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I am sending you this email as I am extremely upset, embarrassed and degraded. My name is Rhonda Green, I am a bondable business owner in Barrie and was treated like a common thief at Walmart today. I have been a loyal Walmart customer since it's come to Barrie, however on Sunday November 28, 2010 I don't know if I will EVER return! I checked out of Walmarts electronic department at 2:55pm spending over $200.00, due to the extreme volume of patrons at the checkouts, I went down an empty checkout isle with my cart. As I reached the end of the isle, a Walmart employee was about to walk down the same isle and ran into me. I appologised to her and she stepped out of the way as she looked at my bags in the cart. I proceeded to make my way to the exit she then RAN past me to the security woman. Before I even reached the exit doors, the security woman approched me and asked for my receipt. I then said "No problem" . As I walked around my cart, the security woman said "OH...here it is" and proceeded to take it out of the bag (it was on top of one of my bags) I explained to her that I had checked out in electronics, she asked me what I had purchased there so I proceeded to show her on the receipt. She initialed the receipt (L.R.) then appologised to me as she new I was upset, embarrassed and felt degraded. As I was beginning to leave I did see her head over to the employee who was accussing me of theft to speak with her. Like I said earlier, I am a bondable business owner in Barrie, and if there were any clients of mine, in any of those lineups and saw security approch me, my reputation and business could be effected by this. I feel I was only one step away from being patted down, and thrown in a cell. I have never been treated like this before and never had a criminal record. I use the reusable "Walmart" bags that I have purchased, and now I don't know if I should use them anymore if I EVER return to Walmart, or will I be accussed of stealing again? I thought the reason for the security alarms at the exit was for people stealing things? I never even made it that far before I was stopped. I would also like to inform you that as the security woman was checking my receipt, the alarm had gone off, and as I said to the security woman "Oh she accusses me of theft, and lets others go" . Never have I EVER felt like a criminal infront of hundreds of people before. The way I felt I was treated was like every customer at Walmart is a criminal until proven other wise.
Thank you for taking the time to review my complaint.
Sincerly,
Rhonda C. Green
Okay, here's the shot out of the cannon: Oprah, Barbara Walters, your wife. You gotta ### one, marry one, kill one, go!
I bought a 6 pack of Smirnoffs at Wal-Mart for $6.00! Only a dollar a beverage. Before it was $6.47, but they lowered the price to $6.00. I stocked up on them for the beach. That Wal-Mart may have ruined your experience, but another Wal-Mart may be a great experience. The girl is probably not allowed to check the receipt so just asked someone if they could review it quickly. They might not have been blaming you for stealing though.
The few retail stores that I have worked at, none of which were extremely large chains, actually DID pass the costs to the consumers when theft was at an all time high. It's not absurd. It DOES happen. Maybe not to large chain stores, but to smaller chains it can.
Oh, and I suppose executive bonuses are also 'passed to the consumer'. Absurd. Like I said, one retail store isn't going to raise their prices above others. The prices are fixed.
@madC: Actually, they SAID they were employees of Walmart, try reading the posts..
No, they ARE NOT in MOST cases. Why? Because of competition. One vendor can not pass off its losses to customers by raising its prices above what other vendors charge. It comes out of their darn profits. For retail stores, their prices are pretty much fixes at a percentage above what they had to pay for the inventory.
I don't know about Wal-Mart specifically, but theft at other businesses is usually passed on to consumers if it is great enough.
Also, 'ROMPER HAS SPOKEN' (talk about arrogance), I am SORRY but the cost of losses are NOT passed to customers. Walmart has HUGE profits, they are taken out of those profits. I hate it when businesses say 'this or that' is passed to customers while they make hundreds of millions or more in profits every year. Give me a break.
Don't listen to the other commentors, most of whom appear to be employees in my opinion. The fact is that they did MORE than just ask her for a receipt, they were clearly convinced that she was attempting shoplifting and their actions and gestures (looking for a particular item and saying 'there it is' or whatever when they found it) would have made it appear as if they were accusing you to any bystander. In college I once wrote a paper and had a professor think it was copied off the internet because of its quality (apparently he had some less than intelligent people in his classes). He never could prove such, but he publicly questioned me in front of other students. I felt terrible. He eventually realized his mistake, but ... to those other students, I am sure they all forever then thought I was a cheater.
Had a customer of yours seen you, then YES you would have lost reputation.
Just because people steal from Walmart does not give them the right to aggressively pursue innocent people. They should focus on improving their anti-theft systems, not berating and embarrassing loyal customers.
Dear Rhonda,
I have worked at WM for 11 yrs in electronics, dairy, apparel, people greeter and cashier. Last year our store did approximately 100 million dollars in sales which is lots of $ but only about 10% is profit but 10 million in profit is good HOWEVER at the same time the store lost 1 million dollars in lost/stolen merchandise!WOW, 1 million lost and this loss is ALWAYS passed on to ALL CUSTOMERS in increased prices! THAT IS THE REASON customers are checked for receipts:to SAVE ALL CUSTOMERS $!
ROMPER HAS SPOKEN!
If you have nothing to hide and a receipt to show, there is nothing embarassing about it. It's common sense that if you were walking out the store with expensive items without going through a normal lane that they would check your receipt. I know you may feel like you are not the "type" to steal, but they mustn't judge based on character or looks. If they're not sure, the right thing to do as a company is to check.