I wondered that too. It smacks of “spin.”
Like “stop and frisk” is service by the police to make sure those stopped weren’t slipped anything without their knowledge. “Golly, Officer, I sure didn’t think anyone put anything in my pockets, but now I now for sure. Thanks for looking out for me. See you tomorrow.”
I can’t think of any other experience where my receipt is checked. (Hrmm, maybe I was checked at a Best Buy when I purchased a laptop at a register in the back of the store?)
But the argument isn’t about receipt checking, the reason this was brought up is because Costco’s gas lighting that it is a service for the customer. “No no, we are not assuming you are a criminal, we just want to make sure the gallon of lube rang up with the correct price”.
I have been stopped and had my receipt checked at BJs (same thing as CostCo.). No one ever said to me that it was “We want to make sure you didn’t steal.” Nor did I ever think it was that.
At the grocery store we have self scan/checkout and they sometimes audit what you did. So if the grocery store is auditing me when I do self scan/Checkout…why would they not be doing it to an actual store associate?
The phrasing from @beschizza was "In fact, the receipt-checkers are some kind of internal store Gestapo keeping tabs on the checkout cashiers."
Again…Costco or any store auditing its associates is NOT it is ABSOLUTELY NOT some sign of fascism. I really could not care less about if you think Costco is gaslighting anyone or not. That was not my point nor did I say shit about it. I have an issue with the idea that a company performing any kind of QC on its associates work is somehow bad. that is what a good company SHOULD BE FUCKING DOING.
As with most questions, the answer is money.
I’m certain that years ago when I worked as a cashier at a grocery store I missed things. I’m human and errors happen. On busy days I often got penned into my station and couldn’t check under customer’s carts.
You should always check your receipts if you’re watching your budget. Even better - watch the screen as you’re rung up. Even if the cashier is flawless, items are often priced incorrectly in the system.
Bagging is not a nonsense position. Baggers significantly reduce checkout time and ease the physical load of cashiers. 8 hours of lifting and twisting can really hurt. The store I worked at tried to offload bagging onto customers, but that ended up costing them money (too slow, used too many bags) so they put duty back on cashiers.
I agree that fascism comparisons are ridiculous.
Your assertion that receipt checks are exclusively an internal quality matter falls flat in my opinion, especially in the case of your example of being audited after using the self checkout. Further, how do you explain the radio tags and sirens at the store exit? Surely the tags don’t exist only for the purpose of being deactivated as a test of the cashier’s competence.
I have zero issue with employers checking their employees work product, but I’m not interested in spending time participating in those audits, especially when they feel to me like an accusation of criminality.
Actually Costco is a membership store and agreeing to have you receipt checked when you leave is in the membership agreement
You are adding something into my argument I did not make. My issue was from the start that comparing auditing of associates or even patrons is not fascism.
Don’t shop at those places if it offends you so much. Because heaven forbid you be inconvenienced for the 30-45 seconds it takes for them to scan the receipt.
As a Costco Employee I want to remind everyone that Yes we are 100+ billion a year multinational corporation. And yes IIRC we are the number 2 retailer in the country albeit way behind #1 Wallmart.
Do you want to know our annual advertising budget, you the guy who claimed it was a paid article, Zero. We have a marketing department They make coupons and publish the magazine
You all who are outraged by our checking receipts, As a member you agreed to that
Do you know how many people we laid off during the recession? Zero
Our mission statement is simple albeit paraphrased below
Take Care of the Members
Take Care of the Vendors
Take Care of the Employees
Take Care of the Shareholders
I work at corporate. I have been here for 15 years.
There are many reasons to not work for Costco as an IT professional. The Key reasons for staying is the Moral Base of the company. Everyone gets a living wage and enough hours to be eligible for Benefits.
That is why after 15 years I still don’t have enough time in to get my own parking spot. People stay here
I agree with you about that, said so in my first sentence.
I’m not sure what I added to your argument. I was just pointing out that, while you seem to believe the retailer doesn’t worry that you’re a shoplifter, other people can reasonably come to a different conclusion, especially in the cases where receipts are checked with no cashier involved in the transaction. I mean… What sort of QC effort could this possibly represent?
It’s not so easy to predict where/when these audits will happen, nor how long it’ll take, nor how much inconvenience that audit represents to a given shopper at a given moment. When I’m running late, have my hands full, suffer crippling agoraphobia, or am trying to deliver meds/diapers/bandages to a child in crisis, ambush by an unexpected receipt checker at the store exit seems mighty inconvenient.
In the specific case of Costco, I have no problem with it because I really like shopping there, and have agreed in advance to submit to the process, regardless of their motivations for putting it in place. I had the option to do as you suggest and just not shop there, chose to shop there anyway because I like Costco for the reasons outlined by user weekendlites (and for other reasons.)
Here’s a thing nobody’s mentioned yet: some big stores have U-Scan devices as well as regular checkout lanes, so a receipt checker may also be looking to see if people are scanning their own things accurately too.
I got a quick receipt check in both big box stores I shopped at this week (which seemed odd at Home Depot when the register was literally only a few feet from the door, within sight of it.) But if that’s the way the stores want it, I can deal.
This week, not last week.
When I was a teen and worked in a convenience store I was expected to offer a receipt to everyone. Nobody ever wanted a receipt for their gum or newspaper or cigarrettes.
Store policy was also to deduct any shortages in the till from the cashier’s wages (illegal but in place nonetheless). I worked alone, so my policy was to set aside some cash without ringing it in from a few sales over the course of a shift. I never stole and was always scrupulous about ringing up the remaining cash at the end (once I had counted and compared the totals).
Thanks for that info.
I don’t work for the store and they aren’t paying for my time. When I pay, the transaction is complete. If you want to check on the work of your cashiers, don’t inconvenience me to do it.
I’d assumed that the agreement said something about following policies, but didn’t get down to the level of mentioning receipt checks… Nope:
It’s interesting to me that the agreement refers to recently purchased items as merchandise. Is it still merchandise at this stage of its life?
Is there a missing “n’t” in there, because that would make more sense.
It’s a farm! I washed my hands!
Guys I’m super-edgy and dark too, but is it just possible this isn’t terrible? That, in fact, this takes an extremely mildly bad thing and makes it a tiny bit better?
Just checking because if everyone else is going to go put on their darkest turtleneck over this then I will too, but maybe it’s not worth going full Eeyore over?
Are we the baddies?
