Ethics are for everyone.


I recently purchased a folding side table. You know the kind that your great grandparents used to eat their food from while they watched TV. So yes, a TV dinner table. I was excited about this purchase because it would allow for my husband and I to enjoy our Covid friendly date a little easier while we ate and watched a movie together once a week alone in our bedroom.

Amazon had one that looked great and was available with free shipping. I hit add to cart, paid for it and the table was on its way. Meanwhile, my husband and I were wondering the isles of Target and noticed the exact same table that I had just ordered at 1/3 the cost. It was significant savings, and I was inclined to return the table I had bought on Amazon. The packaged arrived on my doorstep and I started the return process without even opening the box. However, a small problem arouse, the company I had purchased the table from (that used Amazon as a middleman) expected me to pay the return shipping!

At first, I was frustrated. Why are they charging me to return their over-priced product? Then I was frustrated with myself. Why didn't I do my due diligence and price check other competitors first? Nevertheless, I still wanted to return the item and that was my choice. 

Sometimes as a customer we expect a business to bend over backwards for us and be ethical in all their dealings. Do we hold ourselves to these same standards as consumers? Do we often think of businesses as faceless entities? I am the one that ordered the table, and I am the one that chose to return the product. I need to pay my honest portion of the return transaction.

Potter Stewart once said, “Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have the right to do and what is right to do.” Consider what is right to do in every circumstance and you will never have to question your own integrity.

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