WALMART shoppers have repeatedly slammed the outlet for its use of receipt checkers at store exits but one customer has a solution.
Such checks have been introduced by various retailers in a bid to crack down on shoplifting.
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However, many shoppers have noted that it makes them feel targeted, criminalized, and disrespected.
Users on Facebook have slammed shoppers who show their receipts to checkers at Walmart as “soft.”
“U soft if you let them check your receipt at Walmart,” one post read.
However, shopper Jeff Feaster revealed in the comments how he avoids the checks with an easy self-checkout solution.
While other shoppers are getting angry for being made to feel like criminals, he claims that his method sees him “treated like royalty” by Walmart.
“We use Scan and Go,” he said in the comments.
“They treat us like royalty when we leave.”
Explaining the process to a confused shopper he detailed how he uses a hand-held scanner to scan each item as he shops before putting them into a bag in his cart.
“You go through self-checkout, scan a QR code, hit pay and you’re done,” Feaster said.
An additional benefit is that shoppers can keep track of their spending as they go around the store.
Meanwhile, other Walmart customers took to the comments to explain why they continue to refuse to show their receipt.
“I don’t stop- I keep walking because if you trust me to check my own self out you better all the way trust me,” one shopper wrote.
“I literally throw the receipt away after I check out,” another added.
“If they wanted to do the whole ‘making sure you’re not stealing’ thing, then they shouldn’t have ever introduced self-checkout.”
However, some shoppers argued back that receipt checks are “not that deep” and customers should “just show them and move on.”
Despite this view, with continued changes being rolled out across stores such as locked-up items and operational hours at self-checkouts, shoppers are becoming increasingly frustrated.
Molly Burke, a senior retail analyst at Software Advice, previously warned retailers of pushing away loyal customers in their fight against theft when speaking to The U.S. Sun.
“Those more restrictive techniques definitely impact the customer experience,” Burke explained.
“People really don’t like those tactics.
LEGALITY OF RECEIPT CHECKS AND DETENTION
With receipt checks becoming more common there are a few legal terms and standards needed when facing store employees.
Stores can request to see a customer’s receipts, and for those establishments where membership is required, they have the right to demand a receipt check.
Many legal professionals have weighed in and come to similar conclusions, caveating that all states do have specific laws.
Generally speaking, stores have Shopkeeper’s Privilege laws that allow them to detain a person until authorities arrive when they have reasonable suspicion that a crime, like theft, has been committed.
Declining to provide a receipt is not a reason in itself for a store to detain a customer, they must have further reason to suspect a shopper of criminal activity.
Due to the recent nature of the receipt checks, there is little concrete law on the legality of the practice, as it takes time for law to catch up with technology.
Setliff Law, P.C. claims that “there is no definitive case law specifically relating to refusal to produce a receipt for purchases.”
For stores that improperly use their Shopkeeper’s Privilege, they could face claims of false imprisonment.
“The primary law that applies to these types of wrongful detention cases is called ‘False Imprisonment’,” explained Hudson Valley local attorney Alex Mainetti.
“Of course, you’re not literally imprisoned, but you’re detained by a person who has no lawful authority to detain you and/or wrongfully detains a customer.”
It is likely that as altercations in stores over receipt checks continue, more court cases will occur giving better definitions and boundaries to the legality of retailers checking receipts.
“It makes them feel like criminals when they are just trying to shop for the goods that they need.”
As a result, shoppers like Feaster share how they get out of receipt checks with hacks that vary from simply refusing to stop, to making sure all items are bagged at self-checkout.
The U.S. Sun previously reported on a Walmart shopper who promised to start showing her receipts when the retailer provides bigger bags.
Her comments come after a Walmart employee revealed why shopping bags are key to being targeted or not by receipt checkers.
Other retailers like Target are also coming under fire for implementing receipt checks and other measures that have left it “unshoppable” according to one customer.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Walmart for comment.
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