RadioShack stops being a pest

You know money's tight when a company will actually change something it's always done just because it annoys their customers.

I heard it first on NPR today, but here's a printed story:

RadioShack ends asking for customer info [Dallas Business Journal]

RadioShack Corp. said it is ending its long-standing practice of asking customers for their names and addresses when they are checking out.

"Customers tell us the practice of asking them for names and addresses is time consuming and annoying and is not something that endears them to us," Leonard Roberts, chairman and CEO of Fort Worth-based RadioShack, said in a statement. "Asking for names and addresses was a barrier to building superior customer relationships."

The prospect of having to argue with somebody just to buy something certainly made me hesitate about visiting them on several occasions. I might actually go back now and then.

Top-rated Slashdot comments about it. Lots of good argument here, covering everything I could possibly say and more...