Freep KMart on exit-door search policy

[Roscoe]

If you have a trashy house in Hendersonville, NC, and five neighbors complain, and the code enforcers get a warrant they can check out your pig sty and make you clean it up.

But what about our Constitutional right to fill the neighborhood with rats and vermin?

[gatex]

"We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone."

That didn't work for Lestor Maddox (later governor) in Atlanta, Georgia, years ago at his chicken resturant, because the feds found out-of-state license plates on cars in the parking lot and said he was engaging in interstate commerce.

[sinkspur]

Lester Maddox was a racist idiot who refused to serve blacks.

If I refuse to allow you to shop in my store because you won't allow me to check your plastic sacks or shopping cart before you leave and compare it to the receipt, I am discriminating on the basis of....what?

[Kaslin]

I don't mind them asking for it as I am used to it. However I consider it a nuisance

[PLMerite]

I'm not sure how stores treat their employees now (I know a guy who works at Wal-Mart, I'll ask him tomorrow), but when my mother worked at Memco almost twenty years ago, the employees had to check their personal bags with the security guy in the warehouse where all on-duty emplyees were required to enter/exit. The guard also checked their packages when they left if they'd bought anything between clocking out and leaving.

Of course, the night manager was cooking the books and pocketing a bunch of money from the tills...

As for customers, it was store policy, IIRC to staple shut bags and put the proprietary "tape of the day" on the bag, or anything too big to fit in a bag.

The guard by the customers' exit (usually an off-duty cop) scanned for the sacred tape as you passed.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Well, as long as you aren't concealing stuff, it's ok... if you shove something from the back of the store into your pocket, and then go past the purchase point, technically you could get busted...

Personally, I'd let common sense dictate my actions, and act accordingly... but maybe that's just me ;0)

[Chad Fairbanks]

The store can do it too if they have a good strong reason to think you stole something.

Ummm... not in THIS state - they have to see you select an item from within the store and conceal it. Then, and only then, could they detain you. At that point, if you refuse to turn the item over, they would be forced to call the police and THEY would perform the search...

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Well, if you card is ever stolen and the theif is caught before he has a chance to charge a large amount or even max it out, and before you report it stolen, or even know it's gone, you may not think that it is such a nusiance.

You do realize that you are responsible for the amount charged on the card up until you report it stolen or lost, and after that you're responsible only for the deductable amount. The former could be as much as your card limit, while the latter is usually $50-$100.

[billbears]

And what about those that have lived in Hendersonville all their lives? I guess they don't have rights do they? Having lived for seven years in the mountains of North Carolina the main reason for this intrusion is NOT to keep out undesirables. It's main purpose is to maintain the value of the land that the d#mn yankees have purchased in the past 10-15 years. Some fruitloop in Southern Living back in the late 80s rediscovered the Southern mountains(Brevard, Hendersonville, Asheville) and ever since the population has exploded with people out of state redefining the entire region.

The cost of living has skyrocketed and the entire area has turned into a cross between Berkley CA with hippies and South Florida with retirees. Most of the jobs in the region are low paying service jobs catering to the implants. The only people that don't 'fit' in are Southerners that were born and raised in this state. The area has never been a dump, but yes there may be a car or two out in the yard being worked on.

News flash!!! This is the South, we work on our cars out in the yard, we listen to country music, and by God we might have a fishing boat somewhere in the back. If you don't like the way it's done, I suggest YOU move. But don't tell others how they can live in a place that they grew up in. It's bad manners, heck it's downright northern.

I know this is off topic of the thread and try not to do that, but your response, sad to say, is without knowledge of the situation in western NC

[Libloather]

You sound bitter. Try my suggestion -

4. Quit yer bitchin' and get over it.

[USA21]

Its all over for America

[Roscoe]

Its all over for America

Nearly every day. :)

[Doctor Stochastic]

To be fair to Costco, they have caught a double charge for an item. When I buy two, they always ask (while looking at the receipt) if I really bought two.

[supercat]

Personally, I'd let common sense dictate my actions, and act accordingly... but maybe that's just me ;0)

I make sure to be VERY open about it. I figure that the worst that can happen (and it hasn't yet) would be for someone to ask me to leave the unpurchased items on the "unpurchased" side of the register, but that's never happened. I have on a couple of occasions had someone call out to me (when my current bearing was straight for the door), but I stated my intention and they indicated to go ahead.

BTW, do you have any answer to me other question re someone who is caught (or better yet, videoed) tampering with an anti-shoplifting tag, UPC code, or other such item? My thinking would be that the act of tampering is criminal in and of itself, independent of any effort to take the item from the store. As such, the store would (especially if it had reasonably clear video evidence) have the right to detain the "shopper" when he tried to leave the store and have him searched. Since there'd already be probable cause for his arrest and prosecution, there'd be no problem if a search turned up nothing. Of course, if the store waits until he's ready to leave it may be able to nail him on a much stiffer charge.

[blam]

"The Home Depot stores in the L.A. area are doing the same thing."

My brother worked at a Home Depot in the Dallas area. They told him that he was catching to many thiefs. He quit.

[billbears]

Get rid of the implants in the state of NC that keep changing our laws to fit their world views and I'll consider it.

[BlazingArizona]

1. They select an item...

2. They conceal the item...

Once this occurs, you must maintain visual contact with that individual 100% of the time until they leave. If you don't, you could not stop them (they may have "dropped" it on another shelf when they were out of site...)...

Arizona may be the only state that has a specific law against concealing an item inside a store, then leaving without it. It was passed during a fad for the practice you descdroibe a few years ago.

[Libloather]

Its all over for America

Shouldn't this be breaking news?

[Joe Hadenuf]

Employee theft is a bigger problem than customer theft. Employees have much more opportunities.

Some just don't seem to realize this....Cashiers working with bogus customers is a billion dollar business........

[dalereed]

What did he do, catch the store manager hygrading the merchandise?

The home office told the manager at the Oceanside, CA store to either cut down on the theft or he would be replaced so I don't think it's a company policy to not catch thieves.