Costco, Sam's Club, etc.

It's not a public space. I figure their house, their rules, so I wait.
 
I don't think they don't really check your purchases - they look at the bottom of the receipt that says something like "20 Items", or however many things you bought, in double-sized type. Then they just count how many things you have in your cart. No biggie for me, either I get 4-5 items, or 50-75 items over two flatbeds and rarely anything in between. So I either get to breeze through with a couple items as they swipe the yellow highlighter, or I wait while they take one look, give up, and then swipe the highlighter over the receipt. For me, it doesn't take long, and if that's the club policy, so be it.
 
Matthew said:
......and if that's the club policy, so be it.
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I guess the real question is...... is it stated on the agreement we all signed to be a member of Sams club for them to be able to stop us on the way out for a "purchase screening".. Anyone out there have a Sams agreement you can read real quick ?:dunno:
 
If you're concerned about your rights, protest something relevant, like TSA or government snooping on the internet without a warrant. Oh, wait...that's too difficult or involves actual risk, so we're going to take out our frustration on some poor hourly Costco employee?

Please.

If receipt-checking didn't make a real difference, why would Costco pay someone to do it? Costco is not TSA, with an endless source of money to waste. If it didn't make a meaningful difference, Costco wouldn't do it.

If you think receipt-checking inside a private establishment is somehow a violation of the Constitution, you need to actually read the document.
 
From the Consumerist:
http://consumerist.com/2007/09/receipt-check-policies-for-costco-sams-club-and-bjs.html

Judge the quality or truth for yourself, but here is what they say:

In most cases, a receipt check is voluntary, but several wholesale shopping clubs make you agree to them as part of the membership contract. Thanks to everyone who helped unearth these. No shoplifting mentioned. Their given reasons for checking the receipts don't make any sense. If all the checker does it glance and the receipt and make a highlighter stroke across it, how is he checking the correct price?
Sam's Club: "To ensure that you are charged correctly for the merchandise you have selected, you will be requested to show your receipt when exiting."
Costco [PDF, pg 14]: "To ensure that all members are correctly charged for the merchandise purchased, all receipts and merchandise will be inspected as you leave the warehouse."
BJ's Wholesale Club: "BJ's inspects all receipts as Members exit the Club to ensure that Members have not been overcharged or undercharged for an item and that all selections appear on the receipt."

So in most cases, the check is voluntary. And in most cases, the stated purpose is NOT to detect shop lifting. But BJs does say the purpose is to assure:

" . . . that all selections appear on the receipt."
 
In this country you have the "right" to explicitly (and in many cases, implicitly ) waive almost any of your other "rights." Nice thing is, no one grabbed your hand and made you sign the membership form.
 
John Baker said:
As a life long retailer, I know for a fact that a place like Cost Co or Sam's club would soon be out of business if their pilferage level was not kept under incredibly tight control.

A normal retailer works from a 40% all the way up to 600% mark up. It all depends on their cost of operations, which is usually in the 30% range, plus rent and so on.

Those warehouse club operations usually work on a 10% up to 40% mark up, that is what gives them their appeal. They depend on buying power to give them an edge over other retailers.

If one ten dollar item goes missing, they have to sell ten more of them before they start showing a profit again.

So...they are stuck. If they want to stay in business, they must take Draconian measures to control shrinkage. If you want to shop at such places to save a few bucks, then you should do what you can to insure they stay in business.

You have already usually driven way out of your way to get to the warehouse. You dealt with the parking mess and crowds. So what is the big deal about playing their security game?

If you like them, do what you can to keep them around. Myself, as a single person, I was not impressed with them at all. I bought an Executive membership at CostCo about six months ago for a hundred bucks. I gave Mary a card, she only went one time and bought a large package of carrots for her juicer. I went one time, and didn't buy anything. I don't think it is worth the hassle. If I was buying for a large family, then it might make sense.

-John
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What I do to keep businesses around, is not steal from retailers, what they do to keep me around, is not treat me like a thief.
 
bartmc said:
What I do to keep businesses around, is not steal from retailers, what they do to keep me around, is not treat me like a thief.
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And just how exactly are they supposed to know that you are not one of the many thieves that rip them off every day? What is so special about your appearance that they should implicitly trust you when they know there are so many thieves coming and going every day that are professionals at trying to look innocent?

And even if you do look that innocent; haven't you heard: profiling is not acceptable.

Everyone of you that get's indignant when a store scrutinizes you to make sure you are not stealing from them is guilty of making their job more difficult and thereby causing shoplifting to be harder to stop and causing all of our prices to increase.
 
I've been a member of Sam's in the past and am now a member of Costco. I don't mind the exit screening, nor do I feel insulted by it--it's the store doing what it has to do in order to stay in biz.

What annoys me is how long it takes to go through the checkout lines. Much of the time it seems like the cashiers work rather slowly. Also the parking lots can be a zoo if you visit during certain times.
 
JOhnH said:
And just how exactly are they supposed to know that you are not one of the many thieves that rip them off every day? What is so special about your appearance that they should implicitly trust you when they know there are so many thieves coming and going every day that are professionals at trying to look innocent?

And even if you do look that innocent; haven't you heard: profiling is not acceptable.

Everyone of you that get's indignant when a store scrutinizes you to make sure you are not stealing from them is guilty of making their job more difficult and thereby causing shoplifting to be harder to stop and causing all of our prices to increase.
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My solution is, I just don't shop there. I haven't been in a Sam's club in decades and it's been over 2 years since I set foot in Costco, I pass by one daily and my wife's work gives us a free card, we haven't seen or needed the card in years.

If they feel like they have to scrutinize me and feel that a large portion of their clientele is thieves, then that just doesn't sound like a place I want to be. There's already 10 security cameras looking you in the eyes 90% of the time you step out of your home. Video cameras on the clerks, etc... If they think the clerks are stealing or coordinating theft.. yet another reason to not to go there, Do I really want to spend my time at a place employing and attracting thieves?

No thanks, I'll go to the local store, where if I forget my wallet, they just let me walk out with the goods because I told them i'd be back later or if I space out and walk out the door with something in my hand, they just remind me or I remind them the next time I'm in there (i've done this once at the local sporting goods store, I called and they put a post-it note on the cash register. )

No way I'm subjecting myself to that kind of BS to save 50 cents on 2 gallons of mayonnaise that I don't need.
 
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JOhnH said:
And just how exactly are they supposed to know that you are not one of the many thieves that rip them off every day? What is so special about your appearance that they should implicitly trust you when they know there are so many thieves coming and going every day that are professionals at trying to look innocent?

And even if you do look that innocent; haven't you heard: profiling is not acceptable.

Everyone of you that get's indignant when a store scrutinizes you to make sure you are not stealing from them is guilty of making their job more difficult and thereby causing shoplifting to be harder to stop and causing all of our prices to increase.
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John............................... That cuts BOTH ways sir.....

Take the example I wrote earlier.... I joined the "discount warehouse club" and paid a premium price to do that.... With that they said Sams club will be cheaper then any other retail store..... Then the Walmart store directly across the street had the EXACT same bundle of shop rags 1.25 cheaper.. In fact I made the manager scan the barcode on the Sams computer to prove that point... So, you see............ there is STEALING on both sides and I caught the thief working the sellers side of things.......

Just to add a bit of irony in this story my hangar mate for a few years in Jackson Hole was a great guy named John, ya see ol John started in avaition as a crop duster, this guy could fly a dinner table if you put enough HP on it. He flew almost every day in his Citation jet to all parts of the continent and beyond. Then one day he bought a CGS Hawk to play with in his "off" time. He would come to the airport in his old beat up Suburban with a cracked windshield, dents in the fenders and ripped seats... Just another airport bum like me. We would sit for hours in the hangar and talk about flying and business and all kinds of other stuff. To be honest, he was the only other person in the entire world who I would have let fly my plane, and that says alot since it has over 400 hours on my experimental plane, NO BODY else has sat in the left seat to fly it. I told him the story of my episode at Sams club and he was not surprised at all in how the corporate world works... One day poor John was tinkering with his ultralight and made a test flight.. That morning I even opened the hangar door for him as I was going flying too. He was in the air less then 2 minutes and it crashed,,, killing a good friend and great person....... Money won't buy safety as he was the 9th richest person in the world. I bet he did everything he could to not crash but fate served a ugly hand that morning..:sad::sad::sad:.. He was Sams son...... John Walton..... I still miss not seeing him around anymore....:sad:

Godspeed fellow aviator.......

Ben.
 
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The membership clubs you have an agreement to be checked.

The general stores like Best Buy have no authority to stop you if you've paid for an item. You can ignore their ersatz security.
 
Jay Honeck said:
... (We don't have Costcos in Texas, so I'm not sure if they have that sort of thing.)
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Sure ya do ... 19 of 'em

http://www.costco.com/warehouse/location.aspx

We were early members of Price Club - my wife and I (before we met) got our membership cards from the original store in San Diego, and then grudgingly surrendered our Price Club cards for the newly merged Price Costco, and then surrendered those for full fledged Costco cards.

We probably don't save and shop as much there now that the kids are mostly out of the house, but still shop there often. Never on weekends if we can help it tho. Gas is always 6-10 cents cheaper there, we've found.
 
This thread is a testament to the fact that anything is game for debate here. ;)
 
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I've never shopped at one of these place, but what is the reason for this post-checkout "audit"?
 
If there is a line, I'm not stopping. If I'm walking out and someone wants to take 3 seconds to look in my cart and highlight my receipt, no worries, I'll cooperate.
 
bartmc said:
Private Sector TSA
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If you think about it, they are are really checking their own employees. It would be impossible to "sneak" anything in the cart in the 30 feet between the cash register and the door/auditor, without complicity from/with the cashier.
 
bartmc said:
Private Sector TSA
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So, now we know how the 'farm team" works for finding those highly qualified TSA agents..:yesnod: . In thinking about it, those Sams club door checkers do wear BLUE shirts too..:hairraise::hairraise::yikes::rofl:
 
Oh man, I learned a ton from this thread...
Gonna put a tiny sticker on the front door in miniscule print that says any comely young lady entering here has agreed to a close search of her person for contraband or other interesting appurtenances...


OK, more seriously - I tend to be easy going and since I don't steal will patiently let the security folks check my bag/cart... If they become over officious I just won't go back there... I do however have limits and a long line of people waiting will make me just keep walking... Had one fella yell at me, I just waved and hollered have a nice day, and kept walking... Being a grandfather type has its rewards -I think he assumed I was senile and just let it go...
I am aware that the local Best Buy has husky young fellas near the door and they have tackled shoplifters out in the parking lot and physically held them down until the police got there... In Michigan they have the legal right to do that (apparently)... I suspect they only do that when they are dead sure there is theft - otherwise it could get expensive...

Anyway, it is the old rule for retailers wanting to stay in business - treat me fair or lose me...
 
Dr. O said:
Oh man, I learned a ton from this thread...
Gonna put a tiny sticker on the front door in miniscule print that says any comely young lady entering here has agreed to a close search of her person for contraband or other interesting appurtenances...


OK, more seriously - I tend to be easy going and since I don't steal will patiently let the security folks check my bag/cart... If they become over officious I just won't go back there... I do however have limits and a long line of people waiting will make me just keep walking... Had one fella yell at me, I just waved and hollered have a nice day, and kept walking... Being a grandfather type has its rewards -I think he assumed I was senile and just let it go...
I am aware that the local Best Buy has husky young fellas near the door and they have tackled shoplifters out in the parking lot and physically held them down until the police got there... In Michigan they have the legal right to do that (apparently)... I suspect they only do that when they are dead sure there is theft - otherwise it could get expensive...

Anyway, it is the old rule for retailers wanting to stay in business - treat me fair or lose me...
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Quite likely, the Best Buy near me a ceiling reminiscent of a Vegas Casino with eye in the sky covering everything and the fact that 80% of thieves are stupid and obvious .
 
Henning said:
Quite likely, the Best Buy near me a ceiling reminiscent of a Vegas Casino with eye in the sky covering everything and the fact that 80% of thieves are stupid and obvious .
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I can say with authority that it's Best Buy's policy to never use physical force on a thief and is grounds for immediate termination. Best Buy had the **** sued out of them once when a manager tried to restrain a customer (manager was then arrested).

What we did instead of restrain the customer - was just make them nervous as hell. If I saw someone steal something I'd go straight up to them and be super chatty. Sometimes I'd even see the object (almost always movies or cds) they stole. In that case I'd talk to them about that movie, what I thought, if I wanted to see it, I'd tell them to come back and let me know what they thought of it...etc..etc. Normally they'd ditch the item in seconds and hastily exit the store.
 
Tangentially related, there was a security guard standing at the door when I visited Barnes and Noble a week or so ago. Why in the world does a bookstore need someone guarding the door? The only thing I could conclude was that the E-readers stacked near the door might be a risk.
 
The real risk at B&N is that they'll keep the doors open while they bleed out, cash-wise. :(
 
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