If you regularly shop at Costco, you know that you have to show your receipt on your way out. They often don’t really even look at your cart and only glance at it quickly, so what is the point of checking your cart and the receipt? If you think that they are looking for theft, you’re actually wrong. So, why do they look at our receipts anyway?
The primary job of those receipt checkers at the exit is actually to catch cashier errors. Shoplifters are pretty much always caught before getting to the exit. However, many cashier errors have been caught while checking the receipts at the exit. This can help to improve the experience at Costco and cut down on errors.
Receipt Checkers Tell All
Catching cashier errors is helpful for an overall better shopping experience. Receipt checkers are trained to catch cashier overcharges that could cost you money. If they do catch an error, all of the information will get stored. Those cashiers will get spoken to about the error. The receipt checkers aren’t really trained to look for theft because there are other loss prevention workers in the store and cashiers are supposed to watch for it as well.
They Aren’t Looking for Theft
Now it makes sense why the employees at the exit don’t go through your cart or look at the receipt for ages. They are mostly checking to make sure you weren’t charged multiple times for one item or another cashier error. Of course, if they notice that someone has something in the cart that they did not pay for, they will stop it as well. It just isn’t their main job when they check receipts. Does this surprise you at all?
Did you know this is why they check receipts at the exit of Costco or did you assume they were checking to see if you were trying to steal something? Does it make you love Costco even more that they are looking out for their member’s best interests?
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Hard to see cashier errors when they take it 1/2 the time not even look at it , mark it and you are out the door. waste of time. Hummmmmm
I think you portray your followers as stupid. They glance at the receipt to see if the amount of purchases you have in your cart agrees with the amount of items on the receipt. I am not your follower.
I think Glen R is right. Seems to me that they are matching number of items in cart with number of items on ticket
This is not news. This has been the reason since they opened their doors. That’s two minutes out of my life I’ll never get back! Geesch ….
There checking to see if cashier charged you for the case of water that’s on the bottom of your cart
Interesting, but I did have a person take a look at my receipt and my items in the cart..
what if I refuse to show them my personal property, the receipt? This after I was a paying customer in their store’
I think they mark the receipt when leaving the market to make sure you don’t use it again for a second shopping of the same goods.
If that 5 second look at ticket does anything, I would be very surprised…
I’ve had them pick up items and count, so this article is false and frankly insulting.
It’s part of the contract that you agree upon by becoming a Costco Member, that you will produce the receipt at the exit door for inspection, if you do not want to they will gladly refund your membership…..
They count how many items you have to match the receipt. That’s a crock they check for cashier mistakes. They don’t know the prices of everything.
I was told they are looking for high price items like electronics and making sure you were charged for the item. It only takes a quick glance to see if you have any in your cart
No, this is completely false. I’ve worked there, and we absolutely were checking receipts to cut down on theft. And reading the receipt itself isn’t even the primary objective. It’s strictly a deterrence mechanism, as customers seeing the exit greeter checking receipts are less likely to shoplift. Our research team did a lot of studying and trend analysis, and losses due to theft were significantly lower when implementing this. Is part of your contract as a Costco member that you will show your receipt upon exit, and it’s not for the reason that this article blatantly lies about.
certainly wouldnt work in the uk, try and stop someone leaving without seeing them committing theft and your wide open for a prosecution of unlawful imprisonment, touch an arm to try and stop them leaving and your looking at a charge of assault on top of that as well, and rightly so. if your not a police officer and you are relying on citizen powers then you must see somone in the process of committing an arrestable offence before able to do anything about it. if security stop someone leaving then they must be damn ceertain they have witnessed a theft or them their company and the premises will quite rightly be sued to hell and back.
Love Costco. Spend about $300.00 every time I go in there
Happens at Trago Mills in Devon all the time
I want to give respect to Walmart and the other companies for hiring those people who check the receipts as you leave the store. These people that check the receipts are completely, totally, profoundly and absolutely illiterate and egregiously unqualified to hold any job.
Thanks Walmart for giving these people a chance to earn some money.
Peace!
They’re not even qualified to pick lettuce in the fields. It’s so refreshing to see that America looks out for our mentally and physically challenged people by giving them the job of marking a piece of paper with a highlighter.
Not true. Worked there for 10 years
Suuurrrre… they’re not looking for theft……. Yeah … right …..
BS! When they check my receipt they only look at the unbagged items.
That’s true, the employee noticed I had been charged twice for an item. I would never have noticef
Wow! The egregious occupation shaming comments are here say a lot about the commenter.
Nice to know I knew they couldn’t be looking for theft they don’t look long enough
How in hell would a receipt checker know if a cashier made a mistake?? Are they trained to know all the prices in the store??
I’m sorry, but the quick glance they give the receipt can’t determine anything, let alone an error.
I do not believe this article is true. They can’t possibly know the price of every item in the store. What they actually do is visually count how many items you have in your cart, then compare that to the number of items you’re supposed to have according to your receipt. They don’t even look at the receipt except for that bottom line. How do I know this? Because I asked about it one day during checkout. I asked how she could compare what’s in the basket to the receipt so quickly. Her reply was, they count the items and compare that number to the number on your receipt
I don’t think the person that wrote this article did their homework.
i call bs\
I think they want to match the buggy with the receipt. Customers can easily switch out buggies before leaving.
the last time we were at Costco Halifax we had two of the same items in our cart HOWEVER the were rung in at different times with articles between them ,only because we placed them on the belt at different times, the checker spotted this and looked in our cart to verify that we did indeed have two of the same items ,,now I know why ..
BS they are checking for theft