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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AdmundfortGeographer" data-source="post: 2422136" data-attributes="member: 4682">As I explicit stated it with regards to joyriding in a car under the pretense of purchasing it, what is unethical is that you effective have stolen fuel and the salesman's time which could have been spent holding the hand of an actual prospective buyer (he gets paid on commission after all), and risking driving the car in traffic where an accident could happen. All the while pretending to be something that you were not... a potential customer.TANSTAAFL applies here. Someone pays for this free riding.Ethics has nothing to do with what is legal or contractual. I'm sorry you think it has to.No I don't believe Monte goes into a retailer and treats that storeowner like a public library for his competitor research. I do believe Monte would buy his competitor's products, or potentially receive them gratis from the competitor. I do believe Monte might even go into a game store to purchase something and while he is there glance through his competitors product.Hardly, I am being invited in to inspect. Houses are prepared for heavy traffic of visitors. I know this, I have sold two houses in my life. I haven't said anything about being good friends either. Homesellers know that bringing in the neighbors to view the home can potentially drive word of mouth for a person who is in the market for homes. I have done this twice, as I said, I haven't met a realtor who didn't think that bringing in the neighbors was anything other than a benefit to selling the home.I have yet to meet a storekeeper who thinks bringing in people who only buy online  everything sold in his store to come into his store and check out the things being bought is a good thing. I have met storekeepers who know that free riders are part of the cost of business of running a retail store. One single book so inconveniences you that packing it in your suitcase or carry-on bag is too much? If you go into a store with the thought in mind you could buy something (a mini, booster pack of cards...), you haven't done anything to violate that shopkeeper's law I mentioned even if you don't buy.Correction, they never had your business to begin with but you took use of their services. Because you didn't transact the purchase with them doesn't mean they weren't part of the cycle. You weren't an invisible phantom when you walked into his store and cracked the book open to check it out, and his store wasn't a public library.However, if in your mind there was a chance the store could have gotten you business now or in the future, you're not doing anything to violate the Storekeeper's law I'm talking about.If you went in knowing you would never buy anything, ever, from the store owner, yet pretend to be a potential customer, and handle what he owns. You are deceiving by acting as a potential customer.His time, his attention better spent with somone who will help him pay his own costs to display what you are handling.</blockquote>

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