You might associate receipt checks at the door with electronics stores like Best Buy and warehouse stores like Costco, but one notorious door-checking offender is big-box music store Guitar Center. At least, as one reader reports to Consumerist, until now. [More]
receipt checks
Walmart Greeter Asks For Receipt, Customer Punches Her In The Face
By 12.28.11
On Christmas Eve in Batavia, N.Y., an elderly Walmart greeter asked a 26-year-old customer for the receipt for her electronics purchases. Instead, the customer allegedly punched her in the face and tried to flee. A mob of customers chased her and prevented her car from leaving the parking lot, and she’s now in jail, charged with two counts of assault. Here’s the unusual part: the customer had receipts for all of her purchases. [More]
Alleged Walmart Shoplifter Goes On Violent Rampage After Being Asked For Receipt
By 5.27.11
This is a textbook example of how not to behave when asked for your receipt at a store’s exit. According to the Bradenton, Florida police, a 22-year-old woman tried to leave a Walmart with 43 items she hadn’t paid for, worth a total of $211. When asked for her receipt, she went on a destructive rampage, causing more than $1,000 worth of damage to merchandise. She also punched and spat on store employees, and hit a manager with a bar stool from inside her cart. Police officers discovered marijuana in her purse, and she has been charged with, among other things, aggravated assault and battery. [More]
Avoid Walmart Receipt Check By Loudly Declaring That You Bought Condoms
By 3.8.11
At Walmart, it’s not just electronics that have anti-theft tags: it’s any small, desirable item. Like a box of condoms. Patrick found a way to use this information to his advantage and avoid a receipt check at Walmart. Whether anyone should do this, especially after they’ve tripped the alarm, is a matter for debate. [More]
Washington, DC Safeway Store Introduces Receipt Checks
By 2.15.11
Know what American retail needs? More receipt checks. DCist reports that a Washington, D.C. Safeway store has traded uniformed security guards posted at the door for plainclothes Walmart-style greeters who politely block shoppers from exiting until their receipts are checked. There’s an almost literal escape hatch, though: for now, tipsters say that there are no receipt checkers posted at the exit to the parking garage. [More]
How We Ended Up Running Away From Walmart Receipt Checkers
By 10.7.10
Mark is not a shoplifter, yet due to a combination of high-pressure doormen and bad weather, he found himself sprinting out of a Walmart to a receipt-checker’s dismay. [More]
Walmart Receipt Checker Helps Customer, Justifies Existence
By 4.16.10
Wes writes that he has discovered a previously unknown use for retail receipt checkers. They can help you to determine when a store is ripping you off, rather than the other way around. [More]
Guitar Center Solves Receipt Check Dilemma: Give Receipts At The Door
By 2.21.10
Tommy reports that he visited a Guitar Center store in Houston, and found what seems like a nice compromise between receipt checking and not receipt checking. Instead of giving out receipts at the cash register, the store gives customers their receipts at the exit, as they leave the store with their merchandise. Since it’s hard to put a Stratocaster in a plastic bag. [More]
How I Maneuvered Through The Walmart Receipt Check Gauntlet
By 2.9.10
Jeff says he did what many dream about but few accomplish — he kept his receipt hidden from Walmart snoops at the expense despite stiff resistance. [More]
Best Buy Employee Told Me To Shut Up When I Said I Didn't Have To Show Receipt
By 1.20.10
Beth didn’t feel like showing her receipt to a New Jersey Best Buy employee who approached her as she left the store on Black Friday. [More]
Walmart Manager Takes Customer's DVD Away Because He Won't Show Receipt
By 1.19.10
Yep, it’s another Walmart receipt checker story! At the end of it, the OP asks, “What should I do?” And I sigh. I really don’t know. Don’t shop at Walmart anymore? Try to encourage your friends to not give their business to any company that acts in such a hostile way to honest, albeit uncooperative, customers? Spend a ton of money on a lawsuit that Walmart will use its very deep pockets to fight? [More]
Robber Walks Through Walmart Receipt Check With $200,000 Cash
By 10.10.09
You and I can’t get past Walmart’s receipt checks with a 12-pack of toilet paper, but one criminal made it past the greeter with a cart full of cash. $200,000 from the store’s safe, to be precise. How does that happen?
Non-Receipt-Showing Walmart Customer Says He Was Physically Threatened
By 9.18.09
Tony’s hands were full with a bookshelf and milk carton as he left a New Mexico Walmart, so he wasn’t in a receipt-showing mood. He denied the security guard’s request to stop and show him the receipt in the pocket, and says he was stalked and physically threatened as a result. He shares his Executive Email Carpet Bomb letter:
How NOT To Get Past Fry's Receipt Checkers
By 4.29.09
The last line of defense against armed robbery at Fry’s: receipt checks. Three men loaded up carts with merchandise at a San Diego store, and just headed for the door.
Customer Convicted For Shoving 75-Year-Old Walmart Receipt Checker
By 3.14.08
Donald Lynch, certified public accountant, was convicted of misdemeanor assault after pushing a 75-year-old Walmart greeter who wanted to check his receipt, reports The Chronicle. Lynch said the greeter tried to block him by pushing against him with his shoulder. Security tape showed the greeter flying to the floor. While an employee has no right to touch you, you also don’t have a right to shove them on the floor, especially if they’re septuagenarian!
Man On Trial For Knocking Down Walmart Receipt Checker
By 3.12.08
Details are sketchy but a Chehalis Washington man is on trial after being accused of knocking down a Wal-Mart greeter. According to the AP report, Don Lynch says the greeter demanded to see his receipt and then the greeter and another Wal-Mart employee grabbed him. Lynch says he acted in self-defense.Now, we’ve done a bunch of posts about how, unless you’ve signed a membership agreement assenting to them, stores have no right to detain you if you refuse a receipt check. However, you cannot react violently. Then you will get in trouble and look like a jerk. Go for non-violent resistance. You must be like Gandhi. If someone touches you, ask them to stop. If they don’t, call the cops and complain that this guy won’t stop touching you. They’re not allowed to touch you, or for that matter, grab you.
