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Comment by denimnerd42 | Hacker News Reader

I refuse to let them check my receipt other than Costco/Sam's where apparently you can lose your membership. Even there if the line is too long I walk out with my stuff.

I'm not a thief and won't be treated like one.

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FWIW, Costco's receipt checkers aren't looking for shoplifting so much as checking to make sure people collected everything they paid for. In particular stuff like gift cards where you pick up a cardboard token in the store and then get the actual item after paying.

There was some news story a while back which claimed that the receipt checking was for the benefit of the consumer, but no: it’s mainly loss prevention. See https://www.businessinsider.com/why-costco-workers-check-rec... for example.

I mean technically loss prevention is to the benefit of the customer.

https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/answer_view/a...

Its also loss prevention.

I thought the same until the time they saved me $50 because I was charged for three of something I only bought two of. That the person noticed this in the span of about 5 seconds on a receipt of about 30 items and a fairly full cart was quite impressive.

Bag checkers at BestBuy, on the other hand....

Agreed. It is unacceptable. We are in 21st century where all thieves are registered with government database with their skillset, area/days/time of operations and all. Retailers should concentrate on those instead of harassing non-thief customers.

There are a lot of people stealing. I’ve heard some young and not so young people talk completely shamelessly about stealing from retailers.

We’re not talking about “government database” kinds of people.

shit, people post their thievery up on Instagram and go viral for it, nevermind just talking about it.

> We are in 21st century where all thieves are registered with government database with their skillset, area/days/time of operations and all.

Really? How many of them are prosecuted? Tell me, how is it that porch pirates (thieves) are so prolific if there's some master database of every thief everywhere?

> Retailers should concentrate on those instead of harassing non-thief customers.

Retailers must not discriminate against anyone until after a crime has been committed. Otherwise it's a slippery path down to redlining.

big +

At Costco, when it is really busy, it can be a real fire hazard with people lined up just have someone pretend to audit your cart and then cross off your receipt. It is insane they can get away with abusing their customers like that.

What's insane is you acting like there is some sort of fire hazard. As if they're going to continue checking receipts in the event of a fire.

Checking receipts causes a long line backed up to the registers on busy days, like holidays. Stopping the checking of receipts doesn't magically get all these people with carts through the doors, especially during a stampede. It is a clear hazard.

Costco attracts people who ascribe a very low value to their own time, just look at the 20+ car lines to save a few bucks on gas. It’s no surprise that type of customer tolerates a line to have their receipt checked.

Have you been in a Costco, or is your primary interaction the gas lines? I guess the receipt line every once in a while takes more than 30 seconds? I can’t think of anything else inside that at all is a tax on my time compared to a normal grocery store.

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