I've always found it annoying at places like Home Depot when, on exiting the store, they insist on looking at your receipt and nosing through your purchases. It's invasive and a waste of time. So, having read this article a while back, I decided to try refusing this "request" yesterday.
I was at Best Buy, where I purchased a set of speakers. There were more employees than customers in the store, and I was the only customer anywhere near the checkout area. The exit was maybe ten yards away from the register I used, in full view of the employee doing the receipt checks. So there's no way she could have missed me checking out. As I walked toward the exit carrying a moderately heavy and cumbersome box, she still asked to see my receipt.
I started to walk past her.
"Wait, sir! I need to see your receipt!"
"Um, no, I'd rather not," I said.
"No, I have to look at it," she said. She tried to take it out of my hand, but I moved away so she couldn't get it.
"Really? What happens if I don't let you?"
"Well, I'd have to report it."
"That's fine with me. Go ahead," I said, turning to leave.
"But I also need to make sure that you got what you paid for!" (As the article I linked to above points out, this isn't really possible, since the boxes don't have prices on them. There's no way she can compare my receipt to the intended price for the speakers, unless she happens to have memorized the price of every single item in the store's inventory, which is doubtful.)
"Thanks, but I'm sure I did," I said, and I started walking away from her. At this point, she just gave up, huffing out a petulant "Fine!"
I doubt I'll make this a standard policy, but it was fun to mix it up a little.
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3 comments:
Ick,
It seems like a silly thing to harass the lady trying to do her job. If you really have a problem with the policy, then talk to a manager. Otherwise, you're just being a low point in someone's day.
Yeah, I don't have any desire to make these people's lives harder, which is why I don't plan on doing this again. Mostly, I just wanted to see what would happen.
But honestly, I don't think you can construe trying to get away from someone as "harassment."
I'm reading a book, right now, called "The Year of Living Biblically" by AJ Jacobs (the guy who read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica). He mentions a book he read called "Radical Honesty," about truth-telling in all situations, how brutal honesty give s one a roller-coaster-like rush.
In "Living Biblically," Jacobs was out to dinner with his wife and they ran into an old friend of her's who suggests that they get back together at a playdate with their kids.
Jacob's wife says, "Absolutely!"
Jacobs says, "Uh, I don't know...you guys seem nice. But, I dont' really want to make new friends right now. I think I'll take a pass."
Needless to say, his wife was pissed at him.
For some reason, your story reminded me of that.
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