This week I’m peeved about the point-of-sale quiz. I saw an extreme example of it the other day when I got my haircut. The woman ahead of me, escorting her son, got the quiz when she arrived. She was asked to provide her name, the child’s name, their address, her phone number, and a zip code.
It turned out that even though I haven’t been to this place in years (seriously, like FOUR years) they still had my name in the system. They looked me up by phone number.
Every time I go to a bookstore I get the “Do you have a card?” “Do you want a card?” “Why don’t you use your card?” Or, even worse was when I was with JB and she considered getting a card at B&N and listened to the whole rigamarole before learning that there would be a charge for the card. When she declined the clerk was kinda snotty.
I think grocery stores used to be worse, but these days all I get is “paper or plastic?” when I forget my “green” bags (probably stitched together by enslaved children in some maquiladora) and “Any coupons?”
Some of these intrusions I don’t mind. My grocery store doesn’t bother me, and the pizza place being able to look me up by phone number doesn’t bother me (though if they’re keeping those kind of records they probably know if you’re a decent tipper or not).
The questions that drive me nuts are inquiries about my address and phone number. Just stop. I just want a simple transaction buying my widget with cash. You don’t need my home address, work phone number, cell phone number, zip code, and email address.
Even more annoying is that I know it isn’t the clerk’s decision to annoy me with these questions. Some suit somewhere decided that collecting demographic information can really help them target their advertising. So, I won’t be a jerk to the clerk, but having no way to vent my displeasure isn’t very satisfying either.
So, what to do? My solution is to write a blog post and to get my hair cut somewhere different next time. Part of my decision on where to shop is to frequent the places with the least cross-examination at the point-of-sale.
And I thought I was alone in this. Yes, I agree. Sometimes, no, most of the times, I want a simple transaction.