Having Your Receipts Marked at Sam's Club

[base428 1]

Is it just me, or is the Sam's Club policy of marking receipts before exiting their building a complete waste of time? I guess if you're not qualified to be a Walmart greeter, they ship you over to mark receipts at Sam's Club. C'mon, they watched you checkout and hand over your cash, so why should you wait in another line just to show your receipt?

I am starting a collection of unmarked Sam's Club receipts. I refuse to wait in line to have my receipts signed. Sure, they yell at me when I bypass the receipt line, but I just tell them to "arrest me".

Anyone else wanna join the movement? Anyone wanna bitch and moan at me for not following the rules?

Have a nice weekend everyone!

PS. If I opened a store where you had to show a membership card to get in, show a membership card to check out, pay for a membership each year, wait in line to show my receipt, and not accept Mastercard/Visa - I'd be out of business in a week.

(c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted. <==For the media only

[mailin 0]

Costco and BJ Clubs are the same way - the reason they do that is because they don't bag your items, so someone theoretically could just throw stuff in the carriage and walk out with them.

I still think its pointless as the person checking your receipt never REALLY reads them or checks your cart



Jen

Arianna Frances

[NWFlyer 2]

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I still think its pointless as the person checking your receipt never REALLY reads them or checks your cart

There's a guy at the Seattle Costco who makes a game of it ... looks over the cart and tries to come up with the dollar amount on the receipt before he looks at it. He's pretty good, too!

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[NickDG 23]

I came close to being arrested at a Target store. I walked in with a small backpack (a replica of a Velcro closed BASE rig about one third of life size) and an employee said it had to be left at the front counter. I ignored him and kept on walking and he grabbed me by the collar and a scuffle ensued. When the police showed up my argument is woman carry their pocket books in the store (my bag wasn't much bigger) so what's this all about?

Their store SOP does say something about backpacks but the police said it was ambiguous at best and we dropped the whole thing on both sides.

It's up to everyone to fight this sort of thing as restricting someone's freedom and considering someone a criminal before the fact is wrong on so many levels. Now, don’t get me started on red light cameras . . .

NickD BASE 194

[mailin 0]

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Now, don’t get me started on red light cameras . . .

You'll get a kick out of this. Just instituted in my home town

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Laser-and-camera technology catching up with speeders

Caught in Cranston

08:52 AM EST on Friday, November 4, 2005

BY DANIEL BARBARISI
Journal Staff Writer

CRANSTON -- Slow down coming 'round that corner -- you're on Cranston camera.

What's your view on capturing speeders on camera? Vote | View Results

Cranston yesterday became the first municipality in New England to use an automated speed-enforcement system, a laser-and-camera based technology that allows the police to issue speeding tickets without actually chasing down drivers.

Now, a Cranston police officer will sit in a specialized van alongside a technician from Providence's Nestor Traffic Systems. The officer will observe drivers on a LIDAR system -- essentially, radar using a laser instead of radio waves -- that tracks the car's speed, and cameras photograph the car, driver and license plate.

If the vehicle is traveling over the posted limit, the officer can issue a ticket at the click of a mouse, and send the driver a fine in the mail. The city will issue warnings for four to six weeks, and will then begin issuing actual fines.

"We have a lot of speeders in Cranston," said Mayor Stephen P. Laffey. "I thought this was a great idea. [An officer] would normally have to pull out his speed gun, check the speed, hop into his car, race off, pull the guy over. That takes time."

William Tente Jr., a supervisor with Nestor Traffic Systems of Providence, demonstrates yesterday how a speeding van on Phenix Avenue, Cranston, is photographed along with the driver and license plate. The motorist would then be sent a fine in the mail.

With the new system, one officer could issue a dozen tickets per minute if he or she chooses.

The equipment is free to the city, because Nestor receives a cut of every ticket issued -- one-third, in fact.

It's a scenario that makes civil-liberty advocates' skin crawl.

"I think this is clearly a reliance on a private company to enforce traffic laws, and that would clearly not be allowed," said Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The city's deal with Nestor, the ACLU said, is particularly troubling. It gives Nestor a cut of the profits, and with a company employee along on traffic enforcement it makes the business an arm of law enforcement, with a vested economic interest in seeing as many tickets issued as possible.

"It raises all sorts of problems and concerns. It provides an incentive to a private business to have drivers violate the law, and to catch drivers as they violate," Brown said.

In other parts of the country, similar programs using cameras at intersections to catch drivers running red lights were found to be manipulated by private companies to encourage handing out the most possible tickets, according to Amy Myrick, program and development coordinator at the ACLU.

"It's basically a revenue generating scheme masquerading as a safety program," she said.

There are also issues raised by the use of cameras to capture drivers' images -- particularly because a private company has access to them.

"We just don't know where the images go," she said.

Laffey said that while the number of tickets issued will surely go up, the city will not be overly aggressive in how it hands them out. He also said that this is not a moneymaking operation for the city.

The key, he said, is safety, and he believes the deterrent effect will lead to safer roads.

"You won't know where these things are, so people will just know that when you're in Cranston, you don't speed," he said.

"The big thing is that there's a police officer doing this, not a machine or a technician," Laffey said.

Laffey's right-hand man, Director of Administration Paul G. Grimes, was less circumspect when asked about whether the ease of the technology might make the city too aggressive in ticketing speeders.

"So? If the people are speeding, once again, I would say, so what?" to charges of overaggressiveness, Grimes said. He added that the system will self-correct if the city is too strict. "If we start getting overzealous, there will be a backlash, and people won't want it."

Cranston Police Chief Stephen McGrath said that the city will not be ticketing every driver who speeds. Going a few miles an hour over the posted limit will not bring a ticket -- but going 7 to 10 miles over may, though he would not discuss the exact figures.

Todd Eikinas, Nestor's CEO, said that the technology is used in 12 other states, though none closer than Ohio, where Nestor started a contract with Akron two weeks ago.

Eikinas said that the company's equipment has passed tests where it gauged a car's speed within one mile per hour for 20,000 straight cars. And if anything about a scan is suspect -- the driver, for instance, is blurred in the photo -- the ticket will not be used.

This summer, the General Assembly passed legislation allowing cities and towns to use unmanned cameras to monitor intersections for motorists who run lights. The bill originally included language allowing cameras and machinery to track speeders but that was removed during negotiations.

Laffey said that the presence of the police officer means the city does not need Assembly approval to use this equipment: he likened it to using a radar gun, just with more efficiency.

Journal photo / Kathy Borchers

In a demonstration yesterday, a camera attached to an unmarked van on Phenix Avenue in Cranston relays images of speeding vehicles to a computer in the rear of the van that a police officer monitors.

Yesterday, Nestor demonstrated the equipment for Laffey along Phenix Avenue, one of the worst areas in the city for speeders.

A laser sensor scans the roadway's three lanes 100 times a second, in a 45-degree arc. It starts its scan at 75 meters out, and if the vehicle is determined to be speeding, takes a series of photos at roughly 12 to 15 meters away, according to William Tente Jr., Nestor's technical field supervisor.

As Tente was demonstrating the system for Laffey, Grimes poked his head inside the van.

"Are you guys running this right now? Because that green SUV seemed to be going pretty fast," Grimes said.

Tente looked at the screen, and immediately called up photos of the truck, its plates and the driver.

"Yep. 47 miles per hour," Tente replied. The speed limit is 35.

Arianna Frances

[skycat 0]

LOL...so just wear a ski mask in your car and you are good to go.

Fly it like you stole it!

[mailin 0]

even better is to get this:

http://www.phantomplate.com/




Jen

Arianna Frances

[Slappie 9]

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even better is to get this:

http://www.phantomplate.com/




Jen

Wahoooo I'm getting me some of that shit! They've passed the Redlight camera law here in Houston. So it's not long till they start raking in the money. Not that I run red lights, it's sometimes I sneak thru yellows...

"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

[NickDG 23]

Besides the "big brother" angle what gets me is they cloak these as preventing accidents. But most of those caught are the ones turning left or right into an intersection when it's the people going straight through and blowing the red light at high rates of speed that cause the accidents.

These cameras are nothing more than a revenue source for city governments that are broke from years of fiscal mismanagement. If you really look into it, while they say these cameras are place in intersections with the most accidents, you'll find they are really placed at the busiest ones.

Also, you can enter into the intersection legally and then for whatever reason the person in front of you stops and your trapped, smile! Also people are so paranoid of tripping the camera sometimes they slam on the brakes when you think they will proceed on through. Is anyone counting the rise in rear end collisions?

NickD BASE 194

[BillyVance 34]

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Quote

even better is to get this:

http://www.phantomplate.com/




Jen

Wahoooo I'm getting me some of that shit! They've passed the Redlight camera law here in Houston. So it's not long till they start raking in the money. Not that I run red lights, it's sometimes I sneak thru yellows...

No laws like that here in Alabama yet, but I've added this website to my Favorites for future reference...

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Rebecca 0]

I was listening to a councilman on the Buzz this week, and he was saying that the number of red-light-runner accidents in this city is ridiculous, and that he'd be happy making 0 money if the cameras actually deterred those who think yellow means go faster...

you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' -- well do you, punk?

[Slappie 9]

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I was listening to a councilman on the Buzz this week, and he was saying that the number of red-light-runner accidents in this city is ridiculous, and that he'd be happy making 0 money if the cameras actually deterred those who think yellow means go faster...

That's fine. Then get the cops out from behind the desks or out of the wards tazering everyone and get them to doing traffic duty. The camera's are a money making scheme nothing more. Like it's been said earlier. The number of rear end accidents in this city is going to skyrocket.

Oh and why won't they give notice to the neighborhoods they're installing these cameras in? They're secretly planting them. I'm sure there is also some going in just for show.

Bah!! Fuck the man!! He get's enough of my money already!

"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

[skyyhi 0]

So lets say you loan your car to your friend and they speed down the street. The ticket gets sent to you and you have to go to court to fight it to prove that you were not in the vehicle speeding down the street. Yes, the damn thing takes a freaking picture but what happens if those pics get corrupted (computers do have errors every now and then) and the file gets lost. How do you then prove your innocence. Its the same thing with the red light camera. Stupid and a total invasion of privacy.

________________________________________
Take risks not to escape life… but to prevent life from escaping. ~ A bumper sticker at the DZ
FGF #6
Darcy

[AndyMan 7]

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I still think its pointless as the person checking your receipt never REALLY reads them or checks your cart

I've actually had them catch stuff at Costco. In one case, it was a 50 pound bag of flour that was on the bottom rack of the cart, the checkout clerk had missed it (so had I). The security dude was SO proud of himself, he marched me over to the check-out clerk and pointed out the error. No biggie.

What made it really funny? The check-out clerk was actually the store manager.

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[airtwardo 6]

so why should you wait in another line just to show your receipt?


***

Don't know about yours, but there are a dozen 'eye in the sky' type cameras over the check out at the one close to me....

Tell 'em to Check The Tape!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[tigra 0]

I'm a Costco girl and I don't mind the membership fee or cards because I get good enough deals there that my membership pays for itself. Anyway, I understand why they check your receipt and cart at places like that, and at my Costco they really do check most of the time. What I don't get is when I go to Best Buy and purchase a CD or DVD or some other small item which they place in a bag and they STILL insist on checking my bag and receipt before I leave. Hey, if I'm walking out with a big screen TV, I get it, but to double check a tiny bag when its only 20 feet between the cashier and the door? WTF is that???

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Quote

even better is to get this:

http://www.phantomplate.com/




Jen

Those cameras are all over Chicago now. Our Mayor loves to empower the Dept Of Revenue to find new ways to get massive increase of funds.

Anyhow - a trip to traffic school informed me that anything put on a license plate in this state is illegal. In fact they can write you a ticket if you don't remove the previous yearly tag before putting on another one (mostly to stop people from putting them all over the plate). Those plate holders are considered illegal in IL since they can block some of the plate, and the grey/smoke plastic covers also used to disrupt laser guns/cameras are illegal. Been that way for about 6 years now.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[Shell666 0]

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So lets say you loan your car to your friend and they speed down the street. The ticket gets sent to you and you have to go to court to fight it to prove that you were not in the vehicle speeding down the street. Yes, the damn thing takes a freaking picture but what happens if those pics get corrupted (computers do have errors every now and then) and the file gets lost. How do you then prove your innocence. Its the same thing with the red light camera. Stupid and a total invasion of privacy.

We have photo radar here in Edmonton and the registered owner is the one that gets the ticket and has to pay it. Doesn't matter if someone else was driving your vehicle - you have to pay the ticket.

But you do get a copy of the lovely photo (suitable for framing, of course!)

'Shell

'Shell

[airtwardo 6]

In fact they can write you a ticket if you don't remove the previous yearly tag before putting on another one (mostly to stop people from putting them all over the plate).

***

Also because it makes the easier to steal...the 'top' in date sticker will shred if you try to peel it off...but if there's 3-4 under it...piece of CAKE!

(Don't ask HOW I know about such things!)

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[base428 1]

Now that I've said my peace regarding Sam's Club, take a look at the attached license plate concept. Legal? I can clearly see it......from the correct angle.

(c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted. <==For the media only

[Rebecca 0]

Germany was taking pictures of speeding motorists - the people, not just the plates - and sending them to the offenders' homes.

After one too many high-level official / politician was caught by the wife with a picture of the mistress in the passenger seat, they changed it to a non-picture ticket if there's more than one person in the car...

you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' -- well do you, punk?

[Shell666 0]

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Now that I've said my peace regarding Sam's Club, take a look at the attached license plate concept. Legal? I can clearly see it......from the correct angle.

I'll take one!

'Shell

'Shell

[indyz 1]

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I'm a Costco girl and I don't mind the membership fee or cards because I get good enough deals there that my membership pays for itself. Anyway, I understand why they check your receipt and cart at places like that, and at my Costco they really do check most of the time. What I don't get is when I go to Best Buy and purchase a CD or DVD or some other small item which they place in a bag and they STILL insist on checking my bag and receipt before I leave. Hey, if I'm walking out with a big screen TV, I get it, but to double check a tiny bag when its only 20 feet between the cashier and the door? WTF is that???

Most people have no idea how big of a problem theft is at Ciruit City / Best Buy type stores. Thousands of dollars a day during busy times of year. And most of it is small objects, like DVDs, batteries, or Palm Pilots, slipped into a bag. When I worked at Best Buy the door guys would catch dozens of "mistakes" a day.

[tigra 0]

You know what? Something like that would more likely go into a pocket or purse while I was still wandering in the store, not the bag the cashier hands me with my purchase inside it. Maybe I am being naive, and I really don't have much practice shoplifting but how many shoplifters actually slip their stolen goods into their bag of purchased items in plain sight of the cashier and the security guard at the door?

[indyz 1]

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You know what? Something like that would more likely go into a pocket or purse while I was still wandering in the store, not the bag the cashier hands me with my purchase inside it. Maybe I am being naive, and I really don't have much practice shoplifting but how many shoplifters actually slip their stolen goods into their bag of purchased items in plain sight of the cashier and the security guard at the door?

I don't have any numbers, but more than enough to justify the salary of the guy checking the bags. Plus, just having a guy at the door looking through bags, even if it is just a cursory glance, probably has a deterrent effect.