Today when I was at a Walgreens store not too far from my house the cashier warned me not to do that any more. She said that the management was cracking down on shoplifters, and on a security camera it might look like I was trying to steal something.
Her comment floored me. I'm so honest, I'd never think about stealing an item. But I guess unless a store associate personally knows me they might not recognize that. Now I'm going to have to retrain myself to grab a basket as I enter the store....and place my shopping bag in it before I start gathering the things on my list.
Five years ago today: An Accurate Description?
It is best to use their cart prior to purchase for mutual protection.
ReplyDeleteYou're probably right. I will (when I remember).
DeleteI actually would ignore this suggestion. If you take the bag to the cashier and remove everything from it (dump if you like, or I like to take everything out carefully because I am normally buying eggs when I do this!), then hand them the bag to replace all your items into it, nobody can accuse you of shoplifting at all.
ReplyDeleteIt would be very clear to them once you get to the checkout and do what you have explained that you are not stealing anything, and they cannot approach you until you *leave* the store with unpaid items. You'd have your receipt and be able to prove you paid for everything in the bag - unless the sales associate screwed up, and that would be caught on camera.
We've just gone through a massive change here in Australia where stores do not supply bags anymore, and virtually every single person here is doing what you are doing. The stores have to suck it up, because they are the ones who chose to stop supplying bags. :)
The rebel in me REALLY wants to ignore what the cashier told me :-). However, all things being equal I'll probably grab a basket when I remember so as to not have an experience like Strayer described in her comment.
DeleteI had a terrible experience at Winco food store, with an employee harrassing me from very close, then moving a couple feet away and whistling loudly. Although the store manager nor anyone else admitted it, online folk said they probably thought I was stealing. I was horrified to think they would think such a thing when I don't steal. I've never been back to Winco since then. It made me mad. So be careful, some of these stores with untrained over zealous employees can really ruin a person's day and make them afraid to even enter their store.
ReplyDeleteHow horrible for you! I agree that this new initiative may be the result of over-zealousness.
DeleteI'm with Snoskred. Unless it's posted on the outside of the door, before I walk in, it goes in my bag. If I'm not permitted to use the bag, I'd turn around and shop elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI'll see what happens going forward. If it's only at this Walgreens I can choose to shop at another one, as there are multiple stores within five miles of my house.
DeleteI do the same as you when I am getting just a few items that will fit into one bag. Here in California, it is shoplifting if you leave the store with the unpaid items. I always check out and pay for my items.
ReplyDeleteI would expect nothing less from you than complete honesty :-)
DeleteI wouldn't comply with that ridiculous request, either! I've never heard anything so ridiculous in my life.
ReplyDeleteIf you're really a shoplifter, you are not going to flaunt a large bag on your arm while you stuff merch into said bag! Shoplifters HIDE the items they want to steal! Does that fool of an employee not know how shoplifting works?
Altering my habits to accommodate thieves is not in my game plan, ever. It's all I can do not to bite off the heads of Sam's Club employees who insist on "checking" my reciept only 10 feet away from the registers. There is absolutely NOTHING I could have stolen in that short distance! Why am I being treated like a shoplifter? In fact, with those new self-check lines (I PAY to shop here, and now I've got to check myself out as well? WTH?) there are fewer reasons to even bother shopping there. Perhaps I'll let my membership expire.
Well, sorry for the rant. I just think it unconscionable when decent people are treated like common thieves. Grrrr!
There's always more to the story than is immediately visible. I'm pretty sure that the cashier was just passing on information she heard from her supervisors.
DeleteMy Costco took away the self serve checkouts. I wish they'd bring them back; I'm usually only purchasing a few things and HATE standing in line behind someone with an overflowing basket.
My Mother many years ago worked as a loss prevention person at a supermarket, and ever since then she will not go into one store carrying a bag from another store. It drives us all crazy, but we have grown to accept this weird quirk of hers.
ReplyDeleteShe would never steal anything but she also does not want to be placed in a position of someone having to check a bag, even if the items in the bag are not sold in that store and she has a receipt in there.. I guess she hated having to do that herself, though I still to this day am not sure what the precise genesis of this was for her. I will have to ask.
Isn't it funny though, that a comment from someone like that might change how we behave when it really shouldn't. It is entirely possible she was just saying it because she prefers it to be done "her way" which is customers using a basket and has nothing to do with a crackdown of any kind. :)
I wonder if that's what was behind the cashier's suggestion that I not use a bag inside the store! Something to think about.
DeleteIt is hard to be a world where there are so many dishonest, but I also believe without the ten commandments we might all be dishonest. Men are selfish by nature.
ReplyDeleteTrue.
DeleteGood advice from the cashier.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Ekkkkkkk!
ReplyDeleteI'm shaking my head.
Another thing to add to my list of.... I remember when.