Can customers refuse to show their receipt when the store employees ask to see it, when exiting a store?

They have every right to ask to see it but they cannot detain you. You can refuse and leave but that may spark other action by those who do have the right to detain you. I think it’s just part of their loss control measures. I notice some Walmarts don’t do this so I can only speculate it’s where they are seeing more theft.

They can refuse, and be prevented from leaving with their alleged purchases. It is private property, authorities may be called.

I would show my receipt if asked but I have never been asked.

I’ve seen this in facebook groups and news feeds. I don’t understand why people don’t just show their receipts. I’ve done it for years at Sam’s Club. Generally, Walmart greeters are the ones that look at your receipts. They are elderly people where I shop and I’m not going to fight or argue with an elderly person who is just doing their job. But, then again, I’m not stealing anything.

The only thing I am ever asked at check out is if I want to have a receipt. Would be weird if they wanted to see one if I declined to have one.
And what If you did not even buy anything, because the store did not have what you wanted?
This is just another exortionary tactic to get you to spend money.

Technically, you can’t accuse someone of theft until they are outside of the store. Maybe it varies by state. We were taught not to stop anyone while they are still inside the store. So, I don’t see how they can demand to see a receipt and not let you leave, but if you don’t show your receipt when asked, that could trigger them to follow you out I guess? My Walmart has someone standing near the entrance/exit usually, but I don’t think they check receipts that I can remember.

Membership clubs like Costco or Sam’s probably have more leeway and can kick you out of membership if you don’t comply with their requirements.

People can ask anything they like but sometimes there are consequences. I expect this would be one of those times.

@ragingloli This applies to self-checkout stores only.

@janbb Costco, Sam’s and BJ’s do it for every customer. Walmart does it for both self check and for those who go to the cashier, although they are random with the cashier checked customers. Not sure if they’re random with the self check as I never do self check.

Technically speaking, asking to see your receipt is NOT accusing anyone of theft. They can’t have you “arrested” for shoplifting until you step out the door into the parking lot. At that point, the Asset Prevention Officer is right behind you to follow you outside anyway & there’s a good chance the greeter will simply let you pass so they don’t have to deal with you as it has become the APO’s responsibility. You can refuse to show your receipt but it’s seen as being guilty. If you have NO reason to not want to be checked, what have you done???

I don’t shop at Sam’s nor Costco because the closest one to me is about 45 miles away & they lose their value for me. My understanding is that stores are allowed to ask to see your receipt as long as it is company policy & they’re checking ALL receipts & NOT weeding out certain people. I’ve made it a habit to make sure everything is bagged properly & I keep my receipt in my hand & I hold it in such a way that anybody checking can see it as I’m approaching the exit. They usually just wave me on through.

A friend of mine is a greeter at Walmart & she says they only “ask” to see receipts of people who don’t have everything bagged & they only check the receipt for the unbagged items.

Walmart now has their shoplifting system fine tuned to the point that they know exactly what you stole & the dollar amount down to the penny. The APO only tries to stop those stealing large dollar amounts as it’s NOT worth their effort to go after the petty theft. Even if it’s a small dollar amount, they flag the video to go into your file so they can add up how much is being taken. When you reach that magic number, they will stop you & APO files a complaint with local law enforcement & they will proceed to prosecute. That magic number varies from state to state because each state has their own law for what is considered grand theft. Once you’re flagged in the system as a habitual shoplifter, your every move is recorded fro the time you walk in the door until the time you leave. Then if it escalates to a court case, they have ALL the proof needed to prosecute. They even have their own group of lawyers to protect them in court.

If you do enough petty theft, they have the option of stopping you & the APO will take you into the office to explain what proof they have & then you are banned from shopping at the store for a specified length of time.

Personally, I don’t want the hassle of refusing to let them see so I keep everything within plain sight & I have very few hassles!!!

@jca2
So not only do they try to make you do the work of a cashier for free to the benefit of their profit line only, but they also put you under a general suspicion of theft if you do.
This entire system needs to be burnt to the ground.

Yes you can refuse, but they can ban you from the store too.

My understanding is that private clubs can do this (Costco, Sam’s). In the US at least, Walmart can’t do anything if you refuse, because it’s a 4th amendment infringement, so what they are doing is “loss-prevention theater.”

If you are caught shoplifting from Walmart, they’ll ban you for life. Happened to someone I used to knew.

You can refuse, but then they can do what they do. It depends on the situation what happens next.

I think it’s a bit rude, and a weird/unwise store policy, with the possible semi-exception of Costco, where you’ve got a bunch of people steadily leaving with large carts full of stuff, some of it valuable. There, it makes more sense to me as a cooperative effort to enable lots of people to buy lots of things . . . however, even there, especially before they added self-check-out (where they’ve recently started adding a THIRD ID checkpoint!), I think it could be handled differently. The problem is, they’ve arranged their stores so that there’s typically a food court, automotive shop, and returns center, oh, and restrooms, in a large area AFTER the checkouts.

(That is, there’s no one whose job is to make sure no one subtly wanders past the checkouts to the other areas with some stuff, which is a large area to cover, so it does kinda make sense with that layout, to check at the door.)

If checkouts led more directly to an exit, or if some other security system were used, then you could probably avoid the second set of inspection at the door.

I only distinctly remember refusing once, many years ago, at COMP USA. COMP USA had particularly annoyed me in other details regarding a purchase (and return/refund or something) involving a large computer screen/monitor, and they had recently added an annoying policy of having a rude idiotic dude hanging around in the exit area demanding receipts of everyone. This COMP USA did NOT have multiple people leaving at once – it seemed to me to be clearly a thoughtless silly policy. It seemed especially silly one day as I was leaving with one enormous monitor in my cart, that there was no possible way I had just taken without already having to deal with multiple other staff inside, so I took pleasure in telling the poor guy stuck with that receipt-checking role, that no, I wouldn’t show him my receipt. I also got to be amused by hearing him try to invent things to say on the spot, about how I really had to stop and show him a receipt. No, I didn’t. Bye.

I also (but only indistinctly) remember some stores where I ignored requests from staff to talk to them as I left the store. I did have a receipt, but wasn’t going to bother to talk to them unless they came right over to me where I couldn’t ignore them.

Just like if you picked something up and walked out without paying, they have no right to physically detain you. They can get sued if they do. If Wally World asks to see your receipt and you ignore them or flat out tell them no, there isn’t a lot you can do at that time. I guess they could try to have you banned from the store and that might work against white men, but every other group could just claim it was discrimination if for no other reason than to muck up the process.

I personally don’t care. If they are doing it as part of loss prevention, they are, ostensibly, doing it to keep prices down and to stay in business at that location.

Much ado about nothing. We seem to have a deficit of real problems to fight. 1st world problems.

@ragingloli Right? I’m like, oh hellz no haha. I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to lift up the heavy shit and scan it, and deal with figuring out things like codes for weighing fruit and veg, and then on top of that be suspected of fucking up that whole job I just did for free. No thanks. Unless they’re giving me a discount, I’m going to a cashier.

@Zaku Comp USA! Now there’s a blast from the past.

My BJ’s some of the exit people are extreme about it. They unzip my bags if they are zipped, and seem like they are really checking, but no way they can actually be accounting for everything. Whatever. I shop in BJ’s about 4 times a year.

@JLeslie I can’t speak for all states, but simply concealing an object is grounds for shoplifting.

I knew a girl who was going to steal cigarettes from a store, but she chickened out and put them back. She was still charged.

No. Unless they are security, you don’t have to. I usually show my receipt if asked, but occasionally if I’m not in the mood, I’ll ignore the person and walk past them.

Certainly. Nobody other than a law enforcement officer, can search your belongings, or person.

Telling me I can’t leave, is getting really close to false imprisonment. Attempts at searches usually violate multiple civil rights.

LEOs have to have a strong understanding of what is, or isn’t within the law. And what “powers” exactly their position grants them.

Walmart does have a internal security team.
Many modern cctv systems have facial recognition.
They constantly scan people to see if they have a criminal record. If you do, you get extra attention.
If you don’t believe me, take a walkie talkie to the store with you. Switch channels until you pick up the security channel.
You’d be amazed at how invasive current technology is.

When I used to work at a big box sporting goods store, they checked everyone’s bags each night before we all left.
They did NOT check my bags.
I was an active LEO, working part-time. I knew my rights.
No manager ever challenged me on that. If they did, I’d have told them they need to call the police to see if they even have a reason to search me.
We had to clock out, before going to the front doors, so we weren’t even technically working.
It doesn’t make people happy, but you don’t have to obey a civilian in a public place.

^^They are zipped grocery bags in a cart. I don’t mind unzipping them, I just wanted to be the one to unzip them not the guy at the door. It feels aggressive to me. He should just ask me to open the bags, that’s what most of them do.

^Unfortunately. Most people are not capable of NOT abusing even the smallest power.

Next time a person you don’t know, didn’t give permission to, puts their hands in your cart or on your bags scream.

I wager you won’t. But you could embarrass these jerks.

@JLeslie I definitely wouldn’t want some stranger putting their dirty hands on my bags.

@jca2 I joined when I was still very careful about Covid, so I was even more annoyed than I usually would be.

I would think the contract for Sam’s and other membership stores stipulates that you will have receipts checked at the door, so you are signing up for that.

The context in which I read about this was a Facebook post going around about a man leaving one of the self checkout stores and waving the receipt at the door checker while saying (or thinking), “If you’re worried about my stealing things, don’t have me do the cashier’s job.” It was a protest move and may or may not have happened. I could see doing that for that reason but I always go to cashiers to preserve their jobs.

Yes, that’s one of the reasons why I go to cashiers, the other is because I don’t want to do the work of a cashier unless the store is giving a discount, which of course won’t happen. If I’m going to lift heavy things of water, soda, detergent, cat food, etc. up for scanning, I better get a discount haha.

I think that’s the same post I saw, @janbb. I don’t know if that specific event occurred, but I have seen in local groups where people said they’re refusing to show their receipt to the person in Walmart, and then some friends were commenting on the FB photo, and saying they refuse to show their receipt. I believe there are people who refuse to show their receipts, except of course in Costco, BJ’s and Sam’s where it probably is in your membership contract like @kruger_d said, and they would probably rescind your membership if you walked out without allowing it to be done.

WHAT in a grocery store is too heavy to lift up and scan??? A bunch of bananas?
I prefer self checkout. It’s better than standing there scratching my butt in boredom while someone else does something I can do.

@Dutchess_III, that ^^ depends on your strength. I used to wrangle groceries just fine by myself. Now a 2½ gallon jug of water is very heavy for me. Forget those gallon 4-packs, never mind a 24-bottle pack of 16-ouncers. Big sack of potatoes, impossible. Even a 12-can case of sodas can be a challenge.

Baggers routinely fill up a sack that’s easy for their young bodies to heft; I’ll give them four bags and they’ll load up two and hand the rest back empty unless I direct them.

Ya. Me too @Jeruba.

Agreed, @Jeruba. A gallon of water, a case of water or soda, a big bottle of detergent, a bag of cat litter or cat food, a gallon of milk – the list goes on and on. Forget it. Why should I do it? Are they paying me to do their job? No. Hell no. If the lines are long, I go to the Customer Service counter and ask them to ring my stuff up, and they do. I tell them “I don’t do self checkout.”

The world is changing.

I remember being chewed out by my boss, for sitting down at 4AM in a deserted truck stop.

Nowadays. I’m lucky if the clerk is even paying attention to me, as they are often having active personal calls whilst I interact with them.
I often think “ya know, this lady is probably talking to another person who is supposed to be doing their job!”

Let’s be honest.
We don’t go to places like Walmart, for the experience.
We need to take what we can get.

I’ve seen a large fight with a bunch of Latino kids in the clothing section once. They destroyed the men’s wear area and it looked really violent. No idea how many people got hurt or went to jail, because I walked off and let life happen.
Sadly. I have seen two women WITH BABIES in their arms, fighting each other. Both with babies. Both were kinda pregnant looking too.
That was at the deli counter.

If you want to see what life is really about, go to Walmart.

I am definitely guilty of putting too much stuff in people’s bags, when I worked at a grocery store. I was very young, and pretty stupid.
I was also passive-aggressive.

If someone asked for paper, I would make it really hard for them. That’s a shitty thing to do. Anywhere teenagers work, is going to have problems.

^^Why hard if they ask for paper? My Walmart doesn’t have paper, but my other grocery store does, and I sometimes ask for paper. A lot of the time I bring my own bags, which is hard for a Walmart cashier, so I usually tell them to put the groceries on top of the bag carrousel as they ring up, and I bag everything as they go.

Absolutely you can refuse. The situation may get tense, depending on how much their biases convince them you probably are shoplifting, but you are entirely in the right to refuse. It’s just a petty bit of rights stealing BS that helps their bottom line, and is innocuous enough that most everyone here is just like “get with the program and comply” but for those very reasons, you must refuse every time.

Some stores have a policy to check your receipt against what’s in the cart (BJ’s, Costco, etc).
The policy is clearly posted.
If not posted, they have no right to ask to see it. They can ask away. You do not have to comply.

@JLeslie I guess I should have been more clear.
People would watch me bag their order in plastic bags, then get mad and say they wanted paper.
It was VERY common, and like I said young/stupid.