Video games at Walmart being behind glass.

One of the things I don’t like about video games at Walmart is that most of them are in a locked case behind glass. You can’t pick one up and look at the back of it. And I don’t really want to get an employee over to unlock the case just so I can look at the back of a game.

Just wait until you start buying razors. No better way to spend a morning than wandering around Wally World trying to hunt an employee to open up the case.

I know the pain.

I usually buy razors at a large, warehouse store where you can buy them in plastic containers that the cashier will unlock for you at the time of purchase. No sweat. :wink:

But as for those and video games being sold the way they are now, that’s because too many idiots had to try and steal them. It only takes a few bad apples to ruin a bunch. Stores have to protect their merchandise you know.

This store you’re talking about sounds like a BJ’s or a Sam’s Club. Talk about warehouses!

I wonder if they kept the Nintendo World Championships cartridges behind glass.

Kmart recently quit selling video games. I went there a while ago and the game section had gotten smaller. Next time I went to Kmart after that they no longer had video games. Like with Walmart, most of their games were behind glass.

Unlike with Walmart and Target, at Kmart there never seemed to be anyone who worked in the electronics department at all times. You’d always have to get someone because no one ever would be there. At the local Kmart, they just recently removed the cash register from the electronics section. There never really was anyone who worked there anyway.

I buy my razors now from Harry’s.

My first job was working retail. And I was at the same company for 4 years! The people you have to watch out for stealing are the employees! We had one girl who would not ring up some purchases. Someone would come up to pay for a pack of batteries for S2.99 - they would hand her the $3, she would open the cash drawer and give them the penny, and she would pocket the $3, never actually ringing up the sale. Then we had one guy who was working with his buddy who worked at another retail store. He would copy a customers credit card number and go to his buddy’s store and have his buddy ring up the sale with the stolen number. His buddy would do the same thing.

Whenever I’ve install a camera system in a retail store, the majority of the cameras always focus right on the cash drawers and safe. The managers and loss prevention people are more concerned with the employees stealing than the customers. Back doors are always sealed and the manager is the only one who can ooen it. Plus in the break room of almost every store there is a 800 number for employees to rat on other employees stealing.

Over of the main reasons I absolutely refuse to show any cashier my drivers license when they request it. Why would I show my personal information to a complete stranger including full name and birthdate?

Don’t POS systems nowadays limit / keep track of how many times the cash draw can be opened?

This was an old wooden cash drawer that had no electronic interface to the POS system (which was a state of the art networked system at that time). There were four keys on the bottom you pulled in the right combination to unlock the drawer. So if a customer went behind the counter and tried to open it, it wouldn’t open.

With 4 keys PFFFT An amateur robber could probably have that thing open quick. I’m glad most stores have POS systems now. Now for the small businesses that don’t. Almost everyone in those shops has a concealed carry permit. And due to the high price of ammo now… a warning shot will not be given! :lol:

I’m a food service cashier, and at least where I work, we’re required to double check the name on the card with the name on the photo ID in order to prevent against fraud, otherwise we’re instructed not to run the payment. Granted, this is at a popular tourist attraction so I often have to check into the hundreds of IDs a day and I know from firsthand experience that it’s nearly impossible to remember any of the customer’s information, even their name, after the transaction is completed. I think these days there’s a bigger chance of your personal information being compromised in a data breach than some crooked employee personally stealing it, but unfortunately that hazard if still there too.

Well, there were 16 different combinations - including no keys needed to be pulled. There was also a mechanical bell that would ring when the drawer was opened (or attempted to open). So someone trying to open the drawer would end up ringing the bell a couple times before they got it open, assuming they figured out the combination rather quickly. Plus we never kept cash in it overnight, only the coins. So the most you would get out of it was around $20 in change.

I did work in two locations - one that was relatively quite and we never had any issues other then one of the guys who closed up for the night forgot to lock the front door. 7:00 in the morning when a customer tried to open the door to get in (not realizing we were closed) they set the alarm off. The other location we actually closed before dark because of the “ladies of the night” that frequented the area!

That’s actually against the terms and conditions the merchant agrees to when accepting a VISA card. And if you are part of a national chain, I seriously doubt this is a company policy and more of a local policy. I actually researched this because there was a time when a lot of the merchants in my area were doing this and I was personally getting annoyed with it. According to the 2014 VISA Card Acceptance Guidelines: “Although Visa rules do not preclude merchants from asking for cardholder ID… merchants cannot make an ID a condition of acceptance. Therefore, merchants cannot as part of their regular card acceptance procedures refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID. (Emphasis added). The times I’ve had a merchant ask me for ID and they tell me it’s “company policy”, I contact their corporate HQ and inquire about it and told that is not company policy and a polite email will be sent to the store to correct the situation.

Basically what this is saying is that you can ask to see an ID, but you cannot refuse to accept the card because someone doesn’t want to. About the only time you can is if the credit card is not signed. But funny thing is that VISA even says in their guideline “An unsigned card is considered invalid and should not be accepted.” They even address when someone writes “See ID” on the back of their cards: “In the U.S., some customers write “See ID” or “Ask for ID” in the signature panel, thinking that this is a deterrent against fraud or forgery; that is, if their signature is not on the card, a fraudster will not be able to forge it. In reality, criminals often don’t take the time to practice signatures. They use cards as quickly as possible after a theft and prior to the accounts being blocked. They are actually counting on [the merchant] not to look at the back of the card and compare signatures; they may even have access to counterfeit identification with a signature in their own handwriting”. So asking for ID in reality does nothing to protect the customer nor does it change the merchants liability. And when I worked in retail, if someone handed us an unsigned card, the company told us to not accept it.

All the times I’ve had someone ask to see my ID on a signed credit card, I’ve refused and only once did they refuse the sale. And it was a Walmart of all places. When I addressed this to the manager he told me “we are above any rules and guidelines and even if you complain we are too big for anyone to do anything about” - and that is a direct quote. One of the reasons why I no longer shop a Walmart - if they don’t even want to follow consumer rights, I will take my business elsewhere.

Sorry about the rant but this is one of my top 5 personal annoyances!

Funny thing is that I’m actually aware of the policy against mandatory ID checks that Visa (and MasterCard too, I think?) have, but as a bottom level employee, it’s just easier to follow the procedures outlined by my employer and let them deal with the consequence of denying card acceptance without an ID. My employer is a large, multinational corporation with a diverse range of operations, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they left this kind of policy up to the management of each individual location.

I have to wonder to what extent Visa enforces this policy though. I would be surprised if they were willing to sacrifice the money coming in from card transactions at a particular business just because they don’t accept cards without an ID.

I never mind showing an ID when asked (last time it happened to me was yesterday, at the Apple Store, actually), but I do understand why that might be an issue to some, such as yourself.

And be assured, always having to ask customers for their ID annoys me as well. It would make my job easier if I didn’t have to wait forever for every customer to dig through their wallet and find an ID!

I rarely give the cashier a hard time about it because I know they are just being told by someone higher up in the food chain to do it. So I understand where you are coming from. I started out just saying no which really put the poor guy/girl in a panic so now I just say “I left my ID in the car” and they just let it slide. But then I go have a talk with the manager who then tells me it’s company policy and they are just trying to protect me - both are false because calling corporate quickly debunks the company policy myth and I’m already protected from fraudulent purchases through the agreement I have with my credit card company (the $50 rule). I actually got in a discussion with a manager about this and after he walked away the cashier thanked me - she was getting tired of getting dirty looks from people but it wasn’t her place to say anything. Again, I understand!

Credit cards don’t directly make money for a merchant. If anything, it costs the merchant via processing fees. About the only benefit for a merchant is opening up payment options to more consumers and thus more sales. Ultimately, it’s the Credit Card company that’s making the money here. If “ABC Mart” drifted from the rules and Visa could show that less credit card transactions were going through because people were shying away from using their cards, Visa could have grounds to sue for damages. Bottom line, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers… Master Card actually has an online form you can fill out to complain about a merchant who isn’t following the rules - https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/consumers/get-support/report-problem-shopping.html

But yeah, the whole ID thing is my personal preference - 20 years ago I would have called myself nuts. But today with the technologies out there, it’s too easy for someone to put a hidden camera on themselves and grab some driver license information to sell to the highest bidder. And too many people are more then happy to show anyone their drivers license anymore in the name of “security”. Got to fight the system somehow!

Yes, that was what I was trying to say. Would it matter to Visa that a company is going against their ID policy as long as Visa is making money from said company? Like you said, I guess if it discouraged a great amount of card holders from doing business with that company… it’s an interesting idea.

I’m happy that more secure payment methods, specifically mobile payment methods such as Apple Pay, are becoming more mainstream. Tokenization-based card transactions are definitely much more preferable for everyone. Like I said earlier, since your information is more likely to be stolen as a result of a massive data breach versus a specific, isolated event, my card data being kept as safe as possible is definitely my biggest concern.

(Sorry for hijacking the topic everyone, haha)

Uhh because it’s a government issued ID that can be used to verify the name on the card. They’re also suppose to verify the signature on the back of cards but that never happens anymore.

I find it funny that here in the US, we still embrace 80’s technology to process credit cards, where the rest of the would has moved to chip based technology. My debit card has a chip in it (something I had to ask for, wasn’t sent to me by default) but 90% of the places that have the readers, don’t have them activated. I would love to use it because it’s a more secure way to process the transaction! But we seem to fight it. Like you said, electronic payment methods are the way to go - cash is outdated!