they, they have been waiting, and are all going somewhere too. You are also the same type of person who at a checkout lane in a grocery store who is at the end of a line of people, and the store opens a new register; the clerk says “I’ll take the NEXT person in line”, and you (the last person), darts over there like a 2 year old. NEXT means NEXT, not you. Grow up.
A lot of you seem to treating employee’s like this, like second class citizens. This employee was probably following instructions, and never had a person treat them like that, and panic’d. These people do not make much money, and should not be treated like a worthless piece of humanity. They need that job like you need your job, and was problably afraid if they didn’t stop you, they may get in trouble. Another factor is shoplifting; often times shoplifting is internal; who’s to say this person with the fan was not an accomplice of the employee, stealing merchandise. THis happens all to often. IF the manager saw this, the employee would say, “oh she had a receipt, so I let her go”; how does the manager know it was not a friend of the employee with just a piece of paper, and getting a free fan. What if it were an HDTV?
I know that’s what happened. The employee hadn’t dealt with a situation like this and just wanted to make sure that the policy was followed. In the heat of the moment, people overreact. That doesn’t justify what happened, but I understand it.
A lot of you seem to treating employee’s like this, like second class citizens. This employee was probably following instructions, and never had a person treat them like that, and panic’d. These people do not make much money, and should not be treated like a worthless piece of humanity. They need that job like you need your job, and was problably afraid if they didn’t stop you, they may get in trouble. Another factor is shoplifting; often times shoplifting is internal; who’s to say this person with the fan was not an accomplice of the employee, stealing merchandise. THis happens all to often. IF the manager saw this, the employee would say, “oh she had a receipt, so I let her go”; how does the manager know it was not a friend of the employee with just a piece of paper, and getting a free fan. What if it were an HDTV?
The employee pointed out to her that this was not the PROPER exit, and she continued to go. If she had done what the employee originally told her, there would never have been a problem. She AGREED to be INSPECTED. How hard is that to understand?
You really shouldn’t have skipped the line. However, having gone to Sam’s Club for years now sometimes I run into some really power-tripping employees at the doors. I mean seriously there was once I was coming into the club and showed my card, however my finger accidently happened to be over my photo on the card and the lady actually YELLED at me for covering up my photo! It’s not like I was doing it on purpose, so I took my fingers off the face of the card and shoved it in her face and proceeded to make fun of her. I mean what gives her the right to power trip and treat people coming into the store like crap? If you don’t have a legitimate card you can’t BUY anything in there anyways?! So what’s the freaking point besides flexing your e-peen? Needless to say I don’t shop at Sam’s Club anymore.
Ah, employee: not allowed to get mad at you. You: allowed to mock employee.
I tend to agree. When you agree to a membership at Costco you agree to have your purchases checked before you leave. I agree the store response was heavy handed, but your actions were somewhat selfish. EVERYONE is in a hurry these days.
Cutting in line isn’t a crime. She offered her receipt, that’s all she was obligated to do. Show, anywhere in the membership agreement it says anything about not cutting in lines. Most of the time I will stand in a reasonable line, but sometimes, in some lines, it just isn’t a good idea, or possible.
Nothing about cutting inline, but it does say that you will be inspected as you leave, not shove your receipt at some employee. IF she was gonna leave ahead of everyone else she should have gone to the person checking receipts, to get hers inspected, as she agreed to do when she became a member of Costco
Nothing in the Costco agreement about consenting to assault if you refuse to show your receipt. The woman has the right to back out of the agreement at any time and terminate her membership with Costco.
The employees get to eat the undelivered pizza.
Once she made the purchase, she is under no obligation to wait to be searched before she can leave the store.
She is, actually, contractually. Of course that wouldn’t justify the employee grabbing her, but she did sign a contract.
Don’t go shopping if you have somewhere to be. Also, if you sign up for something that requires a receipt check, don’t be surprised if they demand a receipt check. If you don’t like it, cancel your membership, but don’t expect exceptions because “I have places to be”.
Sheesh.
My thinking is that Shay is an idiot and deserves any harsh criticism thrown at her.
1. You are cutting in line, I’m quite honestly surprised that someone didn’t take a photo or video of you and posted “Bitch trying to cut in line at Costco” to youtube. Such a shame we have to use the threat of public humiliation to keep people from breaking rules.
2. Don’t claim assault you twit, you’re the one who blindsided the poor employee who’s duties was “verify they have a costco ID card”, they probably don’t get that many entitlement jerks who try to run them over with a shopping cart and didn’t know if you’d turn around and shoot them. Clearly if you can’t reach into the purse you can’t reach for a gun.
3. I hope Costco cancels your membership card and you’re forced to go wait in much longer lines at walmart.
I’ve been a business member since 1998 at another club store. If anyone grabs me or my purse, they better be fired, unless I get a written apology from the employee and from the manager promising retraining. I’ll might still press assault charges depending on the degree I feel assaulted, like if she didn’t let go when I threatened to call the police.
But, as a member since 1998, this has never happened to you because you have the common decency to follow the rules and wait in line.
I have jumped lines and I have also let other people go in front of me, depending on circumstances. I didn’t agree to not be a bitch, I just agreed to the receipt check.
I have jumped lines and I have also let other people go ahead of me, depending on circumstances. I agreed to the reciept check I did not agree that I can’t be a bitch from time to time.
Not wrong at all. They can’t force you to stay. All costco can do if you skip the line is cancel your membership. They cannot touch you, detain you, or force you to submit to a search.
She should have had the person who grabber her arrested.
Stores need to know policy is not law. And it’s extremely reckless to not have procedures for this. If they cared, all they had to do was track the person back to checkout and then cancel their membership.
Physically touching anyone is a crime and that employee needs to be charged.
Sorry this heinous “assault” so disturbed your suburban fantasy that it took you a whole 5 minutes to recompose yourself.
You strike me as the sort who would sue over your child having his feelings hurt by a bully at school.
Costco employees are not law enforcement officers whose instructions must be obeyed on penalty of arrest. When you purchase an item, your credit card is charged immediately (or your cash is depleted immediately). That means the item you just purchased is YOURS. If Costco or anyone else wants to argue that the item is NOT yours, they bear the burden of proof. You do not. Under the law, items in your possession are presumed to be yours unless proven otherwise.
The exist employee could have verified the receipt in a fraction of the time she took attempting to forceably detain the customer. And it is not OK to detain someone by force. The employee was no better than a purse snatcher. That’s illegal!
And Shay could have gotten out of the store in a fraction of the time that this incident took if she waited her turn. Which isn’t to say that this is her fault at all, but if we’re gonna play “what if”…
That being said, it’s not the job of the employee she approached to verify receipts, so getting upset at her not doing it is the same as getting upset at her for not cleaning up baby puke when the janitor is ten feet away.
From my own experience, the receipt checkers at the two different Costcos that I frequent do their best to verify that you have everything in your cart/possession that your receipt indicates – including gift cards and extra cash (“Did you get the Regal Cinemas gift cards? I don’t see them in the cart.”).
Also, my preferred Costco put up a chain link fence with only a narrow gap to prevent people from trying to exit with merchandise through the entrance (my guess is that is what Shay was attempting).
The Costco employee was seriously demented, and it is illegal stop any person from leaving a store, much less to detain anybody against their will unless they are suspected of stealing- and even then, that is left to only certain designated people. If you chose to let somebody search your purchases for theft- that is your choice; no law requires you to submit to that voluntarily. A store might wish you to adhere to their rules, but they are not a governing body and you have no legal obligation to comply. So while some people might think Shay is rude, I just think that the people who submit to this are chickens and only wish they were as bold as she is
I often go to Costco to buy a pizza (they use the best cheese), a smoothie, and a soda. I also walk out of the store holding these items with my receipt obviously showing. I don’t consider this to be line cutting. I’m actually helping other people get through faster by removing myself from the line.
Not once have I been stopped by someone when they see that my receipt is available and my items are few.
As for the lines themselves, I have actually canceled Costco memberships in the past for the line being too long on too many occasions. My thinking is, it may take something like that before the managers get more cashiers and door goons working.
“I have actually canceled Costco memberships in the past for the line being too long on too many occasions.”
I don’t why, but this made me laugh out loud.
Did it work? Are the lines less long now?
I like to think it worked. The lines seem better at other Costco’s.
When you cancel it, you get your full membership fee back and not a prorated fee. That also was pretty cool.
I don’t believe they ever check food court receipts. Many Costco locations have their food court open to the public as well, so it’s hard to know when to enforce the agreement and when not to – so they probably default to “don’t bother for food court”
Nothing the OP did justifies assault by the store employee. Anyone blaming the OP for the assault is just as despicable as the employee herself.
Marlin, you are INCORRECT. Please actually READ the article above before commenting on it. The customer DID show the employee at the door her receipt. And it had ONE ITEM on it that matched the ONE ITEM she purchased. So a Costco employee stands there doing nothing and cannot look at one item on a receipt? You owe the customer whose story is told above an apology for implying she did not show a receipt or was unwilling to.
You assume that that employee was responsible for checking receipts. Clearly she wasn’t – there was a line leading to the employee responsible for checking receipts. You can’t just show your receipt to anyone…they are trying to minimize theft to keep costs down. I say it again – if you can’t follow the rules, go somewhere else.
She was walking out of an emergency exit without theft detectors (which she was not supposed to do in the first place), holding a large purse and was trying to run off after I told her not to go through this exit and even when I grabbed her arm. This seemed extremely rude to me and I grabbed her purse in a last ditch attempt to stop her probable shoplifting and blatant disregard for the rules. And then she pushed me down and after some minutes called the manager! As if to rub it in, she got an apology and I got an scolding.
God damn, there is no justice is there?
I am in my forties and the entire time I was growing up and for decades after people always said “in line” – not “on line” when referring to waiting at a store. I lived all that time in the northeast. My comment is directed to everyone 40 or over who lives in an area like that where we always said “in line.” (I realize different parts of our country have different ways of saying things sometimes. For example, in some places they would call Coca Cola “soda” & in other places they call it “pop” & in other places it’s “soda pop.” If you live someplace where they’ve always said “on line” for waiting at a store, then by all means continue to say it like that. But for everyone else who lives where we’ve always said “in line” you should continue to say it that way.) I noticed people started saying “on line” more and more in the northeast after the internet became a big thing. But they are 2 separate things. When you are on the computer you are “online” – which is one word. But at a store you wait “in line.” It would be interesting to hear from other people who are over the age of forty about how it was always said in the area of the country you are from. I say ‘people who are over the age of forty’ because I think people under 20 have never known a world without the internet, so I’m not really interested in how they refer to waiting at a store to buy things. (In other words, I think people under 20 or around 20 are more likely to confuse internet ‘online’ and store-lines terminology to begin with.) Anyone OVER FORTY care to share what this is like in the city or state where you live? Has the blurring of lines over this terminology been noticed by anyone else and bothered anyone else, too?
JanDuCretin: You show your true colors when you defend bullies. (Schools need a zero tolerance on bullies. Period. All schools should have an effecitve anti-bully program in place. Parents entrust their kids to schools to educate them in an environment that is conducive to learning, not for a school to be guilty of child neglect.)
Going to a different line or different clerk or different door or different cash register does NOT qualify as “line cutting.” STOP mis-labelling what the shopper did. “Line cutting” is if you actually go in FRONT of someone else in line. For example, if you are number 9 in line and you go to the person who is 3rd in line and ask if he’ll please let you in front of him & he says yes. THAT’S what line cutting is. Stop accusing the shopper of doing something she didn’t do.
I’m kind of amazed at some of the hostility toward the OP here. Having worked retail for many years, I can tell you I’ve seen seemingly normal people engage in acts of entitlement WAY beyond what she did here. You learn to grow a filter for which sort of behavior you’re going to let get to you. Was she acting entitled? Yes. However, if I had been #8 person standing in the receipt line, (minus the employee’s actions), I probably would have just rolled my eyes and let it go.
Also having worked retail, I attended several loss prevention training sessions. With shoplifters (which the OP was NOT) you are trained to simply let them go and call the police. This is for your own safety as well as protecting the store from any liability. Stores sell stuff. Stuff is not worth a physical confrontation of any sort, contract or no. I can’t imagine any time where an employee of a reasonable organization would have gotten the impression it was okay to grab the possessions of a customer leaving the store whether they were a suspected shoplifter or not. (Also an important distinction here; the employee grabbed the OP’s purse, not her arm or leg or hair or any part of her body. Stupid and wrong thing to do, but assault is a big word for it).
In short, it sounds like a mildly jerk action on the OP’s part which would have been forgotten 5 minutes later had they just let her go was escalated beyond where it needed to be because of a stupid action on the part of a Costco employee. She let the manager know, the employee knows, we know, there’s no reason to escalate this situation it any further up the chain than that.
On the surface, the employees actions might seem harsh or out of place, but when you look at it, that customer tried to take goods out of an Illegal exit. It doesn’t matter if she paid for them or not, that exit was off limits, probably for good reason.
Also, it didn’t get physical until the customer IGNORED her initial warning and tried to proceed anyway. That takes a lot of nerve and sense of entitlement.
There are stories about employees tackling REAL shoplifters and thieves, people who really need to be stopped, then being reprimanded or even fired for doing so. Customers and complaints like this person are what is driving fear into Corporate (fear of getting sued) and causing them to push that fear onto Employees (fear of getting fired), so they’ll think twice before enforcing any kind of customer policy.
Bottom line:
- This customer wrongly felt that she was entitled to take an Illegal exit. Despite being warned, she proceeded anyway, and is now complaining when the consequences were applied to her.
/”I told her I was running late, and the line was was moving very slowly”
//Doesn’t Matter
I can see what’s coming on this one. There will be 15 Items Or Less (should be Fewer) lines at the exit. Wait, that IS dumb, isn’t it. And of course you have to take this to its logical conclusion and put self-checkout lines at the exits…oh wait, most stores already do this. It’s called NOT ASSUMING THEIR CUSTOMERS ARE STEALING!!! I mean, come on, Costco! When was the last time someone tried to smuggle the 50-roll toilet paper pack under their shirt. Jeez!
My membership ran out, but before it did I never stopped.
Yep, I’m violating my contract. So go ahead and cancel my membership if you can figure out who I am, but I didn’t steal squat and I ain’t stopping.
I can guarantee you that it is Costco’s policy, just as it is with EVERY retailer, that the employee cannot touch a customer. They have no right to PHYSICALLY detain you – which courts can construe as a form of assault. If an employee believes you STOLE something, they can take a license plate and report to the police. The employee better be RIGHT when this happens, though. Lawsuit otherwise.
Ok, it is rude to cut the line, not illegal.
sometimes, we are in a rush.
The OP PROVED the purchase to an employee. The line checker should have let her go. The store manager is correct that retraining is needed.
The line checker had nothing to do with it.
I’m also a little surprised with those siding with Costco.
Yes you agree to certain things when you sign up with Costco but you don’t break any law if you pay for your items and then walk out without your cart being checked. The worst that should happen is your membership can be revoked.
Lifehacker had a story about this I believe. I’d they want to detain you they have to have cause, and not showing a receipt is not cause. They have to reason to believe that you shop lifted, and they must be prepared to show proof (as in video proof from one of their many cameras.)
I just feel like people tend to fall in line because everyone else does. I feel like it’s ok to walk out if you’re in a rush. This practice of checking receipts seems a little dated to me. Use those employees at the door as eyes on the floor or at the register instead of lining customers like cattle to prove they didn’t steal anything.
As a Costco member, I think the policy is ridiculous–especially coming from a store chain that charges a membership fee to initially get in. I understand Costco’s desire to make sure no one is stealing merchandise, but if the customer only bought a couple of items, I don’t have a problem with them bypassing the line. As an improvement, I think Costco should redesign future stores where the checkouts are right next to the doors–so there is no other place to go (not the restrooms, not the cafe, not the brochure kiosks) but out and on their way.
I appreciate Costco wanting to prevent theft by ‘checking’ receipts, though frankly, it’s more the ‘we’re watching you’ method of deterrance than anythingelse.
That does not mean I believe Costco has any right to even imply you have to submit your receipt or you will not be allowed to leave. I’ve always been a bit surprised that I’ve never seen anyone trying to just buzz past the receipt checker, but like good sheep everyone sacrifices 10 seconds of their time as the least painful option.
I’d like to hear stories of people who have chosen not to submit to receipt checking.
I object to this policy, find it conspicuously rude and bothersome and wish someone would organize a day of receipt-checking-civil-disobedience. Sign me up.
If you don’t like receipt checking, why would you pay fora membership to a store that requires receipt checking as a condition of membership?
Shouldn’t have cut in line, but the consequence should have been a threat of suspended membership. Assault is illegal. The shopper therefore should also have pressed charges.
Its usually company policy for retailers to prevent their employees from touching customers, grabbing, stopping, chasing after, etc. Mostly to prevent from getting sued.
Only security guards, and what not are allowed.
If she was that pushed for time why did she stop at Costco? Those stores are always so busy. The receipt checker over reacted but Shay is clearly wrong for cutting in front of everyone. She’s just whining by writing those letters because everyone doesn’t understand that she is special and she doesn’t have to wait in line. I wonder where this sense of entitlement comes from?
I shop at Costco for the bulk of my food, and the receipt checking is most often manned by at least 2 employees. They did once find that the cashier had not rung up a giant pack of 16 rolls of paper towels, and sent me back to the cashier to pay for the item, which I thought was silly. I would have rather paid the post-checkout person who handles the rebates and coupons, as this person did not have a long line.
They should institute an express receipt check line. 5 items or less. I can’t tell you how many times I ran in to Sam’s or Costco to grab Diapers or Toilet paper (my life revolves around shit apparently…) and had to wait in the exit line longer than it took me to get the item and buy it!
That’s a major annoyance. But I still wait…
Do you think the OP really sat in her car for 5 minutes in order to calm down or was that added for dramatic effect? Sounded like she was already running late, but I guess if it was traumatic enough it could throw you off.
Who in the hell goes to Costco when their in a hurry? It is a bulk shopping store so most people are there loading up for the month or whatever. In other words you’ll be waiting no matter what.
True the employee was in the wrong but maybe if Shay’s self entitled ass would of joined the line with everybody else, some of whom I’m sure were also “in a hurry”, none of this would’ve of happened.
I would stop writing Shay. Yes the employee was wrong. But you provoked the situation by believing your time mattered more than everyone else’s. You’re an embarrassment. STFU and GBTW.
your fault. wait in line like everybody else. do you do the same when you’re driving and running, especially at red lights? the world doesnt revolve around you
“I was running late” and “I sat in my car for 5 minutes……finally found Costco’s phone number…. ended up meeting the assistant store manager”, etc,” should not be used in the same story. If I was “running late” and had time to sit in the car, find a number and then spend more time with the assistant manager, I would think that a minute or two waiting in line wouldn’t be much. I agree that Costco has the right to do this if it is their policy and someone who thinks they are special should just exit the store without purchasing any thing and never go back.