Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Dog Envy and Pushy Salespeople

I have a problem. I covet dogs. Chances are that if you have a dog, I'm jealous of you. I WANT A DOG! I want one real bad. But I can't have one. At least not right now. So, I can only envy the lucky dog owners of the world. And hope that someday, I will have my dream.



Okay, on to pushy salespeople. I prefer to shop without a salesperson on my back constantly trying to persuade me to buy their stuff. I know - I'm crazy! I like watches and I especially like Swatches. The unfortunate thing is that the Swatch store is very small and usually there are no more than a few customers inside the store. Small store with few customers equals bored salespeople who will be all over you like flies on dog crap. I hesitated to go in tonight for that very reason. But, I just wanted to take a peek. Big mistake. I went in, proceeded to look around and very quickly had a salesperson at my side asking if I needed anything. "No thank you, I'm just looking." And by that, I mean go away. That's supposed to be the cue for the salesperson to leave you alone. This lady didn't get that. So she starts asking if I'm looking for myself or someone else and what type of watch am I looking for and what type of style is that person into. All of which is none of her business. Didn't she get that when I said I didn't need help, I meant it? If I want to try on a watch, I'll let you know. Until then, get the hell away from me! With something like a watch, she's not going to persuade me to buy it by telling me all about it. I will be persuaded by what I see because that's what I care about in a watch. I was trying to think of a polite way to just leave, but when she made the mistake of implying that I'm gay, it was over. I had had enough of the crazy lady. I told her that I didn't see anything that I wanted and left.

I also hate those people who work the booths in the middle of the mall. They stop you as you're walking by and try to get you to check their stuff out. If I wanted to check your stuff out, I would walk up and start looking at it. One of the booth ladies asked if she could show me some lotion as I was walking by. I said "no thank you" and kept walking. Then she asked, "Can I ask you something?" So I stopped and said, "yes". Then she said my fingernails looked nice and asked if they are natural. What the hell kind of question is that? It's a hook question, that's what it is. Except it didn't work on me because I don't care about being rude to those booth people. I think they're rude for trying to stop me while I'm walking by. When I said that, yes my fingernails are natural, she said, "oh can I show you something really quick?" So I said, "no, thank you." And I started walking away. And the lady had the most surprised look on her face. Like she really couldn't believe that her little ploy didn't work. All I want is to shop in peace and have the salespeople not be pushy! Is that too much to ask?

6 comments:

Andrea said...

Reading this was like deja vu. I had that fingernail thing happen to me once. Pretty sure Matt was with me, and the person was a guy. I think I was too shocked to be rude. I can't remember what the product was, but something about buffing my nails or something. Soooo weird. Sometimes I need to be more assertive. But, I'm with you on the whole pushy sales person thing. I once had a salesperson ask me a few times if I needed anything. The store was pretty busy (Old Navy or a type like that), and she just wasn't paying attention to realize that she'd already talked to me. Very annoying!

Ashlee said...

Sooo being in retail myself, I've come to hate salespeople even more. I don't agree with the whole commission thing. It makes sales people waaaay too pushy. My boss always gets after me because I don't push customers to buy. If they say they don't need help, they don't need help. We used to have these meetings all the time to train us on how to pretty much talk people into buying. I don't agree with that at all. There's this store in the mall that I won't even step foot into because they have tons of salespeople, and once you get one off your back the next one leaches on. As for the people in the middle of the mall, yeah, hate them!

Hilary said...

Jenni, this is why we get along. I won't even walk into the Buckle because of their sales people. I love shopping by myself actually, and they'll even stand outside and throw a pair of jeans over the dressing room door. "I'm just looking" totally means leave me alone, sorry that lady was so lame to you! It's cool to be helped with things you actually need help with though, like big fat wedding dresses.

I used to buy fish (as pets) from Wal-Mart and there would never be anyone ever around! Hello, can't fish 'em out myself, can I?

Also, the first little lab puppy picture made me melt! I love puppies! Dogs are so funny. It sucks because AJ loves dogs too, and we have to work really hard to restrain ourselves from getting one. It wouldn't be fair to the dog to get one now.

*pout*

Ashlee said...

Ha Ha! Hil, the Buckle is the store in the mall I was talking about. Yep, won't go even close to that one.

Hilary said...

I knew it!

Molly said...

In Brazil, every time I went into a store to look for jeans, the salespeople were all over me. They would pick up pair after pair after pair asking me if I liked it. And when I said I didn't, they would show me things on it that might make me like it. Helloooo! I just said I didn't like it! It was horrible. Absolutely horrible. Especially since every pair they picked up was totally not what I was looking for.