A Year in Uruguay

A few weeks ago I was at the Géant superstore checkout. I wanted to buy a bike pump but the price wasn't on it. A clerk on rollerblades came to check the price. I thought that was pretty cool and decided to take a picture. (See this post.) Apparently, Géant prohibits photographs, so a security guard came over to scold me. Which he did, for a long time-- continuing through several of my apologies. I wasn't particularly happy and I didn't buy the bike pump.

Think a bit about this policy. A customer at a store sees something interesting & decides to take a photo to share with his friends and family. "Hey cool store, check it out!" Isn't this exactly what a store is trying to accomplish through advertising? I understand that a business has the right to restrict photography on its property, but are those restrictions in its own interest? Seth Godin, a marketing expert, had the same thing happen to him. You can read his thoughts on it.

Anyway, I still shop at Géant but every single time I walk in the door I get a bad feeling. If there was another superstore in Montevideo, I'd shop there instead.

Labels: business, Uruguay