A Wal-Mart manager admitted Tuesday that employees can’t detain a customer for declining a receipt check — even when the security alarm is activated.
Johnny Wilkins, co-manager of the Wal-Mart Supercenter at 3000 E. Franklin Blvd. in Gastonia, N.C., reviewed surveillance video from last Saturday’s attempted illegal detention. A greeter stood in front of my shopping cart to prevent me from leaving the store and at least four employees followed me to my car, surrounded me and harassed me for refusing to show my receipt.
“I’m shocked to see that she [the greeter] grabbed your shopping cart in that manner,” Wilkins told me after watching video of the incident.
About an hour after being illegally prevented from leaving the store, I phoned Wal-Mart and spoke to Tina, an assistant manager. She apologized profusely and said employees are not permitted to physically restrain customers for saying “No, thanks” to the receipt checker.
I requested a signed letter of apology from the store manager, to include an acknowledgement that in North Carolina, merchants cannot detain customers without probable cause. Tina assured me the store manager or a co-manager would contact me Monday.
On Monday morning, I phoned my complaint to Wal-Mart’s customer service hotline. The operator told me my complaint would be escalated to management, and I’d be contacted within a few days.
Wilkins called me at around 5:50 p.m. on Monday and left a voicemail. I was navigating an unfamiliar road on my way back to work and was too befuddled from an afternoon of driving without air conditioning to return the call right away.
I called Wilkins at 7:42 a.m. Tuesday — he and I were both working early shifts — and he said he’d have to review the surveillance tape and call me back in a couple hours.
After hearing nothing all day, I phoned him at 4:11 p.m. He said he had watched the tape and admitted that employees aren’t supposed to restrain customers or confront them in the parking lot for refusing a receipt check.
I asked when I could expect my written apology. Wilkins said the store manager is on vacation and he wasn’t sure he had the authority (he said “jurisdiction,”) to write such a document. “We’ve never had a request like that,” he said.
Wilkins said he’ll talk to his bosses about the apology and get back to me by Thursday. He also mentioned that he still has to interview the employees involved in the Saturday night fracas to find out what happened.
I asked if he could listen to my exchange with the greeter on the surveillance tape. He said he couldn’t tell me whether the store’s cameras record sound.
Tara Stewart, Wal-Mart’s regional communications vice president, e-mailed me Tuesday afternoon to let me know she’d forwarded my complaint to the vice president of North and South Carolina stores.
Overall, I’ve been pleased with Wal-Mart’s responsiveness. But, I insist on getting that written apology and promise that employees at the Gastonia store will be retrained.
When there are signed documents in public hands (and posted on blogs like this one), retailers will be more apt to keep their promises. Fewer customers will be cowed by the guilty-until-proven-innocent tactic of retail receipt checking.
And, I hope, no one will be illegally detained by an overzealous door monitor.
15 Comments
October 22, 2008 at 2:11 am
Hi Corey…..you left a comment on a blog I wrote about the ridiculousness of the Walmart receipt checkers, and how much I detest them.
I was unaware that showing your receipt was voluntary. Even being armed with that information from you, I knew I would never have the guts to refuse to show them my receipt. Yes, I’m that annoying person who complains about it but is too afraid to be the one to stand up to the system.
I shared your comment with my husband too. Tonight we had to make the dreaded trip to our neighborhood Walmart. We finished paying for our groceries and spotted the hated receipt-checker. We were talking about what you had said on our way to the door, and to my surprise, rather than stopping as we normally do, my husband continued walking right out the door! I was totally in shock. However, I got a sudden boost of confidence…..and inspired by your example, simply told the lady we paid for our groceries and said she didn’t need to see our receipt. I followed my husband right out the door.
I have to admit, my heart was racing with anticipation about what was going to happen. Was she going to send the policeman who was standing inside after us?!? We walked calmly to our car and loaded our groceries, and absolutely NOTHING happened. No flashing lights, no sirens, no one followed us. Nothing.
Thank you so much for sharing this information with us. We would have never had the courage to stand up to the Walmart giant without your inspiration.
Jodi Thomas
Dallas, TX
July 23, 2009 at 3:15 am
WTF!!! Its people like ya’ll that encourage shoplifting. I can’t believe your to lazy to spend five or ten extra seconds in a store to show your receipt. If everyone showed there receipt you wouldn’t have shoplifters pushing out shopping carts full of groceries and maybe then some of the prices in the stores will go down. I mean really, what is a 100 year old person going to do to you at the exit, it’s there job anyway so let them do it and quit making life harder on people.
August 3, 2009 at 4:47 am
WTF yourself. It’s people like you that give up liberty & freedom that lessen the value of our constitution. Walmart is a business and if their target market has higher loss rate, then that’s their decision. If you really want to see lower costs, then shop elsewhere to force Walmart to lower prices to stay competitive.
Using your own words, if walmart caters to 100 year old elders to the “receipt checker” jobs, then they are no longer equal opportunity employeers and would be sued.
August 15, 2009 at 6:16 pm
No retard, i’m not giving up on anything. liberty and freedom comes with a price now a days and we can do nothing about it. Do you really think that you and your snotty nosed friends are going to change the world by not shopping at walmart? You really must be one dumb son of a bitch to think so. As for walmart catering to 100 year olds. it may look to be that way but do you think any high school kid looking for a part time job over the summer is going to apply for a door greeter job at walmart? Why hell no. If you really want to lessen the value of our constitution then keep complaining and looking for reasons to sue walmart.
August 19, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Matt, your the only retard here. It’s sack-less tools like you who allow giant corporations to control the masses. I for one will not allow the conditioning of ’showing my papers’, especially by wal-mart. Most of the time it’s not ‘a few seconds of your time’. The other day I saw a bunch of morons, much like yourself, wait in a long ass line for close to 2 minutes waiting for the geriatric receipt checker to perform a check. I, of course, did not wait since I went on pass that idiot festival.
August 21, 2009 at 1:51 am
No Jordan, I’m not a moron and nor am I sack-less, just ask your mom. I can’t believe that there is such a large group of you cock suckers like you in the world that actually encourage shoplifting. Ill tell you what, this will be the last time that I reply to this bullshit so listen up and feel free to call me what you want but it is not going to change the truth. The reason I show my receipt at the door is not because I’m afraid of big corporations and I want to stand in yet another line for another two minutes (Jordan) that I have never done, at the most I waited thirty seconds. But if anyone is going to have to wait two minutes, by all means walk on out, someone must have hired one of theses dumb-asses that replied to me earlier and and obviously they don’t know what the hell there doing. Showing a receipt is not a big deal, and if you use any common sense at all you would realize that if everyone did it, it would cut shrink down in stores by at least a half. That means people like Jordan would get there stinking asses deodorant cheaper.
If you idiots really can’t find something more reasonable to bitch about then just keep your ass at home and stay off the Internet or better yet, go get fixed so you can’t breed. Nobody wants to hear a bunch of whiners and complainers wasting the air we breath. So if you are a little bitch like Jordan here, do us all a favor……… Shut Up and go Fuck Yourself!!!
August 21, 2009 at 3:14 am
Matt, I must ask you not to attack other commenters so viciously. Your abusive remarks do not help advance your argument in favor of receipt checking.
I’m glad you found this blog and that you decided to share your opinion. While I understand your perspective, I must challenge the highly dubious “facts” you cite. Who says store shrink would decline by 50 percent if every receipt were checked? Is this your belief, your untested hypothesis, or is this the conclusion of a recognized expert? Enlighten me.
How can you justify such suspicion of me, the customer, when you, the employee, are statistically more likely to steal? The National Retail Security Survey for 2007 shows that employee theft accounted for 47 percent ($19.5 billion) of all retail shrinkage, while shoplifting accounted for 32 percent, or $13.3 billion. If all employees aren’t searched on their way out of the store — and believe me, I’m well aware that they aren’t — why should all shoppers be searched? Please explain, because that doesn’t make sense.
-Corey
August 15, 2009 at 8:48 am
Wal-Mart might not be able to legaly hold a person if they don’t have proof that person shoplifted but they have every right to hold on to the merchandise until they know for sure it has been paid for. Your integrity is not in question when they simply ask to see your reciept. It is so the cashier that didn’t deactivate the item can be better trained. I guess if you don’t mind people thinking you are actually a thief don’t show your reciept. Just remember that’s why your being followed the next time you go into the store.
August 15, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Under no circumstance can a store employee seize merchandise that you’ve lawfully purchased. Ownership of the goods changes as soon as the merchant accepts payment; those bagged groceries are as much your personal property as your car keys, wallet and shoes. There is no federal or state law that allows shopkeepers to inspect their former goods after they have been sold.
A store employee who snatches a customer’s groceries away could be arrested and charged with larceny should the customer choose to prosecute. Depending on the amount of force used, the crime may even meet the legal threshold of robbery from a person or strong-arm robbery.
Merchant’s privilege laws allow employees to detain suspected shoplifters only with probable cause, which requires evidence. Choosing not to participate in a voluntary search provides no such evidence.
Additionally, the customer could sue the store for trespass to chattels, a tort invoked when someone unlawfully interferes with another’s property.
You may certainly choose to show your receipt when asked and believe that all customers should do the same. But please don’t confuse your personal preference with law.
August 19, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Wrong. The instances these people are talking about is when receipt checkers stop EVERYONE and check their receipt, regardless if the alarm went off or not.
August 21, 2009 at 2:09 am
Wrong again Jordan. receipt checkers target shoppers with large items like dog food or beer that can’t get bagged at the register. Quit while your ahead before you really get embarrassed. You don’t know shit about anything. Keep up the good work Indieregister, I’m glad to see that there are at least few people with sense out there.
August 15, 2009 at 7:07 pm
well I am glad that Wal-Mart checks receipts.One day I went into the store and when I was leaving the door greater checked my receipt and found that I did not have all my groceries. He even went back to get them for me.I guess you could say He saved me about $5.00 in gas so I didn’t have to drive back to get them.
August 15, 2009 at 7:35 pm
I have worked in Retail for many years and I have seen many cashiers get fired for having their friends come in and not scanning all of their items.Some old and some young. If we can just catch maybe half. do you think it might help the economy a little bit. How many people walking out of Wal-Mart has friends. Maybe They have a good ideal.
October 24, 2009 at 4:43 am
It is the principle of the matter…. You as a customer should not be treated as A thief . Today it is show me your receipt because i said so, Next it will be I am escorting you around the store and watching what you buy. Shopping for Personal Items Is not something I like having to whip out for everone to see. If they fear shoplifting so much to break A Americans right, then they should close and go to online retail. There are Many ways to prevent theft… so dont think for 1 second that “the only way i can prevent theft is you show me your receipt bull***t” you have surveilance, employees walking the floors and of course the Checkout and so on and so on…
you need to understand what is going on before you comment! One day when those Rights you Cherish as an american are completely gone you will look back going how did this happen.
December 17, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I was just at Walmart this morning. I purchased approximately 4 small items that were in ONE BAG. The Walmart receipt checker was in the middle of checking another woman’s bought items, and as I walked passed, he quickly told me I could not leave until he saw my receipt. Mind you..he was still in the process of going over the other woman’s receipt!
I told him my items were in a Walmart Bag..I HAD JUST BOUGHT THEM, and attempted to keep walking. He said he still needed to see my receipt, and would not let me go!
He was not standing anywhere near the door alarms..he was standing right after the check out isles ON THE WAY out of the store.
ps..Walmart sucks.