There was one employee at the counter, an older teenaged girl (she looked and acted high school age, but it was during school hours, so I assume she was older). I'd seen another, older woman leave while I was there. There were no other customers. I took it to the register to get it. Because I need a damned seventh Transformers shirt.
The girl was friendly and had decent customer service skills, unlike most of the "cooler than you" Hot Topic employees I've encountered. But we both did a double take when it rang up at $0.01.
I put my hand in my pocket to get a dime (the only change I had). She kinda got worried, and said, "I don't think we're supposed to sell them for that much," and was acting a bit confused.
"That's okay. I expected it to be $9 anyway."
She told me she didn't know how to override prices, and the woman who'd left was apparently the manager. After a few seconds, she said, "It's coming up at a penny. Don't tell anyone I did this, but just take it," and put it in a bag. Again, I told her I was fine paying for it. I figured she was going to take a penny from the "take a penny" thingy on the counter. But she canceled the transaction.
So, I took the shirt. I wouldn't even think about stealing something, but this was a really unusual situation--the store employee just giving me something. I was kinda taken off guard and wondered a few minutes later if I should've just told her to forget it. The only thing I can figure is that she didn't want a $0.01 transaction because she was afraid her manager might think she marked something down for a friend, so, instead, she simply gave it away.
It's a cool shirt, but I have this crazy feeling that girl won't be working there very long if she does stuff like that.
