PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

(Note: This is not legal advice, and if you end up in prison doing this, don't blame me.)

When you go to Costco or Sam's or wherever, when you leave, they usually ask to look at your receipt and make sure you're not stealing anything. I've heard second-hand through a practicing criminal attorney that you can basically just blow them off and walk out and they can't do anything. Now, I wouldn't recommend doing that all the time, but when there's a big slow line, it saves some time.

Hope this makes your holiday shopping just a little bit easier.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

This seems like just about the worst advice I've ever heard.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

I don't know if the hassle incurred while explaining yourself to managers etc. is worth the line skip. Maybe if it's really long I guess, but I'd guess they'd staff more than one person in that instance.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

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I don't know if the hassle incurred while explaining yourself to managers etc. is worth the line skip. Maybe if it's really long I guess, but I'd guess they'd staff more than one person in that instance.

[/ QUOTE ]

They never have more staff, and yes it is terribly annoying.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if the hassle incurred while explaining yourself to managers etc. is worth the line skip. Maybe if it's really long I guess, but I'd guess they'd staff more than one person in that instance.

[/ QUOTE ]

The key to this plan is that you never talk to managers or anyone because you just walk out to your car and leave.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if the hassle incurred while explaining yourself to managers etc. is worth the line skip. Maybe if it's really long I guess, but I'd guess they'd staff more than one person in that instance.

[/ QUOTE ]

They never have more staff, and yes it is terribly annoying.

[/ QUOTE ]


Terribly annoying, yes, but I assume it works.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

They are a membership club. They ban you from the store for not following their rules if they really care enough. For non-membership places, just walk out. There's nothing they can do.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

what a stupid thread/tip

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

It's part of the deal at those places every single time. I accept that and I'm fine with it. Now, if some random person decides to try and keep me from leaving a random store, they will not be successful.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

Seriously? Your PSA is to put stuff in your cart, and walk out the door, bypassing the person there?

You may not be obligated to talk to the door guard, but I think they can stop you outside when you are confronted for stealing.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
Seriously? Your PSA is to put stuff in your cart, and walk out the door, bypassing the person there?

You may not be obligated to talk to the door guard, but I think they can stop you outside when you are confronted for stealing.

[/ QUOTE ]
They can try.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if the hassle incurred while explaining yourself to managers etc. is worth the line skip. Maybe if it's really long I guess, but I'd guess they'd staff more than one person in that instance.

[/ QUOTE ]

The key to this plan is that you never talk to managers or anyone because you just walk out to your car and leave.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right, not sure how people missed that point. And I seriously doubt a manager bans you from the store - there job is not drive away paying customers. I can see doing this if the line was more than a 1 minute wait.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
This seems like just about the worst advice I've ever heard.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you know anything about things before you respond to posts or do you just attempt to make people feel stupid for fun with no actual knowledge of the subject. Like clearly the dude who has never even visited Sweden, let alone a small town in Sweden, would be the ideal person to tell me how impossible it is to get a box and ship stuff.

Just like the guy who clearly has no idea what he is talking about here is saying that despite the fact the OP is correct, his advice is "the worst ever".

/rant


OP,

Yes, a store cannot force you to show a receipt. They can't attempt to stop you when you are walking out of the store without a certain burden of proof (which varies by state) that you were stealing from them. It usually includes seeing you select, conceal, not have them lose track of you or the item, and then see you pass payment stations and attempt to leave. Clearly they don't have this by you walking from the cash register and refusing to show a receipt. In fact, if they did try to stop you, I'm fairly certain you could successfully sue them and they'd probably settle quickly.

If the store has any decent training, the people checking receipts are told to let you go if you just walk by. At most they ask if they can see your receipt, but if you say no they aren't supposed to press it.

Since I'm not Evan and I don't blindly give bad advice to people, I'll give my credentials here. I've worked in Loss Prevention at two separate places and I have an immediate family member who was the director of the Loss Prevention / Asset Protection for all Sam's Clubs on the West Coast and prior to that was the Assistant Director of Loss Prevention / Asset Protection for all Wal-Marts in the USA.


PS - Wal-Mart doesn't call it LP or AP, but I can't remember the exact name they give it. Regardless, it's the same thing. Also, I don't have every state law memorized, but I know California's and that is usually the same as most other states. There could always be an exception though. Regardless, I know Sam's Clubs corporate policy and they shouldn't even be thinking about stopping you.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

By the way, I'm assuming the OP isn't advocating stealing here. But that if you've paid just blow off the door guy if there is a line and they won't do anything.

If he is advocating filling up your cart and walking out, there is a decent chance OP gets arrested the second he walks out the door. The LP department isn't retarded.


Also, yes technically any store can ban you from every returning, not just membership stores. But they won't do this for failing to show a receipt. It's usually reserved for people caught stealing / abusing return policies. Yes, I've arrested people before for coming back after getting caught stealing. How dumb can you be.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

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They can't attempt to stop you when you are walking out of the store without a certain burden of proof

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know if this would stand up in court or whatever, but I would think refusing to show a receipt for your purchases when leaving is a good enough suspicion that you have something to hide. But I'm not a lawyer.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
They can't attempt to stop you when you are walking out of the store without a certain burden of proof

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know if this would stand up in court or whatever, but I would think refusing to show a receipt for your purchases when leaving is a good enough suspicion that you have something to hide. But I'm not a lawyer.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not enough for an LP department to make a detainment. Rules (both company policy and state law, most companies have policies that are stricter though to avoid litigation) are really strict about when you are allowed to detain someone, and even stricter about when you are allowed to arrest someone. In fact, in almost all good LP departments in any chain, if you detain someone without arresting them, you are going to be in for a world of hurt from your supervisor.

There are a lot of people who have gotten away with stealing because we lost sight of them for a second. It becomes too hard at that point to thoroughly check the surrounding area to make sure they didn't dump the merchandise before they leave the store, so you just let it go. False imprisonment lawsuits suck and one bad arrest will get you fired pretty often. It doesn't matter that you are 99.9% sure they just stole from you.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

Theoretical; you're shoplifting and a Target security guard tries to stop you. What can he do if you just keep walking (imagine he = 5'5", 120lbs, you = big mofo)?

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
(Note: This is not legal advice, and if you end up in prison doing this, don't blame me.)

[/ QUOTE ]

I do blame you for posting this "advice".

Maybe you should have tried it out first and given us a trip report.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
Theoretical; you're shoplifting and a Target security guard tries to stop you. What can he do if you just keep walking (imagine he = 5'5", 120lbs, you = big mofo)?

[/ QUOTE ]

He can use any reasonable force to arrest you. Tackle you, beat the crap out of you if you start fighting with him, etc. In reality, after you reach a certain point (usually out of the parking lot) they just let you go because if you get hurt while they are chasing you, they are liable for it. So at that point they just call the cops.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

I don't belong to Costco/BJ's/Sam's Club/other, but this bothers the hell out of me on the semi-rare occasion that I go into Best Buy. Don't accost me and just let me leave!

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
(Note: This is not legal advice, and if you end up in prison doing this, don't blame me.)

[/ QUOTE ]

I do blame you for posting this "advice".

Maybe you should have tried it out first and given us a trip report.

[/ QUOTE ]

FWIW, I do this all the time if the line is too long. I've never had a single problem.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
(Note: This is not legal advice, and if you end up in prison doing this, don't blame me.)

[/ QUOTE ]

I do blame you for posting this "advice".

Maybe you should have tried it out first and given us a trip report.

[/ QUOTE ]

Done twice. One time the checker said, "Excuse me, sir!" Really, what do you thinks going to happen? If you're more than 15 years old, you won't get stopped. They're not going to tackle you in the middle of the parking lot.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

bob,

They can't legally do crap about it. You've broken no law and they don't even have enough evidence to detain you on suspicion of breaking any laws.


Edit: There seems to be some confusion. The people checking receipts at the door (or the dude in uniform at Target) isn't a Loss Prevention agent and will almost never be doing the arresting of people. These people are given even less power than an actual agent who is usually the only person that should be making an arrest. The Target dude in a uniform is just to scare people into not stealing and to help in case some dude tries to run when an agent stops them. The dude at the door in Sam's Club has like zero power to do anything. He checks receipts, that's it.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]


It's not enough for an LP department to make a detainment. Rules (both company policy and state law, most companies have policies that are stricter though to avoid litigation) are really strict about when you are allowed to detain someone, and even stricter about when you are allowed to arrest someone.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the answer to this is that they have to have specific and articulable facts to detain you

otherwise solid advice

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

i've done it several times, at costco and at fry's electronics.

lol, i'm not standing in some bs line after i've payed.

this isn't disneyland.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

A few months ago I saw a good argument w/ a couple of Arab-looking customers..they were yelling at the door person and calling him a racist for making them stop and that they weren't stealing anything. The first thing I thought was, is it worth the few bucks per hour for that job...then again, they don't really do anything. They probably miss the items I do steal.

If the line is really long, I'll just walk out next time and see what happens. Sounds fun.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This seems like just about the worst advice I've ever heard.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you know anything about things before you respond to posts or do you just attempt to make people feel stupid for fun with no actual knowledge of the subject. Like clearly the dude who has never even visited Sweden, let alone a small town in Sweden, would be the ideal person to tell me how impossible it is to get a box and ship stuff.

Just like the guy who clearly has no idea what he is talking about here is saying that despite the fact the OP is correct, his advice is "the worst ever".

/rant



[/ QUOTE ]
It's not my fault you dismantled your computer.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

Had a friend in law enforcement who says the same thing, you DO NOT have to wait in that line. Of course OP is saying AFTER u've paid for everything, you don't legally have to wait in that long-ass line just to show a receipt. Just get the eff out and it's all good.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

Just for Metetron i'll state my qualifactions, which was 1 year at Costco doing this job.

If this happpened i would def. ask them when they tried to pass to stop and if they didn't i would follow and ask again, no way this would save you anytime. No trainning to not do this was given.

Then again, i guess this is England in which if someone passed you like that there's no way you'd think they are just being rude and wanted to get out that 45 seconds quicker.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

Evan,

FWIW, I think this is a great tip re: electronics stores. At Best Buy and Circuit City, they always try to stop you. If there's nobody else there, I'll take the 30 seconds and show him my receipt, no big deal. But if there's a couple people in front of me, I'll just walk by. Guy will say "excuse me, sir, could we see your receipt?" and I'll say "that's ok, thanks!" and keep walking and that's that.

At membership clubs like CostCo I'll always show them the receipt, though.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

punk,

"I don't know if this would stand up in court or whatever, but I would think refusing to show a receipt for your purchases when leaving is a good enough suspicion that you have something to hide. But I'm not a lawyer."

Incorrect.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

I worked at Costco for a while, including as a Loss Prevention agent.

If you want to keep walking, just keep walking. They cannot stop you, and will not (if they have been properly trained) as it opens them up to being sued for false imprisonment.

If they saw you steal something, they can try to stop you. Usually they will still not bother, because it just isn't worth the hassle. Depends on what you stole, obviously. A bag of candy is a lot different than five cartons of cigarettes. Most of the time, we just followed the guy out to his car and got the plate #, while calling the cops.


You guys would be surprised (or not) at just how many women would load up their Uber-strollers with stolen stuff, including having the kid sit on a bunch of DVDs or similar.

Ah, the retail days.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

I didn't read all the replies but it might be in their Terms and Conditions when you join that your cart must be examined.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
Done twice. One time the checker said, "Excuse me, sir!" Really, what do you thinks going to happen? If you're more than 15 years old, you won't get stopped. They're not going to tackle you in the middle of the parking lot

[/ QUOTE ]

At that point I would let her check my receipt, but I would tell her I ain't going to the back of the line.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

At Costco once the receipt checker noticed that I had been double-charged for an item I only had one of and saved me $20.

I always walk by the door nazi at Fry's and say "no thanks" as if they are trying to sell me something. A friend of mine dated a girl who worked the door at Fry's and she said that they are there more for the thieving employees than anything else.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

This article is about exactly this issue:

http://www.lps1.com/bw.digg.html

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
you can basically just blow them off and walk out and they can't do anything. Now, I wouldn't recommend doing that all the time, but when there's a big slow line, it saves some time.

[/ QUOTE ]


100% standard and I'm surprised by all the negative reaction here.

I've been a Sams Club business account member for 12 years. I've shown my receipt at the door maybe a total of five times in twelve years.

99% of the time there's a singular employee working the door and he/she is almost always engaged with someone. I'll just always roll right by, and as already mentioned in the thread, if they ask "Sir can i check your receipt" I'll always respond with a polite and cheerful "no, thanks" or "that's OK" and keep rolling.

I've never, ever been challenged on it. Literally I'd say hundreds of visits.

Same deal at Best Buy if the cashier forgets to correctly zap your merchandise and you set off the detectors. Just keep walking, if you don't want to mess with it. As I understand it, though, there is a value to getting them to de-tag your merchandise there, though, in that sometimes you can get hassled trying to return items which haven't been de-theft-protected.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

This is kind of off the subject, but I found it kind of funny. I live in a prodominantly white suburb of Detroit, and we were shopping at a CostCo. Many white families were shopping for the holidays, baskets full of crap, breakfast cereals, food, etc. Carts were overstuffed, bottom rack full of bottled water. While waiting in the checkout line, I saw two black guys who were checking out and looked into their cart to see two huge bottles of Absolut Vodka, two huge bottles of cranberry juice, and two bottles of orange juice and nothing else. Definitely some cultural differences reflected in their shopping choices.

-J

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
This article is about exactly this issue:

http://www.lps1.com/bw.digg.html

[/ QUOTE ]
Good read, thanks. The guy does seem incredibly nitty and I don't think I could bring myself to do the things he does, but at least he's fighting the good fight for all of us.

Also, I agree with his WTF at the Costco sign about checking receipts to ensure accurate pricing. That's like the most transparent excuse ever.

Re: PSA: Walking out of Costco/Sam\'s
 

[ QUOTE ]
This is kind of off the subject, but I found it kind of funny. I live in a prodominantly white suburb of Detroit, and we were shopping at a CostCo. Many white families were shopping for the holidays, baskets full of crap, breakfast cereals, food, etc. Carts were overstuffed, bottom rack full of bottled water. While waiting in the checkout line, I saw two black guys who were checking out and looked into their cart to see two huge bottles of Absolut Vodka, two huge bottles of cranberry juice, and two bottles of orange juice and nothing else. Definitely some cultural differences reflected in their shopping choices.

-J

[/ QUOTE ]
Wtf man, "kind of" off subject?