A POPULAR grocery store chain is implementing new ‘intimidating’ security procedures, leaving customers searching for other stores to shop at.
A Kroger-owned store has begun requiring customers to have their receipts checked as they exit, and now shoppers will need to pass through armed security guards.
Armed guards are standing at the entrance of a supermarket to check customers’ receipts[/caption]
Signs are posted near the exit informing customers to show their receipt[/caption]
King Soopers is facing backlash over the guards[/caption]
King Soopers, a supermarket chain in Colorado, now has a security guard wearing a neon vest and holster that appears to be holding a weapon, who checks customers’ receipts.
“It just doesn’t make sense to have someone armed like that intimidating customers on their way out,” shopper Pilar Chapa told NBC affiliate KUSA.
The guard used to just stand in front of the in-store Starbucks, but has since moved to the store entrance.
“The security guards have their backs to the entrance. They have no idea who is coming in,” Chapa continued.
“They’re just watching customers as they buy their product.”
The supermarket did put up signs warning shoppers about the receipt check, but a spokesperson for King Soopers failed to answer questions about whether the guard is armed with a lethal weapon and the consequences of not showing a receipt upon exit.
“We do not share specific details of our safety and security practices in order to protect their effectiveness,” spokesperson Jessica Trowbridge wrote in a statement to KUSA.
“Safety remains one of our core values and continues to guide our decisions.”
Chris Howes, the president of the Colorado Retail Council, told KUSA that the armed guards are necessary to protect grocery store staff.
“Each retailer has to take the steps that they feel are necessary to keep their staff and their customers and all their products safe,” Howes said.
“It’s unfortunate, it has, to go that way but we’ve seen people have their arms broken…and one retail [worker] was bear-sprayed.”
Howes said that retail crime is a billion-dollar problem in the state, which will lead retailers to find their own solution to the issue.
INTIMIDATION TACTIC
Chapa said she was previously told that she didn’t need to show her receipt as she exited, but when she walked past a line of people showing their receipts, she claimed she was reprimanded.
Top 5 receipt checking tips from a lawyer
Camron Dowlatshahi, a Los Angeles attorney, spoke to The U.S. Sun about receipt checks and customer’s rights and options when it came to being asked to show your receipt.
- There has been a lot of debate around the legality of a retailer asking to see your receipt, but if it is within the store, it is completely legal. “There’s seemingly nothing illegal about that. You’re still on the company’s premises and their reason to do it is to prevent thefts,” Dowlatshahi confirms.
- However, if they are chasing you out of the store, that changes things, Dowlatshahi said. “Location matters,” he explained. “If you’re outside of the store you’re in the parking lot and they come and start accusing you of theft and that you have to show your receipt, I think that’s a bit of a different situation because now you’re on your way.”
- While customers are allowed to say no to receipt checks, it may cause issues if you do and the store suspects you of stealing. “You can say no, maybe it creates an unnecessary hassle for yourself because now you may have the police come to your house and follow up,” said Dowlatshahi.
- If you are being barred from leaving a store because you refused a receipt check, you could have a legal case — but the store must have held you for a long time. “Let’s say it’s for hours, that’s certainly false imprisonment, and they didn’t have any impetus for doing so,” Dowlatshahi explained. “If a customer has been emotionally traumatized by being held for false imprisonment, I would definitely encourage [them] to sue.”
- “I would say, show your receipt,” he concluded. “It’s just a really simple thing to do. If you didn’t steal anything, it’s relatively simple to do,” the lawyer advised.
(According to Camron Dowlatshahi, a founding partner at Mills Sadat Dowlat LLP)
“I just walked around, and [the guard] reached out around and stopped me,” Chapa said.
“I said, ‘I thought you said I didn’t have to show you that I’d have to do that.’ And he said, ‘well, I will always ask you for your receipt, and you need to say, no, thank you.’”
“It really angered me,” she said.
“You know, normally I wouldn’t get that angry. It’s a freaking receipt.”
Trowbridge stated that, after a thorough investigation, no incident was reported on the day Chapa claimed she was stopped.
The shopper said she’s not bothered by having to show her receipt, as she has been doing so at Costco for 15 years,
However, it’s the fact that she needs to show her receipt to a seemingly armed security guard that bothers her.
“This guard looks like he’s ready to go into a war zone. He’s wearing a bulletproof vest,” she said.
Chapa called the guard there “an intimidation tactic,” and swore off the store.
“I’m not shopping here anymore. That’s it for me. I have other options.”
Legality of receipt checks and detention
In an effort to curtail retail crime, stores are increasingly turning to receipt checks as shoppers exit.
Legally, stores can ask to see a customer’s receipts, and membership-only stores have the right to demand such checks if shoppers agreed to terms and conditions that authorize it.
Many legal professionals have weighed in and come to similar conclusions, caveating that all states do have specific laws.
Generally speaking, stores have Shopkeeper’s Privilege laws that allow them to detain a person until authorities arrive when they have reasonable suspicion that a crime, like theft, has been committed.
Declining to provide a receipt is not a reason in itself for a store to detain a customer, they must have further reason to suspect a shopper of criminal activity.
Due to the recent nature of the receipt checks, there is little concrete law on the legality of the practice, as it takes time for law to catch up with technology.
Setliff Law, P.C. claims that “there is no definitive case law specifically relating to refusal to produce a receipt for purchases.”
For stores that improperly use their Shopkeeper’s Privilege, they could face claims of false imprisonment.
“The primary law that applies to these types of wrongful detention cases is called ‘False Imprisonment’,” explained Hudson Valley local attorney Alex Mainetti.
“Of course, you’re not literally imprisoned, but you’re detained by a person who has no lawful authority to detain you and/or wrongfully detains a customer.”
It is likely that as altercations in stores over receipt checks continue, more court cases will occur giving clearer definitions and boundaries to the legality of receipt checks.
The changes at King Shoppa haven’t just frustrated Chapa.
A post of the KUSA article on Reddit has garnered over 600 comments, with many complaints about the change and the self-checkout policies of grocery stores in general.
“They don’t ask every departing customer, they don’t match the receipt against items in the basket or bag, they’re not always at the door as you leave,” one Reddit user wrote.
“In one KS store, there were two security guards just gabbing at the end of self-checkout while I was using self-checkout, and they asked for my receipt. I told them if they had been paying attention instead of gabbing, they would have noticed me scan, bag & pay.”
