"You can't do that here"

I've never really had a problem with this, mainly because I don't stick around in one place too long and I try to be inconspicuous. If I see an employee, I'll preempt them by telling them I'm with the local paper, just looking for a quick quote, won't hassle anybody, yada yada, and they're OK with it.

 

Luckily, I've never had that kind of experience.

Though I will say I mentioned to a guy working behind the counter at a Chipotle that one of that particular branch's employees was quoted in the big city daily. When I got up to the counter, I realized he was a manager and that he told the cashier not to charge me for my meal.

 

Not exactly on topic, but one of the reasons I won't shop at Best Buy is they had a man arrested for writing down prices so he could comparison shop ...

As for BRoth's situation, well, it's his coffee shop. He paid for the right to say what can and can't happen there. 'Course, turning down free publicity might not be the best way to promote his business, but to each his own. On the other hand, it's kind of weird. I've done a bunch of interviews in restauraunts, and never had a problem.

 

How can you have someone arrested for that?

 

When I worked at Best Buy, managers from other electronics chains came in and wrote down prices. All we did was give them the ads for this week to at least be a little inconspicuous.

 

NYT article about the incident, which happened in 1997:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E4DF143BF930A15750C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

Best Buy has also had people arrested for paying with $2 bills and for buying things off their website.

Links here:

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=146457

 

After reading that first story, I think I have an idea of what happened: The douche from Best Buy thought the customer was working for another store, doing to Best Buy what Best Buy does to other stores.

What a douche.

 

I was in a Circuit City writing down prices once and a staffer came over to me and said, "Who you with?" It didn't even occur to him that I might just be a shopper comparing prices (which I was). Maybe my reporter's notebook gave him the wrong idea, but shouldn't you assume that a person in your store is a customer and treat him as such?

 

You should have told him you would acknowledge him when he used proper grammar.

 

Yeah. That sentence is all sorts of wrong. I probably would have walked away. Fuck him. Let him wonder why you left, too. Don't tell him.

 

I can understand the coffee shop's stance. Say you're asking a question like who people are supporting for president and somebody says something derogatory or provocative for an answer (Gold, for newspapers). The coffee shop owners probably don't want their place of business associated with something like that.
The worst experience I had was trying to get a quote from a movie theater chain about the hubbub over the latest Harry Potter or Star Wars movie. The theater was allowing people to camp out overnight and even held contests, but a quote from a theater manager about the event? Never. Their corporate folks are too busy giving USA TODAY analysis on the national zeitgeist after "Wild Hogs" beat out "Princess Diary 2" for the top weekly box office to give me a call back. Ugh!

 

You can't fight here. This is the war room.