Improbable Cause
With all that's going terribly, terribly wrong in the world, here's a little something petty to worry about -- whether door nazis at superstores have any right to look at your receipt when you're leaving. (The answer, of course, is no.)
"The answer, of course, is no."
Especially if you've just finished mowing down other shoppers in a mad rush to the clearance sale on butt plugs.
Lena at December 29, 2003 8:40 AM
As a retail professional (or broke college kid, whatever), I agree wholeheartedly. I am anti-shoplifting for selfish reasons (missing product leaves holes for me to fill with other crap that nobody wants [until that SALE...], great fun derived from tackling sticky-fingered adolescents and ruining their rhinoplasty by smashing their faces into tile). But, shoplifting is the exception, not the rule, and no customer should be treated like a criminal because the store itself has problems keeping tabs on its inventory. Besides, the most common source of "inventory problems" (or "shrink" or "where the hell is all that crap we unloaded last week?") juuuuuuust happens to be from EMPLOYEE theft...
keito_wa at December 29, 2003 5:14 PM
Eh, he can show his stupid receipt and get over it. It's private property and they have the right to ask for it. If Best Buy and other stores have a procedure to cut down on shrinkage so that they can afford to keep the prices down, I'm willing to comply with it. And those that aren't can take their business elsewhere.
Of course, the difficulty in this policy lies in the other part of this lengthy whine: this policy is essentially unenforceable. The loss prevention clerk had no right to detain him or deny him access to his car. If a trespasser is on your property, you can force him to leave, even use lethal force to protect yourself, but you can't stop him from leaving.
It reminds me of a very humorous episode of Judge Judy I saw. Some inoffensive-looking, slight, college student bike racer was suing this lumberjack-looking guy for his chiropractor bill. The bike racer had driven his truck through a parking lot belonging to "Brutus." The bike racer drove his truck once around the parking lot and started to leave through the lot's only entrance. "Brutus," who has had problems with vandalism in his parking lot, used his own car to block the exit. He then took the bike racer's car keys, threw them away so he couldn't start his truck, yanked the bike racer out of his truck, pinned him to the ground, took his wallet and gave the ID to his wife, who photocopied it and returned it to the bike racer, who recovered his keys and left.
Utterly amazing that Brutus didn't seem to feel he did anything wrong, and that since the parking lot was his property, he had every right to protect it. Judge Judy chewed him a new one and awarded the bike racer 5 grand. Very nice, since the racer had only sued for a couple hundred, the cost of his chiropractor bill for injuries incurred when Brutus the neanderthal protected his cave.
Of course, during the closing interviews, Brutus seemed utterly bewildered by the decision. Clueless.
Patrick at December 29, 2003 7:33 PM
They do have the right to ask for it, but not the right to MAKE him show it. I cooperate in the receipt-showing biz; in part, because I understand that preventing theft keeps the prices down for all of us -- but if I'd been made to wait and wait and wait to pay -- I probably would have refused to wait and wait to show somebody I'd paid just like this guy.
Amy Alkon at December 29, 2003 7:38 PM
Shop locally think globally.
I don't shop at the 'superstores' because of issues like this. For example, I got a prescription, for my critcally ill dog, filled at Walmart as it was the only store in town that stocked this particular drug. Not only did I have to wait forever and a day before the prescription was filled but I was then asked to participate in the reciept check dance. Of course I was carrying a tiny prescription bag with the receipt stapled to it and a purse the size of a postage stamp. In the meantime my dog is in my car waiting for this medication.
I normally shop with locally owned businesses, businesses that are owned by real humans. It helps the local economy and I'm not subjected to rudeness in disguise as security.
Sheryl at December 29, 2003 7:55 PM
Sheryl--it's not just the big mean chains that make you wait. And sad to say, those big mean chains are owned by real humans, as well--big mean chains have many stockholders. There's no one ruder than a private convenience store owner--ever shop in Koreatown?
Lorena at December 30, 2003 8:41 AM
I don't think the defining point here is bigness or smallness, but the corporate culture of a particular business.
Amy Alkon at December 30, 2003 9:09 AM
The Goddess of Wisdom (no, not Athena but Amy) writes: They do have the right to ask for it, but not the right to MAKE him show it.
Exactly the point I was trying to make. What can you do if they refuse to show the receipt? Nothing. You can't have him arrested, since you don't know that he's stealing anything. You can't detain him, because it's unlawful, and you can't confiscate the property, since if he did pay for it, that would be theft.
Patrick at December 30, 2003 9:44 AM
Thank you Amy.
It's a cultural difference as well as an economic issues. No, I haven't been to Koreatown. But I have met many rude conveniance store owners, just as I've met many nice ones.
My point is that we all have a right to choose. If you don't like a particular store excercise your right as a consumer and choose not to shop there.
I choose to shop with businesses owned by individuals or families in my region.
I can't imagine the boys at the Village Mercantile asking to check my reciept, or for that matter any of the growers at the local growers market. Why I've known those boys from the time they were a twinkle in their daddy's eye.
To carry the example further, I'd rather go to the Sattelite Cafe or Flying Star than Starbucks, I prefer Samon's over Lowe's.
Yes, big companies all have stockholders and so on but I feel the same way about my investments. I only own stock in companies that have good customer service policies and employees who are trained to work with customers. It's called militant consumer activism. Try it...you might like it.
Sheryl at January 1, 2004 1:36 PM