Home Depot customer who used self-checkout 'chased' outside over receipt — he spent $2 on a sharpie

Self-checkout counters were meant to ensure convenience for shoppers, by making sure that they pick up products, pay, and walk out, without any human intervention. But a Facebook user recently took to Facebook to share his experience at a Home Depot store that really shook him up. The customer named Sean George highlighted the practice of employees checking customers' receipts even after they paid using self-checkout.

In the comment section of an article about the same, Sean Geoge wrote, "This happened to me at Home Depot once. I shop there almost every day for my job, all the employees know and recognize me, and I make VERY large purchases." He then talked about the incident that shocked him. "Then this one time I went through the self-checkout...literally buying a Sharpie! A freaking $2.00 Sharpie. I cashed out and then when I left the building this girl chased me outside and demanded to see my receipt. I showed it to her but I couldn't resist making a snarky comment," he added.

He also claimed that he was the only shopper who was stopped at that moment. Receipt checks are supposed to act as an anti-theft measure used by the stores and shoppers are often stopped after self-checkouts so that an employee can review their proof of purchase.

People who have recently shopped at Walmart or Costco have mentioned how employees asked them to show receipts at the door, and some people have even complained about the practice on social media. Shoppers are not legally bound to show the receipts but not showing the receipt could give the store a cause to detain then, as pointed out by Business Insider. 

"We do this to double-check that the items purchased have been correctly processed by our cashiers," Costco said on its website. "It's our most effective method of maintaining accuracy in inventory control, and it's also a good way to ensure that our members have been charged properly for their purchases."

This is not the first time that people are calling out anti-theft practices enforced by the retail giants. Back in August, a shopper slammed Walmart for making her do separate transactions in a single trip as part of their anti-theft measures. Taking to TikTok, the user Makayla Moon Rants, said that she had to wait for the employees to unlock cosmetics and electronics before going to pay for groceries. "You made the shopping experience a living hell," Makayla said in the video. "Nothing about me wants to do three transactions just to buy one store's items," she added.

However, some of these retail giants are deploying such measures because they are indeed struggling with theft. "Theft is an issue. It’s higher than what it has historically been. We’ve got safety measures, security measures that we’ve put in place by store location. I think local law enforcement being staffed and being a good partner is part of that equation, and that’s normally how we approach it," Walmart CEO Doug McMillion told CNBC.