Tachyon wrote:
> Yeah, I had a similar experience. A friend and I were standing in an
> aisle, discussing what shampoo it was his girlfriend had asked him to
> pick up. A non-descript guy came up behind us, accused us of
> shoplifting, and threatened us with a baseball bat. Needless to say,
> that didn't go over too well and his threat had the opposite affect to
> what I think he intended. I didn't back down or cow to him and instead
> made my way to the store's office with him following me screaming to
> stop or he'd call the police. I acted as if he no longer existed, went
> to the manager, and demanded that HE call the police so I could press
> assault charges. They then refused. I sent my friend to the pay phone
> outside to call them. When they showed up, they denied it all, and
> claimed we had been acting suspicious and were believed to be the people
> who had been shoplifting there recently. I showed the cop my drivers
> license, pointed out that I lived over 500 miles away and had never been
> in that store before. My friend and a woman shopper backed up our story
> about the threat, but the cop said is was still our word against his,
> and told us it wasn't worth pursuing. The manager asked the cop to give
> him our licenses so he could copy them, and distribute to his corporate
> security office with a recommendation of banning from the premises.
> That's when the cop turned on him and told him that then I'd have
> something to sue them about. The manager shut up, the cop gave us our
> IDs, and walked out with us and kept the manager and security guy from
> following (they threatened to get our license plate too).
> Since I started following some of the anti-walmart sites after that,
> I've seen a lot of similar stories about their staff and security people
> getting rude, and even physical with people. Detaining people, searching
> them, etc..
> If that's how they treat their customers, it's not hard to believe the
> stories about how they treat their employees and their competitors.
>
>   
Wow, what an experience. I had no idea this was going on.

--Bob

>
> David VanHorn wrote:
>   
>>> Can somebody document a bad experience at WalMart so I can get
>>> understand this?
>>>     
>>>       
>> My wife and daughter were detained there one afternoon, on suspicion of
>> shoplifting.
>>
>> They had receipts for everything, but the security people weren't
>> interested.
>> They took my granddaughter away from my daughter,  went through EVERYTHING,
>> and managed to break something on the stroller.  The girls were not allowed
>> to call anyone.
>>
>> In the end, we resolved it satisfactorally, the manager was unaware, and the
>> appropriate people were sacked.  If I'd been there, things would have gone
>> down VERY differently.  At the point where they tried to separate the
>> granddaughter, someone would have needed hospitalization.
>>   
>>     

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