I don't feel like reading all the Circuit City threads, but I am a little curious.

[MoonRiver]

Can somebody give me a nutshell synopsis about them? :)

[BlooInBloo]

1. Can they stop you/detain you/inspect your crap.

[high density]

2. "Choose your battles wisely" NM

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. That's what I'm thinking.

Also, CC is well known for supporting Rethuglics, so why shop there in the first place? It can't be because they sell such great stuff.

[renie408]

48. Amen. n/t

[MissB]

3. Cliff notes:

Dude walks out and refuses to allow the clerk that comes after him to check his receipt against purchase.

DUers either A) think that people should stop and have their receipt checks or B) think that people should not have to be stopped and have their receipts checked.

Lots of chat about civil liberties and mini arguments about corporations as people and the 4th amendment.

[jumpoffdaplanet]

10. Costco does this. Never been a problem there

Not sure why it's a problem at CC

[MissB]

17. Well, Costco is a membership store.

When you sign up for a membership, you're agreeing to abide by their rules.

Not quite the same as, say, CC.

[renate]

45. context is everything

I love Costco (they treat their employees right, etc), so I am perfectly willing to put up with what I consider an absurd ritual of checking my receipt. Not what I'd expect from a company like Costco, but whatever. They're cool, so I'm okay with it.

I can imagine being irked if hell froze over and I went into a WalMart and my receipt was checked, simply because they're WalMart and therefore The Man. The EVIL Man. (I wouldn't refuse to show a minimum-wage security guard my receipt, though. It's not like they'd be strip-searching me. I'd just make that Reason Number 145 not to ever go to a WalMart unless my life depended on it.)

And admittedly and additionally, Costco is a membership club so when I sign up I agree to abide by their rules. But mainly I put up with it because I love, and want to support, Costco.

If this guy really wanted to use his time productively, he'd go to, or start, a weekly "Enough" demonstration or write letters to the editor. Instead he chose to interfere with a little girl's birthday and a family reunion and, though fairly well off, solicit donations online for his legal defense. What a jewel.

[ruiner4u]

35. my god...

a flame war about retail loss prevention....




madness...

[Stuckinthebush]

55. We can flame about anything...

Your avatar stinks! What are you thinking about putting that avatar up here? That is so un-progressive of you! I wish people would critically analyze their avatars and get a clue.

see...we can flame anything :)

[librechik]

41. outside the store is off-limits

I don't mind inside the store, like at Sam's where they check the cart against the receipt. But if you are accosted in the street or parking lot after leaving the store, that person could be anybody, not necessarily a security officer. They can't detain you there without police assistance. Period. Circuit City is out of line.

[Tesha]

60. 'Couple more steps...

> Dude walks out and refuses to allow the clerk that comes after him to check his receipt against purchase.

> Receipt checker's supervisor prevents dude from leaving.

> Dude warns supervisor he'll call cops if illegal detention continues, no joy.

> Dude calls cops.

> Cops arrive, arrest dude when dude refuses (appropriately, legally) to show his driver's license.

> Cops eventually charge dude with "disobeying the orders of a police officer"

A lot of DUers got stuck on the first part and didn't
make it to the later parts where the real violation
of dude's civil liberties took place.

Tesha

[HornBuckler]

4. One nutshell coming up

Dude refused to show his receipt for goods purchased - got a lot of shit for it, eventually ended up being arrested. People here on DU in three camps mainly
1. Commend him for standing up for his rights
2. Think he's made a big deal out of a small inconvenience
3. Don't give a rat's ass

And then there is another post about all the lay-offs.

There ya go!

[Justyce]

7. I suspect I may fall into category 3....

;)

[Cha]

29. I have a strong suspicion

that I'm there with ya. ;)

[emilyg]

37. Make room for me.

[Bjornsdotter]

39. Thanks!

...I wasn't brave enough to dive into the CC threads. :scared:

BTW.....I'd fall in the #3 category.

:toast:

[Kingshakabobo]

5. The fine, liberal, patriotic, constitution loving posters, such as myself, have one opinion......

...........the rest are nazis.:silly:

[TahitiNut]

44. Yup. That's it in a nutshell. In fact, that's EVERY discussion on DU.

:rofl:

[KitchenWitch]

51. Nice post, Hitler!

:crazy:

[MoonRiver]

6. Thanks for the info guys!

I don't really understand why anyone would not just show their receipt though. Seems like that would be the easy way.

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

8. Ditto ! n/t

[notadmblnd]

9. Well I don't like being treated like a thief

and I don't usually shop at businesses that engage in the practice. But every now and then another store will start up the practice and then I no longer go there any more. Now if you have a valid reason for suspecting that I stole something, by all means stop me, but treating everyone like they're shoplifters just because the company is too cheap to hire loss prevention personnel is another thing.

[Mojorabbit]

11. I'm 51

and I wonder if the reactions are due to age. I know kids in the past few decades have grown up with locker searches etc. When I was younger something like this would have been unheard of. I wonder how much of this is habituation to submitting for searches... at least this was my first thought.

[canetoad]

16. I feel pretty much the same way

In similar situations, I invite them to accuse me of theft. No? Thank you so much, I'll just be on my way then.

[pnwmom]

31. You might be right. I'm surprised about the number of DUers

who seem to be comfortable with creeping authoritarianism.

[OnyxCollie]

33. Ridiculous.

If you purchase something from a store and pay for it with a check, and the cashier asks to see your driver's license to write down the DL# on the check, is he/she a fascist, too?

Here's the number for the ACLU National Office (from the back of my ACLU card)- [phone]. Have them tell you you're wasting their time.

[pnwmom]

36. That's not the same thing at all.

If you refused to provide an ID, they wouldn't detain you -- they just wouldn't give you the purchase.

In this case, they detained someone -- without any reasonable cause -- who had made a purchase and obtained a receipt.

[BlooInBloo]

19. Yes, bowing meekly to authoritarians IS "the easy way".

[jberryhill]

24. First, they came for the Smokers... /nt

[BlooInBloo]

25. Ack! That's ME!

:rofl:

[jberryhill]

30. Let's get together, go to Circuit City, Light up, and be DU heroes

"Posted policy" my ass.

[shugah]

27. you're right! it IS the easy way!

and most people do show the receipt, wait in line to show the receipt, whatever. most stores do it these days - check your receipt, i mean - walmart, best buy, circuit city, etc.

you are absolutely correct - the easiest thing is to just go ahead and show your receipt.

sometimes, though, the easiest thing is not the right thing :shrug:

[Purveyor]

12. Walmart stopped me once and ask to see my receipt after I paid for my 87.00 purchases...

I was insulted and told them if they wanted to see the receipt, then 'find it'...its in one of those 5 bags.

Indeed they did find it and after I said "thanks, now I'll take this receipt to recieve my refund for every damn thing I purchased here today".

I did a u-turn and headed for the service desk and did indeed receive a full refund on all my purchases.

Last time I've step a foot into a Walmart store.

[pnwmom]

32. The PERFECT response. I've been wishing the Circuit City customer

had done exactly that.

[jberryhill]

40. Hell yeah...

...tie up the rest of the family in Dad's car all afternoon.

I'll bet Dad's second wife just LOVES this guy.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

14. WTF is monkeybread???

[Huskerchub]

15. Google is your friend

MONKEY BREAD

3 packages of buttermilk biscuit tubes
1 cup sugar (divided)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar

Take 3 packages of buttermilk biscuit tubes (10 per roll) and cut each roll into 4 pieces. Drop roll pieces into 1 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Drop sugar-coated pieces into a well buttered Bundt pan (don't squish roll pieces when placing them in the Bundt pan).

Put 1/2 cup of the left-over sugar/cinnamon mix and 1/2 cup packed brown sugar and 1 cup of butter (2 sticks) into a small saucepan.

Bring this mixture just to a boil; remove from heat immediately. Carefully drizzle over the roll pieces.

Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes.

Cool slightly in an upright position, then tip pan over onto a plate to remove monkey pull-apart bread.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

18. *snort*

[jberryhill]

20. Yes - this is the essential narrative:

An adult man and his adult sister were invited to spend Labor Day weekend with their father, his second wife, and their half sibling children from the second marriage.

Upon arrival, the man was informed that it was one of the childrens' birthdays.

Not having dealt with the pain of his parents divorce and feeling he was suckered into celebrating the birthday of a child from that resented second marriage, he generated a crisis in order to make the little girl cry while becoming a "martyr" in the act of buying her a present.

He succeeded in making her cry and in making her birthday all about him.

Also in the process, he supported corporate America and forced labor by buying a Chinese manufactured Disney media product.

There are several DU threads scolding him endlessly for making two children hostages to his passive aggressive acting out, and for supporting a corporate empire founded by a racist eugenicist.

He is now collecting money for his trouble, despite being a successful entrepreneur.

Glad to clear that up for you.

[MoonRiver]

21. Whaaaaa.....

:rofl::wtf:

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

22. Post of the day (n/m)

[Kingshakabobo]

23. You win,,,,

:spray::rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[johnnie]

26. .

:spray:

Best post today

[PassingFair]

34. LOL

When I go to CostCo, they take my receipt, check it
against the items in my cart, draw a line down it,
and hand it back to me.

It irks me, but I CAN'T IMAGINE ramming my cart
past the kindly "receipt checker" and making
a get-a-way!

This guy was EXACTLY what you described.

Well done!

[RamboLiberal]

38. CostCo you have to show them a receipt

That and Sam's Club are membership stores and you agreed to abide by their rules.

Non-membership retail you are not required to show the receipt. Damn I got an education tonight! :sarcasm:

As I said on another thread - this would not be the hill I'd choose to die on - I'd show them the f'ing receipt and not stand and argue with low-wage workers and managers and cops who don't know the law.

I figure I'd lose more time and money arguing with the aholes.

[renie408]

49. That was funny. n/t

[goodhue]

54. brilliant

:toast:

[Cameron27]

61. ROFL

Now I don't even want to know what the original thread was about! :toast:

[Behind the Aegis]

28. Glad you asked. I was wondering too.

Seems to me it is nothing more than a tempest in a teapot.

[Screwfly]

42. I'm surprised

nobody brought up the point that when someone (such as a store clerk) stops and detains you at a store exit they are technically placing you under arrest.

What I find really shocking is that law enforcement in so many localities is nothing but a tool of local businesses, and the cops will let store employees get away with illegally detaining people without cause.

[Dorian Gray]

62. WTF?

Placing you under arrest? That's got to be the most inane statement I've seen in these threads.

[Maat]

63. That's funny - in law school, I learned that shopkeepers are allowed to ..

detain you for a brief inquiry - latitude given by the courts; the instructor told me it was NOT an arrest.

[democrat2thecore]

43. Circuit City getting the attention but BEST BUY does the same thing! -nt

[marions ghost]

47. seems different to me

Best Buy has the official bag checkers by the door and everybody has to show their receipt. So it doesn't feel discriminatory. I think it's a much better idea than selecting only certain individuals for accosting by Security swooping down on them. That's intimidating, not good for business.

Shopping in huge warehouse-like stores has its drawbacks. Freedom to move around in those stores without the hovering of salespeople every second obviously leads to greater shoplifting opportunities. But bag-checking doesn't need to be seen as a stripping of one's dignity. The fact that so many people see it like that indicates to me how much we really are being stripped of dignity and individuality in general, and how powerless many feel in the face of it.

The real problems are so much bigger than this. But oppressed people often choose to fight the little indignities instead of the more overwhelming issues, hoping it's going to change things or send a message.

Doesn't work that way.

[Mojorabbit]

56. I don't agree

I think both the big and little indignities are worthy of being fought and the more people who do it the better. Look at what is happening to Great Britian. Judges opining that everyone should be in the DNA database, cameras everywhere.

Since I came of age we have instituted drug testing, car checkpoints, searches in schools, cops at schools, banks monitoring when you move more than ten grand in your account and many other things that were unheard of when I was young. It is a creeping thing and people get used to it. Then they add more restrictions little by little.

Everyone has their tolerance point and each should stand up for it in their own way. The more you give up the more they will take from you. I might have enough money to fight a little fight on my own but no way do I have the deep pockets to fight the big guys. Change starts with the individual.

[marions ghost]

58. fine if you really are fighting both

but what happens is people tend to fight these little confrontation battles that come looking for them-- (& then go back and feel smug in their own hidey hole) instead of going after the things that it would take more effort or a group effort to change. It gives people the illusion that they are free agents in a free society--when actually we're all only moving around in what I agree, is a more and more restricted world. It's just kind of a pathetic knee-jerk response instead of a concerted and focused & more appropriate response.

I'm just saying we have to be more big picture about this. We need to realize that salvaging our rights is not going to happen in these small "individual" ways. Our controllers are too powerful. The corporations just expect a certain amount of random individual non-cooperation and it doesn't faze them. What has to happen is individuals coming together--local consumers groups and such. Change STARTS with the individual, but to battle the big guys, we have to pull TOGETHER like we never have before and like we are not used to doing.

Far from criticizing this discussion or saying that people should shut up--I'm saying that people should GET LOUDER.

I think this is a productive discussion.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

57. One can fight little battles and big ones at the same time..

The one does not exclude the other.

Why this is such an emotional issue I have no idea, but I've already been insulted two or three times by receipt showers..

I'm not really emotional about it, it's more that I'm puzzled by the reaction of those who seem to be pro corporation.

[marions ghost]

59. No insults from me

You're making it an 'us vs them' here, which I don't go along with. But on the other hand the discussion has merit because there seems to be a lot of dissension. So it's all good.

I don't consider myself a compliant "receipt shower." I am one of the biggest anti-corporate/govt exploitation fighters you're ever likely to meet, and have been for a long time. I think you're making a mistake to think that some here are "pro-corporation" because they say that they would not have made this into a big ridiculous scenario involving the police. There are really good reasons to avoid doing that. For one thing it prevents you from using the incident in a more productive way. The whole thing gets twisted up and you are no longer the wronged consumer, but you become the person who had to get removed by a noble public defender who was "just doing his job." This shifts the blame away from the store employee who was clearly exceeding his bounds by blocking the car. If you really wanted to fight this in court, it would be better to just get names and witnesses (witnesses to the effect that you HAD paid for the purchase) at that point, and seek a lawyer.

You can't infer that this difference of opinion automatically means that someone is pro-corporation. It might mean that someone is more savvy about how the system works and how you have to play the game very carefully.

The fact remains that the customer never even considered the obvious, which is to immediately return the merchandise for full refund, make as much of an indignant fuss as possible in front of other customers, and then file a complaint with the regional manager about this store along with contacting whatever "bad business" groups might be around (not talking about the Better Biz Bureau, which is pro-business). Since people seem not to know how to do this, what I think we need are locally-based consumers groups that advise and advocate for people so we don't have to feel we have to fight these things alone.

Individuals can't fight this kind of thing on their own usually--most people can't afford the time or money--and so become frustrated, angry and even more exploited. The reactions here show the degree of that pent-up anger. OK it's good to get it out, but then what?

[progressoid]

46. You better start reading them.

because it's the end of the world and you need to be informed.

[H2O Man]

50. Also

there may be a pop quiz. Better to be prepared. Read them closely.

[MoonRiver]

52. Well, since my "nutshell" has proliferated into a pecan tree grove,

I may already know more than I ever wanted! :D

[Norrin Radd]

53. Carry around honey or syrup and spill it all over the receipt beforehand.