Today I went to one of the Marketing studies sessions and it was about consumers’ shopping experience. In one of the situations presented, we had to imagine ourselves in a crowded DVD rental store. We had to return some late dvds and pay a certain fee for returning them late. Given that the sales person was too busy and therefore did not charge us for the late dvds, we were asked about how we would react in a situation like that. In this circumstance, as customers, we would be happy for not being charged a late fee. However, I think this only happened because the store was too crowded and the sales person was too busy to deal with so many problems. Applying this situation to the real world, some of us may have experienced the same situation as the above. As consumers, we benefited from using a product and not needing to pay for it, but is it right? Some customers would certainly go back to that store again, since the store gave them benefits.

This situation is very common in any type of store. A restaurant, for example, can attract many customers to eat there again. An example is how employees give extra food for a table without charging them for that. For employees, not charging customers is not a problem since it is the company that is  paying for the supplies. However, from the employer’s point of view, employees are breaking the rules of the company. Applying some HR concepts, employees can eventually be fired if the employer finds out that they are not charging customers for the goods provided. This is certainly not a good approach to encourage customers to visit the store again.