I went out for lunch and shopping with my mom yesterday. We stopped at Best Buy in my quest to find a new amplifier for my computer speakers, which has still gone unresolved.
However, I did find a new DVD player for the family room, an updated version of our old DVD player, which I will move to the kid’s TV in the playroom. The new one is DivX Ultra, and actually plays some of the TV shows from the current season that I was having trouble with. It also has a USB port to play files directly from a USB keychain or hard drive. All that with HDMI upsampling to 1080i for under $100, and I was totally sold.
So I dragged the DVD player and a new HDMI cable (ugh, $50) to the checkout, paid, and headed for the car.
On the way out the sliding doors, Mom said something to get my attention. Apparently, there was a guy standing near a podium on the other side of the entryway who wanted to look at my receipt.
I just kept walking.
I’m really tired of being treated like a criminal when I’m actually a paying customer. Now, I understand the need for stores to protect themselves from theft, but I had just come from the checkouts, where they rung up everything that I’m taking with me to my car. What makes them think I have taken something?
And that’s the only reason I could think that anyone would ask to see my receipt after I’ve gone through a checkout: That I have stolen something. “Let me see the receipt for that item you have there, that I don’t believe you paid for.”
Well, my attitude is “no”. I’m not submitting to these weird periodic searches just as a matter of practice any more. I don’t have anything to prove. If you want to prove I’ve stolen something, then you make the case. I’m not going to line up anywhere with my receipt to demonstrate that I am in the right.
I was telling Mom while heading through the parking lot, I’m not going to stop when some alarm goes off while I’m shopping either.
It’s not my alarm. Why should I stop? I also didn’t do anything wrong. Since when did the sound of some chime signal that you must return to a register to verify that you have paid for what you have? It’s not my responsibility to keep some store from having their merchandise stolen.
If you want to limit theft, pay more attention and be proactive, but expect some backlash when you start treating every customer like a thief.
