When my grandmother went shopping for clothes, she loved to have someone greet her as soon as she walked in, follow her around and make suggestions about outfits and sizes, hang out with her outside of the dressing room while she tried things on, fetch another size, tell her whether the outfit was becoming on her figure, etc.
I like the part where someone greets me when I walk in the door. And that's where it ends.
I don't like it if I have to flag someone down to get help--especially if there is a hoard of employees standing around talking and not paying attention to customers--but if a sales person is on my arse every second I'm in the store, it literally drives me nuts.
Last week I ran into a store to get a few cotton tops for vacation and a sales woman continued to banter me about whether I wanted her to take them into a dressing room for me. The first time, I was like "No thank you."
The second time (which was 1.5 seconds after I finished my response), I said "I appreciate it, but I'm just going to hold on to them while I look."
The third time she insisted, I said rather sharply, "THANK YOU but I don't know if I AM going to try them on." Of course she didn't stop there. She repeated my response in question formation, "You aren't going to try them on?"
If the shirts weren't exactly what I wanted, I would have replied, "No, and I'm not going to buy them either, thanks to the glory of your annoyingness. Good bye."
But that's a little tape rolling in my head. Our encounter ended there and thankfully, I was able to get out of there untainted by another approach.
I'm glad they didn't press me several times (like they usually do in that store) to open up a credit card. That would have been the last straw.
I wonder if my independent shopping preference is a generational thing or if I'm just weird.
10 comments:
I find the makeup departments are the worst. They will not leave you alone for a second. Do they think I'm going to steal the lipstick sample that's been used by God knows how many samplers?
With clothes, I do like someone who will check with my in the dressing room and get other sizes and such. I hate being undressed, then having to dress again to go out and get a different size, then undress again to try it on... and on... and on...
Actually, I pretty much do all my shopping online now with companies that offer free shipping both ways.
Have a great vacations with your new tops.
I"m with you. I can't stand being the constant source of attention in a store...along with the accompanying pressure to buy things you don't want. I had a salesperson last week insist that a dress I tried on really needed a wide belt. It didn't. The dress was so slimming...and the belt added 10 pounds. I didn't buy either.
Hope the vacation is going well!
You are not odd: over-persistance can be overbearing: customer service people need to read a situation and not press too much. Freaky!
(Comment from Diane, not Cristy--I'm just leveraging her login ID for convenience) So of course I'm wondering if you got the tops.... ?
I must be older than everyone else b/c I totally appreciate a truly effective sales associate. But then again, I don't shop for clothing all that often in retail stores. Out of the 4 that I really loved, only 1 remains now; the others have closed. But there is a wonderful associate named Wanda in that store to whom I always direct the commission for my (paltry) purchases. So if someone else asks me, I just reply that Wanda's taking care of everything. Then they go away permanently.
I'm with you on this too Gropius. The worst offenders are in Singapore. The shop assistants are unfailingly polite and genuinely seem to want to help but it still feels like they're watching your every move to make sure you don't run off with their merchandise
Oh, I'm so with you on this. A salesperson should be like a good waiter... only there when you need them.
Wanna go shopping sometime so we can gang up on the salespeople?
Haha, now that you said it I'm thinking maybe it really has somethign to do with our generation or the tiems we live in! When I just read the first paragraph of your post my thought was exactly the following - "I like the part where someone greets me when I walk in the door. And that's where it ends"
Being a sales person is a hard job - oen needs to be both good at communication and general human interaction AND psychology. I think a sales person needs to be able to tell who wants to be showered with "annoying" attention and who doesn't.
I only shop at places where (a.) the staff leaves me alone and (b.) the staff knows something about the product if I happen to actually have a question. Mostly I just want my privacy to shop in peace. So no, you're not weird at all.
The captcha is "spoomm".
No, I'm just like you on that. I don't mind a greeting, and I'd like to know where they are in case I do need them, but beyond that...I need alone time.
I feel *exactly* the same way in clothing stores. Actually, it has been years (literally) since I shopped for clothes because of this. I just don't have the patience! I don't know what I am going to do if my clothes *gasp* wear out!!! LOL!
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