When leaving a store do you have to show your receipt to an employee when asked to?

Question

I went to Walmart and bought a bunch of things. The cashier didn't put the diapers in a bag because the package was too big. Everything else was in plastic Walmart bags. As I was leaving the store, the lady (Walmart employee) at the door asked to see my receipt. I showed it to her, but was fuming inside that someone assumed I had stolen this (otherwise why check my receipt). Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence before guilty? Also, do I HAVE to show my receipt to the employee and what can happen if I don't?

Answer 1

Don't you know that WALMART checkes everyone's receipt? did they lock you up? then you did not steal. It's always checked by the employee. If you don't show it to them, you're just being bad and you will make more problems for yourself then you have to.

Answer 2

ha they are just a bunch of low wage losers i tell them to fk off and keep walking and just let one of their security men try to touch me i would knock them on their azz

Answer 3

I refuse to stop and show them my receipt.  When they ask to see it, I politely say "No, you may not' and I keep on walking out the door.  Nothing has ever happened to me, meaning nobody has come running after me or anything like that, lol ... and I don't steal so I have nothing to hide.

Two years ago at Christmas I saw this mom with 2 very young children with a cart FULL of purchases. The toddler was crying and the mom was trying to hold her hand, she had an infant in her arms and was trying to push her cart out the door after the check-out when, you guessed it, an employee asked to see her receipt.  The mom had to find the receipt and the employee rummaged through the bags while the toddler is screaming and trying to run out the door.  Pure chaos !

I decided at this time that a Wal-Mart employee would NEVER search my bags.  If they think that I have stolen anything, they can call the police.

Oh, and for the other people that have said that Wal-Mart has the right to do this search, I say that after I have paid for something it is MINE, if they would like to do a search then they can do so BEFORE I pay.

Good question, here's a star.

Answer 4

I hear you...but given the presence of professional and organized shoplifters that target retail stores, most places are trying to make sure that stuff is paid for without offending customers TOO much.

Camera systems and loss prevention officers do a good job, but they can't be everywhere.  To set a policy where the door greeter asks for receipts for ANYTHING unbagged is fair as long as it's applied to everyone, regardless of age, color, gender, etc.  Not to defend Wal-Mart out of hand--but they are consistent in this regard.  

You are probably are well within your legal rights NOT to show your receipt--however, in the real world there are so many situations where it's easier to "go along to get along", as they say, in order to avoid a public scene.  In other words--pick your battles, and try to understand why stores have had to resort to checking receipts like this in today's world full of so many dishonest people.  While they couldn't detain you legally, they sure could embarass you and make you THINK that you could be detained.   It's part of the game Loss Prevention has to play in order to hold people until the police arrive, even if your going with them behind closed doors is actually voluntary.  

If it were me--as much as I consider myself to be an activist--I'd put up with that small delay and get on with my life.

Answer 5

Since this is not a court of law, the idea that you are innocent until proven guilty doesn't hold.  You are on private property here and they make the rules.  As far as showing your receipt, I suppose you don't have to, but they don't have to let you out the door with the merchandise unless you do.  Truthfully, from an outsider's point of view, you are overreacting.  Remember that stores lose millions of dollars a year to shoplifters and thieves and they are just trying to protect their investment, kind of like you putting a lock on your front door.

Answer 6

Legally, you don't have to show your receipt at Walmart, Circuit City , Sears, JCPenney and any other such stores.  At stores like Costco or Sam's Club  agreeing to show the receipt is a condition of membership, and all members have agreed to this before they chose to join the store.

At Costco or Sam's Club, I join the line, and show my receipt and they are very good about looking thru the stuff quickly, and often, they just wave me by.

At all other stores, I keep walking even if they ask me to stop. I politely tell them that I don't have to show any receipt. So far, it has never caused any problems for me.

If I have an especially bad experience while shopping or if they didn't open up enough checkout counters, I go one step ahead and tell customers, especially those with kids tagging along, that they don't have to show their receipts :-)

If shops have a problem of shoplifting, they should find other means to solve them.

Answer 7

lol

i purchased a queen size bedspread at walmart and the cashier, right in front of my face, unzipped the plastic and physically went searching through the bedspread to make sure i wasnt shoplifting or concealing other items in the bedspread.

i will never shop at walmart again. plus i dont appreciate the cashiers dirty, sweaty hands all over my brand new bedspread.

they do the same stuff at sams club which is part of walmart.

Answer 8

If you don't show it they may try and detain you by a citizens arrest and await the police.  

Answer 9

you gonna hate me for this but

welcome to my life dear.

Personally, I dont know when they started doing this, but of course it feels degrading. You work hard, your a good citizen, and suddenly they want to act as if your  a petty thief ( or a thief at all).

As the answerer above me stated, yes they have started doing checks. It for security. Sometimes they just let you walk out, but other times....you get stopped.

What you do is fume, feel bad, get mad then say you'll never go back.

But you do, because there isnt really a choice these days.

Answer 10

After you have paid for the items, the goods become YOUR PROPERTY, and they have no right to demand the receipt. Just keep on walking, and state a polite "no thanks".

It is illegal for the store employees to detain you, prevent you from leaving, try to touch you in any way, or to try to prevent the goods (YOUR PROPERTY!) from leaving the store. Unless, of course, they have proof that you have walked out of the store without paying for the goods.

Answer 11

Yeah I used to get mad when they started doing that to me.  I assumed that they were doing that because they thought I was going to steal stuff because I was young, but they do it to everybody.  I'm used to it now.

Answer 12

It is the cashier's fault for not putting the diapers in another plastic bags for their customers if the space in the package is inadequate.

Your conscience is clear and nothing to worry about because you have paid up everythings.

You have the rights to complain to Walmart Manager for causing embarassment by checking receipt openly infront of other customers.  

Answer 13

they have that right and try not to take it so personally

Answer 14

I would show them, and not take it as a personal attack.

They HAVE to check things like back-packs, open up the shoe boxes, even if the UPC code is on the outside, check those large plastic bins,

comforter bags etc... when they are ringing you out. It's just store policy. Not that they think you specifically are a shoplifter.

But when everything in your cart was in a bag, and only one large item wasn't, that's a bit much. Maybe she was new. Or maybe they had a lot of shop-lifting lately and were told by management to check every little thing.

I work at a Wal-mart. And we had 2 TVs stolen last week ( A sunday morning both were presumably taken at the same time. Don't ask me how), and another one almost stolen a few days later. Now someone must always be in the electronics section 24-7. We can't let up on overnight shift (my shift I'm and overnight stocker). I usually cover the breaks of the person in electronics, but now I can't go put any merchandise away even in a close department. And we must ask every customer if they need help. So don't take it personally, be mad at whomever stole stuff to make them so cautious.

And another note on checking the purses, diaper bags, and things like comforters in bags.

I have personally found empty movie and video game cases in a diaper bag that was on the shelf. So someone else may have taken something and hidden the packaging in what you are buying, and we need to report those empty packages to our "claims" department. I know it would look suspicious on the innocent person, who is not shoplifting, and they'd want to have a look in your purse you brought with you etc..., but once things were cleared up it would be Ok.

I know I've gone on and on here. But I'm just trying to give some insight as to why they might act accusatory when they aren't really accusing you personally.

Answer 15

They were just doing damage control.  A lot of large stores do this to cut back on theft.  Don't take it personally..it's not like they assumed you stole anything..they just want to check to be sure the diapers were paid for.