Thread: Picture Taking in Stores?

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Wondering if anyone else has ran across this?

I was in my local Halloween USA a couple of days ago. I was looking for scary scarecrow masks for my cornfield I'm putting up. I was taking a couple of pictures of the different masks with my camera phone when an employee walked up and said, "sorry sir, no picture taking allowed". I looked at him with a puzzled look on my face and replied, "I'm trying to decide which mask to buy here" and he said, "sorry, company policy." I said, "ok, I'm going to buy my mask across the street at Spirit then" and walked out of the store and went to Spirit. He could see I was strictly taking pictures of the individual masks and their top secret store lay-out and displays! Needless to say, I won't go back into Halloween USA.

Anyone else have any similar experiences?

I usually ask if there is anyone around if it's okay to take pics. I tell them I'm taking them for posting so folks can see what they've got and come buy stuff they're looking for.

Never had a problem so far. Totally understand being miffed enough to leave, tho.

It has never happened to me before, but besides the thing that this is how they display stuff, they might think if you show pictures to other people online, maybe they won't like the stuff you are showing them, and they won't come. However, the flip side is if you show pictures, maybe they will come because they didn't know the products that the store offered. To me, it's utter garbage about not taking pictures because of how the store is displayed.

For that Sam's Club mirror, I didn't have interest in that thing first when seeing it, but now when I seen the video of it, hey that doesn't look that bad. I still wouldn't buy it because of the high price tag, but still. If I wanted to buy a really expensive prop I would buy Jason, or the skeleton guy at Spirit that has ghosts in his chest, but I'm not.

Any person can go into Halloween USA (Let's say someone from Kmart.), and memorize the displays, and write it down as soon as they get out of the store. It's just dumb!! If one person can't do it, you send 6 Kmart people in the store, and memorize certain displays. What I want is great merchandise. You can set it up however you want to, but if it stinks, than I'm not going to buy it. Of course, companies have there theories of putting stuff here and there.

You put stuff in the back of the store that you think people are most likely want to buy so they go throughout the whole store. That's why grocery stores have milk towards the back. You put freezers close enough to the checkouts so that stuff doesn't melt, or get too warm. Based on this philosophy Wal-Mart has it all wrong. They have the food towards the front of the store where you think it should be towards the back except the freezer section. Also, the cosmetics, and health care should be more towards the back because those are the sections that I see a lot of people in.

However, look at Wal-Mart, and how much money they are making. Who cares about putting stuff in certain places? People are buying the stuff. I just thought about something. Considering Target, at some of them you have the toys all the way in the back. Well, you go through the kids clothes in the middle to get to the toys. Does that mean people are going to want to buy clothes? Today, I went through the Food Section at Kmart on the way to the Halloween section. Does that mean I bought food at the store? No, it doesn't.

Actually, I worked for Michael's for years and I never let people take pictures in the store either. Women would come in and take pictures of our custom arrangements so they could copy them. There are also security reasons for prohibiting photography. We know you weren't casing the joint, but the next guy might be. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask someone not to. Sorry to disagree.

Originally Posted by monstergramma

Actually, I worked for Michael's for years and I never let people take pictures in the store either. Women would come in and take pictures of our custom arrangements so they could copy them. There are also security reasons for prohibiting photography. We know you weren't casing the joint, but the next guy might be. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask someone not to. Sorry to disagree.

See, THAT makes sense. If you've got custom arrangements that someone made and has for sale, you wouldn't want someone taking pics so they can copy it. I wouldn't have a problem with that.

Taking pics of a prop or a row of shelving displaying stuff so you can see the general inventory, that's a horse of a different color.

We used to have a FANTASTIC Halloween store in the Chicago area called, "Murrays". It literally blew away the competition as far as unique quality merchandise. Only problem was they were outrageously priced, which I'm sure led to their demise. Anyway, I wouldn't take actual photographs of their products, but I would take mental pictures and brought pen and paper to see what I would need to make it. This guy in Halloween USA could CLEARLY see I was holding a mask in front of my phone and taking a picture.

Until 2 days ago, I had never taken pictures inside the store. I was at Michaels this week and I took pictures of some of their individual flowers to send to my sister in FL regarding a wedding (they weren't custom arrangements, shoot, they weren't even arranged). Some of the people in the store gave me strange looks but none of the employees said anything to me. I had never thought about the security issue but I will from now on.

Did you wind up getting the masks you were looking for?

I've asked in a few places when a lot of people were around or I was talking with one of the sales people and wanted to snap a shot and I've never had a refusal.

I try not to take pics with people in them, just products I'm interested in and may want to come back to buy or show you guys who might be interested in them. I can't tell you how nice it is to have a camera phone for that reason. Nothing like shopping and a week later thinking about an item and then can't remember where I was or if it would go with something I had at home. For me pictures are a huge plus. It has really helped hubby out too when I've ask him to pick up a certain something for me at the store. In fact we just ended up buying a TV console this past week because I had seen one I liked in a Costco and took pics and showed hubby who mulled it over. One month passes and luckily I had taken pics of the box because hubby now wants it and the item had sold out of our local store and with the help of the pic were able to call around and find it at another Costco. That being said if someone from a store asked me not to I would say ok and comply. I figure a lot places probably have security cameras watching me and if they had a problem would approach me and ask me not do it. I honestly can't say I've ever seen a sign at the door to a store I shop in that has some language about prohibiting use of cameras. I have seen such signs at concerts and such. I can understand the reasoning behind copying designs or casing a place though.

And just to elaborate on a point someone else already made, I have gone out of my way to find items I've seen here on the forum and know from comments about some of my pics that others have made the same effort on their end. A picture can sell an item easily.

Boo, no I haven't found the "perfect" scarecrow mask yet. I'm still on the look-out

thats wild, I have never had any issues and I take pics in stores all the time if I think someone might want what I have "found" or if I think my wife at home like me to pick it up or something or if I need a product number to do some online comparison shopping, etc.