Pet peev

[MR_MADHATTER]

After reading about the Alcohol ID post. It reminded me of another thing stores do that yanks my chain. Don't you just love it after standing in line at a store checkout, especially one near the exit, and paying your hard earned money for their junk, you start out the door and someone stops you and wants to look at your reciept. The person at the door probably even watched you pay for everything and now they want to take inventory of all your stuff.

I understand that shoplifting is a big problem, but c'mon already! Almost everything in the store worth anything has an anti-theft device on it. I have a friend who is a store security guard at a large chain. He used to tell me about the latest dumb shoplifter stunts and he told me the rules about catching a shoplifter. You can't arrest anyone unless they make it through checkout and still have consealed merchandise on them and make it out the door. Othewise they can say they were going to go back and pay for it separately. False arrest is a pretty serious thing and can cause a huge lawsuit.

But stoping someone who's still in the store, with merchandise in a bag in one hand, and a visible reciept in the other....that's just asking for trouble. It's like being called a thief. I finally had enough of it and now I ignore those guys at the door. I bought it, I own it and the reciept and I don't have to show anyone if I don't want to. I keep hoping one of these losers will actually chase me down and arrest me outside the store. I could use the money.

[Apache Warrior]

A friend of mine worked at a store, years ago , that a woman shoplifted a 19" TV under her dress and between her legs. This was before flat screen TV's She went through check out with it and only got caught because she was putting it in her car and it wasn't in a box.
Apache

[Bolt]

Well, believe it or not at grocery stores we don't put a protection thingy on all of our merchandise, in fact a lot of groceries we don't. You could buy one thing, put the rest inside a bag and just walk out the door without the detectors going off, and we don't have those guards to stop it. Although we do have security cameras everywhere so you won't get too far unless you're wearing a mask or covering your face, at which that point you most likely will be asked to show your items and your receipt.

Unless it has one of those white bar sticky things on the item, then the detectors won't go off. That's why at U-Scans they ask you to "drag the item on the blue arrows", and when it does that it vibrates.

[JohnyRico]

Who checks receipts at the door besides Costco?

[Bolt]

I believe Best Buy and I know for fact Frys Electronics does. But I don't know of any grocery store that does.

[DougBob]

You have to understand, the stores with the high shop lifting rate do this as a psychological deterrent. This is the whole philosophy behind the door greeter. The door greeter provides an unspoken psychological deterrent by making the subconscious feel like their entering someones home by putting a face to the store as you enter.

[paceman]

Who checks receipts at the door besides Costco?

Wal-mart & Sam's Club.

[{CLR}geneSW]

Well, believe it or not at grocery stores we don't put a protection thingy on all of our merchandise, in fact a lot of groceries we don't. You could buy one thing, put the rest inside a bag and just walk out the door without the detectors going off, and we don't have those guards to stop it. Although we do have security cameras everywhere so you won't get too far unless you're wearing a mask or covering your face, at which that point you most likely will be asked to show your items and your receipt.

Unless it has one of those white bar sticky things on the item, then the detectors won't go off. That's why at U-Scans they ask you to "drag the item on the blue arrows", and when it does that it vibrates.

Hum, have you been up in the security office of your grocery store? I'm asking because I was up there (multiple times to assist them in withholding and acting as a witness to the crime) and those security cameras are 9/10 times watched by security personnel. Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they they aren't around. Oh, and the Little security strips are on some boxed foods (inside the box if the item inside is bagged as well) and on almost all heat sealed plastic packaged goods (like electric shavers). I've also seen them on razor blade boxes, any anything in the medical and makeup isle.

[Hammy]

After reading about the Alcohol ID post. It reminded me of another thing stores do that yanks my chain. Don't you just love it after standing in line at a store checkout, especially one near the exit, and paying your hard earned money for their junk, you start out the door and someone stops you and wants to look at your reciept. The person at the door probably even watched you pay for everything and now they want to take inventory of all your stuff.

I understand that shoplifting is a big problem, but c'mon already! Almost everything in the store worth anything has an anti-theft device on it. I have a friend who is a store security guard at a large chain. He used to tell me about the latest dumb shoplifter stunts and he told me the rules about catching a shoplifter. You can't arrest anyone unless they make it through checkout and still have consealed merchandise on them and make it out the door. Othewise they can say they were going to go back and pay for it separately. False arrest is a pretty serious thing and can cause a huge lawsuit.

But stoping someone who's still in the store, with merchandise in a bag in one hand, and a visible reciept in the other....that's just asking for trouble. It's like being called a thief. I finally had enough of it and now I ignore those guys at the door. I bought it, I own it and the reciept and I don't have to show anyone if I don't want to. I keep hoping one of these losers will actually chase me down and arrest me outside the store. I could use the money.

Every state Shoplifting law is different, and often the difference isnt State-Level but Local Law Enforcement support.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, concealment is enough for procecution. The status of requirement is simple: There are shopping carts and shopping hand-held baskets for you to use for a reason. There is no reason to put something in your pocket otherwise.

When you place an object into the area known as personal space it 99.9% of the time it qualifies as concealment. And concealment means it's behind a layer of clothing (pocket, shirt, pants,sock, purse, personal bag, etc.) The idea is that there is no reason to conceal something that is not your property, just as I wouldnt want you to conceal my watch without asking me first, the stores are no different. They own the property, you need permission.

The guy at the door? His job is to count items. They only count the number of items over a certain value.

It's the old status in shop retail, where the stuff on the counter is there to keep you from stealing the good stuff. If your reciept has several high value items, they count them to make sure that you have exactly that number.

Say the store counts all items over 20 bucks. I bought 7 movies- how hard would it be to sneak more into the bag? A popular 'lift' is to go back into the store with your bag, fill it with additional items, then go through check out and buy a pack of gum. Counting these items stops the most destructive shrinkage.

If they didnt stop everyone someone would cry discrimination.
And this is what counting is really all about.

[MR_MADHATTER]

They are still gonna have to do a Rodney King on me to keep me from walking out the door. I'll just show them one of my fingers and say "count this".

[Bolt]

Hum, have you been up in the security office of your grocery store? I'm asking because I was up there (multiple times to assist them in withholding and acting as a witness to the crime) and those security cameras are 9/10 times watched by security personnel. Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they they aren't around. Oh, and the Little security strips are on some boxed foods (inside the box if the item inside is bagged as well) and on almost all heat sealed plastic packaged goods (like electric shavers). I've also seen them on razor blade boxes, any anything in the medical and makeup isle.

I don't really see what you're getting at. I said there are security cameras and they are being watched all the time so you won't get far. But at my store there are hardly anything on any groceries (in which I mean food and drink). But in Medical and HABA (Health and Beauty Aid) there are those bars on nearly everything.

[{CLR}geneSW]

Actually, this is what you said... And I took it as you meant you have security cameras but nobody watches them. So you wouldn't get really far once it was reported because we would have a picture of you (via the security footage). Sorry if you meant that there are guards upstairs, I might have just read it wrong.

and we don't have those guards to stop it. Although we do have security cameras everywhere so you won't get too far unless you're wearing a mask or covering your face, at which that point you most likely will be asked to show your items and your receipt.

[Bolt]

actually I didn't explain it clearly but I meant what you meant.

We do have guards in the backroom watching the tapes, but unless someone was wearing a mask and people thought it was suspicious that were watching the tapes started coming and the suspect took off the mask and tried to blend in

We just don't have guards that stand at the exits and ask for receipts unless the detectors go off.

[Apache Warrior]

In my business you only show one item at a time.
Apache

[Skud]

Mama Mia!

A friend of mine worked at a store, years ago , that a woman shoplifted a 19" TV under her dress and between her legs. This was before flat screen TV's She went through check out with it and only got caught because she was putting it in her car and it wasn't in a box.
Apache

She must have had some equestrian thighs to hold that tv up with!