As the amount of data and intelligence available to merchants increases, so should our expectations as customers. Some stores seem to get this, others don't.

After my son got a Wii for his birthday, word got around to our friends and family and he got a couple of Wii games from other people. Unfortunately he received two copies of the new Zelda game. We had already opened the copy he got from Best Buy, so we attempted to return the unopened Zelda that had been purchased at Target here in Shreveport.

No dice.

The package was pristine. The three seals were in place, and so was the shrink wrap. It was as if this copy of Zelda had just been placed on the shelf. And it's not that we were asking for cash – I understand the issue of credit card purchases being returned for cash. But Target wouldn't even give us store credit.

The problem: we had no receipt. It didn't matter that it was a gift. They insisted that we should have asked for a gift receipt. Yeah. I can see that happening at a kid's birthday party, "Nice gift, but where's the gift receipt jerk?"

The nonservice manager scanned the package and got all the information from the database that a gift receipt could have provided. He learned that it was purchased in that very store two days before. He saw who purchased it, how it was paid for, and – most importantly – the amount paid. But that was not enough, he still had to have that gift receipt before issuing store credit. I hate to be cynical, but could it be that Target's "gift receipt" policy is less about information and more about being an obstacle?

Between the parties, who is inconvenienced more? Target, who trades a Zelda for a Mario; or the customer who is stuck with two $50 copies of Zelda?

Sorry about the rant. The story does have a happy ending. We went over to Best Buy and explained the whole thing to them. They took a game that they knew had been purchased at another store and gave us cash.

That's right, cash. And the reason they were willing to do that was information. Their data revealed our Best Buy purchase history and they wanted to keep a good customer happy.

My point: I don't think Best Buy went "above and beyond." Information is power. A modern chain store's desire for customer information is second only to their desire for our money. But we customers have to give up privacy to give stores information. Best Buy's service level is what Information Age shoppers should expect in return. If Target won't provide it, then others will.