• Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I once called police about a car theft on a property I managed. We had had footage of the theft, the thieves, their getaway car, their license plates, their entry and exit, their faces visible on every camera. It took the cops two weeks to drop by to collect the footage and take a report, and they looked so annoyed, and didn’t even pretend to care. They straight up told me nothing would come of it.

    But if you’re a corporation, they’re all over that shit. Minor shop lifting? Cops are there in minutes. It’s become clear over the last few years who the police work for, and it’s not us, the little people who pay taxes.

  • RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    That’s nothing. I’ve heard of people getting the cops called on them because the cashier forgot to scan an item and they noticed after getting home and went back to pay for it.

  • xia@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    If they want to be more sure that all items are scanned, maybe they should hire and train people to do that.

    • ZombieTheZombieCat@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I am so sick and tired of having two people standing right behind me staring over my shoulder as I’m using self checkout at walmart. It makes me never want to go back there. I actually have never “forgotten” to scan anything, ever. Yet these mfs are breathing down my neck at every store, every time I go. Target is the opposite. I swear these LPs (the plain clothes people but with walkies, come on) and workers are next to me at all times when I’m shopping. But then they usually leave me be at self checkout. I guess by then their ridiculously invasive theft monitoring system has determined I’m not a threat or something.

      Fuck both of these companies. And fuck them even more for running every smaller company out of business so we have nowhere else to shop when we’re sick of being treated like criminals and sick of being sold garbage at some insane markup.

    • Wooshock@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Or better yet actually have a more than a couple cashiers after 10:00 p.m. Walmarts are massive stores they’re not Buffalo wild wings or IHOP… You can’t run the whole place on one person. Needle dicks

  • Facebones@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    I was physically restrained by 4 Walmart employees, and convicted based on blatant lies from the LP manager (who legally counts as a “professional witness,” meaning her word is literally law) and a petty larceny effectively bars you from employment for 7 years.

    What I “stole?” I was having a bad mental health day and missed a $5 pair of sunglasses on a $2-300 shopping trip.

    When the judge started to say “no intent,” she cut the judge off and hollared how she watched me remove the tag “and that’s intent if I ever saw it.” Never mind that the picture SHE BROUGHT TO COURT still had it attached, because PrOfEsSiOnAl WiTnEsS hUrRdUrR.

      • Facebones@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        Yep. Obviously I tried to pay for them and pointed out I spent over $200 like fuck $5, but after she started scrambling and lying in court I think she was probably just bad at her job and desperately trying to get any convictions she could to avoid losing it.

        Or maybe it just gets her dick hard. Idk.

  • ZILtoid1991@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Meanwhile to the rich:

    “You’ve been interfering with domestic and foreign elections, abused your workers, and even appeared with a noted pedophile? What about you promise you won’t do it ever again?”

    Something, something, the law protects the ruling class, not the common people.

    • TheDoozer@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’d say the bigger issue is if the manager fails to pay an employee for all hours worked (intentionally or accidentally), they don’t get to have cops called to arrest them, it’s on the employee to try to claw back their own money.

      Wage theft is a far more significant issue than shoplifting but police, DAs, and legislators aren’t chomping at the bit to address that like they are shoplifting, which should tell you everything you need to know about who our “justice” system serves.

  • Ultraviolet@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Wage theft is the biggest form of theft by far. The biggest perpetrator of wage theft is, unsurprisingly, Wal-Mart. They have the audacity to call anyone else a thief?

  • Das_Bruno@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I absolutely HATE Walmart. I should hate them for their exploitation of workers, their shit products or any number of their shit corporation’s dealings. But the thing that drew the final blow for me was an incident dealing with their self checkout and their system of ascribing guilt for theft without any due process.

    I went to a store about half an hour away from where I lived as they aren’t common near where I’m from. Bought several items including a marker board. Checked out using self checkout. Marker board was too big to fit into a bag, so I set it aside to bring with me after scanning everything. Well, as luck would have it, when I got home I realized I never brought my marker board home but I had paid for it and had the receipt to prove it. I called the store and explained the situation to the manager at customer service who assured me I could come to the store and pickup the item, no troubles.

    So I drove back up to the store hour round trip. I get there and the customer service line is about 15 people deep at this point. Only one person behind the counter. After about 30 min waiting in line, I finally get up to the counter and explain my issue, showing the receipt and that I had spoken to a manager earlier and that they said to come in and it would be fine to pickup the marker board. Well, not only was it not fine, but then the woman behind the counter, after having a discussion with her security dept over the phone who “reviewed the footage” from my checkout, decided that I had actually attempted to put something into my pocket to steal something!? Incredulously, I asked her why on earth I would go through the trouble to come all this way back to the store for an item that I clearly paid for along with about $60 worth of other stuff which again, also clearly paid for, if I had stolen something!? She refused to budge and I was honestly shocked she had the audacity to accuse me of theft 100% seriously. I left that store and haven’t set foot in a Walmart since. It’s been 4 years and it’s the best consumer decision I’ve ever made.

    • EvolvedTurtle@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      As a Walmart employee I too hate Walmart lol Also one thing I started realizing as I’ve gotten older

      Is usually shit customer service isn’t due to the people running the customer service but due to the shitty work environment they have

      I recently learned that at Taco bell The person giving food is the same person who is also taking orders in the speaker outside

      Ofcourse they are gonna fuck it up They are having two separate conversations at the same time all day long

      • Das_Bruno@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Oh, absolutely. No hate to the customer service woman. I realize she was probably under pressure from the powers that be, but nevertheless, she enforced the absurd policy (understandably, girl’s gotta eat), didn’t make the experience any more palatable for me, however.

    • 0x2d@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      the condition of their fruits and vegetables is… questionable

      and the “great value” popsicles smell like toilet bowl cleaner and taste like sugar water

      • Ashe@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        I lived with my partner and her parents for a couple of years. At some point her mom started getting more groceries from Walmart; around that time I started having badddd reactions to the food. She doesn’t get groceries from Walmart anymore.

  • 𝕾𝖕𝖎𝖈𝖞 𝕿𝖚𝖓𝖆@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I don’t use self checkout anymore. Here’s why

    • The scales. I bring my own bags and you have to tare the scale against your bags before you can start scanning and it only works right about ⅓ of the time. So someone has to come set it for me.
    • If I don’t bring my own bags inside, my only option at self checkout is plastic. Paper bags are offered by cashiers. I like to know my bags can actually be recycled.
    • Self checkout is constantly populated by old folks who would have had IE jam packed with garbage toolbars 15 years ago. They can’t work self checkout any faster than they could have waited in line.
    • There is a 25 item limit. I see people with 40+ items in self checkout all the time. It just bogs down what used to be a fast thing.
    • Finally, the biggest reason I stopped using it is because part of the cost of my groceries is to have a worker to ring me up and another to bag my stuff. By using self checkout, I’m saving the store owner money. I am being the customer and the worker. This is my way of fighting back. If the cost of my groceries is going up, I’m going to make sure that someone else has that little bit of extra job security. If we all stop using self checkout, they have to keep more cashiers on hand. I don’t think I have to explain how more people having more available hours to work is a better societal alternative.
    • UnverifiedAPK@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      There is a 25 item limit. I see people with 40+ items in self checkout all the time. It just bogs down what used to be a fast thing.

      Where? Self checkout isn’t express checkout. I don’t think express checkout has been a thing for 5+ years.

      Edit: Lol also I appreciate this as a major reason you don’t use self checkout. That’s completely fair:

      Self checkout is constantly populated by old folks

      • frunch@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The shop-rite in my area has both express (10 items or less) and regular/no-limit self-check outs.

      • DreamButt@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Depends on the region. At least here in the states there are plenty of stores where the self checkout at Walmarts have signs saying <=25

          • DreamButt@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Personally I’m in favor of extreme automation like self checkout. The real issue is that the workers don’t see the return the buisness owners do. Like imagine if we had UBI + good unemployment and then it wouldn’t really be an issue. Walmart would have to compete with people going home

    • seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      I don’t think I have to explain how more people having more available hours to work is a better societal alternative.

      It’s only better if a human cashier can do the job better. Otherwise, you’re just making humans do money-work as an excuse to give them more hours.

      For example, I could do everything at work on a pad with a pencil instead of using a computer. I would certainly have more hours!

      The reason why that sounds insane is because everybody recognizes that using a computer is much faster and more efficient, so you should use that instead.

    • snownyte@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I don’t recall there being a item limit. Which is unfortunate because the people who have boatloads of carts and their carts already loaded. They’re the most fucking slowest ever that they even give old people a run for their money. Slowly raising items to scan. Slowly putting them in bags. Slowly paying. Slowly moving the fuck out of the way as they try navigating a heavy cart with all of the junk that they’ll barely like as soon as it gets home.

      Fuck them.

      • Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        There used to be pretty clear signage about item limits that were ignored anyway, and now they don’t have real cashiers, so the item limits either doesn’t or functionally doesn’t exist.

  • SARGEx117@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I once had a Walmart employee follow me out of the building and start banging on my window screaming at me they’re calling the cops

    Why?

    I, while using a cane in one hand and the other occupied by a bag of dog food that was making me regret not waiting for a scooter, didn’t stop to chat with the old woman who was arbitrarily checking people’s receipts.

    I told him he’s lucky I’m more level headed than most of my neighbors, because he would have been shot the moment he banged on glass and yelled, but if they want my receipt they can go watch the fucking cameras because I have somewhere to be.

    Could I have handled it more calmly and with more understanding? Probably. But if you follow me out into the parking lot and start screaming at me, consider all respect lost, all decency dropped. You get back what you came in with.

    Literally, the only reason I even went to Walmart is because the pet store I get the good food from had their registers all crash and wouldn’t start back up.

    Since when did Walmart check receipts anyway?

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      A loss prevention guy followed my sister to her car after dark once, he thought she took something and wanted to check her receipt. she was sobbing cause she thought she was about to get raped. Loss prevention officers are just idiotic jackasses who aren’t smart enough to do anything else.

      • SARGEx117@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        When that guy gets maced or tasered, I would happily laugh in his face and tell him he deserved it.

        How did the thought “I should follow this lone woman out to her car in the dark” pass through his mind…

    • db2@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      I just smile and say “no thank you” and keep going. There’s nothing they can do unless they actually think you stole something and they don’t have the manpower to detain everyone who won’t stop for their receipt check.

      Note though that doesn’t apply to Sam’s Club or Costco or similar, if you’re a “member” there you agreed to the checks.

      • assaultpotato@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        They can’t detain you even if they think you have stolen, though (from a store policy perspective). There’s a reason all these stores train employees “observe don’t interfere”.

          • bane_killgrind@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            so long as the shopkeeper has cause to believe that the person detained in fact committed, or attempted to commit, theft

            Shop keepers privilege can’t be used as a reason to detain customers for a receipt check. They don’t have “cause” as they did not see the person concealing anything.

            • TauZero@mander.xyz
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              1 year ago

              That’s true! Receipt checks can get lost! I was replying to “They can’t detain you even if they think you have stolen” though. The “can’t” is a store policy thing, not a law thing.

      • Zron@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Loss prevention can, random cashiers cannot.

        Fuck em anyway, I pay for my shit and unless it’s a real cop who might shoot me if I twitch funny, I ain’t stopping for shit.

        If they don’t want to pay for cashiers, they can deal with people stealing shit. Walmart especially is a corp on welfare, they have the most employees receiving food stamps and Medicaid than any other company. I don’t really care if the government subsidized megacorp loses money every year, they aren’t providing worthwhile jobs anyway.

    • teamevil@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It doesn’t matter what Walmart or anyone except Costco (part of membership contract) and probably Sam’s club (contract again) says. Once you’ve purchased it they have NO legal right to inspect and you have NO legal obligations to stop. That being said I know the folks doing that job are not assholes so I will politely refuse and wish them a nice day.

      In DC they they have the same type of legal witness called special police. Once one tried to stop me and I refused saying , “Call the police if you think I stole something” and kept going.

      I’m not going to be harassed by employees after I’ve legally purchased profucts.

      Please note if you are planning on running a scam or sneaking shit out, don’t draw attention to yourself. One law at a time is the rule.

  • Wooshock@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    What’s up I’m a employeed, tax paying, US citizen. And I would suggest that anybody take advantage of the limited oversight over the Walmart self checkouts

    These cock suckers decided that they would raise the prices on everybody under the cover of inflation. They did this knowing that it would drive people to suicide, it would drive people to be homeless, it would break part families and crush the American dream for so many people but they did it anyway.

    It’s called plausible deniability… if you forget something in the self checkout, just be a nice person and say it was a mistake, and they will let you slide most of the time. Worst case scenario you have to go back in and pay. Best case scenario you get a bunch of free steak or something.

  • slacktoid@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    But this is the whole point of self checkout. Plus im not a trained professional at item scanning.

    • Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I love that self checkout used to be convenient and quick, but now it’s lower, way too many people trying to use them because they can’t pay people, and you still even have to deal with someone on the way out of the store anyway. Really glad that’s how stuff has evolved.

      • slacktoid@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        yeah i love the i just need 2 things, this is faster, and then now its the norm, like where are the profits going to come from if you have no customers?

  • moipe@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Those self checkout watchers are more intense on the food side than they are on the pharmacy side. Pharmacy: young employees may forget to give a fuck. Food: old employees, think they might be fired if they don’t watch every item everyone scans.

  • TAYRN@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Since you didn’t link the news article to provide any context, I’m just gonna say “thieves get arrested. More at 10.”