On Jul 26, 6:24 am, wrote:
Not only did
they **** this customer off (me), but they lost the profit they could
have made on spending a few minutes getting a hose or weatherstrip
from the back room.

A couple things wrong with that:
1. The employees are paid to fill space, not make sales. They get no
commissions, and as such have no vested interest in making you, the
customer, happy.
2. The employees' time is much more valuable than the few cents'
profit made by selling the hose. 5 minutes of an $8/hr employee's time
costs more than the profit lost by not selling the hose.