I'm the sort that if I buy it, I keep it. I won't buy anything I think won't look good on me and then turn around and return it. Even if you return something unopened, it has to get sent back, so just imagine if there was some popular LE item that you were reacting to based on hype, then turned around and brought back - that's another person who would have looked great in it getting denied from a chance to have it for themselves. I'm totally OK with the stores being more careful about who they will do holds for, specifically for this reason.
What I do to minimize this for myself is I have one store I go to come hell or high water, even if it's more convenient for me to pop into a different MAC store or counter that particular day. Everyone knows me there and they all know I love them and give them my loyal business. They know my habits - how I like to come in and take my sweet time trying everything out in store before buying because I won't come back with returns and how I will spend all my money at their store instead of running all over town. Because of this, they're very willing to give me generous samples when they can for iffy stuff I need to try out (I have every Big Bounce color because of this), call me up and let me play around in their back room for hours when the collections come in, etc. It's certainly a you scratch my back I'll scratch yours situation, but the nice thing is my store manager and a lot of the MAs are really great people too, and hey - you can never have enough makeup buddies!!!
But it is £18 less than if I had bought them from Mac, so I'm happy to wait.
