If it is really to enforce export laws, why dont they check that at the airport when people are actually leaving the US ? This store should apologize and teach its employees to behave better.
Do you really want TSA going through your luggage, carry on and checked, when you fly? That would add an incredible amount of time to check in.
I was twice "randomly selected" (read: I was nearby when they were finished with whoever they were inspecting) by TSA officials before check-in, who went systematically through my to-be-checked luggage looking for things unspecified. I have also several times received rather serious-looking notes in my checked luggage stating that they had gone through my luggage behind the scenes without my consent. They also demand to see at the very least an x-ray of any carry-on luggage that I take -- including special processing for shoes, anything in my pockets, and the laptop in my bag. The last time I went to the states they took a naked photograph of me with a machine that had "X-ray vision" (though I don't know whether it was Safe Microwave or Cancer-causing X-ray style). Nominally nobody actually saw the photograph, and it identified that my ponytail (I had one at the time) was a Serious Risk worthy of further investigation.
Generally speaking one tries to be several hours early to their flight.
-I've been randomly selected too and questioned. They do this in most countries. It happened for me in Germany as well.
-The notes are a good thing. I'd rather the TSA or whomever tell me when they search my luggage.
-X-raying is probably the most efficient way to search through all luggage going on a flight. It's also been around for a loooong time, way before TSA.
-Shoes is a direct result of the shoebomber incident. I think it's a little silly though.
-You have to empty your pockets/take off belt to go through the metal detector and not set it off.
-The full body scanners are opt out. I have always opted out. Recently that means you get a pat down. Fine with me, given the two choices.
-You sure it was your ponytail?
-Several hours is overkill. 2 at most for international, 1.25 domestic just in case.
I'm not so much objecting to the notes. Rather, I'm saying, "not only did manual inspections of bags happen, they still happen -- just no longer in front of your face." Metal detectors are pretty nice, and probably worth their security, if they were the only factor -- but if they're going to pat you down / naked-photograph you anyway, the metal detector just seems redundant.
Nobody told me that I could opt out of the body scanners, and I was certainly being pushed through them. I am 80% sure that it was my ponytail: I saw the Risky Business circle drawn on a schematic of my torso about my shoulders I felt someone grope between them, and I heard them say, "oh, it's just your ponytail." The other 20% is just because I have no idea what the hell triggered their algorithm or how their algorithm worked or what its false-positive rate.