One thing that amazes us Italians who live in the United States is being able to return purchases to stores so easily, no questions asked. I don't think that most American people abuse this overly tolerant return policy but they certainly expect this practice when they buy something, often ask for it and, if they need it, they make use of it.
After all, the lines at the return and exchange counters are always quite long in chain shops.
I believe that by leaving the customer free to return what he/she has bought, the purchase is made more lightly with the “I can return it anyway”- mentality as I have heard it many times from my American friends.
In the end, it is better for the shop to risk that the customer may return the article rather than not selling it at all. However, I believe that the ease with which goods can be returned applies mainly to large-scale retail chains, big brand names and department stores.
Small local mom-and-pop stores (as we call the family-owned businesses) may choose to apply a different or revised return policy with more restrictions.

As any Italian who lives here, the fact of being able to bring back something just because it's not needed has never even crossed my mind and I never took advantage of this policy for the first months of my stay here.
Over the years, however, I have certainly decided to return some things and I must admit that I have never received a negative response or an attitude from the store clerks.
It happened that I returned an item because it was gift and it was a double or once because I hadn’t checked the size of some socks and so forth.
I returned a pair of shoes that I had used at a wedding for the first and only time and that I would have kept because I really liked them but they hurt my feet so badly.
I later returned them without a receipt, almost apologizing, but receiving the reply that I was not the first customer who had returned those shoes because they were considered to be super uncomfortable and so they were therefore considered almost a defective article.
My girlfriend has returned several creams and cosmetic products she tried once. She has sensitive skin which makes her immediately understand if a cream bothers her or if its scent gives her a headache. Since it's not usually a small investment...she gives them back.

You can also return food: you buy something and it goes bad before it expires, in theory you can return it.
I know of people who use clothes for an evening and leave the tag inside the garment so they can be returned like an unpaid rental. That’s unfair of course and borderline a micro crime.
That is a negative side of the ease of returning: the accumulation of things that are bought to have more choices and then not returned would not be possible in Italy.
Americans will buy a few items and just bring them home to compare them.
It's American consumerism. What do you think about that?

Truth is an accommodating return policy is part of the high-level customer service Americans expect when they are paid customers.
Customer service and the mentality that ‘the customer is always right’ is deeply rooted in American shopping culture.
I have seen badly behaving customers being ‘rewarded’ with free samples, discounts and similar perks just to ‘make them happy’ and that often goes against common sense.