Yes. Don't hassle the poor clerks. They aren't in charge of any of this stuff and certainly don't have the power to change it.

Just say "no" and move on.

Well that’s how nothing ever changes. Personally, I will hassle the clerk until he seriously considers working somewhere else. That’s how we get change!

No, the way you get change is by pressuring the people who have some amount of power. A clerk quitting is not a real pain point. They'll hire another.

So, if you want to work for change, the first thing you need to do is to stop spending money in those stores. Every dollar spent at a business is a vote encouraging them to keep doing whatever they're doing.

The second thing to do is to let corporate know you're not shopping there and why.

Those things won't have a huge effect unless lots of people do them, but they'll have a much greater effect than harassing the poor front-line workers.

You get change by regulating what the industry can collect in the first place. Otherwise all you have is an ever replacing stream of low paid workers.

I normally wouldn't bother since I hate pushing my views on people (and I'm just there to buy food after all). But she asked me 3 times in a row and after 2 "no"s I decided I might as well try to explain why. It didn't make a difference and I left with a signup form I had no intention on filling out. Such are the downsides of being naturally polite. I guess I could just keep saying no and refuse to elaborate.

Oh, yeah, in that case I would have done the same. That's harrassing you, after all. Fair's fair.

I've never experienced that, personally, so didn't think of it. I just say "no" and that's the end of it every time.

Better yet: find somewhere to shop that they don't do that.

Name a place.

Well, my grocery store doesn't do that. Granted, whether or not you have a choice is highly dependent on where you live, but I'm just saying that its a better option if you can get it.

I can name a dozen in my area, but you haven't heard of them unless you live here because none of them are chains.