A CONSUMER has admitted why he finds it funny that other retailers follow the wholesaler’s receipt check style.
The shopper went to X to vent about a grocery chain under Kroger that enhanced its anti-theft measures with receipt checks.
two
The Arkansas consumer expressed that the change Fred Meyer recently implemented made him laugh out loud.
“Lol at Fred Meyer on Northern Lights trying to implement a Costco-style receipt verification system,” stated Zachary Forrester in an X post.
“Because I won’t fulfill my legally paid items unless the store has a crowded food court and sells cases of Lacroix.”
Fred Meyer has a number of stores in the northwestern US, with locations in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.
Earlier this summer, the retailer announced it would follow stores like Costco, Walmart and Sam’s, checking receipts as customers exit Portland-area stores, NBC affiliate KGW reported.
Like many US retail companies, the move came as part of a crackdown on shoplifting.
Receipt checks will be performed by third-party security guards, a Fred Meyer spokesperson told KGW.
After Fred Meyer’s announcement about receipt checking, one resident seethed that a mandatory receipt checking policy would be illegal.
They emphasized that this is only permitted if the store has reasonable suspicion that a person is shoplifting.
Fred Meyer shoppers also shared similar sentiments in online posts.
The company representative did not mention whether the receipt verification policy would be for all customers.
They also did not respond to KGW’s questions about what would happen if a customer refused to show their receipt to a Fred Meyer employee when asked.
It turns out that despite customer outrage, store employees may request to check customers’ receipts as they leave, according to legal professionals with Advogados.com.
While this can delay a shopping trip, most consumers usually just hand over proof of purchase to an associate to examine.
And despite the concerns, it is legal for retailers to ask to see receipts at the door, associates cannot do so in a discriminatory manner.
Stores have faced lawsuits over policies targeting specific groups, but Michael Fuller of Underdog Law Office and Greg Kafoury of Kafoury & McDougal said there is no legal challenge to universal receipt verification.
“Often, stores may have loss prevention policies, and those policies may often include checking receipts,” he said.
“Stores are also subject to Oregon public accommodation laws, so they cannot target specific groups with their receipt verification policies and cannot discriminate.”
That said, if you refuse to show it, retail staff won’t be able to do anything about it under normal circumstances, but it depends on the situation.
Stores cannot detain customers for refusing to provide their receipts.
While shoppers don’t have to worry about being detained if they don’t want to present their receipt for a retail employee to check, stores can also impose penalties.
Instead of detaining customers who don’t want to show their receipts, stores can storm a customer’s building or ban them from returning.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
