Travis McClain

Again, a byproduct of the corporate mentality. Someone at the top identifies a problem and instates a change in policy to protect against it. Someone in the middle is charged with implementing it, but many times he or she is middle management because this is about as savvy as they get. Some lacky is charged with actually doing the job, but because they're so removed from actually benefiting from the company's performance they don't know or care about anything beyond being inconvenienced by one more thing to have to do in their minimum wage shift.

Because even a broken clock is right twice a day, I will take a moment to defend them on one point. As for recording the receipt information, as has been explained many times, this isn't actually designed to bust you. It's done to bust a cashier that might be deliberately not scanning items.

DeepSleep

It happened to me at Biglots the day before Xmas. Bought some dvds and they beeped at the door as I was going out. The manager happened to be getting a product off a high shelf by the door for another customer and he asked for my receipt.

He then asked which cashier checked me out and I pointed to her and he yelled across the floor and asked the cashier for her employee number. (I guess he could not find the employee number on the receipt) He then keyed it into the alarm pad near the door. He gave me my receipt and I walked out.

This manager looked like he was under alot of stress! MinLShaw is correct. This manager wanted to nail the employee for NOT deactivating one or more sensors on my $2 and $3 dvds LOL. The process was probably by the book (cooked up by corporate) and the employee will show up on an exception report and can be used against her to deny her a 5 cent an hour raise, a promotion, cut her hours and even fire her.

About those Kmart dvds locked up behind glass. Some Kmarts have leased depts in which a third party vendor brings in and restocks their own inventory product and Kmart just takes a percentage of each sale. The Kmart by me has both dvds locked up (the good stuff owned by a 3rd party vendor) and some junky dvds out on a rack in the main aisle for $3.99 or less. These dvds are owned by Kmart.

As you may have noticed, there is usually nobody around in the dvd/electronics dept at Kmart. If the vendor left all the good dvds/video games out on an open rack/shelf they would all disappear pretty quickly with the five finger discount. The shoe dept is another leased dept at Kmart.

Leased depts are very common in retailing. At Macys, the womens cosmetics, mens fragrances and jewelry depts are leased by third party vendors at many of their stores.

The Target near me also went to the spider cables for big box sets and the clear cases for the smaller sets. Yeah, those spider cables are on so tight that they cut into the box set. They had one copy of the phone booth Get Smart dvd set and the box was ruined by the cables. Who would want to buy that set in damaged condition?

An employee was stocking the shelf with some TV sets in those clear cases and I asked her why it was being done. She was friendly about it and said that they were losing too much product due to theft. She said that people would take a TV set off the shelf and find an aisle that is not covered by security cameras and the open the set and take the dvds out and shove them down their pants and throw the empty cases behind other merchandise and walk out with the discs.

I guess this is the way corporate trys to deal with all these issues, but it translates into poor service/shopping experience for the customer.

DeltaSigChi4

<object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RGmdwiz9zDE&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RGmdwiz9zDE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>

E

jones

What I have been sitting here trying to figure out is...
Did they compare the time on your reciept to the security tape for reference?
Or... Did they view the security camera tape showing that you went to the isle to pick up the item?
Or... Did they view the security camera tape at the lane in which you checked out?
Or... Did they even actually look at the security tapes?
Or... Did they just look out of the peep hole at you getting pissed off and have a good laugh?
Her answer dosen't make good business sense. It would probably take alot longer than 20 minutes to dig through all those video tapes. Those morons must actually think they are doing the right thing for the company. That is treading dangerously close to a defamation of character lawsuit because they are doing that in front of other customers. Hopefully no one you knew saw you.
God bless their ignorant asses.

fumanstan

I don't see how it would be anywhere close to defamation of character. But then again, like I keep saying everyone always thinks like they're being treated by a criminal. And having worked at Target during college and at the customer service desk, hearing comments here calling retail employees morons or dumb bitches just makes me remember what I had to deal with. Sheesh.

But really, I bet they just checked to see if he walked into the store with the package versus having been in the store and possibly just grabbed a copy off the shelf to return.

bunkaroo

I've never been to a Target that had security cases on anything. Is this a high shoplifting risk store?

Also, pretty dumb on their part to think the thief would come back just to get the case removed. Then again there are some dumb thieves out there.

Arthur Dent

At My Target, they have security devices on things like Sex and The City: Complete Series and The Sopranos: Complete Series. That's it, though: only the big-ass uber sets.

Moopher

I believe their mentality is to make sure the thief didn't take it from electronics straight to the front desk so they could just stroll out the door with it.

fumanstan

Yeah, they have those big spider looking things that always seem to rip into the box. Those things suck! But other then that, I haven't seen any Targets with special cases on regular discs.

Yup, for some reason people aren't understanding that.

Walker Boh

At the Targets around here, customer service is between the door and the security scanners; you couldn't stop at the desk on your way out without first setting off the alarms. I guess not all of them are like that?

bunkaroo

OK that makes sense, but then all they'd have to do is watch the current day's camera to see if the person walked in with it and didn't go to electronics. Also, since he had a receipt, they're basically saying he bought one legit to try and get 2-for-1 by returning a second stolen copy. I'm sure that happens but probably not too often.

fumanstan

Exactly, which is why it only took what the OP said was 10 minutes. If they reviewed more tape it certainly would have taken a lot longer then that. I don't think this situation happens often anymore, but probably did quite often a little while back.

Mr. Salty

Treating a customer rudely is uncalled for in a situation such as this, unless they use the word "hella." Then all bets are off.

Goldblum

It took you ten minutes to ask her what was happening?

Goldblum

Because you would have the receipt. If you already stole it on a prior visit, why bother coming back to the store to exchange it for another one. You already have your (stolen) copy.

Goldblum

If that were the situation, then she would have opened the security case, no questions asked, and sent him on his way. In and out.

Moopher

I find that to be false just because it is easier to follow protocol than have to find a new job.

Anubis2005X

Yeah, I came home from Macy's with some new clothes and one of the pants still had one of those security tags on it. I assumed they would just act like I stole it anyway (plus didn't feel like making a special trip back), so I just did a little work on it and got that thing right off. Same thing happened with one of my roommates with Banana Republic. What's with these stores?

Moopher

I believe it has something to do with the human aspect of it.

calhoun07

I don't see the big deal at all. Aside from the lack of communication on part of the customer service clerk. Would a courtesy apology followed by a "we have to double check the tape...it's just standard procedure, I hope you understand" have killed her?

Of course, we only get one part of the story. Ticked off customers tend to NEVER hear things said by the clerk when they get mad, so for all we know this could have been said. I am not saying it was, but I just know from my personal experiences in retail that I have been very accommodating to customers and I tried my best to be helpful only to have them say I just stood there and didn't respond to them when they complain later to the manager. Some customers just want to see a negative experience where there really is none.

And here, there really is none. Perhaps a thief wouldn't come back into the store to get it removed, but maybe they found a receipt on the floor and decided they could get a free movie that way. My first job was at Wal Mart and we were trained to look for stuff like this. You'd be surprised what people would try to cheat a store. One time at a grocery store I worked at the manager told me he had a lady try to return TWO huge bottles of Tide, the largest and most expensive ones we carried. He was helping her carry them from the car when something told him to look inside them and they were both filled with water.

You never know what customers will do. Say something to the store manager about the communication if you truly believe she could have handled it differently, but it's not the worst experience at Target. If this is your worst, you had a good day.

nickdawgy

I had to bump this because I had the same thing happen to me tonight. I bought two of the Blu-Ray's on sale for $4.75, and they actually took the case off one and not the other. I saw them taking the first one off, then turned to put away some bags into the cart. I guess I assumed (yeah I know) they had done the other one as well.

I hope I'm not going to be hassled or treated like a criminal for $5

My Other Self

Did the electronic buzzer not go off when you were walking out the door?

nickdawgy

No, it didn't. That's the first thing I said to my wife.

I'm thinking of just taking a hammer and cracking the thing open.

joe_b

My nearest Target is about twenty minutes away and I don't shop there very often, but I did make a special trip to pick up The Avengers with the exclusive bonus disc last fall. The teenager checking me out also failed to remove the security case and I had to call him on it after he put it in the bag and handed it to me.

Back in the day when Wal-Mart used to keep all of their DVDs under lock and key, my dad tried to buy a copy of Willow. This was when the stores would just put the empty DVD cases on the shelf and you would have to go get an electronics employee to retrieve a sealed copy of movie from a glass case. Of course, my dad (who'd never bought a DVD before) didn't know this and just picked up the empty case and went through checkout with it. I give my dad a pass for this oversight, but I don't see how the clerk at the register didn't catch it beforehand. Thankfully, the electronics department realized it was an honest mistake after confirming the empty case was missing from the shelf when he returned it to the store. This same Wal-Mart now gives me the third degree on ANY sort of returns, so I'd hate to think of the hassle they'd give my dad if a similar incident happened today.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Don't take it personally, they probably just have a flood of people trying to commit fraud there.