Reader Helen went to Home Depot to buy some various and sundry items, but left empty-handed after the self-checkout refused to let her complete her purchase without disclosing what she planned to do with her items. Helen says:
On Sunday, May 4, 2008 I went to the Home Depot on Joppa Rd, Baltimore County Maryland. My purchases includes several plants, pots, and tile sealer. I went to the self check-out line because of the speed and scanned my items. Before I could indicate I was paying by cash the machine wanted me to enter a zip code, I entered 11111 because it’s really none of their business. The next screen wanted me to key in if my items were for home or business use. I had no ability to bypass this screen even thought I did not want to answer this question.
I requested assistance from the employee assigned to the area because again I do not feel I need to report to Home Depot where I plan to use items I purchase. I was told my transaction would not be completed without providing the information requested. I left without my items.
What next? Is “big brother” going to screen my cholesterol levels before allowing me to by diary products at the grocery?
I have e-mailed my concern over this interaction to Home Depot and all I have in response is some statement about sending this on to someone else in their system. Clearly, most individuals who utilize the self-checkout want to get out quickly and do not stop to question the invasion of privacy issue. If this is an attempt by the Home Depot to collect information as a survey, I would hope they would have the sense to request an individual’s cooperation.
Thank you for the forum where I can at least vent to a group who seems to care.
Sincerely:
Helen
Yuck. You already emailed the store, but if you’re really concerned about letting Home Depot know that this stupid survey cost them your business, feel free to launch an EECB (executive email carpet bomb). The CEO’s email address is Frank_Blake@homedepot.com. For more information about launching an EECB, click here.
What do you think about “surveys” like this one? Do they affect where you choose to shop?
(Photo: cmorran123 )
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It’s all about getting people used to giving out information in dribs and drabs. While it may seem meaningless, it adds up and more is asked of you. After all, you answered those other questions, why not these slightly more intrusive ones?
@edosan: So do you go to stores and leave stuff behind often?
This was the HUGE 8 piece Ryobi tool kit with the Miter Saw, Sawzall, Circularsaw, drill, Mini Router/Cutout tool..etc.. In a Huge Plastic Rollaway for taking on the Jobsite. The cashier took the little toolbox from underneath the cart, rang it up, then required us to remove the toolkit from the cart since the UPC was on the bottom. In the process, she set the toolbox on the floor so we would have room to put it on the couter for her to search for the UPC/Ring it up. After getting it back in the cart and back home, we realized we had not gotten the toolbox from her. Called at 9:30pm at night. The manager was already aware of the box and had gone looking for us, but we were gone. He put my name on it and put it at the entrance to the store for me to pick up the next day (they close at 10pm).
I took my receipt first thing when they opened the next morning, it was waiting for me as he said it would be. Thanked the manager who had saved it for me (it was the same guy), took the toolbox and went out the exit.. The security guard was standing there checking reciepts… I started to explain that it was purchased the night before.. He wouldn’t even let me finish my sentence, he stuffed my receipt in his pocket and told me I could not leave with the toolbox if I did not have a receipt for it. I did, or I should say HE DID. He just kept repeating himself, pointing me back in the door like I was a little kid or a dog, just kept getting louder and louder. I almost had to run back into the store. Anyhow the manager was collecting carts at the end of the registers and when he saw me he came running to the door. Calling the guard by name several times and then telling him it was OK, that “I was OK”. I hadn’t said a word to him, he knew the problem when he saw me coming back in. I took my receipt from the guard, who just held it out and sort of scoffed at me. I had never been so flustered, upset and afraid. The guard looked like a 400 lbs (I’m 220lbs) Cholo/gang-banger in a rent a cop uniform. I think his appearance was intentional and he enjoyed intimidating me and having total control every single second. They gave him too much power.
That’s another reason I was so upset at the store, the manager knew all about my situation and I hoped for an apology from the store and the guard.
So hope that answers your question, I am not an idiot, things happen some times!
@tekkierich: I was in a similar situation and really screwed up the cashier by saying they were for personal letters at a business.
@MelL:
Businesses need to know who they are catering to. A homeowner is going to have different needs than a contractor. And vice-versa. It is so not unreasonable for HD to ask for this info. It’s their company, they want to know who their clientele are so they can provide the proper goods for them.
In other news, McDonald’s is violating your privacy by asking whether your order is “for here or to go”. They SAY they do it so they know whether to give you a tray or bag… but their real reason is to know if you’re eating outside your house more than in and that can mean you are having family problems. Why aren’t you eating with your spouse?
Damn McDonald’s…
I, for one, welcome our new Home Improvement overlords.
Since she walked out after the second question, did she or anyone of you know how many more questions and time she would have to go through before being able to check out? That’s what would have annoyed me. I’ll answer one screen of questions, but when the next screen comes up and it’s another question, I’d be mighty annoyed. Maybe some of you feel ‘important’ when anyone asks for your input and don’t mind wasting unknown amount of time ‘chatting’ with a computer.
The point is you should be able to make a purchase without automatically submitting to the collection of your purchasing habits. It IS a violation of privacy regardless of how small YOU consider it to be. Most consumerists will not do business with a company that does not provide the option to OPT out of a survey.
If you think any corporation is going out of its way to protect your rights by refusing to cooperate with government (including the IRS) you are as naive as your comments on this story make you out to be.
It amazes me how willingly Americans submit to all types of fascism. Not only do you submit, but you defend it, downplay it and criticize those of us who resist it.
I love the people who say things like “who cares what you buy” and the government isn’t collecting info on what you buy – guess it was too tough to read all the news reports on the “Office of Total Information Awareness” – a program designed specifically to track every financial, business, travel, etc transaction of every citizen.
@beboptheflop: Such surveys should be 100% optional. It shouldn’t be a requirement for a transaction, as was the case here. Personal information so I can buy things? No thanks.
Is there any difference from being paranoid about answering “is this for home, or business use” any different from the paranoia that keeps a 2-year off a plane for having his name on the no fly list?
Anyone who uses these self-checkout lanes is a damned fool, to begin with. Meijer now has a ton of them in their Michigan stores and I have actually left a couple of cart-loads of groceries in the aisles and walked out when they had no manned lanes with reasonable lines in them. I refuse to use their stupid self-checkout lanes! Shop at Lowes or better yet, Menards. And by all means, stay away from those self checkout lanes.
Right. So to end the conspiracy theories for all you concerned citizens out there:
I work as an accountant for a major nationwide retail/wholesale company. The REASON you are asked for your zip code at the check out is because your retailer has to pay sales taxes to all the states in which they operate, and some states where they do not have physical locations but still make sales. So, by providing your zip code, you are letting the retailer know where to send your sales tax so your local area can have things like, oh I don’t know, roads and schools and libraries. There really is no other reason, and it really isn’t all that interesting. Sorry to burst your bubbles.
What I find oddest of all. The consumerist advocates using CREDIT CARDS for all transactions?!?!
@FreeMarketGravy: The would be great, but here at the consumerist, that’s called blaming the costumer
@FreeMarketGravy: Because the level of annoyance increases with each question, and she reached her limit. And who knows what else it would ask next…maybe it was a complete survey.
It’s death by a thousand paper cuts: the spam, the telemarketers, the receipt checkers, this. And meanwhile people here say “A papercut? Big deal.”
If the Home Depot employee were properly trained, she or he would have offered to bypass these questions for the customer by entering the stores zip code and answering “personal” on her behalf.
I agree with Metaled that “Self checkout is to speed up your exit; not to take a survey…”
FWIW, If you answered “personal” you would not have been able to enter a PO # or Job name for tracking nor could you have entered some off-color language as was reported in this recent Consumerist story on Home Depot receipts:
[consumerist.com]
BTW, if “Helen” refused to answer these two innocuous questions at a self-checkout when paying cash, what is she (and everyone else on this blog) planning to do when the 2010 Census takers come a-callin’?
From the EPIC website (Electronic Privacy Information Center)
[epic.org]
And we’re concerned about a self-checkout at Home Depot?
i go to this HD location all the time, never been asked that stuff
@Gann:
Good plan. That way when they start adapting their business model to reflect the bogus information people can come here and complain about it.
When I read the title I thought someone had tried to by some restricted combination of chemicals and Homeland security had swooped in.
Like many others, I agree that the editor that posted this article appears to have extremely over-exaggerated the scenario.
I can understand not wanting to give up information, but given that you’re paying cash already, is there really any reason you’re afraid of just punching in random information like you did with the zip code? I doubt they have facial recognition software or thumbprint scanners for those who pay cash to associate this type of information…
Nice alarmist headline. Why the hell do I even read this site anymore? There used to be good information here.
A little birdy told me that Homeland Security will be visiting this whiny latte sipping tree hugging tofu & sprout munching America hating commie pinko terrorist sympathizing Democrat bastard of a customer within the next 12 hours.
wow thats up the street from me
@thesabre: HA!
But really, I don’t exactly understand what the OP’s issue is. She had no problem making up a zip code, and could have just as easily picked (or made up) either “home” or “business,” whatever her intended purpose was. Hypocritical, no?
I’m the same way.
If I can’t pay and get out, I’ll shop elsewhere.
I don’t need the third degree to buy a handful of items.
I’ve left an entire cart full of stuff in the checkout line before and walked out because of this.
Since the question wasn’t answered there’s no way to know what would have happened with the information.
It just so happens that some grout sealers sold by Home Depot (specifically the Stand ‘n’ Seal brand) have been linked to respiratory illness. Maybe Home Depot wanted to issue a warning to people who would be occupationally exposed to the fumes?
way too many comments to read through to see if this has already been asked: i could sliiiightly understand this if she were to use a card, but if she was going to pay with cash (as mentioned) there’s no way for them to track the sale to her, so where’s the danger in answering the question (fake answer or not) this particular time? “big brother”‘s got nothing on you. unless of course they go back to check the surveillance camera to see your face and then look through the DMV database to find you, because clearly that 11111 sent off alarms in the upper offices since obviously it should have been 212xx. and then, once they caught you, hopefully they’d send you to a nice comfortable psychiatrist’s office to have a little chat about those nagging little paranoid delusions.
i’d love to be in the head of the HD employee when confronted with the problem. and leaving without your items is just impractical and wasteful. how much gas did you burn just driving over there? instead of leaving without the items, why not just go to a regular checkout line? or tell the employee to pick something for you? or better yet, just hit a button and pay your cash and realize it’s just going to be part of a stastistic, and that sometimes, maybe, just maybe, not every company has a personal vendetta against you.
if you are not going to let me post please delete my account
I bet they asked to see your receipt when you were leaving, even though you had no product.
Hey, one day you’re in a hurry and push some random button to get out quick, the next day you got a mailbox full of snail spam from carpet installers and homeless drywall installers knocking at your door looking for work.
Good job. Fuck them and their stupid questions. I’ll answer theirs when they start answering mine.
at least the self check out doesn’t DEMAND to see your ID.
@The Bambino:
Your “time” means nothing.
Our lives on this miserable planet are a spek on a gnats ass. Yours will be over before you know it. And probably no one will remember anything about you.
So yes, bitch and complain…. LOUDLY…. while you still can.
@IphtashuFitz:
I actually like that feature: It’s optional, but it sure as hell makes returns a ton easier if you can’t find your receipt!
I wonder how well it would go over if, while checking out, I conducted my own survey of the cashier. Does she also make purchases for business or simply collect minimum wage? Does she live in my zip code? Does she dye her hair? May I see your ID please? How much time have you spent in training for this position?
Yeah, I bet that’d go over like a shit covered brick.
Do what i do….
Lie
Any time a business asks for my phone number, zip code or address, and I feel they don’t need it, instead of arguing I just make shit up. Its far easier than arguing.
@eelmonger: Self-checkouts should be self-explanatory, but for the life of me I’ve never had a good experience with one. I’m not stupid and can follow directions, but self-checkouts hate me.
@Valhawk: I think the point of the story was making fun of the customer, rather than criticizing the store for asking “debit or credit?”. In that, some people are so paranoid about privacy that they refuse to answer simple questions that are required (with good reason) to complete the transaction.
@picardia: But you have to understand — a lot of people aren’t all that bright. While you may not find the question confusing, I can guarantee that there would be a lot of people that would find it confusing. You would be surprised at how easily confused they can get, so you have to make things as user friendly as possible.
“Is this purchase for home or business?” is less likely to cause confusion.
@donnie5: Ha! Same here, been using 90210 for about 15 years now so WV Radio Shacks and Circuit Cities have been seeing a spike in cross country purchases. But needing to fill in pointless information on a self checkout line seems well… pointless, its there to make checking out quick and efficient.
A bit off-topic, but can anyone please explain why Walgreens always asks for your zip code? Walgreens nationwide seems to have this practice.
Just dick with them and claim that you’re using the doorknob, can of paint, and socket wrench you bought to build a thermonuclear device.
@valb:
Wow. Are you really this stupid, or are you paid to lie to people about their information being involuntarily collected? I have seen a lot of really stupid ignorant crap on this site, but this definately takes the cake. Go back to sleep kid, and remember the government loves you.
Yeah.. anyone who believes that a retailer has to pay taxes in the state where the CUSTOMER lives is stupid enough to believe that corporations do not voluntarily violate your rights and share personal data.
By the way even if your argument had any validity whatsoever it wouldn’t apply to the self-check-out in the middle of a store. You cant shop online at the cash register. It IS a physical location. J.H. Christopher, the crap people will come up with and/or believe to convince themselves they are free..*vomit*
Well if this was Wal-Mart, they would’ve body-checked the computer to the ground and forced it to eat it’s cute blue vest!
My enjoyment at my NY HD was 20 people on line, ZERO human cashiers, and four self-checkouts but only ONE was working. Seriously, has anyone ever been to a store that has ZERO cashiers!?
@vildechaia:
Probably to plan future expansion. If 10 out of every 15 customers is coming from a city that is 50 miles away, they may consider building a store there.
Every day I find myself reading less and less of Consumerist and it is because of these posts with misleading titles of stories of asshats who somehow feel victimized because a harmless question will jeopardize their livelihood.
Consumerist, please spend an extra two minutes looking at these “news” items before you post – your credibility is truly waning.
“What next? Is “big brother” going to screen my cholesterol levels before allowing me to by diary products at the grocery?”
Classic slippery slope line of thinking. It’s 100% irrational to think that punching in Home or Business will give way to the monitoring of your health records next time you buy dairy.
@Topcat: amen!
Who said you had to answer HONESTLY?
@stuartny:
i’ve been in the opposite illogical situation. the supermarket near where i went to college has about 15 checkout lines, probably 5 or 6 of which were self checkout. if you ever went to the grocery store after about 10 or 11 (which, being near a college and in the middle of a town ended up being a lot of people), they shut down all self checkout lanes. but then they would have 1 or 2 cashier lanes open, which would lead to a huge line of people trying to check out. damn inconvenient. there was never a paucity of employees in the store, so i never understood why they couldn’t have the normal employee or two responsible for overseeing the self checkout. at least have one self checkout lane open for people who are there to buy a late night snack or a box of condoms or something.
Get over yourself Helen. Just enter the damn information and be done with it. OR, here’s an idea, use the regular cashiers, then get over yourself.