Behind The Blue Door: What you should know about Walmart surveilance polocies

The entire premise of this thread is beyond ridiculous. The OP starts off by whining about favoritism amongst employees and being excluded from socialization at work and after work parties. He is somehow held to seperate and impossible standards that no other Loss Prevention "officers" are held to, and due to these extra special standards set *just for him*, he ends up being chastised by fellow LPs and reprimanded by management. Despite being "frozen out" of all social interaction and the impossible special standards he was held to, OP is taken to the Walmart NSA station where he is shown how Walmart can access bank accounts and credit card accounts all across the country, used in a huge national (possibly international) conspiracy that breaks virtually every privacy and personal finance laws in an effort to warn competing stores of possible shoplifters and other criminals based largely on appearance of the customer. Then because of these super secret special standards, OP quits his job.

But thank the Lord that the OP is risking life and limb to bring this appalling corporate criminal activity to ATS to warn us of the violations of personal, financial and medical violations inflicted upon us by Walmart, aka The Devil.

I'd also like to hand out Kudos Cookies to the posters so eager to corraborate his story with "evidence", aka their own horror story, that in no way is anything like the story the OP laid out but is somehow to be taken as proof that the OP does indeed have inner knowledge of this massive, nation-wide, highly illegal conspiracy.

I would also like to give out some sort of treat to those ATS posters that totally buy the OP's story, but I'm fresh out of sheep feed.

reply to post by Joki42


i have been in similar shoes i worked for roses department stores in the 90s as a lpm and faced similar restrictions . i quit and went back to work in the stock room after watching my boss try to shake down an african american teen who was the night time music department cashier by telling him to come clean he had ir all on video tape that the boy kbew he was quilty and to come clean and write down what he did. the boy responded roll the tape and lets see what i supposed to have done, my boss immediately ordered him to leave the store because he was being fired for insubordination. the tape was a blank the boy hadn't done anything but if my boss coulod have gotten him to admit wrong doing he could have made the boy pay up to three times the amount in damages in my state.

reply to post by proteus33


Thats not even closely similar to the blatant lies being told In this thread

Geez have so many drunk the hateraid ?

I mean im no fan of walmart , like I said earlier

I buy my produce at aldies and try not to shop there but its not THAT bad

Hell our lp looks like a thug, which is why hes good at his job

The employees and managers , for the most part , are nice and just, well, good people

Like ive told a few people... the best thing ive found at wally world is the people

Hell my newest friend has a tatoo of a cross over his eye and "pain" across the front of his neck

All if which he had prior to starting his walmart career over ten years ago

And hes better mannered and has been more helpful than what passes for my family

What planet are you people on?

Now everyone ,Feel free to come visit me in kemah and ill SHOW you how it really is

reply to post by TorqueyThePig


Interesting. I never see that part. This is typical from last night:

The defendant was banned from all Wal-Mart properties in Henry county after she tried to make fraudulent returns at Wal-Mart earlier this year. The defendant was advised not to return to the location. The defendant returned to the location on 03/31/2014 . Loss prevention employee witnessed the defendant enter the location, stopped her and held her for police. Loss prevention employee did wish to prosecute.

And this is her punishment for the same thing at a different Wal Mart

Case Details: Name:XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Date of Birth: 14-JUN-87 Disposition: Guilty Disposition Date: 19-FEB-14 Case Type: GS Case Number: SCE130424 Offense Date: 05-JAN-14 Citation/Arrest Date: 14-FEB-14 Case Status: CLOSED Charged Offense: Crim. Tresp.. Amended Offense: Convicted Offense: Crim. Tresp.. Convicted Type (F/M): MISD Concurrent with:Consecutive to: Appearance Details: Date: 19-FEB-14 Judge: Evans, Sue Court Room: Birch Bldg, Court Room 3C Attorney: Wooden, Sam Reason:Trial Incarceration: Location: Years:Months

ays:Hours

ercentage: Suspend All But:SAB%

ay for Day?:NHour for Hour?:NReport Date: Suspend?:NNo Work Default?:NWork Release?:NWork Release %:No Early Release?:N Time Served Credit: Months

ays:4Hours:20 Incarceration Special Condition:Time Served Court Costs: Court Costs: $611.00Court Fines: $.00Total Owed: $611.00 Fines Special Condition: Probation: Type: Years:Months

ays: Probation Special Condition: Restitution: $.00 Notes:

Basically she was fined $611.00 and released with time served 4 hours 20 min. and the case is closed.

That was her warning issued by the Judge. This time she will get 11/29 suspended all but 10 days.

The fraudulent return of merchandise is much more common. The take articles off the shelf-remove something-then try to get a refund.

Loss prevention officers are deputized and can hold the defendant but not arrest them. Running would be eternally stupid-and most of the know that.

reply to post by Joki42


I am going to toss the BS flag on the banking statments. Come on guys ? You know that can't happen. It's not very good around here, but it's better than that !!!

reply to post by LowTechRedneck


Heh, your post totally removed my need to comment on this ridiculous thread ... +1

I once had to work at Walmart during a difficult financial period of my life, and while I was there I was forced to sacrifice small children on an alter of Sam Walton three times a day, sometimes four if profits where slow.

It was so common to see people fight over dead mouse carcases at lunch, that most people couldn't recall seeing it more than once, after a while it became a blur. The only alternative walmart left us was the long expired dust covered food that fell under the shelves. Most preferred death over that. The bottom of the bins was a game of Russian roulette, but I had no other options, that's where I made my living. I wasn't strong enough to take on the wolves and their unquenchable hunger for rotting mouse carcases, but I was alone, cold and hungry. I did what I had to do.

That place also had a legion of henchmen that would come and hit us with cattle prods to ensure we met their production quota for the day. Task in ,task out, task in, task out. One guy had the audacity to complain about the weight of his shackles, and they ripped him limb from limb, they knew he was replaceable. What they couldn't replace, was that little girls father!

One guy was fired for getting pneumonia, which caused another guy to come in sick, now I'm hearing we may have the first signs of a zombie apocalypse, all thanks to walmart and their hatred for healthy workers. They refuse to hire enough workers, so any call in is seen as an attack on the company. If you do call in it's assumed that the brain wash facility failed you, and as a rouge employee you are no longer seen as a valued asset to wally world. You are easily replaced by a 17 year old stoner with an indestructible immune system.

I can honestly say my days working as a prostitute in an unknown 3rd world country where preferable to walmart.

reply to post by Joki42


I am sorry, you are confused. It is absolutely impossible for Walmart to access a customers bank statements. You probably did not understand what you are seeing.

Well whatever the truth is, I enjoyed the story anyway. ~$heopleNation

reply to post by Joki42


I am not trying to be "that guy" but you might be able to better your standing in life by learning to use a spell checker or brushing up on your vocabulary. Your OP had more mistakes then, I don't know what.

I am not trying to be off topic or rude, I am trying to help you understand why you might have issues finding employment.

reply to post by Joki42


You state some truths, and then at the end you make something completely up. The being tracked for buying stuff at other stores is absolutely false, and being able to check your bank statements that is false. Your understanding of the supervisor structure is incredibly weak for a 6 month employee, which makes me not believe much of what you've said. I don't doubt that some people are lazy, goof off at times, that happens everywhere. You've exaggerated the systems capability to almost make it sound NSA like, which is pretty funny, because it couldn't be further from the truth. It is possible that your store and even yourself were terrible AP Associates, that is unfortunate, but isn't totally surprising.

I managed inside Wal-Marts for 14 years across 10 stores out of my 19 year career with them, and I started as a cart pusher. I left for greener pastures, but comments like this still irritate me, mainly because people believe the nonsense.

Well, if WM had access to folks' bank accounts I'd think some Loss Prevention Officer would gather evidence, take it to court and the press and live a nice comfy life on the millions he'd win from the court case and notoriety as a whistle blower... unless WM has a private security hit squad who takes care of dissenters... ha-ha?

However, WalMart's policy of:
(criminally) underpaying employees, using strong arm/bully tactics against unions or talk of unions (and communities who question whether they want a Mainstreet destroying WM in their town, and/or "disgruntled" employees or ANYONE who acts against their monopoly), putting smaller (or simply more ethical) stores out of business and thus seriously damaging the greater economy for their own benefit (by putting whole industries out of business and moving it all to China and places where labor = slavery), makes me believe they are one of the most evil corporations around.

Monopolies are only good for the monopoly.

People who would rather pay a dollar less for utter crap regardless of economic consequences to their neighbors are part of the problem, too.

It's a vicous circle where small town folks are drawn to the cheap store, which thus removes all other business/competition, which leaves WM as the only employment (that pays near nothing) and only retail source for a whole region and then they move to another region and start the cycle again, like economic cancer.

I get people think they have no choice and have to live somehow, even if they must shop with and work for the "devil," but they're simply spreading the misery.

reply to post by Baddogma


I've learned to star your posts before I read them, you never disappoint. A fine analysis of a corporation which tries to show itself off as the "good guy" when, if the employees even hint at unionizing, the self-opening door is too slow to hit them on the way out.

sputniksteve
I am not trying to be "that guy" but you might be able to better your standing in life by learning to use a spell checker or brushing up on your vocabulary. Your OP had more mistakes then, I don't know what. I am not trying to be off topic or rude, I am trying to help you understand why you might have issues finding employment.

Are you sure that you meant to say "Your OP had more mistakes then, I don't know what"?

Sounds like something I'd do...

Here is just a theory about the possibility of stores having records of purchases with credit and debit at their own stores and others, is that they could do it with those different point/reward member ship card things. I am talking about ones like air-miles and shoppers points etc. Does wall-mart have such a thing or equivalent? With these points systems you sign up with your personal info and they track the points on the card. The points are calculated based on how much you spend. Legally they can't record how much you spend, but they can record the points, from there its simply back converting the amount. I wonder if these shopper point cards are operated by individual chains or franchises or if its a 3rd party company that does them all. This info can then be sold or through agreements shared between stores and franchise/chains under marketing research. With these point records they can back convert and reconstruct an approximation of an individuals bank statement (not 100% but close enough for this info to be useful). Ever wonder why they give you deals or these cards and point systems for free? Its ways to convince people to voluntarily give up information for marketing research and other uses. This passes/circumvents (legally) many of the privacy laws by having the consumer voluntarily opting in.

Joki42

the LP manager is able to access your bank statements and monitor where you shop and how you use your money. I've watched this process many times.

I don't believe that part of having access to bank statements as being accurate. In fact I'm almost certain isn't! But please tell me more, for I believe the statements you're referring to could be the number of times the debit card was used to make purchases during a specific time period at Walmart or affiliates such as Sam's club and or other partners that share info amongst themselves. The statements are more likely from their own databases being shared, not the banks!

reply to post by LowTechRedneck


1. AP-09 dictates shoplifter investigation and detention. If you get caught stealing from Walmart, you go into the Asset Protection Information System. You will be required to sign a photograph consent forms to have your picture taken. Failure to do so constitutes non compliance and would qualify as disruption of business operations. Then a member of management has the right to file a Criminal Trespass against by law and Walmart policy.

2. No surveillance may be released to ANYONE outside of management. Even Law Enforcement are required to request a copy of video (in writing) to file with the court.

3. When investigating Fraud, the maximum extent that financial records can be seen is through the store's electronic journal. It can be searched by date, transaction, customer name, card number, etc. It is impossible for an AP associate or any member of the facility to retrieve banking information beyond the previous. Unless you have proper permission, an associate can only see the last four numbers of the card.

4. APA's and APM's go through extensive training to identify habits and characteristics of shoplifter identification and proper investigation and detention. State Laws vary, but most have merchant privilege to protect their employees and merchandise, within reason.

5. Mr. SAM IS THE FOUNDER. He is revered for his out-of-the -box thinking and allowing his associates to OWN the company. He believed in promoting from within and success stories abound. He started with next to nothing as a one-store operation. Now, his company is the largest retailer on the planet and still growing. He believed that his best ideas came from his associates. He had faith in his people and truly believed that his people made the difference. The unions are held at bay by the power that Mr. Sam imbued to them. There are some unions at walmart. Those stores also boast the lowest customer satisfaction ratings, highest turnover, and greatest financial loss.

6. If you were involved with LP that acted in such a fashion, the authorities would have gotten involved. There is extensive oversight in AP. The checks and balances are intricate and well thought out. AP and Operations operate independently of each other, but one is integral to the other. The symbiotic relationship is commendable, but human error is unavoidable. People will abuse their authority. The intricate system of checks and balances deters the desire to act on motive. Violations of HIPPA, PRIVACY RIGHTS, OLD PERSONAL FREEDOM IS MET WITH SEVERE CONSEQUENCES. RAPIDLY.

What you don't know about what goes on behind the blue door, is that the associates have ownership in the company. The more money the store makes, the more money they make in bonuses. The incentive drives buy-in and they take responsibility for their stores.

7. Paying people criminally low wages? Walmart is competitve. Some stores will offer 15.00 per hour to move shopping baskets off the parking lot and others will pay minimum wage. It's simple supply and demand. Don't like the pay? Go elsewhere.

8. Most, if not all, of Walmart policy is either standardized or sets a standard above the norm. All of Walmart policy puts people first and profit second... from injury response to associate well being to Asset Protection.

I am constantly dumbfounded by people who claim to be enlightened open minded truth seekers ... that believe every word the media feeds them.

Walmart AP-09 Investigation and Detention of Shoplifters Policy

This is ONE example of Walmart policy. Look up others.... you'll be hard pressed to find one that isn't oriented to people. CUSTOMERS OR ASSOCIATES.

All of Walmart policy are on the interwebs. Do your own research and learn. OP had a bad go. Most people dont. Work hard, stay safe, keep customers happy. That seems to be the only common theme I see.

Pretty insane! I really wasnt surprised while reading this i so wouldn't shop there, lol hmm actually i used to buy alot of baby & kids items of walmart and get them shipped to me here in Australia because it was alot cheaper and the clothes were alot cuter than what you find here with that price tag but they don't post to Aus and you need a mail forwarder service but that got too expensive! I have never shopped there though in person but i did pay with a debit card :/ but im in Australia so yeah not really a threat lol that sounds pretty full on, and obsessive employers ugh weird! I lose my s#!? enough when i go to kmart and they want too check my babies formula tin or stroller incase i have stuck something in there. I guess because i have tattoos and im young, pfft as if id steal from kmart. So i think its alot of big corporations that are like this and its not just there its just not talked about. Pretty crazy stories in this thread though but im sure its going on at alot more places than walmart they're so discriminating its a joke & they can get away with it ofcourse.

I got a little bored after a few pages and skipped on but I did see that Sputnik Steve noticed the unnacceptable spelling and grammar in the OP's thread. It smells of someone uneducated or not an English Speaking High School education, I am suprised it can use the internet.

I do not align uneducated with working in Walmart, we all have bills to pay and at least people are working, for that I have the upmost respect.

But I do not resonate at all with the thread, Walmart is a web phenomenom of the worst people on earth:

Your Mom

SheopleNation
Well whatever the truth is, I enjoyed the story anyway. ~$heopleNation

Thanks to you at least, I took away something informative from this thread.