The Walk of Shame

As I slipped my shoes on and closed the front door behind me, a thought of shame came across my mind. Ugh, what was I doing? I felt a rush of embarrassment flush my face red and could feel people looking at me. What were they thinking?

"Yes, Hi, I have a return".

Making a return may be one of the most nerve-wracking things I've ever done. Somehow, walking into the store with a bag makes me feel like a criminal. All of the employees look you up top to bottom, annoyed at your very presence, almost as if they know you're about to waste moments in their precious day and back up their check-out lines. I haphazardly scurried my way to the return line and waited patiently to be beckoned forward by the angry looking brunette.

"NEXT."

After checking around to make sure she was talking to me, fearing a harsh verbal whipping if I stepped forward when it wasn't really my turn, I slowly walked up to the register. She eyed my bag and sarcastically guessed "return?" in a scathing voice that would frighten small children.
"Yeah, sorry."
I felt the apology coming out of my mouth before I could stop it.
Shit, now I looked vulnerable and like I stole things. Great.
"Do you have a receipt?"
Of course I didn't because I never ever keep my receipts.
"No, sorry I don't."
Shit, another accidental apology.
That remark actually made the brunette make eye contact with me for the first time.
"You don't have a receipt for any of these dresses?"
"No, I bought them for a wedding and didn't end up wearing any of them."
"Did you wear them?"
"No, the tags are still on."
Sigh. I was making myself look like a thief when I really hadn't done anything wrong.
The brunette raised her eyebrows heavily and pursed her lips together, like she was thinking the same thing; I was a thief.
"Well you're only going get whatever price the items are now since you don't have your receipt."
At this point it was too late to turn back. I didn't have a choice. I was mortified.
"Yeah, that's fine."


5 minutes later, a gift card for $7.53 (even though the dresses had cost me over $50) and entirely depleted of my pride - I walked out of the store. After all of that humiliation, was it really worth it to return those things? And I would have to say yes, yes it was. I mean, think about it, how many times have you purchased something, it didn't fit, wasn't your style, was damaged or maybe purchased food that went bad too quickly and never returned it? Those things add up.

There was a time where I would rather die than return something. It was so embarrassing and I just didn't want to deal with the time and effort of returning it. Now that I'm older, I'm finding that every penny counts. If I added up all of the money that I had spent on things that should have been returned, it would be a shameful amount. That's why now I do it whenever I need to. I walk the walk of shame right into those stores and get my money back, every time. #yolo #savemoney