09-05-2007, 09:25 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-05-2007, 09:26 AM by Hammerskjold.)
>Certainly when you go to Sam's Club or BJ's or some such place, being a member means you agree to such policies. What about the Wal-Marts of the world? Does anyone take the "well if you're not stealing, you have nothing to worry about by showing your receipt" argument seriously?
I can only say what I've experienced in Wal-Mart up here in Toronto. There are the blue vest greeters that sometimes pulls double duty as receipt checkers, but it's not in all branches. I've only been asked once to show my receipt and bags, and that's because an alarm was falsely tripped. One of those RDF tags was probably not deactivated by the cashier properly, and judging by the guy's reaction who checked my bags it seems it's not a rare occurence.
Same deal with the Circuit City in here.
Having said all that, for me it's a case of knowing where you are and picking your battles.
I'm interested to know if the Circuit City in question was in a mall or a big box store setup. (It sounds from the blog like it was a big box store.) I don't know how they set it up, but one reason I usually prefer going to the mall version of such stores is because they have 'theft prevention personnel' patroling the mall stores. (Some folks use to call them Mall Cops. Like anything else, they range anywhere from competent and helpful to aspiring bullies who wants a badge.)
With stand alone big box stores, I personally haven't seen one. More likely I see store employees doing double duty. This is not always a good idea, exactly because of things like this.
Having said all that, the blogger was an idiot in my opinion, not because he chose to pick this fight. But because he chose the wrong time and venue to do it.
Looking at his writings, this is not the first time he experienced frustrations at receipt checks policy etc. So he probably had a battle plan forming, unfortunately it sounds like he let his emotion do the thinking on when to 'Take a Stand'. A better time to do it was with a bunch of undercover TV reporters with hidden cameras in the back seat and somewhere else. As part of a 'Dateline' Special on how Corporations are Going Wild, On Your Rights! Stay tuned for Accuweather and Sports at 11! Or hell, get a guerilla cellphone camera crew to film it then Youtube the hell out of it. Cellphone cameras that was bought from Circuit City if you want to be extra stylish about it.
But taking The Stand when his young siblings are waiting to go to a birthday party, probably not the greatest idea.
I can only say what I've experienced in Wal-Mart up here in Toronto. There are the blue vest greeters that sometimes pulls double duty as receipt checkers, but it's not in all branches. I've only been asked once to show my receipt and bags, and that's because an alarm was falsely tripped. One of those RDF tags was probably not deactivated by the cashier properly, and judging by the guy's reaction who checked my bags it seems it's not a rare occurence.
Same deal with the Circuit City in here.
Having said all that, for me it's a case of knowing where you are and picking your battles.
I'm interested to know if the Circuit City in question was in a mall or a big box store setup. (It sounds from the blog like it was a big box store.) I don't know how they set it up, but one reason I usually prefer going to the mall version of such stores is because they have 'theft prevention personnel' patroling the mall stores. (Some folks use to call them Mall Cops. Like anything else, they range anywhere from competent and helpful to aspiring bullies who wants a badge.)
With stand alone big box stores, I personally haven't seen one. More likely I see store employees doing double duty. This is not always a good idea, exactly because of things like this.
Having said all that, the blogger was an idiot in my opinion, not because he chose to pick this fight. But because he chose the wrong time and venue to do it.
Looking at his writings, this is not the first time he experienced frustrations at receipt checks policy etc. So he probably had a battle plan forming, unfortunately it sounds like he let his emotion do the thinking on when to 'Take a Stand'. A better time to do it was with a bunch of undercover TV reporters with hidden cameras in the back seat and somewhere else. As part of a 'Dateline' Special on how Corporations are Going Wild, On Your Rights! Stay tuned for Accuweather and Sports at 11! Or hell, get a guerilla cellphone camera crew to film it then Youtube the hell out of it. Cellphone cameras that was bought from Circuit City if you want to be extra stylish about it.
But taking The Stand when his young siblings are waiting to go to a birthday party, probably not the greatest idea.