Sure, but you're assuming that this was a mandated practice by the "evil corporation" when the reality is just that individual managers didn't think this throug

Sure, but you're assuming that this was a mandated practice by the "evil corporation" when the reality is just that individual managers didn't think this through in their stores. In the store that I worked out of, you had your bag checked, you clocked out, and they walked you out the door (for us it was the back door). There was always someone whose job it was to do this bag checks and they never lasted more than a minute. This sounds to me like it was more "Manager gets caught up with a customer. Manager tells employee to clock out and then they'll check their bag. Employee goes to the floor to find manager for bag check and has to wait for manager to finish their interaction. Interaction takes longer than 5 minutes so employee is waiting off the clock to have their bag checked." Somehow, that became the norm when the reality should have been "Manager gets caught up with a customer. Manager tells employee they'll check their back and then can clock out. Employee has to wait for manager but gets paid while waiting. Manager checks bag. Employee clocks out and leaves." I also suspect that part of the reason this became the norm in some stores was that individual managers were risk-averse and wanted employees to clock out first because, otherwise, they get to return to the back room with their bag post-check. If they clock out first, they can leave right after their bag is checked.