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CompUSA did exit bag checks when I worked there 10 years ago. It was to make sure big ticket purchases were paid for properly, and to check the serial numbers of the larger items against the serial numbers on the receipt. After verifying everything was good to go, the guard (contracted security guards, not store employees) would initial the receipt or hole-punch it with a special punch. If you tried to return something and the receipt didn't have either the initials or the punch, you had to come up with a really good explanation why. I don't remember it being a big deal then. As far as I go, I don't really care. I have nothing to hide, I don't see a store making sure I'm not stealing from them as being an invasion of my privacy, I'm not going to make a big deal of it. I have my bags X-rayed and checked every day coming onto and leaving my ship, and submit to all sorts of other checks and inspections, being in the military and working in secure areas. My personal laptop has to be turned on (to ensure it's not a bomb) and the etching on it shown to the Master at Arms (to verify it's mine and not stolen). I understand why that's necessary and I'm used to it. I submit to that or I don't bring it on board the ship. Fight it if you must, but I think if Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin were shopping at Best Buy they'd pony up the bags and not say a word.
Now, if Best Buy employees knocked on your door at your house because they saw an empty carboard box from one of their TV's on your curb and demanded to see the receipt, then yes, by all means, that's unlawful. Or if they stopped you on the street while you were listening to your iPod. That's what the 4th Amendment is all about. But while you're in their store, you play by their rules or you shop somewhere else.
-Mikey
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