Business 101: NEVER make a customer wait to give you their money...

"Entitled Twerps"...

Didn't you say something about "name calling"?

That said, "Entitled Twerps" would make an awesome name for a band...

Ain't that the truth!

Well, as I said in my first post, I told them to tell their bosses that people can buy this stuff on the internet. My point being that someone at Dicks was using an outdated concept. That model might have made sense if my choices were between standing in a long line and not having the goods I wanted. But those days are gone.
Instead my choice was between standing in a long line or buying these goods from the comfort of my recliner, and not standing in a line, and not paying for gasoline, and not spending 40 minutes round trip to buy my stuff in their brick and mortar location.

I believed the sweater folders when they said they couldn't open a register. Hopefully Dicks is smart enough to get feedback from the employees on the floor when they find their sales dwindling. Maybe not. Maybe they'd just rather cry about how internet sales are ruining their business.

Market Basket!!!
 

Market Basket is the best. One of the few things I miss about Taxachusetts. Finally found a reason to contribute to these threads.

You forgot the other choice, the one you actually chose:

Spending 40 minutes round trip to buy your stuff in their brick and mortar location, spending however long to do the actual shopping, then more time standing in line, then changing your mind and walking out without the product you came for.

Sounds like you wasted a lot of time, effort, gasoline, and peace of mind while they got paid whether you bought stuff or not.

There are security measures in some chains, to ensure that only specific authorized people working on those specific shifts are handling the tills. Yes - people have gotten in trouble for it. Usually the write-up occurs after a few repeat offenses at the same till.

We live and we learn.
This particular event was maybe 10 years ago. I hadn't really embraced the idea that I could more easily buy all this stuff online. I was still a "brick and mortar" guy, and frankly, probably unaware of just how far along the rest of the world was on this road between internet shopping and brick and mortar (probably hadn't even heard the term "brick and mortar") shopping.
In 1977 I moved to a small Upstate NY town that had a mercantile district in the town center. I could buy just about anything within walking distance of my residence. One by one, these stores closed down as they couldn't compete with the big chains that were opening up in malls and shopping centers slightly out of town "on the 4-lane".
40 years later these malls and shopping centers were losing the big chains, one-by-one as they lost their market to the internet.

In all likelihood the die was cast for this store, as the changing dynamic would have its effect regardless of policy, but that event made it very easy for me to never go back in that store. I'm sure the decision makers had their reasons for their policies. Their thinking was flawed. They took away the one advantage they might have held against internet shopping; a positive personal interaction.
Stupid for them, but a learning experience for me.

I had to return a burial urn a few months ago. Not the one I ordered.

Guy at The UPS Store raised his eyebrows when I brought it in. “An urn?” He commented.

“Yeah”, I replied. “I got better”.

Got a chuckle out of the woman behind me in line.

......... and they are getting better. We really like Panera soups and right now you can buy any of the Panera soups in Market Basket, win win for both parties.

I shop in NH. Market Basket and Amazon are everywhere up here. Great for the consumer.

I think there is a solution to the brick and mortar stores that Amazon is killing. We are desperately short of middle income and low income housing. What about taking the box stores in the Malls and turning them into affordable housing, expensive proposition, but it would give a return on investment if done right.

Some of them are being turned into pickleball clubs.

Exactly! It appears that the related shopping experience wasn’t too effective since Dicks doors are still open.

The online business with old people will become even more interesting when AI takes over.

I wanted a specific item that I had no idea what B&M store would carry it. I plugged it into Amazon and wha la. There it was. I ordered it from Amazon and still do not know where in the world I would have found that item in a B&M store.

Full disclosure.......I much prefer to shop at B&M stores.