Open Shop

Multiple sources at a Greensboro, NC retailer report that a customer has ripped open a product's packaging. In and of itself, this wouldn't be a story worth covering, but the staff claims the customer insists on buying the one he opened.

Nina Turner, a sales associate who was working the bedding department at the time, witnessed the incident as it unfolded.

“I was making space in the pillows for tomorrow’s delivery,” says Turner, “and it’s a quiet night so I can hear the packaging being ripped opened from across the aisle.”

There, as expected, was customer Gerald Zahn, holding an freshly unfurled white comforter. What was not expected was how Zahn reacted to Turner’s attempt at taking the open merchandise to transfer out as damaged.

“I asked if he needed any help,” says Turner, “and he was just like ‘no, I just wanted to check out the quality’, you know, like we don’t have a display of it two feet away. I told him when he was done I’d take it off his hands so I can damage it out, but he was just like ‘no, that’s fine, I’ll just buy it’.”

“Since I opened it,” Zahn says nonsensically, “I should pay for it.”

“I didn’t understand,” says Turner. “I made sure he knew there were plenty of unopened ones he can take, but he wouldn’t hear it. I mean, whoever goes and buys the one they opened? Like what’s wrong with this guy?”

“Nina radioed me and I came to the bedding department right away,” says manager Seth Bellamy. “I couldn’t understand what she was going on about, so I figured it best if I just came down there and try to make sense of it myself.”

But when Bellamy arrived on the scene, sense of it was the last thing he could make.

“Nina pointed him out,” says Bellamy. “He was carrying around one of our comforters out of its package but neatly folded. It was exactly how Nina described it, and I’m not saying I thought she was lying, but I guess I just had to see it for myself.”

“Don’t worry about,” says Turner, “I wouldn’t have believed me either.”

“A ratty, old display, sure,” says Bellamy, “of course I’d believe someone would try to buy that. But a new, unstained product fresh out of its packaging? That doesn’t sit right, you know?”

Bellamy approached the man to see if he needed assistance and even offered to get the man a new comforter himself.

“No,” said Zahn with a smile, “it’s fine. I’ll just take this one.”

Bellamy says it wasn’t worth his time to try to figure out the customer’s motives.

“I could’a stood there all day and never understood it,” he says. “Is it some kind of viral TikTok prank? A fetish, like a weird thing to do with gettin’ his jollies? Does he have a financial investment in our company that loses value based on inventory losses? It’s enough to drive anyone crazy, so I’m just gonna call a Nihilism on this one.”

“He knows he can just take a new one, right?” says nearby customer Judith Wolcott who we didn’t ask to comment but just walked up and commented anyway. “Inventory loss is built into their prices, might as well just take a new one, he’s paying for both anyway.”

“What does he think, he’s better than me?” says James Kelley, another customer who has cost the store an estimated $179 in inventory damages in the 19 minutes he’s been in this store. 

Eventually, Zahn made his way up to the cash register.

“Um, I don’t know if I’m allowed to sell this,” says cashier Ezra Parker upon seeing the loose comforter in Zayn’s arms.

“No, it’s fine,” says Zahn, handing over the product’s empty package for Parker to scan. “I was the one who opened it.”

Parker looks to Bellamy who has crept over to see how this would transpire. “What’s the protocol here, Mr. B?”

Bellamy shrugs, unsure what the rules are on this kind of transaction, as if anyone could even conceive of this transaction ever happening.

“I guess,” says Bellamy, “sell it to him, right? It’s what he wants so….”

“Sure, I guess,” says Parker, “but I want everyone here to confirm that they heard a manager say it was okay.”

In the end, Zahn paid for his bedding and walked out of the store, leaving the staff to consider if anyone would ever believe this story or if it even really happened at all.

“I feel like I’ll wake up tomorrow and think this was a dream,” says Bellamy. “You see people do a lot of weird, messed up things working in retail, but never something like that. No, I think this is one –”

Bellamy is cut short by Zahn, who had apparently walked back into the store while we were talking. The comforter, now balled up, looks wet and muddy.

“I’m sorry,” says Zahn, “but I dropped this in a puddle out in the parking lot, I need to exchange it for a new one.”

“Just give me a minute,” says Bellamy. “I need to check the store’s return policy on that…”