Here’s an ethical issue and Jewish source response:

Case

Roger goes into the store.  He tries on jacket after jacket, pair of pants after pair of pants.  He finds exactly what he wants.  Then he goes home and uses the internet to find the same stuff for less.  He did not steal anything from the store.  

Did he do something wrong?

Answer

The Jewish answer is YES!!!

[a] Something has been stolen.  The Talmud defines doing such things as Ona’at Dibbur, verbal fraud.  In the Talmud the question is: “Can you walk into a store and ask the price of something you have no intention of buying?” (Bava Metzia 58b)

[b] That case is hard for us to understand, because it was set in a bazaar world where every deal involved bargaining, and not in the shopping mall.  The bottom-line idea here, however, is that when you look like you are going to buy and then you walk out without buying you steal esteem and hope from the store owner, who thinks he or she is doing something wrong.  

Joel Grishaver, “You Be the Judge 3”, pgs. 25-26

Used with permission from Joel Grishaver