TeflonDawg:
Thanks for your stiff dose of reality. I do agree (totally) with your observations and comments with respect to businesses, especially large "big box" stores, being inherently amoral. The larger a business gets, the less "appreciated" each individual customer becomes. I understand this dynamic - which is why I consider the conflict between buyer and seller a war. In any transaction I'm involved in, my objective is to get the best value possible for my money. Their objective, likewise, is to milk my wallet for as much profit as possible. I also recognize and acknowledge your observation concerning banal platitudes that are pretentious BS. The B&N store manager I've become friendly with doesn't engage in that kind of act with me. He is very quite and reserved. Most of the (few) conversations I've had with him were cordial and businesslike with no anger or raised voices. I live in a town full of scientists, engineers, and technical folks. To his credit, this store manager is perceptive enough to realize that "happy talk" (and banalities) don't go over well with technical folks. To his credit, he knows (and understands) his customers.
Given these acknowledgements, this breakdown/impasse - whatever you want to call it - is not totally my fault. Whether or not they realize it, B&N is at least partially responsible for conditioning me to "expect" store coupon discounts. How did this happen?
You are probably correct that the B&N store manager was giving me discounts that I may not have been entitled to. I suspect he may have done this (initially) in the hope that I would continue coming into his store making [additional] $100.00+ purchases of software books. In the past, I usually bought only a single software title at a time - paying full store price. Approximately a year ago I decided I needed to get cozy with Linux, the computer operating system, so I bought four Linux tomes in a single purchase. This $150.00 purchase seemed to have got somebody's attention - or probably a marketing algorithm's attention ...
In the past I had refused to pay for a $25.00 "Members Card" as I felt it wasn't worth the cost. However, every time I made another purchase, the cashier would point out "how much I would have saved if I had a Members Card." (The potential "savings" was printed on my sales receipt and the store clerks were very persistent in reminding me how much I could be saving.) After years of ignoring their persistent entreaties, I finally relented and agreed to pay for a Members Card.
After I paid for the Members Card and made my first multi-book purchase of software books, something "interesting" occurred. B&N started flooding my Inbox with 10 and 20 percent store coupon solicitations. I was not receiving those "store coupon" discount offers via email until after I had paid for the Members Card, bought those software tomes, and gave them my email address. This is subjective on my part, but it appears that B&N must have thought I was a "good customer" who they wanted to encourage to keep buying more and more books. Once I had paid for the Members Card, if I went more than a few weeks without visiting their store - and/or making a purchase - those coupon solicitations would show up in my email. (Sometimes, like right now, those solicitations come every other day!)
After a period of time, it was easy to assume that I was entitled to those store coupon discounts - such discounts came with "being a member" of Barnes & Noble. (If I wasn't entitled to the discounts, why the hell were they sending them?) I obviously had not read the terms and conditions of the membership card. When I purchased the card, not a single word was said to me [verbally] as to what I was - and was not - entitled to as a B&N card holder. (All they told me when I bought the card was that I would get a 10 percent discount on every book I bought in the store. When I was buying those four Linux books at full price, it was pointed out to me, rather emphatically, how much I could save with a Members Card. That was when I relented and plunked down the $25.00.)
I just assumed this automatic 10 percent discount would also apply to books I purchased from their web site. It was my error to "assume" anything and not verify all the terms and conditions before I agreed to pay for the Members Card. Thanks to de captain I belatedly discovered that I was not entitled to a discount on books ordered from their web site. My suspicion - and it is just that, a suspicion - is that the store manger exercised a bit of personal discretion by giving me discounts on the bridge books. You are probably right: He wanted to keep me happy and buying. (I'm not sure about the assistant store manager. I sense that she was very reluctant to exercise discretion - she seemed more concerned with following rules. Also, the interaction with her occurred on a Sunday morning when the store manager was off duty.)
So, strictly speaking, I acknowledge that you are correct: I was probably receiving a discount that I wasn't fully entitled to. However, despite my failure to read the terms and conditions, I don't believe I was totally wrong in coming to believe that I was "entitled" to those discounts. In hindsight, I suspect the store manager must have assumed that I had read the terms and conditions and realized that he was "doing me a favor" when he approved discounts for me. (He actually did this only once or twice at the most, since most of the time I had a store discount coupon that had been sent to me via email.)
All this has a happy ending - at least for me. With only 5,000 active members across the United States and internationally, I have found a smallish independent seller of bridge books. They are willing to sell to me - at a 20 percent discount - on every book in their inventory. (I'll have to pay for shipping costs, but I'm not bellyaching about that.) I'm now in the process of placing my first order with TBW, (i.e. The Bridge World), an organization of bridge nuts and enthusiasts that has been in continuous operation since 1929. Right now my initial order is for 14 books and will top out somewhere in the $200.00 to $300.00 range. If all goes well with this first order, I will probably order more bridge books from TBW.
I will not renew my B&N membership and, after nearly 40 years, I've probably bought my last book - or anything else - from Barnes & Noble. As Michael Corleone says: "It's not personal, it's just business."
I suppose Barnes & Noble is happy too. Look at the bright side: They've managed to get rid of an "undesirable" customer, so it's "Win-Win" for everybody.
