Bag check irks shopper

Press, 11 October 1982, Page 14

Bag check irks shopper

Maxi-Mart security checks of shoppers’ bags are not insisted upon, says the discount department store's manager, Mr lan Hunt. "If they object, we just don’t check the bag,” he said. Mr Hunt was replying to a letter to “The Press” from Ms J. Bell, of Pyramid Valley, who said she had been "Put in a very embarrassing position where my integrity was doubted with no recourse” when she had been asked by a check-out girl if her bag could be checked.

. Mr Hunt said the Shirley store’s staff were "trained to ask a simple question. ‘May we check your bag?’ ” But a bag check was not a condition of purchase at the store.

If bag checks were a condition of sale, they would require notices in the store, according to Mr J. S. Ainsworth, the Consumers’ Institute district officer. Such notices “must make it clear to everyone who approaches that if they buy goods, they, have consented to a search of their bags,” he said. "They must be made aware before the cashier starts to total the purchases or, in some other way, accepts the customer's offer to buv."

Mr Hunt said that MaxiMart had experienced “the odd problem” with persons who objected to the request for a bag check, “but they are rare. They are normally resolved by discussion.”

At the security-conscious store, a tag is placed on parcels purchased elsewhere when a customer enters. The tag is removed when the customer leaves the store.

Shoppers’ bags can be left at the security counter which has a receipt system and picked up when the customer leaves. “We certainly do not want hassles," said Mr Hunt. The store was not in business “tc chase customers away. Our object is to control shrinkage to some extent.” About 500 customer surveys had recently been completed, and security was not mentioned as a problem. Mr Hunt said there had not been a specific question about attitudes to bag checks.

In her letter, Ms Bell said she had consented to a bag check “as I presumed they were legally permitted to do so. I telephoned the manager later and was advised it is company policy to search every bag and that they have the right to do so.” - Ms Bell said it was “about

time consumers are advised exactly what their rights are in such circumstances. I would like to know the exact legal position if an innocent person refuses such a dictatorial request. "General morality and decency forbid me to express my personal thoughts of. disgust at the attitude of MaxiMart to the public.”

Mr Ainsworth said that a shop was private property, and a retailer could impose conditions of entry and sale. “The most effective way a shop owner can impose conditions of sale is by posting notices which make it absolutely clear that the conditions exist," he said.

If any store wanted to insist on bag checks, it would not be sufficient to post a notice which simply said that customers must present their bags for inspection.

"Unless prior agreement has been formed, a right to search does not exist, and you can refuse to be searched,” Mr Ainsworth said. In the case of MaxiMart, customers could refuse to be searched.

Bags could not be searched if a customer refused to buy goods on a condition of sale. A shop could not say it had a right to search bags as a general policy.