The fact they ask for an address/zip code each time you might spend money in their store was a really big turn off for me. So if I denied giving him that information, would they still have accepted my money? Tandy Corp is fallen off it’s pedestal. Years ago Zales and Levines, and Radio Shack were filled with customers. Could 60+ years have made that difference? As the path taken by 7-11 (7 days a week we open up at seven; and seven days a week we’re there till 11), they fade away and cease to exist.
That was a big turn off for me too. One of the last times I was in a RS many years ago, it was a RS in a mall and I popped in to buy a pack of D batteries while I was there at the mall, rather than making another trip somewhere else, and paying cash, less than $5 and the little snitty “boy” behind the counter wanted my name and address and I said, “No. I choose not the share that information”. He then told me that the cash register would not ring up with sale without it so I told him to put in his address, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, the address for Wrigley Field or whatever he wanted but I wasn’t giving him my address, didn’t want to be on their mailing list or for whatever purposes they wanted it for including selling it to telemarkers (they used to be able to easily get your phone number, even unpublished numbers from cross lookup phone books). He said he couldn’t do that and then stood there dumbfounded and wouldn’t ring up the sale, so put the batteries down on the counter and walked out.
I’ve been in other stores that “ask” for an address or an email addy (Yankee Candle is one that always asks) but none of those retailers have ever refused to ring up my purchase for politely telling them I choose not to give it to them. I have also pointed out to the clerks, and any customers in line, especially other women, that while you are giving the clerk your home address, anyone standing nearby can overhear it, including a potential stalker or rapist. That might sound paranoid but I have heard of isolated cases were exactly that happened. Better safe than sorry.
The very last time I was in a RS, one right around the corner from my house, back in the mid-90’s, the older man working there greeted me with “Hello there little lady”. OK. Not the worst thing in the world and given his age, I gave him a pass even though it came off a bit condescending. I was there looking for a replacement battery for my cordless phone, knew the make and model of my phone and the size and specs of the battery I needed (voltage, mAh, etc.). And then he asked me, “Are you sure that’s what you need? Don’t you want to check with your husband first or go home and bring him back with you?” He wouldn’t even look to see if they had in stock what I needed. Grrrrr!
First of all my husband was technologically impaired when it came to any and all things electronic. He never did learn how to program the VCR – LOL! And I had built our first home PC and had upgraded several others (memory, hard drives, power supplies, replaced fans), was working in an IT department at the time and I wired our new light fixture and a ceiling fan after my husband couldn’t figure it out. My husband was the last person who would know what type of and or how to even replace the cordless phone battery.
I walked out and drove to my favorite electronics store, an independent store in Towson MD – Baynesville electronics – really techie haven. I had purchased all sorts of computer parts, stereo cables, and turntable cartridges from them in the past and they never talked down to me as a customer like the guy at RS did. I never set foot in another RS again.