Walmart customer attacks 100 year old greeter for checking her cart.

Bingo! That nails it right there! Nicely said.

 

But where do you draw the line?

Say you have just watched 5 people saunter past the greeter and not get stopped. Now you attempt to and suddenly it is time for them to check your stuff. You haven't done anything wrong, but for some reason they single you out as the security risk. Now you notice this same thing happening again and again and I could see where it would start to get under your skin and might make a person feel insulted.
What if you noticed they only check the women as they leave? Is it still a trivial issue?

 

Have you seen this happen? Can you verify this? Or is it simply a hypothetical question with the goal of causing discord and discrediting a company?

Are you aware of the company's policy about checking receipts?

 

You know, if you were talking about guys in dark suits with shades and pistol bulges beneath their jackets, then you might have a point, slim as it may be. But we are talking about a demographic of workers that is probably 95% old or handicapped. Do you honestly think they are singling people out? Profiling? With the thousands of people going in and out of those doors, they cannot look at every single receipt and match it up to your cart. Then we would all be standing in line and waiting to leave, after standing in line and waiting to get cashed out. Then you would have a legit complaint.

And I'm not defending Wal Mart here...they've got a boatload of problems and I personally hate the place most of the time and do my best to avoid shopping there when I can. But their problems aren't in that greeter system - that part they got right.

Again, it goes back to some people getting so worked up and angry over something so absolutely trivial, that it is simply hard for someone level-headed to comprehend. If it truly bothers some people that much, my advice is simple. Go home, barricade your doors and windows, and never come back out. They would be doing the world (and all the Wal Mart greeters) a huge favor.

Geez.

 

I have no person issue with Wal-Mart. I shop there often and I personally have never been asked to show a receipt when leaving the store.

I can relate to what Ghostchild is talking about though. I get the impression he has experienced a situation similar to what I described and finally had enough.

Yes I have personally seen the nice greeter smile and wave at people as they go by then sudden ask someone to see the receipt and search through their bags. I probably would not have noticed it had the person who they stopped not also been a friend and co-worker of mine. This friend also happened not to be white.

Now I have no problem in a store like Fry's Electronics where after you check out you queue up to leave and everyone goes through security. But the system Wal-Mart seems to use in some areas where it is whoever the greeter feels like bothering would bother me if I was the consistent target of their search. Probably to the point where I would either put up a fuss or take my business elsewhere.

The point is, if the greeter has been up by the doors the entire time they would have not been able to watch you shop or potentially steal anything. They have no criteria other then their own personal bias to select one person over another to demand a receipt under the current system. Therefore when they stop a person they are implying by their actions that out of this last batch of people that this person might be a thief and needs a closer look. And yes if someone implicates that I am a thief I would feel insulted.

 

Actually, you're quite wrong. There is a company policy about who to stop. It has nothing to do with a person's looks or gender. It has to do with number of bags and unbagged items.

The idea of a company the size of Wal-Mart with all the lawyers they have both on staff and retainer allowing an associate to check bags without a company policy is laughable.

 

Actually, no I'm not.

The friend/co-worker and I went to the store together. He in fact picked me up from my house. We both purchased the exact same item. My line went a little faster and I headed outside to grab a smoke while waiting on him. The people leaving around me all got outside without incident. As I'm standing there smoking a few more people come out without being stopped. Then here comes my friend with the EXACT SAME ITEM I had just exited the store with. The greeter stops him to see his receipt.

So he had the exact same thing I did, wasn't a different number of bags or anything unopened. Yet you want to tell me it wasn't a personal bias of the greeter.
Wal-Mart can have all the corporate policy they want, it doesn't mean that further down the chain that any bias never can come into play.
And again if I was consistently experiencing this type of bias I would have an issue with it. Thankfully I have not been subject to this type of treatment but I can empathize with those who have.

 

Bonnie, there's no point in trying to make certain people understand. They're to busy seeing them self as a victim. Lord help them if they ever really are victimized.