Do you object to BAG INSPECTIONS at stores

[nero_bolt]

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Do you object to BAG INSPECTIONS at stores?

Do you object to staff asking to inspect your bag? (they are only doing their job) 

Will you shop at a  store that asks to inspect your bag or will you go elsewhere? 

Do bag inspections and security checks help to stop shop lifting and keep prices down?

If you object WHY?

Do you think that objecting to a bag inspection makes a person look guilty or they are guilty? 

Rememer that its a condition of entry at just about every major /medium/small store in Australia 

[patchoo78]

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@am*3 wrote:

Clothes & lingerie do have security tags on them. I bought some lingerie and the tags weren't deactivated by checkout person and they security things at exit beeped. Have had the same happen with clothes too.

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I obviously shop in the kinds of stores where the clothes don't have security tags.I believe that in the shops you shop at they would have tags, but they don't where I shop 

[the_hawk*]

The power of SC experts, who believe if they repeat something many times it becomes real.

Remenber back a when this thread was actictive and some were saying a store or even security had the power to detain a suspect shop lifter, it seems they know more than a supreme court judge. 

The power of SC experts

http://www.news.com.au/national/supreme-court-rules-person-is-entitled-to-do-runner-if-not-under-arr...

[thgildael]

Yes I do object, and take note: I can see that there are a sizeable number of people here also who do. As we get older we have to carry around things that younger people may not realise are necessary, like Glasses to be able to see, sun glasses to shade the eyes which become more sensitive as we get older. Also there's that modern invention i Phone etc. and the huge heap of plastic cards that retailers hand out to curry more cusom. Plus the sizeable purse with the pockets to fit them all into. Hankerchiefs for hayfever, makeup, and as someon else has mentioned, medications etc etc. How on earth is any reasonable woman going to fit all this into an A4 size bag without it all falling out? When I was young I didn't need these things, or a larger hadbag. I hate to think of all the extra equipment today's mother has to carry around! Women need a big bag these days and retailers who don't impose their autocratic rules on the 90%honest customers have my loyal custom even if I have to pay more - though I think that is only an excuse I have heard some say to justify their short - sighted "solution".  Someone has to pay, and I'd rather pay to have my privacy and dignity protected than pay it in the loss of my sense of self - worth every time I go shopping.

[johcaschro]

It's not such a big deal really. The shop and its staff don't have the legal right to search customers' bags.

Any search a customer agrees to is purely voluntary.

The terms and conditions should be clearly displayed so the customer sees them before entering the shop. How else can informed consent to those conditions be made?

I have seen the "terms and conditions of entry" displayed only at the check-out so they're only visible when leaving the shop. This is unacceptable (see above re informed consent)

In the end, we have the rights we can legally claim and we may forgo a right or two here and there if we don't feel like going to the bother to claim it. In the case of bag searches in shops, Is it that people feel too intimidated to object? Would they prefer to avoid some "unpleasantness"? (I've been in a shop where their sign read "In order to avoid any unpleasantness, please present bags for inspection")

I object to bag searches on principle and I usually refuse (although I'm getting better at refusal without experiencing any of the threatened unpleasantness)

It's our choice whether we accept a non-compulsory experience of intrusion into our privacy and into our personal space or not; it's purely our own choice.

[johcaschro]

as an addit: It's worth reading those Terms and Conditions of Entry carefully. They usually require the presentation of bags for inspection, they don't say that they have the right to rummage through your bag.

I present my bag for inspection (Yes shop-staff-persons, that's a bag, please inspect it and verify for yourselves that it posseses all the attributes of baginess.) and when the staff ask me to open it, I ask them if they have the right to search my bag.  They always say no.

[lyndal1838]

As an older person I have been subjected to many bag inspections over the years and there has never been any unpleasantness.

I wear glasses and sunglasses which people can see on my face so why would I be sensitive to someone seeing their cases in my bag.  Most people get round with their iphones in their hands for everyone to see so why would anyone be sensitive to an inspection revealing one in their bag?

Even when young I carried makeup and hankies or tissues in my bag....they are not the domain of the elderly alone.  If I use items in public it seems a bit two faced to object to anyone seeing them in my bag.

Over the years I have never had anyone lay a finger on my bag when inspecting it....I have opened it when requested and held it in front of the person asking to see it....usually a checkout girl in the supermarket who is only asking because she has been told to ask and she really could not care less what is in your bag.

Only once was I asked to move something in my bag so the contents were visible......I had a magazine on top of everything so I could have had numerous small items lurking under it.  Even then my bag was not touched by anyone but me.

A large handbag is not just for the elderly.....I have used a big bag ever since I started work in the mid 60s.  I carried a book to read while travelling or some knitting, sometimes a snack (that was before the days of the obligatory bottle of water that everyone carries now).  My prissy little purses were only used when going out on social occasions when no-one was interested in inspecting anything.

[tasfleur]

"it posseses all the attributes of baginess" ......  

[johcaschro]

I've even been in a shop where I was asked to open my bag and when I asked the staff member to show me the sign stating that bag searches were a condition of entry, she couldn't do it; couldn't find the sign. We both looked. There was no such sign or notice.

Did I open my bag for inspection? . . . Is the Pope Italian? 😉

[zanadoo_56]

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johcaschro wrote:went t

I've even been in a shop where I was asked to open my bag and when I asked the staff member to show me the sign stating that bag searches were a condition of entry, she couldn't do it; couldn't find the sign. We both looked. There was no such sign or notice.

Did I open my bag for inspection? . . . Is the Pope Italian? 😉

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Um, the current Pope was born in Argentina.

An old thread but here's my two cent's worth - in the days when I went shopping at actual shops I often carried a very large shopping bag and at the point of buying I usually showed them the inside of it before they had a chance to ask.  Oddly enough I found that beating them to it meant they barely looked inside.

[domino-710]

aaaah - the question was :

Did I open my bag for inspection = NO.

Is the Pope Italian = NO.