Buy or Get Lost

Frank: Hey, you — buy something, or get out. I have a big wedding coming in.
Steven Hyde: Frank, you don't have a big wedding coming in.
Frank: Oh, did I say I have a big wedding? What I meant to say was: Buy something, or get out!

— That '70s Show, "Eric's Buddy"

Welcome to our humble shop, traveler! Can we help you with-

What? You don't have any money? THEN GET OUT, YOU'RE WASTING OUR TIME!

You've seen this before, maybe in a game with multiple shops in the Adventure Town, there's always that kind of owner. The less-than-friendly, impatient or intimidating one telling you blatantly if you're not here to buy, don't even bother browsing.

After all, if you're there and don't really need anything, you're just taking away from potential business. (Even if they're the only person in the store.) However, these guys are blunt and maybe even openly hostile for people not there for business.

This trope can be used in a lot of flexible ways. They don't have to be traditional shops or stores; traders work too. It could be a character just getting into business, and being very picky about their first sale. Sometimes store owners in media do this to deny customers the chance to go to the bathroom, which can be bad if the customer in question is in the middle of a Potty Emergency.

Keep in mind this trope is NOT about business owners just being rude, but ones that explicitly refuse to (or at least can't) give anyone the time of day that has no intention of buying or making a deal in the first place. The shopkeeper, manager or whoever doesn't even have to be an enormous jerk about it; they could be Innocently Insensitive, and/or more reasonable, explaining that if you want their help, you still need something to trade in return. ^note Obviously, this is only common sense, so that kind of example only works if this is said before a character claims they have intention or not to trade or buy.

Characters like this often (but not always) have a Money Fetish, be a Corrupt Corporate Executive, are The Scrooge and, unsurprisingly, is a Jerkass.

Also often overlapped with the Troll Bridge and the Asian Store-Owner. If this is a video game, this can lead to or be the result of Scolded for Not Buying; this trope is always an example of that, but not always vice-versa. Compare Get Out!. Contrast Do You Want to Haggle? and the Friendly Shopkeeper.

In-Universe Examples Only!

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• High Score Girl: In the first episode, Haruo and Akira duck into a shop to take shelter from the rain, but the shop owner threatens to kick them out if they don't spend money. With only a hundred-odd yen between them, they team up to last as many levels as possible on the shop's arcade game, so they can stay until the rain lets up.
• In Yaiba, the group finds the Legendary Orb of Darkness inside... for sale in a shop specialized in balls and spherical items. The owner though is rather rude and when he thinks that his customers can't or don't want to pay, he tells them to go away, patting their heads with a duster. The group has a double payback on him: first when they actually show up with enough money to buy the Legendary Orb... and later, when it's revealed that the orb was stolen and he begs them to take it back in exchange for a better price, only for Musashi to point out that they're not going to take it back into the shop.

Comedy

• Jeff Dunham has a skit with Walter on what it would be like if he worked for Walmart.
  Walter: Welcome to Walmart! Get your shit and get out.

Films — Animation

• In Brave, the shopkeeper in The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday insists that she's a woodcarver, not a witch, says to Merida "If you're not going to buy anything, get out!" and tries to shoo Merida out the door with levitating knives. Merida quickly buys all the woodcarvings under the condition of also purchasing one spell.

Films — Live-Action

• Back to the Future: When Marty goes back to 1955, the first place he goes is the local sandwich shop to try to find a phonebook so he can locate Doc Brown. Despite only being in the place for less than a minute, when he tries to ask the cook how to find a certain street, the cook brusquely asks him if he's going to buy something or not.
  Marty: Gimme a Tab.
  Lou: A tab? I can't give ya a tab unless you order something.
  Marty: Right. Give me a Pepsi 'Free'.
  Lou: If you want a Pepsi, pal, you're gonna to pay for it!
• In The Muppets Take Manhattan, Rizzo works at Pete's diner for no pay, living entirely on tips. So when the main cast sympathize with him by saying they don't have money either, his reaction is "Sorry, not my table."
• In Road House (1989), Morgan warns Dalton, mistaking him for a customer, "you're not drinkin', you're outta here."

Gamebooks

• City of Thieves: Some of the shopkeepers you encounter in Port Blacksand will react with hostility if you enter their shops without making any purchases, a notable case being the jeweler who, if you tried haggling over the price of his magic rings, will actually threaten you with an ax.
• Same in the Sorcery! gamebook series; most shopkeepers in Kharé will respond with hostility if you enter their shop without buying anything. In the next book, if you don't buy anything from the dark elf caravan, the elves crucify you and leave you for dead.

Literature

• In Roald Dahl's autobiography Boy, he describes the grumpy sweet shop owner Mrs. Pratchett, who would say "I don't want you in here just to look around! Either you forks out, or you gets out!" When five boys enter the shop so that Dahl can carry out the Great Mouse Plot, she snarls "I don't want the whole lot of you trooping in here if only one of you is buying!".
• In the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book "The Meltdown", while stuck out of their homes in the freezing weather outside due to their parents intervening, Greg and Rowley attempt to hide out in a pizza parlor to keep warm by the kitchen oven, but the owner made them leave once he figured out that they only came in for the heat. But the next day, the two boys decide to come in again and buy a meal this time, so they could bask in the warmth of the newly baked product. The owner is visibly not amused at them taking advantage of this escape clause.
• In the Goosebumps book The Blob That Ate Everyone, main character Zackie has to travel to the meat market on an errand which his mother gave him. While perusing there, he gets scared by a prank that rival Adam, along with his friends Emmy and Anne, played on him. The market owner Mrs. Jack, who isn't fond of children, sees them tricking and laughing at Zackie, to which she tells them to either buy something or get out of here, to which they stop fooling around and leave.
  • Implied in Say Cheese and Die! when Greg and his friends are discussing what to do at the beginning of the book. Bird suggests that they could look at comics, which Shari then points out that it would be a good plan until the grumpy shop owner (Grover) would start yelling at them, with her even doing an impression of the store owner and saying, "Are you paying or staying?"
• In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, this is the treatment that Hermione Granger gets when visiting Borgin and Burkes. However, given that her visit is a poorly disguised attempt to snoop as to what Draco Malfoy was doing there minutes before, it's hardly surprising.
• In Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina ("Be Still My Heart — The Bartender's Tale" by David Bischoff) it's stated that the reason Wuher's boss hates droids is because, since they essentially don't drink, they'll just taking up space that could be used for paying customers.

Live-Action TV

• In Black Books, the only kind of customer that Bernard Black tolerates is the kind that buys something and then leaves immediately.
  • Although, Bernard doesn't seem to care whether people buy things or not; he just wants everyone out of the shop. In fact, he gets angry when Manny manages to successfully sell books since it means that he has to order more.
• In The Cosby Show episode where the Huxtables show Theo "the real world", Theo walks into Furniture City (a shop run by Claire in one of the house's rooms). The saleslady says that Furniture City accepts personal checks and all major credit cards. When Theo confesses that he doesn't have either of those, she answers coolly that he's going to leave Furniture City.
• In one episode of Hannah Montana, Miley was secretly working with Lily to help her dad pick out a birthday present she would like. But a store clerk catches Miley hiding and tells her she needs to buy something or get lost. Miley continues to try staying hidden by switching clothes and herself out with Hannah Montana mannequin display.
• Seinfeld had the Soup Nazi in the episode of the same name. The standard protocol of the restaurant is to order the food, walk to the left, pay, take the food, and go out the other door. Anyone who deviates from this gets the trademark, "NO SOUP FOR YOU! NEXT!" Interestingly, he is also shown chatting with Kramer on a slow day, so he probably relaxes the policy for friends.
• The Incredible Hulk (1977): While hitch-hiking between towns, David stops at a gas station in the middle of nowhere and asks to use the restroom. The attendant tells him it's for paying customers only. David pulls some change out of his pocket, buys a soda from a vending machine, and looks pointedly at the attendant. The guy reluctantly gives him the key. Cut to David washing up and shaving at the sink.
• That '70s Show: Hyde is lounging in the group's normal hangout spot, though he didn't actually order anything yet. The counterman ^note played by the late Mitch Hedberg tells him to get out since he had a wedding coming in. Hyde brings up that he doesn't really, but it doesn't matter since he wants Hyde gone anyway.

Magazine

• MAD Magazine issue 98 (1965) had a feature titled "Academy Awards for Small Businessmen". The winner of the Soda Fountain category has some kids asking the owner for a glass of water, and he tersely replies that if they want a drink, they can buy a soda. "I'm not in business for my health!" But the reason the kids asked for water was to put out a fire on the storefront!

Myths & Religion

• In the myth of Saint Ivo of Kermartin, one anecdote mentions an innkeeper who wanted to charge the poor for basking in the smell of his foodstuffs. Ivo's response was to take out his purse, shake it to make a nice "coins jostling" noise, and announce that the sound paid for the smell.

Tabletop Games

• Call of Cthulhu supplement Cthulhu Companion, adventure "The Secret of Castronegro". In the little town of Castronegro, the Vilheila-Pereira Tobacco Shop is run by Philip Vilheila-Pereira. If the Player Characters don't buy anything and ask questions instead, he will ask them to either buy something and leave or just leave.

Video Games

• Animal Crossing (2001): (At least in the English version) your villagers will get mad at the drop of a hat if you refuse to trade or buy things with them. Averted with the visitors and town's actual shopkeepers who are quite generous. Also averted in later installments, where the animals' World of Jerkass tendencies were toned down if not outright removed; they might get shocked or disappointed, but not as disproportionally angry like they did in the first game.
• Borderlands:
  • Marcus is a subversion as despite his Scrooge tendencies, he and his vending machines throughout Pandora greet the player enthusiastically and tells them to take their time. Though it gets double subverted as he gets pissed off if you browse and don't buy anything.
    Marcus Munitions: No window shopping. Buy something or beat it!
  • Played straight with Crazy Earl since Borderlands 2.
    Crazy Earl: Buy somethin' or get outta my face!
• In Detroit: Become Human, Kara, one of the playable characters, can encounter Nathan of the 24 convenience store, whose attitude should Kara ask for money is influenced by whatever clothes she's wearing. If she disguised herself as a human by stealing clothes from the local laundromat, he politely explains why he can't help her. If Kara is still wearing her android uniform, Nathan is rude and mocking and ends their conversation by telling her that if she's not going to buy anything, she better leave.
• The shopkeeper in Dinosaur Planet and Star Fox Adventures tells you to "hurry up and choose something, or get out!"
• Divinity: Original Sin II:
  • Of the pair of demon merchants at the Nameless Isle, one greets you with a flat "Trade, or leave." The other is a bit too friendly.
  • Trader Fionola warns characters not to waste her time on a busy holiday and tells them to "skedaddle" as soon as they finish trading.
• Many of the shopkeepers in EarthBound (1994) will call you out if you don't buy anything. For example, drugstore employees proclaim that the player has hurt their feelings by not purchasing any items. The shop music is even titled "Buy Somethin' Will Ya!"
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: M'raaj-Dar the Dark Brotherhood merchant makes no secret of the fact that he hates you at first sight and wants as little to do with you as possible. He tells you to be quick about your purchases and insults you on the way out. The only time he warms up to you is during the mission where you're ordered to purge the Brotherhood of suspected traitors.
• In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the innkeeper and the light armor saleswoman of Riften tend to be rude assholes who straight-up tell you to do business or fuck off.
• Exaggerated in FTL: Faster Than Light; One of the random events has the player encounter a merchant ship with suspicious markings. The ship owner is revealed to be a drone-specialized merchant, and if approached, he'll offer the player to sell some of his wares. If the player refuses, the pirate will booby-trap the player's ship, damaging its hull and systems, setting some on fire, and will try to kill the player. He would also attack if the player tries to ignore the ship, though thankfully without booby-trapping the ship. If the player has a Slug crewmember (and Slugs are known for their Telepathy), they will warn the player that they'd better plan on making a purchase if they want to dock. The player can also avoid the deal by using the hacking system to hack their weapons before they'll attack, and then they'll pay the player a "standard fee" and leave in irritation without a fight.
• Ganbare Goemon a.k.a The Legend of the Mystical Ninja: In the SNES game, the owner of the restaurant will get comically mad if you refuse to buy something to eat. The shop's theme is actually called Buy Something or Get Out!
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: The hidden merchants will greet Link by shouting "BUY SOMETHING, WILL YA!"
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Invoked by Bomb-Master Cannon and his Bomb Shop. Not only is he gleefully an asshole to you if you can't afford his bombs, but he also deliberately prices his bombs so high (at around 10,000 rupees a pop) so that nobody can afford them and he can therefore be an asshole to them. Real class act. He eventually tries this on Tetra and her pirates so they rough him up, tie him up, and just steal the bombs. After this he lightens up and begins selling them at affordable prices, although even then old habits die hard as, if you come into his shop without buying something, he's clearly struggling to be nice about it.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: This trope is exaggerated. Beedle constantly pedals to power his flying shop, which is accessed by ringing a bell and then climbing a ladder. If one were to leave his shop without buying anything, not only does he call them out for forcing him to put in extra leg power for nothing, he drops them out a trap door.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: A footsoldier within the Yiga Clan Hideout will tell a (disguised) Link to split if he leaves without buying any of the Yiga member's mighty bananas.
  • Link: The Faces of Evil has shopkeep Morshu invoke the trope if you don't have enough funds:
    Morshu: Sorry Link, I can't give credit. Come back when you're a little... hmm... richer!
• Mario Party 2: Boo will shoo the player away as a bother if they don't have enough coins, or tell them they'll "regret it" if they decline his help. Most other times in the series, if characters will bring up you don't have enough coins they'll just politely tell you to save up and to visit them again when you do.
• Newgrounds Rumble: There's a sign in the back of Nene's stage that reads something close to this trope that's... something of its time and culture. ^{If you really want to know.}HELLO CUSTOMER. This is not a ribrary. No flip flip with Magazines. You buy.
• Paper Mario 64: At one point, the greedy Kent C. Koopa stands in the road between between Toad Town and Koopa Village, and refuses to move with the only options being you pay a hefty toll of 100 coins, or be forced to find another way around (or fight him), otherwise he tells Mario and Co to "take off". Keep in mind this is the same bridge that the characters, and player, have walked through many times before for free.
• Trying to haggle the merchant Star Fox Adventures may actually let him take you up on your offer, or he'll refuse it. If he refuses you three times, he promptly tells you to get lost.
• Them's Fightin' Herds: Cashmere will be pretty blunt and refuse to say much if you don't have enough salt to afford even the lowest item at Cap N' Cash's, including towards her own cousin. Loosened as she'll be more more friendly if you do, and downright flirty if you've banked a ton.
  Cashmere: No Salt. No Sale.
• Viva Piñata: Lottie loves nothing more than chocolate coins, and will let you know every single time you enter the store that you better have some ready to trade.
• The World Ends with You : Upon entering shops, the player will be able to see the shopkeepers' thought bubbles. The shopkeepers of the higher-end shops in particular are annoyed by someone as apparently poor as Neku browsing their wares, but their tunes change if the player actually buys a few things from them.

Web Comics

• Awful Hospital: After Joe takes over as barista, the cafe adopts the slogan "ORDER AND GET OUT." and charges a fee for failing to order anything.
• In El Goonish Shive, a furniture store employee becomes enraged when he deduces Dan only wants furniture dimensions in order to use them for drawing reference and doesn't intend to buy any.
• Transmission: While on tour in New York Trevor and his band try to take shelter from a rainstorm in a clothing store but the proprietor tells them to buy something or get out. So they buy raincoats.

Web Original

• A common tactic of Gord in Acts of Gord. He has little patience for people who won't buy anything or who try to rip him off (avoiding late fees, demanding retail price when selling games or consoles, etc.).
• SMPLive: Schlatt & Co. tend to not be interested in anything you have to say unless you want to invest into Schlattcoin.

Western Animation

• In an episode of Animaniacs, Wakko has a Potty Emergency and looks for just about anywhere to do his business with no luck. One of them is a store that won't let him use their restroom because it's for paying customers only. It's safe to assume every other store he tried could be for the same reason.
• In Camp Lazlo there is an episode where Raj runs the camp store (a stall that trades beads instead of cash), and gets Lazlo to "help" him. Raj explicitly makes it clear "No Beads. No Business" and gets more irritated when Lazlo keeps making trades that don't involve beads, himself refusing to even budge if they don't have any. Though he breaks it when he can't resist the temptation to trade for an ice cream sandwich.
• The Cuphead Show!: When Cuphead and Mugman didn't have the twenty dollars to get into a night club run by Ribby and Croaks (only having five bucks and some pocket lint) the Frog brothers responded by kicking the Cup brothers into the river, but kept their five bucks anyway.
• The Eds (more specifically Eddy) from Ed, Edd n Eddy are not interested in scamming the rest of the cul-de-sac kids if they don't even have quarters on them in the first place.
  Eddy: This ain't a library, buy or get lost!
• Family Guy:
  • One Cutaway Gag involved an Asian vendor doing stand-up at the Apollo, moaning about "two black guys" loitering in his store and suspecting them of stealing. Being an African American audience, this doesn't go over well. In turn he yells at the whole audience to stay out of his store.
  • In "Dial Meg For Murder", When Meg tries to hold up Mort Goldman's pharmacy, Brian manages to convince Meg that her bad behavior after being thrown in juvie was not who she really was, and reads the magazine article he just had published to convince her to return to her sweet self. Mort comments off-screen that this isn't a library.
• A similar Potty Emergency from the Animaniacs example above happened to Bloo in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, who had to wait in a long line for a store's bathroom key only for the cashier to tell him that he has to buy something first. The funny thing is Bloo actually did buy something only minutes ago but since he left the store and came back, even for a split second, it no longer counted.
  Bloo: I have to buy some— I ALREADY BOUGHT SOMETHING! Remember earlier, enormous beverage, little blue blob? That was me.
  Clerk: Uh, then you left the store, meaning that transaction was completed. And, um, our bathroom is for paying customers only.
• King of the Hill:
  • Peggy enters a beauty pageant contest in hopes of winning a new truck. She goes to a car dealership and test-drives a truck like the one she's hoping to win. While Peggy drives, the salesman asks how he can get her business. Peggy tells him she's not planning to buy it, but to win it from the beauty pageant contest. The salesman dejectedly says "Test-drive's over".
  • Another episode has Peggy run a struggling bookstore; she tries to offer free cookies to visitors hoping that would convince them to buy something. A woman enters the store, takes a cookie, looks through one book, and leaves without buying it. Peggy passive-aggressively says "Thank you for enjoying my free cookie!" in an annoyed tone.
• Looney Tunes:
  • In the short Go Go Amigo, Daffy Duck, here the owner of a local radio shop, turns off the television set the Mexican villagers were watching, telling them that they need to buy it in order to watch it. Later on, Speedy Gonzales turns on a radio so he and his friends could listen to music, only for Daffy to refuse unless they could pay him cash in exchange for it, which Speedy and his friends don't have. The rest of the cartoon revolves around Daffy trying to keep the radio off while Speedy keeps trying to turn it back on.
  • In the short Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas, Yosemite Sam builds a new casino over Bugs Bunny's rabbit hole. When Sam invites him to play some of his games, Bugs instead asks him to move the casino, resulting in Sam kicking him out.
    Sam: If you're not here to gamble, YOU'RE NOT HERE!
• Lupo the Butcher has a sign in the background that says: "THIS NO LIBARY [sic] BUY OR GET OUT." As Danny Antonucci made both this short and Ed, Edd n Eddy, the quote for that show above is actually a reference to this.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In the episode "Trade Ya!", Pinkie Pie has the really specific variant of "Trade something with Princess Twilight Sparkle that's worth trading" or Get Lost. Pinkie keeps shooting down and speaking on Twilight's behalf on what is worthy or not. Twilight herself averts this as she keeps trying to tell Pinkie she is fine trading anything, with anyone, for pretty much anything.
  • In "Putting Your Hoof Down", the stall vendors keep raising the prices of the things Fluttershy is looking for, mostly because of Fluttershy's poor negotiation skills, and refuse to go any lower for her each time they do so.
• In the opening scene of the first episode of Ninjago, Kai (a blacksmith at the time) originally brushes off Master Wu the first time they meet when he told Kai the weapons he sells are loud and heavy, not great for stealth (such as for a ninja...).
  Kai: Ninja? Huh, you're a long way from finding a Ninja in these parts, old man. And the shop is called "Four Weapons", not "For Browsing". Either buy something or go peddle your insults somewhere else!
• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: In "We Messed Up", Rad and Enid try to distract Mr. Gar from discovering they snuck into his office and damaged an old picture of K.O.'s mom, Carol. One of their attempts is pointing out a customer (Crinkly Wrinkly) who's spending too much time reading magazines without buying one. Gar responds by loading Crinkly Wrinkly into a "cheapskate cannon" and launching him out of the store and into jail... or rather, the library that happened to be next to the jail.
• Rocko's Modern Life: In "Power Trip", Rocko's boss at Kind-Of-A-Lot-O-Comics Mr. Smitty yells at a customer reading a comic book to "Buy or get out!" After taking Smitty's place gets to Rocko's head, Really Really Big Man shows him a Bad Future where he screams the same thing to a customer.
• When Angelica was selling lemonade in one episode of Rugrats she wouldn't even sell lemonade to her own dad since he didn't have five cents. Drew decided it would be easier to get a drink from the hose.
• The Simpsons:
  • Apu gets robbed by Sideshow Bob (who dressed up as Krusty to frame him), naturally making him leery of customers. When Bart and Lisa go inside the Kwik-E-Mart to prove Krusty's innocence, Lisa picks up a magazine and explains he can't be reading a magazine if he's illiterate. Apu then threatens them saying if they don't buy the magazine, he'll blow their heads off. This was of course from a season 1 episode, way before Apu getting shot and robbed became a Running Gag.
  • A variation occurs in the episode where Santa's Little Helper sires 24 puppies. When he jumps out of the car and runs towards the dog racetrack, Homer says: "Don't worry, as soon as they find out he doesn't have any money, they'll throw him out. Believe me, I know."
  • In the episode where Bart gets a credit card accidentally mailed to Santa's Little Helper, once everything gets reposed for not paying the bill, Bart goes looking for Santa's Little Helper (he bought a well-trained Lassie Expy named Lattie and lied that SLH was the dog he bought) he goes to the church, who eventually acquired SLH, and after being told where SLH was re-homed by Rev. Lovejoy, Agnes Skinner, who was working the register at the church's gift shop, tells Bart: "Either buy something, or get out! Angel."
  • Comic Book Guy is also fond of saying "This is not a library." He runs The Android's Dungeon which sells comic books.
  • Apu repeats this to Homer and shoves him out of the Kwik-E-Mart after he wastes too much time reading a magazine. Gilligan Cut to him loitering in a library with food and the librarian shoving him out the same way.
    Librarian: This isn't a Kwik-E-Mart.
  • In "Radio Bart" when it becomes clear Bart is only at an ice cream parlour to use his free sundae coupon, the vendor hands him a comically tiny sundae and curtly tells him "Eat it and get out".
  • In "Homer the Heretic", when Homer mocks Apu's Hinduism and offers a shrine of Ganeesha a peanut:
    Apu (angrily): Mr. Simpson, please pay for your purchases and get out and come again!
  • In "Burns, Baby Burns", Homer and Larry Burns (Rodney Dangerfield) run into a costume shop to hide from the police. The shop owner walks into the bathroom and finds Homer and Larry sitting on the floor.
    Owner: Hey! Buy a costume or get out, fellas.
• Mr. Krabs of SpongeBob SquarePants can get like this. You could have had no food or water for three days, Mr. Krabs would just care if you had the money.
  Mr. Krabs: Now, are you gonna buy something or just stand there 'cause there's a standing fee.
• In one of the shorts for Villainous, Black Hat takes this to a whole new level as he gives an Implied Death Threat if the viewer doesn't buy the product he is advertising.

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