Can Texas Stores Legally Detain You To Check Your Bags?

For the most part, I don't like self-checkout. Unless I have 10 items or less, I don't want to scan my own groceries. But as it stands, they have taken over grocery stores across Texas.

This has led to more stores posting employees at exits to check customer receipts. But can a store employee in Texas legally detain you?

Can Texas Stores Legally Detain You To Check Your Bags?

Last week, I stopped by Walmart Marketplace after work. It's my go-to stop on the way home. It's also now approximately 95% of the time self-checkout only.

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On this particular night, after I shopped, checked myself out, and made my way toward the exit, a wild dude in a blue smock asked to see my bags and receipt.

Sure, I was offended. ME? I'm not stealing. I didn't make a big deal, though. I showed him my stuff, and he cleared me. Then I walked out the door and went home.

But that got me thinking, was that legal? Is it even legal for a Walmart employee to stop someone they think is shoplifting in Texas? Can any store in the Lone Star State legally detain you?

From The Clark Law Firm, here's what you should know:

There is a legal concept in place called “Shopkeeper's Privilege” that allows store owners and security guards to search and detain individuals. However, the shopkeeper and their agents have legal responsibility to ensure that their suspicions are reasonable, or else they may be liable for false imprisonment.

This Shopkeepers Privilege "allows store employees to briefly detain suspected shoplifters for questioning or to await the arrival of law enforcement." Pretty vague, right? I'm sure that's by design.

What about Sam's Club or Costco?

It's very common for retailers that offer memberships to require a person to give consent to have their receipts and other personal property checked upon request.

The Costco terms and conditions for membership state, “Costco reserves the right to inspect any container, backpack, briefcase, or other bag, upon entering or leaving the warehouse and to refuse entry to anyone at our discretion.”

If you'd like to learn more about your rights, the store, and police response to shoplifting, you can read more about that here. But of course, the best defense against being stopped for shoplifting will always be to not shoplift.