My wife has a much higher tolerance threshold for shopping than I do. I have a very low tolerance for canned muzak on endless loops, particularly canned Christmas muzak. I have been known to abandon a full shopping cart because I got sick of the same few songs - I literally left the cart where it was and walked out. I've also been known to put a full shopping basket down wherever I happened to be standing and walk out when the muzak gets too intrusive for me. On one occasion I called the store from their parking lot and told them they just lost a $300 sale because I got sick of their canned music (the same store subsequently lost a $600 sale when I found their web site too cumbersome to use, and I made a point of letting them know that as well).
Most of what we exchange is token presents rather than anything particularly expensive, and my wife knows very well that if it were up to me there's a significant chance that it wouldn't happen because, as Christmas approaches, my tolerance for increasingly crowded stores subjecting me to the same canned muzak generally declines.
