[taustin]

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

I can see you're hoping for a "gotcha" moment here, but I fully admit what "seems" to be my position.

No "gotcha." I'm trying to figure out what your position is. I really can't tell.

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

If a store sets up their business in such a way that they provide sales people to assist customers, on the assumption that an assisted customer is one that is more likely (but not guaranteed) to buy,

Which is almost universally true.

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

then I don't have a problem with someone getting the offered assistance. A person not buying, even after someone has helped them, is the cost the business has chosen to pay in setting up their business in the manner they did. Any time a salesperson helps anyone, he or she is taking a risk that there's a better customer somewhere in the store that he or she is missing out on.

That's the business, yes. The issue is the non-customer deliberately manipulating the situation so as to cause that missed opportunity.

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

The salesperson might be annoyed at a browser, but being annoyed at someone doesn't equal that someone having acted unethically.

What the salesperson does, or feels, is completely irrelevant to whether or not the non-customer is unethical. No connection at all.

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

And just as an aside, I like how you shifted the goalposts in the above from "unethical" to "less than desirable".

That's not a shifted goalpost, it's a turn of phrase. If it bothers you that much, pretend I said "unethical" again.

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

I also like how you've limited your example to commissioned salespeople.

Except I haven't. I've offered that as the most extreme example, but lookie-looks directly affect the income of the store in all cases.

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

So do we agree that, in the case of a bookstore, which probably doesn't have any commissioned salespeople, it's not reasonable to say someone with no intention of buying has acted unethically, even if they "waste" a salesperson's time?

I said that from the beginning. Perhaps you should review the conversation, to find the parts you've forgotten.