Does anyone else feel a weird sense of guilt when walking out of a store without buying anything?

I ask them if they feel guilty for not offering something to me for a huge d*******.

Like going into a convenience store to use the bathroom, you mean?

Used to but not anymore

I live in a pretty decent area, the stores don't have security guards. So, even worse... I'm **always** buying things I don't need, out of guilt.

I feel guilty for some reason. Sometimes I buy a pack of gum or something, just to justify my being there.

In recent years it has become more and more common where I live for supermarkets to have a gate my the exit whereby you have to scan your receit in order for the gates to open and allow you to exit the store. This always makes me so awkward because I have to go to a staff member and ask them to let me out if I don't buy anything at the store (and hence have no reciept to scan). It makes me feel like that in some weird way I have done something wrong or that I am c**** in some way.

Depending on what kind of store you walk into you might have hurt their conversion rate, if they track foot traffic vs. transactions. Nothing to feel guilty about, they should have marketed better

Do you feel any other places where this happens, are you always thinking about what other people might think of you or what you are doing?

I used to but not any more.

yeah i do this too lol i suddenly become hyper aware of my hands and how i am walking like i need to prove somthing. i think it is just that awkward social ansxiety thing where you feel watched even if no one actualy cares. funny part is the more you try to act normal the less normal it feells

I just say, "thank you," and leave.

If it's a small business, yes. But in huge store, no.

I make an "I forgot my stove is on" face so the staff thinks I’m leaving for an emergency, not because I’m c****.

Yes, but I still do it

I remember being somewhere in France on a school trip about 40 years ago and I wandered into a deli-type place just to have a look. Walked out without buying anything, and one of the shop staff ran after me to tell me that it was considered ban manners to leave without buying anything. She wasn’t trying to get me to go back in, but just being helpful I assumed.

Only when it's something like a fairly small store, like a boutique little shop or something, and there's one person manning it and they're just standing there watching while you look around

i literally did this yesterday at a thrift store because their velvet section was a tragic pile of polyester blends and i felt like i had to apologize with my eyes on the way out.

Nope

Try to remember that the employees who work there and don’t care as much as you think if you just walk out. They see people come in & out all day, and have other things on their mind.

yeah the eye contact thing is so real. like you've convinced yourself that looking *too* normal makes you look guilty, so you end up doing this weird half-smile at the security guard that probably looks more suspicious than just walking out normally would have. it's just that stores are designed to make you feel watched. i got so used to it i started doing it even leaving places where there's clearly no security at all. just some dude stocking shelves. still did the nod.

Yes hahaha .. True … sometimes yes

YES! Every single time. I always make eye contact with the cashier and feel like I need to mumble some excuse like 'just browsing, thanks!' even though they literally don't care lol

Do you also panic at airport security, like omg DO I have a brick of some illicit product on me?! while knowing full well (in the logical part of your brain) that there's no way that's possible. 

Making eye contact with the guard is the ultimate "I have nothing to hide" move that actually makes you look 100% more suspicious. I usually just end up nodding awkwardly like we’re in on a secret together.

I could not care less If they’re gonna stop me and ask me to show them my pockets, fine. Go ahead and tell on yourself by being a d***, security guard. Says more about you than about me. lol

I have a guilty conscience for things I didn't do lol

Not at all. They're happy for the foot traffic.

The older I get the less I care what the store employees/owner thinks. I think it will come with age for you LOL I once walked out of a restaurant after being seated and given water. I took one look at the menu and hated everything on it, not to mention everything was overpriced.

Go over to something super specific like men's/ladies razors in the hygiene bit and just him and ahh, tut, swear a bit, mutter under your breath and walk off like they don't have what you need. Or walk around the hygiene section and loudly keep complaining that you can't find the extra large condoms.

It’s worse when you do it in a brothel.