very surprising--shoplifting

Maybe the Costco attendant at the store exit that checks the receipt against the cart content is an effective strategy against shrinkage.

…at the door. And, the fact that they check your receipt when exiting also helps. At our local Costco’s they have LEO’s either at the door or readily available. We don’t have a problem with large scale shoplifting in my area, but a lot of the stores are proactive.

There is one Costco department that doesn't require a Costco membership in order to buy, the pharmacy. The Costco pharmacy is open to all, members and non-members. However, there is a small fee for non-members that is added to the cost but the pharmacy will not exclude non-members from buying prescription drugs at a Costco pharmacy. Checkout and payment for prescription drugs are all done at the pharmacy instead of the main store checkout lanes.

When I enter a Costco store and am asked to show my membership card, I reply, "I'm going to the pharmacy" and they let me through. Of course, when I exit and go through checkout lanes with my filled cart I'm required to show my membership card for scanning at the register.

I read somewhere that the costco door checkers are mainly looking for bottom of cart items not ringed up and verifying big ticket items.

I rarely shop at walmart, but if i ever do, i have no intention of stopping for any door checker. Walmart is not a membership club and im not agreeing to any searches. In this area (PRIL), the WM's are mostly ghetto. Kids working there couldn't care less. In fact, the whole WM experience became more annoying when they did away with live cashiers.

the Walmart near me has a person at the door checking receipts.

During a lull I spoke to a Costco receipt checker. High on her list for checking was to see if multiple identical items were checked correctly. Apparently that has a higher error rate than other things.

Same thing here.

My shopping cart is always full at Costco with big things, little things, and multiples of the same product. Recently it was more than $300-. Many others have full carts. Last week, one customer had two carts hooked together with carabiners.

The checkers can't see a large part of the cart. If anyone wanted to shoplift, they are taking a slight risk. Better to shoplift at a store with no checkers.

If you websearch Walgreen's store closures due to shoplifting, you'll see that they are a chain that has shut down stores in the past specifically due to high rates of "shrinkage."

And it's not just the customers. Decades ago I worked at a Toys 'R' Us that searched employees leaving at the end of their shift, because they claimed that they lost more merchandise due to employee theft than customer theft.

I saw this go by on a message board about tools.

Title: How Stolen Goods End Up On Amazon, eBay And Facebook Marketplace

https://youtu.be/5RIjWTO2Yz4

People are just walking out of the stores and they aren't being stopped. There are numerous videos showing this. The stores don't want to prosecute and the police are to busy else ware and won't show up.

Stores close when they can't show a profit.

Stores have to make a profit. If they lose too much money from shoplifting, they have to close.

A stores overhead (rent, utilities, payroll, etc.) can be very high. Most folks don't take that into account.

Say a high volume store is making a 1% margin of profit. If they lose $1.00 to theft, they will have to sell $100.00 MORE to make up for the loss (1% of $100.00 = $1.00).

It's simple math.

...I pulled into a parking spot at a local Walmart, and moments later a guy walks out of the store carrying a bag. Two police officers swoop in just as the guy got a few cars away from mine and stop him, search his bag, handcuff the guy and walk him back into the store. Happy to see at least some of these scumbags get caught.

My wife has a relative who is a manager at our local Walmart. She says that much of the shoplifting, or "shrinkage" as it's known in the industry, is done by employees who know the store security measures and ways to get around them.

She also said the self checkout lanes, which Costco doesn't have, are another source of product loss. Despite the loss, they keep them because they save money in the end by reducing the number of employees.

Our local store does have a "bag checker" at the exit but due to volume, they can only check a small percentage of shoppers.

They do a delicate balance between payroll and theft loss and hire more employees accordingly. Right now, that's difficult with the current labor shortage.

Luckily, our local store is well in the black and isn't currently under risk of closure. It's sad to say, I don't know what we would do without the place in our little rural town.

Maybe it's a regional thing, but all the Costco stores around my area have self checkout options. I'm very thankful that they finally started offering that, as I often go to Costco and only need an item or two. There was nothing worse than having to stand in a lengthy line behind 6 or 8 people with huge carts loaded with dozens of items when I'm standing there with one or two things and my entire transaction would take less than 30 seconds.

If this is WalMart, it's illegal in the US for WalMart to check your bag prior to you leaving (violates the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution) unless they have probable cause, e.g. tracked by security or caught on camera. Not that it stops them from doing it anyway. If Costco, the bag check is one of the conditions of having a membership there and thus Costco is in the clear.

Our costcos (chicago area) also have the self checkout. It's fine for a few items, but too much hassle for larger quantities. The entire contents of the cart has to be emptied onto the scale.

Normally when I do the staffed checkout, items in the cart will be positioned such that upc's are all facing up (or as many as possible). Make it quicker through the line. I rarely have a "full" cart. Most of the time 10-20 items.

Here's a nit: Aside of a genuine probable cause check, it's not illegal for a Walmart checker to check your receipt - it only becomes illegal if you decline the request and they do it without your consent. Like I said, just a nit.
Here's a YouTube that addresses this topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f-m5TMMjM4

Phil

I'm glad I shop at the ghetto walmart very infrequently (few times a year). Even then, it's usually the automotive section (oil), where I pay for it right in that section and exit from one of the shop doors.

I like to support local mom and pop bricks and mortar stores, so I shoplift at them instead of the big boxes lol

All kidding aside I'm blessed that I haven't done anything like that since being a teen and going into college. I actually got caught so I'm the type who puts his hand on the stove. Since I didn't have a record they dismissed it in court. Really. But, I did learn my lesson, and I think that's the point...

Mississauga Ontario, I went to two Costcos. One was ritzy, the other, I was surprised, upon entering, members are told to keep an eye on their personal belongings lol

I haven't been in a Walmart store in years but are you saying that Walmart no longer has checkout cashiers? I still buy from Walmart online from time to time as I just ordered a new Garmin Nuvi 755T Battery Replacement Kit from Walmart for $23.95 that includes shipping.

Yes, the local WM's only have self checkouts now. There's a cashier droid around if you need assistance.

I have three WM locations. The oldest (and nearest) does not have self-checkout. The other two are newer, probably 10 years or less, and both have self checkout.

One thing I don’t like, and so far I’ve only seen it in grocery stores, is a move toward cashless self-checkout. I still prefer cash for relatively small transactions.

Most of our stores have two and sometimes three cashiers, and two sections of self-checkout with helpers standing by. Even the
target stores have at least two or three cashers with a row for self-checkout.

I'm not a fan of that either, and unfortunately that's the case at the Costco self checkouts. Once in a while I'll run into Costco simply to buy a bag of ice since it's far cheaper there than anywhere else ($2.99 for a 24 pound bag) and I don't like having to pay by card for such a small purchase.

Having spent a few years of my life stopping/detaining and arresting shoplifters it isn't as easy as many think. For liability reasons on both employees and non-employees most large chains have strict policies that only trained Loss Prevention employees are allowed to stop a suspected thief and what procedures have to be followed. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes what you think is happening isn't the way it looks. One mistake such as stopping/detaining a person who did not actually shoplift the product(s) or use of force issue can cost tens of thousands or more based on actions of store employee and wipe out any savings. Many large stores run on low profit margins overall and shoplifting can make a store unprofitable, unsafe for customers and employees or just not enough profit to justify keeping a store open.