Because of the parties with which it must interact, the retailing industry is unique in the business environment. As the final stage in the marketing channel, situations which present themselves in retailing are particularly visible to consumers and to society as a whole. Often the only business organization with which consumers and potential customers interact, the decisions and actions of retailers can easily be presumed to extend to the entire business community. Furthermore, from a micro perspective, retailing involves direct transactions with consumers–individuals who can be expected to be most vulnerable to the effects of questionable practices in the marketing channel. As a consequence, ethics in retailing has become the object of a growing amount of attention.

In retail, the intense interaction between employees and customers, and employees and different levels of management on a daily basis to achieve business goals can be ethically challenging. Examples:

1. Do you follow return policy and upset a customer or bend the policy and keep the customer?

2. Do you do “what’s right” or save your job?

3. Do you engage in courageous leadership or just “go with the flow”?

4. If your boss keeps adding projects to your plate, what do you do?

5. If you find yourself in disagreement with company’s philosophy, what do you do?

6. If your boss is behaving against company’s stated leadership behaviors but you know the boss is well connected to decision makers, what do you do?

7. How do you integrate into a new culture?

8. If company communicates conflicting messages to you, what do you do?