Accused of Shoplifting at Walgreens

when the beeper rings and you're innocent


But your request of "Training" and giving the job to a "professional"

um... what exactly do you want them to do?


Are you requesting they check bags privately in the case of an alarm?
Or that they don't check at all?

I hate these things and always just keep on walking when they go off
and no one has ever stopped me. The only place I see the doors
actively manned are at Walmart and at Target if the security guard
happens to be up front by the doors. I know these things cut down on
shrink, but its hard not to feel like a criminal when lights are
flashing, buzzers buzzing, and everybody is looking at you as they go
through your bag.

I have to partially side with the OP here.

Asking about a particular item is not accusing someone of shoplifting,
I disagree. Although it should be done by a member of management or
loss prevention, not a clerk.

You always turn the situation around by asking, is there something
that you may have purchased that we failed to deactivate? May I look
in your bag to see?

You dont rip the bag open to look.


If they say no, you cannot look in my bag, you should call a manager.
The purpose of looking in the bag is to match up items to the
receipt.


There is alot of steps here that are to be taken:


You run the bag through the buzzer by itself.

You run their purse, if applicable through the buzzer to see if its in
there. If it goes, off there is protocol to follow

If they walk through the buzzer without the bag and purse, and it goes
off, there is a protocol to follow.

This is why management is called.

Clerks are never to accuse or act as loss prevention.

You have to be careful even if it the customer goes through the buzzer
carrying nothing. You dont automatically assume its a theft.

Often times the sensor tab is on the bottom of their shoe, dropped on
the sales floor when they were being applied to the products.

I never read that a manager was called or loss prevention talked to
the lady, she stated it was the clerk, bad move.

Good Day




Good Day

If the security system goes off, then they do have a reasonable
suspicion to search your bag. Likely they have a policy that all bags/
packages brought on company property can be searched.

It sounds like they knew what they were doing... they had you walk
through again to make sure it was not an error or false alarm. You
mention your "bag". Was that your shopping bag, or your "bag" as in
purse, etc.?
Either way, verifying that everything has been paid for sounds like a
standard procedure.
You do not elaborate on the "item you decided not to get". If there
was something you were carrying that she didn't see you pay for or see
when checking, asking about it does not seem too far out of line.

This was not out of the blue, random, or at the clerk's discretion. It
was due to a security alarm. Based on my interpretation from your
letter, it sounds like it was handled reasonably well.

You say they need customer service classes - do you really think they
will send a minimum wage service clerk to a class? Maybe an hour in
the back room with a video might do the trick.

As for the accusation of shoplifting, there's really not much that can
be done about that - an electronic device made the accusation.

If you don't want to go back, then so be it. I like Walgreens because
they have some good prices... They can keep them low by putting in
place effective security measures. It looks like their plan is
working.