
What’s the real reason Costco employees check receipts at the exit? - kimsk112
https://thetakeout.com/why-costco-employees-check-receipts-exit-1830254570
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lurquer
Perhaps it's related to the 'membership' marketing aspect. Checking to see if
you have your membership card upon entry, and this strange little check when
you leave, cements into the customer that there is something special about
Costco and only certain people can shop there. Maybe. I wonder how much of the
membership aspect is marketing versus revenue?

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rconti
Back in the day, it used to be hard to be a Costco membership (late 80s/early
90s). I recall that only people who worked at certain companies (Boeing comes
to mind) could get memberships.

It's not considered an exclusive thing anymore, though, since membership only
costs, what, $55?

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blihp
Even 10 years ago parts of it were more exclusive than today: you used to need
to pay for the Executive membership to get the monthly coupons and other
offers that all members can get now. I'm sure they crunched the numbers and
realized they were leaving money on the table by doing that.

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Noos
The linked article bases this on three sources; one former employee answering
on Quora, one more answering on the consumerist, and a third answering on a 45
comment reddit thread not specifically on Costco. Take it with a huge grain of
salt.

I've actually worked at a Sam's Club and done checking briefly. I feel that
this is the stated reason, but you're talking checking hundreds of receipts
over a 4 + hour shift, often massive ones due to multiple flatbeds of
groceries or goods; the idea its being used to check up on the cashiers is
absurd to me. Many times, high-dollar items like meats you'd want to check are
already in freezer bags, obscured from view.

I think its mostly to prevent high value items from leaving, or at least to
alert management they are. I mean, anyone who his rung up a vending machine
route guy and his 100 boxes of candy who kind of scoff at the retiree checkers
doing that fine of an job.

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barrow-rider
Thank you for taking a look at the sources.

Salt grain status: taken.

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ScubbaStevve
It's also to mark the receipt, preventing someone going back into the store
and putting same items into the cart (slyly walk by self check out) and
leaving with the same receipt.

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Wistar
According to my friend who was a SVP at Costco, this is, in fact, a primary
reason. It's to mark the receipt so it cannot be used again.

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brk
Can’t the cashier do that?

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simplicio
The idea is to mark when you're leaving the store, so you need someone
actually standing by the exit. If the cashier did it, it wouldn't really
prevent the scam. You could still circle back into the store and skip the
cashier on the second run.

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jedberg
They're also there to make sure you got your "pick up later" items, like gift
cards and tickets to amusement parks. I've had one send me back after
realizing I paid for stamps but never picked them up (although now they just
have them in the register).

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kazinator
> _actually there to spot cashier errors, not shoplifting_

The Costco's I've been to, when I had a membership, they don't spend enough
time on the receipt to possibly catch errors. They just glance at your
purchases and the receipt, then tick off the receipt. Even at that level of
checking, a line up can form during a busy time.

I suspect they are just marking the receipt so you can't go back with that
receipt in your pocket and then steal the same item(s).

There is a time stamp, of course, but a pen mark is faster to grok.

They might be able to spot double scans at a glance (since exact repeats on a
receipt are visually distinct) and check that the customer has two of that
item, that's about it.

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beatgammit
Perhaps, but I honestly buy the "catching errors" idea. They don't have to be
perfect to catch enough mistakes to identify a bad cashier (scanning an item
twice and missing an item are both bad).

I think checking at the door is not good enough to prevent theft, especially
at busy times. It's just too easy to hide stuff or blame it on the cashier
forgetting to scan it. There are more cashiers than checkers, so it seems the
bottleneck would be the checkers if they tried to make it thorough enough to
be effective.

So yeah, my guess is that the OP is correct, and that interpretation has
always been my assumption.

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paleotrope
The stated reason, "to check for overcharges" doesn't really make sense. Those
door people know what everything costs in the store?

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sjg007
They are checking that items were not rung up multiple times. My guess is
something scans once but the cashier doesn't realize or isn't pay attention
and scans it again by mistake.

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paleotrope
Ok that makes slightly more sense, but I don't see how this could be very
common. Or at least common enough to require a person to man the door.

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sjburt
I would imagine there is a scam where you buy two of a mid-price item and then
go back and claim you only bought one and were double charged. Not sure how
many times you can get away with that at Costco due to the membership, though.

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dpc_pw
It's everything mentioned. It just sounds better to tell everyone that you're
worrying about over-charging, than that you don't trust your customers and/or
employees, and also want to make sure there was no mistakes.

It doesn't matter how these people are trained, or what they are told. They
will still prevent theft, even if they think it's not their job. It's even
better if they genuinely think they are helping customers (which they in fact
do!) because that makes the attitude of everyone involved better.

It doesn't matter that they don't catch many theft attempts. That's the whole
point, that if they are effective at prevention, there will be no attempts in
the first place.

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BoorishBears
Not a Costco, but at a WalMart I was stopped after buying almost 100$ in
groceries and had misplaced the receipt (not really paying attention, it was
after a long day...)

The person at the door stopped me and asked for my receipt. I wasn’t even sure
if I had gotten it so I told them and they insisted they see it.

After checking my pockets quickly I said I didn’t have it and they insisted I
try and find the cashier and get one.

They really wanted to make sure I hadn’t stolen a plastic drawer.

I’m 99% sure this was made up, but the lady claimed that because of its size I
needed to produce a receipt (a 20$ plastic drawer you might keep in your
pantry...)

Every time I think back I get annoyed with myself for not just walking out on
them.

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kstenerud
I had something similar happen at the Costco in SOMA. The guy at the door
insisted that he see my receipt. I'd thrown it in the trash. We got into an
argument and he wanted to call security. I told him to piss off and left.

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iheart2code
It's not a secret -- quite often they will tell you exactly why they're
checking your receipt: to make sure "the checker didn't miss anything or
overcharge" and "that you got your movie tickets/food/etc".

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InitialLastName
Yes, because the reasons companies tell you they do something is always the
truth.

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topkai22
Even if they aren’t explictly there to prevent theft I’m sure they do. Knowing
you’ll have to run that gauntlet on top of the other loss prevention
techniques would make me want to try a softer Target (pun intended)

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perpetualcrayon
I don't know if I buy into the fact that that's the only reason why they're
there. But I did have this happen to me. I only took one of a thing that could
only be charged in pairs of 2. They weren't packaged that way, so I only took
1. The cashier didn't catch it, but the door person did.

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bradknowles
When I’ve gone to CostCo, the only thing the people at the exit did was to
count the number of items you had and to see if that more or less matched the
number of items on the receipt.

That seems like the simplest possible check they could make regarding the
checkout process.

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yellowapple
I wonder if this applies to other stores that check receipts as you leave? I
know Fry's does it, for example, and Wal-Mart does it every once in awhile.

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northwest65
I have to admit, I just say no and keep on walking.

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fezz
They have detectives (sometimes ex-cops) roaming the store to spot
shoplifting, tag swapping, etc.

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hosh
Is that the common practice for big box retailers that have receipt checkers
at the exit?

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rconti
Costco's the only place I can think of that does this. Is it common at other
stores?

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altec3
Frye's Electronics does as well

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ams6110
Best Buy and Sam's Club do. Though the Best Buy guy really seems to be more of
a theft deterrent person since he's dressed in vaguely cop-like clothes, and
doesn't check receipts. Seems to be more there to be ready to tackle you if
the theft alarm goes off as you walk out the door.

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MBCook
In Best Buy would be much easier to go pick something up and then try and walk
out the front door.

At Costco you’d either have to go past the person checking your membership
card (back through the entrance) or go through the cashier section without
being caught and then get past the receipt tracker.

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vkou
They are there to catch theft, but a different kind of theft. The "I put three
items in my shopping cart, and then my buddy, who is manning the cash
register, only scanned one" kind of theft.

Insider attacks, essentially.

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djrogers
No, that's really not at all what the article, the quotes from former
employees, or my own experience says.

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CamperBob2
Those justifications simply aren't believable. _All_ of the problems
supposedly being solved have cheaper, more effective solutions than paying
someone to stand at the door harassing customers. Employee-assisted theft
doesn't.

