Can DD’s work do this?

[Rollergirl11]

DD (almost 18) works part time for one of the main supermarket chains. For the last few weeks store managers have been asking to check their bags on the way in to work to see if they have anything that they could have bought from the store and asking for receipts. Today DD was asked to empty her pockets to see if she had anything. She had a Carmex lip balm. The manager asked if she had a receipt for it. DD said no as it was hers and was used and half empty. Manager said he needed to initial it in case she was checked on the way out.

Can they do this?! I am pretty sure DD doesn’t have to empty her pockets on request or submit to a bag check and is under no obligation to prove that items on her person have or haven’t been purchased from the store. Does anyone know? This has only been occurring the last few weeks.

I am pretty sure DD doesn’t have to empty her pockets on request or submit to a bag check and is under no obligation to prove that items on her person have or haven’t been purchased from the store

Searching personal items is a completely standard clause in the contract of employment for many members of staff in retail and other roles.

If this is unacceptable, don't sign the contract, don't work there. Simples.

when I worked in a supermarket we would have to get a colleague to sign our receipt if we bought anything and then the receipt had to stay with the item. So if I bought a Diet Coke to drink on shift I would stick the receipt to it.

i was never searched or challenged but I wouldn’t have had an issue with it if they had.

This thread is crazy 😂 full of the sort of petty authoritarians who reported their neighbours for taking a second walk in lockdown or were dying for the restrictions to be heavier.
No, OP, I wouldn’t work anywhere that treated me like that and I’m glad your daughter is leaving!
I worked in retail as a student for a very well-known high street cosmetics company and never experienced this. It’s not “normal” for all retail settings, and she would easily find a job somewhere else that doesn’t do this. Most businesses can’t find staff at the moment so there are plenty of jobs going! Employees are able to vote with their feet if they’re being badly treated which is great. 😁

I've worked as an investigator for retail theft in a previous role.
Some workers were absolutely rinsing the stores of stock.

New employees usually have a clause in their contract re searches, your DD will have consented to this as a condition of employment

You must really feel degraded every time you go through an airport and are made to feel like a terrorist

It's not. It's the same as nuclear workers having to have their radiation checked

Back when I was a Saturday girl, we were given clear carrier bags for our stuff.

Anyone who brought their own bags had to be searched on the way in, given a receipt and then had to produce a receipt for anything they bought during the day

When I worked for Tesco the staff search was part of our daily tick list as a manager. It used to be a minimum of 2 staff members and someone else would also have to be present.

My guess is that they are either experiencing theft from staff and trying to cut down or they have a keen manager who wants the logbook filled in correctly.

It's also in their contract that they can get searched if she looks.

Would it not be better to just ask for DBS checks from staff so they don't have to mess around like this! OP I wouldn't like it either I always have a bag full of stuff I might need on my break etc.

I work retail, have done for years. Management level and the amount of internal shrink is insane.
In stores that were considered a risk, more searches are done. We use a random spin but it includes bags, pockets, no search. Higher risk stores also include shoes or a combination of the others. The searches, best practice anyway, are to be conducted off the shop floor. It also takes into account dignity. For example all bag checks the bag has to be completely emptied, including smaller bags within. However if there is a small bag within that contains sanitary products then it doesn't have to be. If staff are wearing religious clothes then these are not searched. That said, we do most of our searches on the shop floor as we are a small female only team and our search rate is set to 75% no search on the spinner (electronic). In other stores I know you need to gain consent to search on the shop floor..

Its not personal on any way. Everyone who goes out the back is spun a search. Contractors, the guy who empties the toilet sanitary bins, everyone - even the auditor and security managers who monitor the searches to make sure stores are doing them.properly! I have had to conduct searches on managers many levels above me, including their bags full of whatever they travel between stores with. It is very low key and casual.

That said, for people who enter the industry green, it can be discombobulating! Once you've been there a while you tend to minimise the stuff you bring. The worst is on a big shift when you are signing out multiple.people and everyone has a bag, it takes ages! We also usually dont search on the way in, just say if you've got anything we sell, bring it to us to initial.

We have investigated people with unsigned stock. We have also found some unusual things not stock related. Used condom anyone?

No that's nonsense.

Might as well remind people that a clean CRB means absolutely nothing except you've not been arrested / charged / prosecuted in the past. It doesn't mean you won't do anything in the future.

Wayne Couzens would have had a clean CRB when he joined the police, then went on to commit the most horrific offences.

Even people with DBS checks can shoplift

DBS checks show only show the people who've been caught in the past

Pretty normal in retail.

And like a pp above if we buy something in shift the item is signed/dotted on the barcode if it is a present discreetly and then receipt signed. Drinks usually have a receipt rubber banded around them too. It's to protect staff as much as anything! Noone think anything of it tbf.

maybe people have been kicking up a fuss about exit checks? which are completely reasonable in retail (and other situations). This is an excellent solution to the employees kicking up a "wah wah you don't trust us" fuss about exit checks.

DD needs to find a solution that works for her, such as clearly used items and a sign off from boss on the way in or receipts.

have you ever flown anywhere? the occasions of terrorism in planes is way way way lower than theft from supermarkets. Is having your bag x-rayed and walking through the magic doorway degrading?

Was the norm in the 80's although I don't remember bag searches on the way in only at the end of a shift.

O worked in Argos back in 96/97 and it was standard practice then

We entered through a different entrance, bag into a locker, and nothing allowed in your pockets on the floor (two different retail jobs) - one job we were searched on the way out every time, one it was random, but if you were found to have anything on you, you were in trouble (even your own stuff without permission - eg. that lipbalm).

Totally normal, and the search on the way in/getting stuff initialled is the permission to have it.

If she's coming with overnight bags (which I think is reasonable BTW) then the store will need a procedure to deal with it (although given everywhere I've worked there's also been locker theft, I wouldn't want to have anything important in the overnight bag either!)

I worked in clothes shops and a supermarket in the early 00’s as a student - bag checks were standard.

Tell her to get into the habit of getting her longer terms items (like tampax and lipbalm) initialed by a manager makes life much easier going forward.

Yes they can check.

To add to what I said above, we also get searched if we leave the store at any point, for example a cigarette break or runninggto grab a sandwich for lunch. You leave the building, you get a search spun.

Eh? What has that got to do with it? Two completely different things

Years ago when I worked in retail we had to take personal items in clear carrier bags to make checking easier I don't remember anyone being up themselves enough to think they were being assured of being a shoplifter. Or maybe the actual shoplifters did, the rest of us knew it was to protect both sides

I hadn't really thought about this before and can see why it's disconcerting, but as pp have said, allowing staff to bring bags to work, be on the shop floor then allowed to leave with bags unchecked would be why they have these huge levels of theft.

As a customer I don't want to be paying inflated prices to cover the cost of these items walking out of the door. Surely after a couple of weeks you learn not to take it personally.

Really depressing that it's needed though.