Thursday, March 31, 2011

Someone's Gotta Get Choked Here

There's mean. There's crazy. And then there's this lady. Apparently, the Wal-Mart in Sandusky, Ohio (yes it's already starting on a depressing note) has its greeters asking to look at receipts for its patrons as they leave the stores with items--and this "woman" decided to express her displeasure with the policy by choking the 71-year old greeter who dared ask for her receipt. I imagine her words were "begone, lowly peon! I am in disagreement with your policy, and shall choke you thusly!" Of course it probably sounded a lot more like moose gruntings. Her violent, animalistic behavior aside--I mean, really, an old man stuck working as a greeter at Wal-Mart? Life has already punished him!--there's the simple fact that the store can enforce this policy on its own premises. The greeters aren't authorized to follow patrons into parking lots, and aren't supposed to detain anyone refusing to show a receipt (that's for store detectives, licensed security guards, etc.) but asking for a receipt is perfectly within their rights. You wouldn't know it to hear some of the commenters on fark.com, though, who seem to think that breezing right by a greeter makes them a latter-day Gandhi. News flash--if you don't like an undignified policy that requires showing a receipt when you shop somewhere, then shop elsewhere. You're at the Wal-Mart because you're a cheap bastard--take the indignities that go with it! Likewise, if a bar asked you to pay for your drink before they served you, they could do that too. You can also drink at another bar. I think of this because the Safeway down the street has recently started doing the "receipt check" at their door. My wife thinks it's a stupid policy--after all, they don't look very closely at the receipt, itemizing the charges and comparing with what you have in your bags, and likely don't even look at the date. However, this bit of security theater is presumed to have some deterrant effect on shoplifters, and stores run tight margins--any bit of theft they can deter means lower prices for those of us who don't steal from them. Again, if it's just too undignified, we can shop elsewhere.

4 comments:

  1. In my case, I actually *do* shop elsewhere..

    And if it costs them $135+/day, (ballparking min wage for 2 people for 10 hrs), are they really suffering from >$135/day in lost revenues? And by instituting this policy, I wonder how much they're going to lose from customer defection instead of shoplifting..

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  2. Justin--my guess is the typical Wal Mart shopper will grin and bear it, since mainly they're going there for low prices and convenience, despite the stigma of being a "Wal-Mart shopper". I suspect this would be a riskier policy at say Whole Foods.

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  3. Hahahaha. We do something similar at my new part-time job at the movie theater: "Why do I have to SHOW you my ticket? I just bought it."

    Yeah, because I'm going to take your word for it, lady.

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  4. Jeff--I like the comments on fark where they say "it's my property because I just bought it, they have no right to require proof!" Yep, real legal geniuses on there...

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