Receipt Checks -- You Can Say 'No'

Over the past few months, I've received several e-mails about bad experiences people have had when they've been stopped by security to check their receipt as they're trying to leave a store. A lot of people find the exercise insulting and invasive, especially if they have to wait in long lines. After all, once you buy something, it's your property, right?

This is what reader Tamu Wright wrote recently:

In general, I think it makes honest customers feel like the store is treating them like a criminal, and in my mind it is a very lazy way of trying to find shoplifters. Also, (I am an African-American woman), I have had friends/family members feel embarrassed or humiliated because their receipt was checked but not others who came through the exit before or after them. I have also noticed in the past (not sure if this is true now) that some stores (i.e. Target) has this receipt-checking policy in Prince George's county, but did not have one went I visited a suburban Va. store. Both of these issues, of course, speak to the issue of race/class profiling.

Well, it turns out retailers are allowed to check your purchases and receipt as long as the search is voluntary and they don't do it in a discriminatory way. Some retailers, such as Costco, spell it out as a condition of membership.

According to a piece on this very issue that ran last fall in the NY Daily News:

Retail loss experts explain that the purpose of the bag check is to make sure the cashier correctly charged for all items in the shopping bag or cart. Once this is done, the bag checker makes a distinctive mark on the receipt to indicate that it was checked.

So theoretically, you don't have to submit to such checks unless you're at Costco and don't mind getting your membership revoked.

Many consumers may not realize this or figure it's just easier to hand over their receipt and open up their bag. One question is, do store clerks and security people respect this?

Are you a shopper who has asserted your right not to be searched? What happened when you did?

By Annys Shin | March 1, 2007; 7:24 AM ET Customer Service

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