strip search leaving store

[TerryH]

Okay.. it wasn't really a strip search, but I got your attention.

What do you guys and gals think about the storeperson who goes through your bag/cart as you LEAVE the store. This is after you've stood in line for several minutes to pay for the stuff. They expect you to line up like sheep again to be searched. They are basically accusing everyone of thievery. Personally, I don't stop unless my wife is along because she doesn't want to make a commotion.

Fry's electronics was the first store that I saw do this as a rule. This goes back more than 10 years. I don't stop at Fry's, I walk past the long single file line and exit the store. I feel they would have to have reason to accuse me of shoplifting to search my belongings. They are after all, mine. I paid my hard earned money for what's in the bag. It's insulting.

Is this a California thing? Costco is doing it now. I am just be grouchy again? Is it legal to search either inside or outside the store exit. Can I give them the finger and continue walking without my membership being revoked?

I know there are some attorneys here. I would like to hear if a precedent has been set. I feel I'm going to make my own here soon.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Fry's does it; Costco does it; Sam's does it.

You are guilty until proven innocent, get used to it.

[Steve Carlton]

3 second minor inconvenience. Probably helps keeps the prices down.

[TerryH]

bunch of wimps... sound like my wife

For the legal people out there... how are search and seizure laws applied to this type of thing?

[Hugh R]

Pisses me off too. I notice that the same franchise does it in some stores, but not in others. If I'm not with my wife, I usually make a rude comment. I don't care if it keeps prices down or not, its still insulting.

[ZOA NOM]

I just ignore them. I've even responded when challenged; "None of your business." Because it isn't.

[Dantilla]

I don't mind Costco. But I feel like a criminal every time I step into the local Guitar Center.

Hey, guys! I'm not a real musician! Really! I have a real job! I can afford to pay for my strings and picks!

[cowtown]

I blow past the Fry's retailmonkeys; no one has called me back yet. With Costco, for some reason, I don't mind them checking.

[emcon5]

I ignore the Fry's folks as well. I seem to recal the search when exiting thing is something you agree to when you become a member at Costco.

The worst I ever saw was at Wal Mart (in Milpitas for the locals). They had all of the exit doors blocked except for one, so all the lunchtime traffic was channeled past one dim-witted barely literate employee to check receipts. The line for the exit search was longer than most of the registers, and moving slower.

In hindsight, I should have called the fire department. Blocking all those exits had to be against city fire code.

Tom

[Az911]

Originally posted by TerryH


Is this a California thing? Costco is doing it now. I am just be grouchy again? Is it legal to search either inside or outside the store exit. Can I give them the finger and continue walking without my membership being revoked?

When you become a member at costco and sign that contact you give them the right to search your cart as you leave.

[Craig 930 RS]

Here at the home base of Costco - Kirkland Washington - for 15 years I've been curious as to why Costco checks the cart vs. receipt.

How the hell are ya gonna get anything past the checker that would sit in your cart, anyway? Put it in your coat ;-)

[Rick V]

Just my $.02 but it sounds like people are being acused of theft without proof. Kind of like being pulled over and searched just because you were on the road. It must be a CA. thing I have never been searched here in Va, and I look like the kind of person who would get stopped. (long hair, short beard)
Hell here the cops can't even search your car without a warrant, If it isn't in plain sight they can't do anything about it.

[on-ramp]

just because i come into your store and want to shop for something, doesn't give you the right to search me.
where are the constitutional attorneys?

what's next, fingerprinting on entry?

[competentone]

Originally posted by TerryH
For the legal people out there... how are search and seizure laws applied to this type of thing?

Not a "legal people," but search and seizure laws apply to government action against citizens, not the policies private businesses have toward their customers.

Personally, I haven't run into any checks that I consider too intrusive, and if I did, I'd just stop doing business with any company whose policies I didn't like. Like Walmart's new policy requiring that customers wait in the check-out line for at least 10 minutes (if the wait gets to be less than ten minutes, they close registers); I've just stopped shopping there.

[HardDrive]

Originally posted by Steve Carlton
3 second minor inconvenience. Probably helps keeps the prices down.

Exactly.

You guys are thinking about this as law abiding citizens. You can't believe the lengths people will go to steal. If it keeps prices lower, I am all for it.

Its not like you are being asked to bend over and cough.......

[BGCarrera32]

What is actually stupid about the practice in my opinion is that the line of registers is usually placed 50' away from the exit. So you stand in line for 10 minutes, pay, and then head for the door where you're stopped again because none of these *security* guys saw you in line. So in actuality the *security* guy isn't paying any attention to whats going on over at the registers, but stops you before leaving the building anyway. They do this at Costco and Target in MN, and you really can't sneak past the registers with a cart or a box or whatever to the exit in the first place. Its like checking out twice...it doesn't bother me that much but funny how none of them have a posted policy at the entrance about how it goes down when you shop there...

"Yeah, you got me. I didn't pay for this 52" Plasma TV that I have on your store warehouse cart that YOUR associate loaded from the back dock inside your store..." DUH.

[HardDrive]

Originally posted by BGCarrera32


"Yeah, you got me. I didn't pay for this 52" Plasma TV that I have on your store warehouse cart that YOUR associate loaded from the back dock inside your store..." DUH.

In reality, retail chains don't make much on 52" televisions. And they are obviously next to impossible to steatl. Its the little stuff.

People stealing printer toner, meat, computer games. Those items are small, easy to steal, and hurt the bottom line.

[BGCarrera32]

Yeah but you missed the point...the place to prevent that stuff from getting stolen is before they hit the checkout anyway. Quick checks of carts and whatever is fine but asking to dig through your bags is quite another. So when I've stood in line for 10 minutes with my cart, don't stop me at the door for the *security* guys lack of attentiveness.

[cowtown]

Originally posted by on-ramp
just because i come into your store and want to shop for something, doesn't give you the right to search me.

Nobody's person is being searched.

[Rondinone]

This is exactly why I quit Sam's. I will not be treated like a criminal.