Sorry; Click-bait. Fire codes forbids single exit from public buildings. Security cameras and personnel are there. A bit of exaggeration; since Costco, Sam's, and Wally's has receipt checkers at the exit, now-a-days. They didn't write an 'article' about that. There was an article about stores putting up glass lock-ups everywhere; in most high thief stores. I've noticed a lot of that has came down.
Did the receipt checkers physically keep you from leaving until they checked the receipt? Even if you didn't have one from not buying anything? Here is a physical gate that won't open without a receipt. Didn't buy anything, you have to convince the guard you didn't steal anything to get out.
With the main entrance on our nearby Walmart it's thus, technically you're force to go through the checkout zone, either staffed or self-served. The gates at the entrance will not open in the exit direction. Which leads to regular conundrum, you'll see people waiting till someone coming in activates the gate, or they'll climb over/under/around.
"I purchased a kombucha and went through the check-out line without incident. (No high-tech gates block the exit if you go through the line like normal.) But for journalism’s sake, I then headed back into the store to try going out the new gate." When I'm leaving a store without buying, I usually squeeze past one of the checkout lines and smile at the attendant and leave, so I probably wouldn't even notice the new gate.
Kind of a pain, but there's got to be a way to get the service desk to cough up a receipt for qty 1 'nothing' at $0.00, or get somebody to hit an override button.
Well, she didn't talk to the guard to see how difficult they would be to get out and how long it would take. Does he/she have a gate over-ride, or do they have to wait for management to open it? and she just published a 'how to guide' for shop-lifter to by-pass that system. It would be interesting if receipts from other stores or how old a receipt can be to pop that gate open. Though the real blame belongs to the management that authorized the purchase of that system. IMHO; this keeps honest people, honest - but a dishonest person will figure a way around it. They could file a complaint with the fire marshal; 'obstructing exits in an emergency'.
Which probably makes some sense. The self-serve checkout area in my local store has a lot of cameras, there to record whether anybody went through with things they didn't check out, but which also would confirm, in case of question, that I had walked through with no things. The entrance gate here will not open in the exit direction, and even if you wait for someone coming in to open it, passing through it in the exit direction will make it honk.
The linked reddit post was of someone that had to get an employee to get out. None of the links were on the bypass. I see California is one of five states that legally require showing a receipt when leaving if asked. In most of the country this would run into legal issues. I'm a lawyer - you're legally required to show your receipt in five states or they can call the police and arrest you
WoW; didn't know that. I'm pretty familiar with NFPA99, so some sort of emergency release / override is mandated to make that system fully legal. What happens in a power outage; you stuck there? That could be construed as false imprisonment. What about ADA rules and regulations. Unless, nobody has complained or sued about it yet.
I bet the personal injury lawyers are getting excited about this... There's nothing illegal about going into check prices or if things you want are in stock and then leaving. Not only are they going to get sued for this, but the destruction of food stamps for poor people in this country is going to turn lots more people into thieves as a matter of survival and any gate or barrier to prevent you from getting out of the store is going to get busted up again and again. They will fail for the exact same reason they are not allowed to physically touch or restrain a thief. As for the receipt checkers at walmart and other stores, I only buy as much as I can carry in my arms and never use a bag and hold the receipt in my hand with my items and I don't fully stop for the person looking at my receipt as I stare them down and that's more than enough intimidation from me for them to not bother looking closer than that because I'm a paying customer and refuse to be treated like a thief. Most of them are fast enough to count the items in my arms and count the items on the reciept. The slow ones give up without trying and very, very rarely they'll try to hold my receipt as I keep walking as I pull the receipt out of their hand. These folks aren't paid enough for confrontations and they know it and don't bother.
Funny, I was thinking this was mainly a San Fran issue. Only place I have ever seen receipt checking is Costco. Stores i frequent in Oregon & Washington have no barriers and no one to give ya a look over -- except Costco. Although the owner of local hardware store told me some of his Milwaukie tools have walked away. He is thinking of locking them up.
Yep... That's how I always start the process... I think because I make it easy as possible to see my receipt and items purchased and my arms are full they'd rather not inconvenience me more. I also have the kind of smile that says you'd really don't want to deal with me when I'm not smiling!
The only mechanical exit gates I've seen so far have been overseas, in several places this year. But in each case, there was an attendant to swipe a gate-opening card for customers without any goods or receipt. Our usual Fred Meyer has been doing the same for quite some time. A location that isn't closing for excessive shoplifting, as another location next to a homeless camp just did. A Walmart I infrequently visit, does the same.
It's mostly a big city issue. You heard a lot more about it several years back when the state legislature told everyone that they would no longer prosecute shop lifters below something like $1K and some journalist wrote that most store security S.O.P. was to observe ONLY - DO NOT ENGAGE. That opened up a flood-gate, where people would walk in with garbage bags; fill them up and walked out. Now that they are prosecuting minor shop-lifting offenses again; everything has calmed back down. It helps that there's the occasional beat-down of shoplifters videos on YouTube. A robbery gone wrong, where a shop keeper shot the suspect dead - also makes people think twice about easy-money. YMMV
