Wal-Mart vs. personal liberty

This is NOT a general purpose rant against Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart is neither inherently evil, nor is it unique in its behaviors.  It is just another Big Box retailer, doing the same exact things as Lowes, Target, Best Buy, and all the rest.  It is not some nefarious agency seeking to destroy the American way of life.  It is dedicated to making money, and paying lip service to being part of the community.  Just like all the rest.  If you are looking for a general rant and diatribe against the Evils of Wal-Mart, stop now.  Don’t waste your time.  I am going after a specific situation that I think needs to be stopped before it spreads to all corporations.

Wal-Mart is passively convincing my neighbors that the 4^th amendment does not apply in their stores.  I’ll say that again.  Wal-Mart in Sylva is trying to convince people that the 4^th amendment does not apply to them.

EDIT:  I have been repeatedly corrected now by people a whole lot smarter on constitutional issues than  I am.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to contact me through here and on Facebook to point out my mistake.  The 4th Amendment does not apply in this situation because it only applies to searches conducted by government agents and agencies, and not private citizens.  I stand corrected now.  I am not removing the portions of this blog that refer to the 4th amendment, because I screwed it up and own my mistake.  The parts about NC law were correct as of 18 months ago, and I have not been able to find any new changes.  If anyone can provide updates to this law, please let me know.

Wal-Mart in Sylva is dead wrong, and we ALL need to call them on it.

I do not know if other area Wal-Marts are doing this also, but if they are, they need to be checked.

Basically, a couple of years ago, they tore out a bunch of registers on one end of the store, and put in a self-check out.  That allowed them to eliminate a bunch of staff.  Now instead of 10-14 of our neighbors having jobs, there is one person per shift who watches all the self-check outs.  Of course, when you do this, criminals and low life scum start stealing the store blind.  Ringing up 3 or 4 items and stealing the rest.  Sylva’s solution?  Have the greeters stop everybody at the door and check every item against their receipt, the way they so at Sam’s Club.  Oh, the problems with this…  Sam’s Club is a private club.  When you join, you sign away your right to NOT be searched as you leave.  It’s part of the membership agreement.  Don’t like it?  Don’t join.  No problem. 

Wal-Mart is NOT Sam’s.  It is a public retail outlet.  They have no more rights than anyone else.  Which, in North Carolina, is NONE.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nada.  I took the NC Private Protective Services training.  I know the law.  All they can do is ASK you to let then examine your bags and see your receipt.  That’s it.  Ask.  If you say “no,” they are DONE.  That’s greeters, loss prevention officials, uniformed security.  EVERYONE.  That’s the law.  That’s the Constitution of the United States. (or not. :/)  Corporations can’t just choose to ignore that, unless We The People allow them to do so.  The way I have done things in grocery stores and other retail outlets all my life is that the debit card receipt goes in my wallet at the end of the transaction, so I don’t lose it, and can record it in my check book and keep account of my funds.  When I get to the door of the store, the formerly polite and friendly greeter is now demanding (and some of them get damn demanding) not only to search my bags, but to search my wallet also.  Really?  A cop can’t do that without a warrant or good probably cause, an untrained retail employee is damn sure not going to do it.  Upon conversations with several of these untrained folks, I have discovered that they have been led to believe, by their managers, that they have the right to demand to search my property and force me to produce my receipt for their inspection.

This needs to stop for several good reasons.

1.    Every time we allow one corporation, entity, or individual to get away with something, EVERY other corporation, entity, or individual expects to get away with it.  A pilot program that succeeds at Wal-Mart will inspire every other business to copy it.  Do you REALLY want to live in a world where your every retail transaction is handled by computer, and the only time you interact with another person is when they strip search you at the door?  Having to deal with that when I try to fly is enough for me.  I don’t want to have to deal with that to get a box of Friskies.

2.     Civil rights are fragile.  Ask anyone who has ever fought for them.  When you surrender them willingly, or when you passively allow them to be taken away, you WILL have to fight for them to get them back.

3.      I am not a criminal.  I will NOT be treated like I am a criminal.  Demanding to see my receipt as I leave the store is operating on the assumption that I will steal from you if you don’t prevent me from doing it.  I am not able to adequately express my feelings on this without the extensive use of profanity.

4.     It is STUPID.  It solves NOTHING.  It might catch the bottom 10% of the criminals.  Anyone that has ever been charged with shoplifting in their entire life has gotten a Public Defender who has explained the law to them.  THEY know that they can just walk out.  So they will.  Only innocent citizens will stop and allow themselves to be searched.  How does this deter theft?  It doesn’t.

5.     It is dangerous.  Most of the greeters are elderly folks.   If an elderly lady or gentleman happens to confront a meth-head at the door, and the meth-head goes right through them, they will get knocked down.  Can you say broken hip?  Loss prevention officers need to be younger and in good physical health for this very reason.  Using elderly folk for this purpose is negligent, and should be criminal.

6.     These greeters are NOT trained.  Restraint Of Free Movement is a CRIME.  Under some circumstances, they are committing crimes, and don’t know it.  They are not taught the law, and are guilty of breaking it.  A specific example is listed below.

We, the citizens of Western North Carolina need to put a stop to this.  Yesterday, my roommate was leaving Wal-Mart.  The door greeter demanded to see his receipt and search his bags.  Said roommate also happens to be Private Protective Services trained and declined to be searched.  He told the greeter that he was not submitting to an illegal search of his property and person and walked out.  The greeter followed him into the foyer area and grabbed his shopping cart and stopped it.  The very surprised greeter found himself pinned (gently) against the wall and was told to remove his hands from my roommate’s property and stop trying to interfere with his movement.  The greeter yammered about 10 inaccurate versions of the law, blustered, and generally acted as though God himself had empowered him to protect Wal-Mart from scum like my roomie.   When the managers arrived, he was ordered back into the store, and my roommate was told to have a good night.

This elderly gentleman committed violations of Wal-Mart policy, NC’s Private Protective Service statutes, and NC law.  He may have exceeded what his managers told him to do, but his managers set him up to fail.  He had absolutely no idea that he was not doing the right thing.  This is DANGEROUS.

Since the incident last night, I have been talking to a lot of people about it.  Their responses have basically been one of two things.  They either say they just walk right by the greeters while they are getting shouted at, or they submit to the search, not seeing the harm.

What We The People need to do to correct the problem, and we NEED to correct the problem, is this:  When confronted by a greeter who demands to see your receipt say the following “I do not consent to being searched.  Please have a good day.”  BE NICE.  Having to deal with hundreds of people every day is hard work.  These folks are our NEIGHBORS.  They are being forced into hazardous work that they did not sign up for.  Be nice to them.  Just walking by them and ignoring them is both rude, and it does not send any sort of feedback to the management.  If several hundred people a day verbally refuse to submit to the search, Wal-Mart will get the message, and the greeters can go back to being a friendly face upon entering the store, not a suspicious searching one upon leaving.  I, for one, would like my friendly neighbor back.

If we do this one of two things will happen.

1.        Nothing.  We will go back to the way things were, and a little, tiny blow for freedom will be struck.

2.       Wal-Mart will get robbed blind, and they will tear out the self-check out, and hire a bunch of our neighbors to ring up our purchases.  This will bring jobs (even low paying jobs like Wal-Mart can look good to folks that can’t find work) that we desperately need in the Sylva area.  The Wal-Mart Corporation will post .001% lower earnings.

Please pass this along to as many people in the Sylva area as possible.  Working together, we can make things better for everyone.  I am tired of being hassled every time I need cat food.