Rent for Free

I went back to work yesterday after a day off.  One of the first things I noticed when I walked into the department was some drop cloths wrapped in shrink wrap sitting on the one counter.  Evidently one of our customers had decided to rent for free.  Rent for free, you ask?  That's when a customer buys a product, uses said product, and then returns the product because it is no longer needed.  Like drop cloths, you know?  And, of course, I'm going to have to reduce the price and take a hit on them because no one wants to buy a used drop cloth at full price.  This customer could have gone to a rental store and rented the drop cloths, but that would have cost money, using them and then returning them is much more cost effective.

In case you're wondering, this happens fairly regularly, and not only with drop cloths.  People use all sorts of things and then return them, I mean, why would they want to clutter up their house with things they're most likely never, ever going to use again?  And, of course, the corporate side of retail is looking at the big picture.  If you treat a customer right, he might spend up to $80,000 in his lifetime at your store - so why dick around with $80 in drop cloths.  They don't think about how much you're enabling bad ethics.  I mean, what are ethics when compared to possibly earning... maybe as much as $80,000 in retail sales?

Anyway, this has been my bitch of the day.  Why buy something when you can rent it for free, use it once and get your money back.