Posted on 03/12/2010 1:33:28 PM PST by Patriot1259
Do Walmart and other retailers support the destruction of American values through their lack of willingness to stop shoplifting? How much is their lack of enforcement costing you and me? The answer appears to be YES and it's costing us BILLIONS. Last year Walmart reported that they had lost $3 billion due to theft of products. That's just at Walmart. Most retailers reported losses in the same range for their market share. Given the poor economy I would expect this year's losses to be much higher.
How is this happening? Two reasons: 1. Once a shoplifter makes it outside, they are safe from store employees trying to detain them. 2. When was the last time they asked you for an ID when making a credit card purchase?
(Excerpt) Read more at thecypresstimes.com ...
‘How much is their lack of enforcement costing you and me?”
I guarantee it costs less than it would to stop it. Perhaps they should save their outrage for the thieves.
I can’t blame any non-security-related store employee for not going after a thief. There’s absolutely no justifiable reason to literally risk your life for that type of a job.
Talk about blaming the victim.
Where I live there are plenty of arrests and prosecutions for shoplifting at Wal-Mart. They have really good security.
” All she did was flip me off when I shouted, “Hey shoplifter, come back.”
Why didn’t the author run after the shoplifter and stop them? Maybe a good old citizen’s arrest? Duh....
To #2: Every time I use one. Instead of signing the card, I write in “Ask 4 ID”.
To find the answer we need only read two paragraphs down.
This was the first time that I had been asked for ID in a long time. I latter had to do it again at a t-shirt store! What's up with these small stores? Walmart, Target, and Home Depot in Hawaii never hassled me
The author complains about them not asking for ID and then complains when they do.
The Walmart I shop at asks for ID about one third of the time. The cash register asks at random and will not continue until the clerk has entered the DL# or a supervisor overrides it. The register also asks for an ID for all alcohol and tobaccos sales.
bad article.. it’s illegal per cc agreement to ask for ID. It’s not Walmart but the CC companies
Walmart has it's priorities straight.
I can’t blame any non-security-related store employee for not going after a thief. There’s absolutely no justifiable reason to literally risk your life for that type of a job.
Quite right... LOL ...
Like someone working at Walmart is supposed to risk life and limb, just for the profits of Walmart, and/or some larger "social good" to come out of it... sure...
I'll reserve my actions for people who come into my own house without my permission..., not for Walmart.
Same here. I put “See ID” on the back of mine and those who look always ask.
I don’t think it’s a matter of store policies, I think that some of the cashiers just get lazy and make assumptions that the card is yours.
bad article.. it’s illegal per cc agreement to ask for ID. It’s not Walmart but the CC companies
Yep, and it's been that way for a long time, although some stores still try to do it, anyway. All you gotta do is tell them to bug off and call the credit card company. That should do it... :-)
Either the powers that be at WM are really dumb, or there are things happening behind the scenes that we don't know about (i.e. agitating by activists).
There's also a liability issue that they don't want to close to.
We are asked for ID sometimes, but we usually shop at the same neighborhood Wal-Mart grocery store several times a week. The checkers all know us, so they override the register most of the time. One checker used to ask us every single time we saw her. It was always funny to me because it would be late at night when there were no other shoppers, and she would still ask for ID even though she recognized us. After about two months of this, she learned our names and all about our family, and she doesn’t ask for ID anymore.
At the same Wal-Mart grocery, we watched as the manager and a Hoss of a woman/worker tried to stop a shoplifter. We happened to have walked out just prior to this happening. They did manage to stop the guy, but he ran when he saw an opportunity. Hubby walked out right after this happened, so I saw it all. Hubby probably would have intervened if he had walked out first. Anywho, since that day, they have employed someone else to do the manhandling of shoplifters. He’s very good at his job. We don’t go to the big Wal-Mart that is down the street from the grocery store. I can’t imagine how much shoplifting goes on there on an hourly basis. (very close to Mexico. lots of car break-ins and purse-snatching goes on there.)
I went to Walmart last weekend and bought a Blu Ray player. As I was leaving, the siren went off, lights started blinking, and the little old lady at the door started yelling “Sir, Sir”. Frankly, I just wasn’t in the mood to prove I had actually bought what I was carrying, so I just kept on walking. No one made any effort to stop, which was probably a good move on their part. Sometimes I don’t mind proving I’m not criminal, but sometimes I do.
When chased, the fleeing shoplifter sometimes whips out a used syringe and aims to stab the pursuer. That would put a damper on Kenny’s vigilantism real quick.
When shoplifting and security gets really bad, the store hires off-duty police. It’s the only security that the aggressive thieves really respect, as the ODP is armed and has arrest powers. Hourly pay for an ODP makes them the highest-paid help in the store.
To #2: Every time I use one. Instead of signing the card, I write in “Ask 4 ID”.
If I'm not mistaken, this is the kind of situation, with a credit card, where they can refuse to take it, if it's not signed. That's one where the credit card companies say to not take it.
Now, having said that, I've had my card not signed for a while, until someone "catches it" and then says that they can't take it. So, you will "get away with it" depending on how vigilant a store is. But, the rules are, if it's not signed, then the store is not supposed to take it.
Furthermore, you can't sign it "on the spot" either, you see... to "make it signed". They're still supposed to refuse it.
But, as I say, most employees don't care, it seems, so you could have a girls name and be a boy and they would take it anyway. In fact, you can sign any name you want on the slip and most of the time they'll take it, too.
I'm not saying how this sort of thing "works out in practice" -- what I'm saying is that if it's not signed, by the rules from the Credit Card companies, they are supposed to refuse it. But, heck, if you can sign Donald Duck and get the card through (which you can)... then it won't make too much difference for not having it signed, either.
On top of that, I'm willing to bet that even after they were to ask for I.D. they would still process the charge, even if it were a different name. (Believe it or not, I've done that myself, and it still went through -- I was using someone else's card and I showed them my I.D. and signed it my name, none of which matched the card... LOL...).
Bottom line -- most of the time, it makes absolutely no difference (in practice and in real life) what you do with the credit card.... :-)
Mine says C I D
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