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

reply to post by Aleister


IT
call centers
and the big one
Automakers
what part did walmart play in those?
Detroit is a wasteland because the manufacturing of cars is now defunct

And manufacturing in general is going

Im a tradesman who lives in his van

In the parking lot I work in

now I wont say walmart didnt have a hand in some manufacturing is an argument I wont Make

But geeez at least they employ someone unlike most job shipping corps are doing

calstorm


One question. Can you tell me why the heck I set off the theft detectors at the door half the time when I walk in? It happens about 50% of the time. Most of the time it is only on entering, not leaving. I have checked every thing in my purse (no cell phone gave, that up a few month back) Nothing I am wearing came from there. I can't figure it out for the life of me and this happens at multiple wal-marts.

easy. it is a couple reasons. some stores don't cancel the security tags on stuff. blockbuster video was a prime source for that. other, normaly smaller stores don't use the system and so don't cancel them.

the other reason is highly amusing and even the security tag company had no good answer for it. a lot of clothing, especially jackets, as well as bags and purses have security tags built into them. even things like books will have these tags in them. for some unknown reason sometimes they reactivate, even after being canceled. i remember i had a work jacket that had been signed out for store use a couple years before. but all of a sudden one day it started to set off the system every time i went in or out. we checked it out and sure enough it was the jacket, so we canceled it again. some time later it happened again and so we canceled it yet again the found it and bent the heck out of it (it was inside the lining) to stop it from happening again. this was such a common thing that several of the greeters would try to help customers by finding the problem and re canceling them and some even tried to destroy the built in tags, if they could find them.

ATSAlex
"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 call BS on this part, unless they are the friggin NSA or you specifically give them your passwords for your online banking, they have no way of knowing.

For the rest, thanks for the info, although I never shop at WM

they have all the important info. EVERY TRANSACTION at every wal-mart WORLD WIDE, is transmitted via wal-mart's satellite to head office in Bentonville Arkansas, as it occurs. i somehow doubt that pin numbers are not included. i bet Target and everybody else has similar practices (not the satellite tho), which is probably why that big Target data theft last year has resulted in so much fraud involving customer's bank accounts.

and from a couple fraud cases i know of at wal-mart gaining access to bank records on just suspicions is easy for them. in one case they suspected an employee of stealing cash from where she worked in the cash office. that suspicion was enough to access her, AND HER FAMILY'S, even her BOY FRIEND'S bank records, as well as gaining access to a cell phone and car dealership's records to find out how she purchased them. never steal money then show up to work and show off the most expensive phones you are giving as gifts, and don't drive a nice car to work. that is what their suspicion was based on. the access to her family's and boy friends bank records were gained so they could prove she had no legitimate way of having enough money to buy them. they were THEN based on that able to gain a search warrant for her parent's home (where she lived) as well as her boy friend's place, where they then found at the boy friend's something like $20,000 cash (he was unemployed, yes they had access to employment records for everyone as well), as well as cash and various items at her house. THAT was what they used to nail her. it was only several months after nailing her they were able to complete going through all the records with a fine tooth comb to find what she had stolen, she was apparently very good at hiding all she took within the paperwork. but don't worry, she is not in jail for stealing a couple hundred thousand from wal-mart. THAT will be explained i a question i am about to ask the OP.

this is not the only time i know they have accessed financial records based on suspicions alone either. there was another case where a friend of mine was checked into because of his car (at least that was the only thing we could think of that caused it), he was not actually stealing from the store, he was dealing certain products on the side in his off hours. but they confronted him with his bank records, and those of his girlfriend and their parents, as their accusation that he had too much cash so he must be stealing from them. but since he could not really say where he got the money without opening himself up for even worse criminal charges, he accepted their verdict. but again not to worry he also did not get charged for theft by wal-mart.

tonyb1968
I am also aware of a hard lines assistant that impregnated two employees under his supervision and that the company simply moved him to another store.

Is seeing an fellow employee during off time a company offense?

reply to post by Joki42


i have a few questions for you directly from your training and working for wal-mart's LP department.

first have you ever been involved in an employee theft/blackmail session? i know of far too many people who were nailed for theft, some guilty and some not guilty of said theft, some friends some non friends. but most of them have similar stories, that are especially scary, that the company can get away with it. others it seems they want charged and don't give the offer. that is they are called into a meeting with LP not sure who all else is there but normally there are one or two head office types and head office LP in the store at the time (for some reason they all won't comment on who all was involved not sure if i ever asked directly about that or not). but anyway they are called into a meeting where they are accused of theft. in that meeting wal-mart tells them they will not press charges if they PAY BACK the store for an amount that they are accused of taking. now even curious is that they ALL say (at least those that ARE guilty) that the amount asked for is far above what they stole, of course for the not guilty it is even worse since they took nothing. this was even true for someone who stole a couple hundred thousand in cash, her parents apparently sold their house to pay for it and keep their child out of jail. how can they get away with such blatant BLACKMAIL? i actually wonder just how much profit is gained by this seemingly illegal practice. and i know it has to be true since in one case a non friend was hired by a friend of mine and i commented about the fact he had been fired for theft, i was told that he had NO CRIMINAL RECORD since he had checked that, and the guy later got a bonded job which you can not get with a record. it also explains (i didn't realize it happened yet, so i was rather confused at her almost insane reaction) why this person's girlfriend and mother of his child came and freaked out at me almost to the point of physical assault, for ratting him out (i didn't since i had not realized he was stealing), and causing such financial hardship on them. and other cases where they would come back and completely freak out about how much wal-mart wanted them to pay not to be criminally charged.

it is also said (even by people i knew from LP) that wal-mart waits until you steal over $5,000 (the point of a higher charge), before nailing them, (bargaining chip for their blackmail?). how can they even KNOW what you have stolen when they have NEVER STOPPED AND CHECKED YOU as you leave? even if they saw someone and even recorded it, taking something how do they KNOW you actually left the store with it? how can they then use that against you for charging you with theft? doesn't sound very legal to me anyway, where is the PROOF you took it? i know with a "shoplifter" you have to see them take the item, where they put it, then follow them to make sure they don't leave it, and THEN stop them OUTSIDE THE STORE WITH THE ITEM, otherwise it is a no go. so why is this different with an employee?

another thing i noticed in my years at wal-mart, the number of people nailed for theft, just after returning to work from an extended time off for injury non work related, after a fair amount of time has passed since they got back to work if off on a "work injury" (i would suspect to throw off accusations they were firing you for costing them money for worker's comp), or even to see someone quickly nailed for theft after being suspected of something like a DWI (charged with it or not), accused of "spousal abuse", "street racing", or other criminal matter, well before it would ever go to court. do you know of any policy official or not about that type of thing? it seems wal-mart likes to use theft as rather easy out to get rid of someone (and even make money off it into the bargain), that they feel is "not a good person" even when their work has been fine. do you know anything about that?

WAL-MART IS NOT A "GOOD COMPANY" in MANY MANY WAYS.

beautyndissonance
I'm sorry, but everything in this persons post is complete crap. I won't say where I work in Walmart, but I can vouch 100% that Walmart does not have access to your bank records and does not "track" anyone. Walmart also does not "investigate" associates for shopping at other stores. I work at the home office and most if not all of us frequent other retail establishments because our founder encouraged us to go out and see what other companies do better than we do. This post is complete trash and a bunch of fabricated lies.

edit on 31-3-2014 by beautyndissonance because: Added

perhaps YOU would like to answer the questions i just asked the OP a bit ago. oh and is it STANDARD PRACTICE to force someone who you KNOW is currently on heavy duty pain medicines to SIGN LEGAL DOCUMENTS WHEN YOU CAN BARELY EVEN SIGN YOUR NAME, forget about even really understanding what you are signing? and don't even THINK of calling me a lyer. perhaps you should take a GOOD CRITICAL LOOK at what your stores do around the world, it might surprise you.

Bellor
Dont how it is in America, but in the UK if you tried to access someones bank statements without something like a court order your pretty much going to get arrested. Thats highly illegal.

Well i know for fact that they can't see your bank information, at least not in my state. No one can access your private bank information. They can't even get your credit info unless you give them permission. I doubt very seriously this is the case in CA either these are federal banking laws.

Not sure what this person saw but it was not Walmart getting into someone private bank info. Don't believe me, check with your bank. Not happening.

Sorry for your obvious bad employment experience. They don't do things right by their employees, that is a given.

The Bot

reply to post by tonyb1968


i wish i could throw more stars your way for that. i worked for them even longer, and the stories i have are many as well. almost anyone who has worked at wal-mart for a few years has LOTS of stories about how things run there. from stupid, to outright illegal acts, even to employee DEATHS at work, being forced to use dangerous "jury rigged" equipment etc. i have NO DOUBTS about what you have said or even the OP's seemingly outrageous claims no mater what the so called "i work at home office Bentonville" beautyndissonance says. could be they are so compartmentalized (almost worse than the CIA it seems from stuff i have heard), that they really have no clue about what goes on day to day down at the store level, in areas not of their particular department, if they even know of everything IN their department. dear old Sam Walton must be spinning in his grave at what his beloved company has turned into.

reply to post by generik


You guys are being ridiculous. It is a federal banking protection law. No one can get into your bank account period. Even if you worked for Walmart and your check is put in electronically. All they can do is put the money in, that is it. Just you admitting you looked at someone's bank account could get you arrested.

Pure garbage. Even if you go buy a car, all they can do is pull your credit info and you must give them written permission to do that.

Pure garbage, I challenge you to call your bank, they are going to tell you the same thing. Don't listen to this garbage or waste any more of your time..... Should be in skunk works. Ramblings of disgruntled employees.

The Bot

Aleister
reply to post by puptuls

 

They make them do an orchestrated happy dance at the start of their shifts? First I've heard of that (I must be out of some loops). Can the employees opt out of this without being seen as an "outsider"? Strange.

nope you are expected to show up and do the "wal-mart chant (some departments like TLE are lucky and because they need to be where they are they get out of it), but everyone else is expected to do the chant, including motions especially the "squiggly". give me an W, give me a A, give me an L, give me a "squiggly", give me a M, give me a A, give me a R, give me a T, what does it spell WAL-MART, (and goes on with different stores having slightly different versions for their store). what is worse they expect everyone to take turns leading the "chant". if you don't do it or are not seen as enthusiastic, it will get you a talking to, and you ARE seen as a possible problem. normally it takes place at store opening, sometimes when most of the evening shift comes on, and the start of the overnight shift. along with the chant is a "meeting" telling how well the store is doing, giving stock quotes, praising certain people or departments for having the best or best improved sales. basically saying "how great we are" type stuff. sometimes "important stuff" is mentioned, like having to prepare for a head office visit, and how everything has to be perfect for it. sometimes they will tell of changes to policies or procedures (and those not at the meeting sometimes don't ever hear about it). think of it as a bad attempt at brainwashing the employees as to how awesome the company is. you really have to see one to see how pathetic it really is.

Some of you might be interested in reading this:

A Case Study for Walmart

This spring, Walmart’s CEO of Global E-commerce, Neil Ashe, explained Walmart’s technological aspirations at an investor conference: “We’re building a global technology platform whose goals are as simple, frankly, as they are audacious. We want to know what every product in the world is. We want to know who every person in the world is. And we want to have the ability to connect them together in a transaction.”58

I have a story about an event that happened to me at Walmart about 4 - 1/2 years ago.

I happen to shop Walmart regularly. So on one of my shopping excursions... after I'd just had my babies... off me and my sis went to the store...we loaded up the babies for a shopping trip.

As the two of us shopped in the store, my sis noticed we were being followed by 2 guys. So she mentioned it to me and I looked around and sure enough, two guys were following us and being blatantly and rudely obvious about it once they saw that we both realized we were being followed. A bit freaked out about it and wondering why - we went about our own way continuing to shop but all the while watching closely to be safe. Then at one point as we got close to the front of the store... one of the guys rammed his basket into the back of my sis. Being upset we decided to check out pronto. She and I were a bit frazzled at that time. As we began to check out, one of the cashiers got really aggressive with her as she was trying to pay for her transaction. I don't remember the fine details but I noticed that several cashiers and a manager had a close watch on us and were being very in your face aggressive in handling us. We both were shocked and confused at the behavior. We left feeling unsettled and confused at the treatment.

I was so angry that day I swore I would never return to that store ever again. What I really should of done was gone back inside and asked to speak to a manager to hash out the details of what had just occurred but honestly having the babies with us we just wanted to get out of there safe and secure.

When we left we started recapping what had transpired in the store and the only logical conclusion we could come to was that they thought we might of been shoplifting with the stroller ? Mind you I was pushing the stroller and she was pushing the shopping cart. No objects ever were put in my stroller at any time during this shopping trip or EVER for that matter ! I am conscience enough to know that is a No No and I would not put myself or my babies in that type of position. I don't steal and am not a shoplifter either but you hear a lot of stories where people use their kids and strollers to steal. It is the only thing that made any sense at all to me in any way. We were thinking it must of been their security/theft employees and for some reason they honed in on the two of us ? But it still doesn't explain the rude behavior and physical contact that was made ? That can't be legal ! I can see keeping any eye on us (especially if they had been dealing with prior shoplifting scenarios where strollers were being used)... but the behavior was way out of line !

Now as far as my believing that Walmart put them up to it... OR is it just a group of poor decision making and managing on a group of employees that happens to be going on in that store ? I don't know ?

leolady

introV
This thread makes me want to go to Walmart and walk around till people follow me.

you just have to be sure to do it when LP people are actually in the store. sometimes as an employee we would swear they were not in the store anytime we needed them. i remember one day an IDIOT was obviously stealing something. he had his jacket on top of a package (like a big screwdriver set or something), it was about 2 feet by 3 feet, it was so obvious we wanted to cry afterwards. we had someone who was able to slip away and call for security or a manager with no result, i pretended i hadn't seen him as i was working with a customer and so he was standing at the door for a long time before i finally finished with my customer and really had no choice but to open the door (how long was i supposed to ignore him?). to make matters even WORSE, the moron had to come back and get his key to put it in the car, we had his car for over an hour, we kept trying to get security or even a manager, with no response. we had never really received any training on how we were supposed to deal with something like that. we knew we weren't really allowed to stop him, so we had no choice but to let him go.

nightmare_david.

i guess the chase thing depends on the area, all the stores i worked at LP and sometimes even normal associates would try to chase down the suspect, i did it myself along side LP. the only time i heard anything negative said about it was an associate who chased the guy over a mile (he got the merchandise back, when the guy threw it away from him). they congratulated him for his efforts, but cautioned about going so far since he could have gotten hurt. the best was when they would get into a car and take off, they thought they were home free too bad all we did was grab their plate number and LP would phone it into the police who would put out an APB, and visit the registered address of the vehicle apparently with search warrant in hand.



sorry had to remove all of what i wanted to quote since my reply would not show until i did????

Bean328
Yea walmart was my first job in high school and most of the camera balls were empty minus the ones by all the registers and in the electronics section. They do have people "observing" customers. They are always understaffed because they're cheap bastards that dont give people hours. I've been sent to other departments to do stuff for that reason. Unions are the anti-Christ in Walmart. My store was brand new at the time. We stocked the entire store when they built it. I wasn't "awake" back then but I did notice some things that I thought were definitely wrong...

did you get the one on one (for denyability) speech about "there will be union people coming and trying to set up a union, if one tries to talk to you as soon as you can break free call a manager with their description so we can throw them out of the store. and if you are caught talking to one and did not report it, you will be "dealt with""? along with the "if the store does go union, we will just close the store and open one somewhere close by" speech? i opened a few stores and would get those speeches. the "anti-christ" is nothing compared to a union in wal-mart's eyes. it's too bad if any business needs a union to protect the employees it is wal-mart.

Glad you told me this because I must annoy the LP's every time I go in.

I dress in faded jeans, rock t-shirt, bandanna on my head, earrings etc - but the kicker is I use my E-cig in Walmart constantly blowing BIG puffs of vapor around LOL

generik
... if any business needs a union to protect the employees it is wal-mart.

No business gets unionised that doesn't heartily deserve it.

Xtrozero

tonyb1968
I am also aware of a hard lines assistant that impregnated two employees under his supervision and that the company simply moved him to another store.

Is seeing an fellow employee during off time a company offense?

Sounds like he was an assistant manager and not just a fellow employee so yes it would be a company offense.

joeandandi

Xtrozero

tonyb1968
I am also aware of a hard lines assistant that impregnated two employees under his supervision and that the company simply moved him to another store.

Is seeing an fellow employee during off time a company offense?

Sounds like he was an assistant manager and not just a fellow employee so yes it would be a company offense.

Serious? What century is this backward company living in?

generik

Aleister
reply to post by puptuls

 

They make them do an orchestrated happy dance at the start of their shifts? First I've heard of that (I must be out of some loops). Can the employees opt out of this without being seen as an "outsider"? Strange.

nope you are expected to show up and do the "wal-mart chant (some departments like TLE are lucky and because they need to be where they are they get out of it), but everyone else is expected to do the chant, including motions especially the "squiggly". give me an W, give me a A, give me an L, give me a "squiggly", give me a M, give me a A, give me a R, give me a T, what does it spell WAL-MART, (and goes on with different stores having slightly different versions for their store). what is worse they expect everyone to take turns leading the "chant". if you don't do it or are not seen as enthusiastic, it will get you a talking to, and you ARE seen as a possible problem. normally it takes place at store opening, sometimes when most of the evening shift comes on, and the start of the overnight shift. along with the chant is a "meeting" telling how well the store is doing, giving stock quotes, praising certain people or departments for having the best or best improved sales. basically saying "how great we are" type stuff. sometimes "important stuff" is mentioned, like having to prepare for a head office visit, and how everything has to be perfect for it. sometimes they will tell of changes to policies or procedures (and those not at the meeting sometimes don't ever hear about it). think of it as a bad attempt at brainwashing the employees as to how awesome the company is. you really have to see one to see how pathetic it really is.

When I worked there I tried to protest the Wal-Mart chant by doing the most over-the-top ridiculous squiggly I could every time. This eventually led to a squiggly-off between me and my manager. What started out as an obnoxious team building activity turned into something kind of fun for everyone as the employees enjoyed our "contests" and often voted on a winner. Management was happy to have a little fun with it and not get too uptight about it.

Joki42
reply to post by boncho

 

This applies to everyone, employee and customer alike.

How does Walmart have access to your credit cards to see where you shop?