A tipster has sent in an audio recording of himself being stopped at the Walmart doors for refusing to show them his receipt. He says that it’s in his pocket and he just doesn’t feel like getting it out. According to the reader, two of the men who stop him are sheriff’s deputies. When he asks one of them their name, the man responds, “John Doe.” Our reader, who says he is a cop of 20 years himself, says it took nearly half an hour of asking them whether they are placing him under arrest or if he can be on his way before they let him go.
RELATED: Calm Man Successfully Buys TV And Denies Walmart Receipt Checkers
The deputies say things like:
“Stupid what you’re doing.”
“You wanna play games, we’ll play with you.”
“You put your hands on me, I’ll give you a reason… I wish you would.”
“I’ll let the manager decide what he wants to do with this case, damn idiot.”
Reached for comment, a Walmart spokesman verified that the incident did occur. They said that a greeter asked the customer for his receipt and two police officers who were on the scene overhead him decline to show it and stepped in. That’s about where the audio picks up.
“We’re sorry that the incident occurred the way it did. Certainly it’s not something we want customers to have to experience,” said the spokesman. “It’s not our goal to inconvenience customers, just under certain circumstances we do ask to ensure our merchandise is paid for and it shouldn’t take all that long.”
After the assistant manager came over and asked to see the man’s receipt, which he again declined, he was allowed to leave after pointing out which register he went through.
Good times.
As we’ve discussed on this site many a time before, stores cannot legally prevent you from leaving if you decide to not show your receipt.
“In general, the store can’t force someone to show their receipt,” Joseph LaRocca, senior asset protection advisor for the National Retail Foundation told MSN recently. “The checks at the door are really designed to be a preventative measure and a customer service measure.”
One of the only time is if you’ve signed a contract with them where you agreed to do that, like with membership clubs like Costco.
The other is if the manager has reasonable suspicion that you are actually shoplifting, but you can hear in the audio the customer asking the manager several times if he would like to verify his purchases.
Of course if you make an issue out of it like this guy did, you can expect some hassle.
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I want to thank this guy for standing up for all of us.
Sure it is faster and easier to just show the receipt but that just lets the store win and we lose our liberties. We are losing them daily at the airport and now at Walmart. Prior to reading the Consumerist, I would have been a lamb and showed my receipt with a smile and a “have a nice day.” Now I would not. It is a small gesture but we have to stand up for what is right and for our rights. It seems small, but it is not. Thank you to all of you who have the courage to stand up for our freedoms—that is a great Christmas gift to us all. Happy holidays!
Bottom line…if you don’t like it..don’t go to Wal-Mart. Enough folks stop going, and maybe they’ll realize it isn’t good customer service. We used to spend $8k/year there, no more, we rarely go there.
The other thing that bugs me is that they have now put all their razor refills in security packages. So, after you pay, you then have to wait in line for customer service to open them, ha.
Of course, some of you don’t have a choice other than to go to Wal-Mart. So, you can live with it, or go back to supporting your local businesses and pay the extra .50 cents to a dollar for those items.
“…we do ask to ensure our merchandise is paid for…”
Hmmm, that’s different. The standard response to these incidents always seems to be that receipt checking is done to ensure everything was bagged and the right price was charged or whatever.
I think people reading the comments know that I’m totally against the check, but I’m wondering if another way of protest would be to provide the receipt, but ensure that the greeter goes line by line checking the items in my bag and also verifying the prices I paid for them was accurate. A few people at each store would sufficiently suck ALL of the greeters time doing an actual check instead of a cursory useless check.
I mean am I a dick if I ask them to actually do a check as they are required to do per their policy?
I can see Walmart (or any other store) adding full body scanners next because people feel ‘harassed’ by showing a piece of paper. I’ve always shown my receipt and never had any reason not to. Why should I care if they see what I’ve bought?
I can very much so understand it if you have a big ticket item that isn’t in a bag (such as a TV or the like). I had to do it when I worked for KMart (they made each associate stand at the door for an hour to do that, it sucked btw). But the difference is that unless it’s not in a bag (ie – comforter set, tv, and the like) then we had to check it. Most people were willing because it’s understandable.
Also, they checkers do have a right to search when it sets off their alarm system. Generally it means 1 of 2 things:
1. Item has been paid for but the tag not deactivated due to stupidity of the cashier (*sigh*)
2. Shoplifting.
Once that alarm system goes off, it’s an automatic right to search based on reasonable suspicion.
In Florida you can record anyone that has no expectation of privacy. This lands squarely in that regards. What is unusual about recording in Florida is that if there is an expectation of privacy, both parties must know they are being recorded. Say in a phone conversation. In most states only one of the two parties has to know. In other words, you would be allowed to record all your own phone conversations even if the other person does not know you are doing so. A third person on the line that the others are now aware of could not, however, record the conversation.
Just go ahead and be a sissy and yield to the bullies! Didn’t they teach this LEO that the dork with authority is Always to be obeyed, especially when the authority is not justified? Come on now, twelve years of zero tolerance preaching in government schools didn’t teach him anything?
Look up the word facetious.
This problem easily avoided by not shopping at Walmart.
Best solution= Stay out of Walmart as I do.
Every time I see this kind of story, I am reminded of a phrase that I came across a few years back: “Violate, then Litigate.”
You can’t beat the violation you experience, and when you attempt legal redress, the ones with the deep pockets will keep the case going until you run out of money to pursue it.
As to the deputies in this instance, he’s lucky they didn’t arrest him for either ‘disturbing the peace’ and/or ‘disorderly conduct’. While he may beat the rap, he won’t beat the ride.
The “security” officer should be disarmed immediately and permanently. People who can’t control their emotions should not be cops.
I don’t get it; not showing your receipt isn’t exactly a political statement. We don’t have WalMart where I live, but in other stores, I hold my receipt up as I’m walking out the door… never a hassle. I don’t feel inconvenienced or dissed because I’m doing it. Basically people who refuse to show their receipt are working hard to be a pain in the a*s and to make another working person’s life difficult.
Surely someone in upper management at Walmart has seen what has been post after post after post about people being harassed about receipts from receipt checkers. They obviously know about the problem, yet they do nothing about it. This is the reason that I will never step foot in Walmart (or Best Buy) again. It’s sad that a company doesn’t care about losing customers and just keeps up illegal practices like allowing customers to be harassed and detained for refusing to show a receipt.
Over the years, I’ve seen a bunch of these stories about WalMart, but I’ve never seen any about Fry’s. Is there some difference between Fry’s and WalMart?
Walmart could put an end to this by better store design: putting all of their merchandise and services on the other side of the register. They have too much product between the register and the door. Apparently they feel the need to check receipts in case you stole that 65lb bag of dog food in the 35 feet you walked to the door after checking out. If I venture out to Walmart anytime soon, I’ll probably find myself refusing to show my receipt as well.
Another receipt check at the door! Ok so people would rather defend their pride and not admit to any wrong doing. He’s focused on his rights, but doesn’t communicate other than he won’t present the reciept. He has been victimized in the past and has not yet learned to resolve his anger and has become the victimizer and is looking for a cause, and in this case has refused to show his receipt even though the alarm went off. He will leave Walmart and inevitably find yet another cause, maybe get a bit of road rage out his system, or tailgating with high beams on.
first of all, Walmart shouldn’t have done away with shopping bags. they added the reusable shopping bags as an additonal purchase to the already paid for merchandise bought. This is just another ploy for them to gain more money that goes into the owners/executive accounts and not as employee incentive on how many reusable bags an employee can sell.
if their policy is for the consumer to show their purchase receipts, then set up a bulletin board near the first exit door and have someone stand there just like they do at Costco. i shop at my local Walmart since they are the closest to my home, i bring my own bags but they do not give me my 5 cents credit per bag (shame on you Walmart, other stores give credit for bring your own shopping bags) and I always have my receipt ready for their inspection. i just do not want to be hassled and shamed by their system. beat them at their own game, win win.
I have heard that receipt checking “stops shoplifting and thus keeps prices lower for all of us”. Well I just did a search of Google and Bing and couldn’t turn up any study that confirms that hypothesis! And the “common sense” argument is pretty meaningless here. Wally World is going to lower prices if shoplifting drops? More likely they will spread shareholder profits. Not saying that’s bad, just saying it’s likely true.
In the real world retailers know pretty accurately how much stuff will be stolen each year and set prices accordingly. This includes employee theft.
I suspect that if all retailers stopped every customer every time they left a store and checked every receipt it wouldn’t make a nickel’s worth of difference to their bottom line. The checkers are just to remind you who is boss in the big box. Security theater.
I really get sick of hearing this crap, about people bitching because they want to see your receipt. YOU CHOOSE TO SHOP THERE. If that is there policy (at some places, not all) then isn’t it some kind of “implied agreement” of you shopping there? here’s a thought, if you don’t like they’re policy then don’t shop there!!! people PAY to have memberships at places that do this very same thing! While it is wrong of them to detain you, give the poor guy at the door a break, if your going to shop there they have policies!
If Consumerist has not done so in the past, please post a downloadable PDF that we can print that has all the legal language necessary to state the receipt checking is not allowed. If necessary, the PDF can link to individual state sites for further customization.
I would carry such a printout in my wallet or keep one in my car if I ever feel the need to shop at Walmart. (I feel that need less and less each time I read one of these stories.)
As you probably know, other big box stores also have this practice, including Sam’s Club (Walmart’s sister store), competitor Costco, and Best Buy, for starters.
Demand that Walmart produce a receipt for the merchandise they just sold you.
“It’s not our goal to inconvenience Walmart, just under certain circumstances we do ask to ensure the merchandise we purchase is paid for and it shouldn’t take all that long.”