James's Weblog

Some CLIÉ handhelds have a feature that lets them behave as universal remote controls. One day, one of my coworkers and I went to Fry’s Electronics to test them with various brands and models of televisions, VCRs, and DVD players. (For obvious reasons, the only A/V devices we had at work were made by Sony.)

Whenever we found some device we couldn’t control, we’d write down the manufacturer and the model number. After a short while, a plain-clothes Fry’s security guard approached us.

“Do you work for us?” she asked.

“What?”

“Do you work here at Fry’s?”

“No, we’re from Sony. We’re testing these devices.”

“Do you have approval from the store manager?”

“No.” (Note: if someone asks if you have prior approval, always say yes.)

“You can’t write down prices without approval from the store manager.”

“We’re not writing down prices. We’re writing down model numbers. See?” We showed her our notes.

She consulted with someone else with her walkie-talkie. “You can’t do that either.”

“So if we were consumers, and we wanted to compare prices, what are we supposed to do?”

“Memorize them if you want, but you can’t write them down.”

“Uh-huh.”

Fascists.

(Someone later explained to me that manufacturers and retailers have agreements that prohibit retailers from selling below a certain price, and everyone knows that Fry’s is no stranger to shady business practices. (Telling the guard that we were from Sony didn’t help.) This also explains Fry’s newspaper ads for items from “name-brand manufacturers”.)