I went to Best Buy today to look for a movie and other things to waste money on. Every fucking five minutes (or less) one of the blue shirted morons of the Best Buy floor brigade would sidle up to me and ask “Did you find everything OK?”. If I ignored them without replying they would repeat the question. Finally I resorted to “No, how do I find the exit?”
How do you deal with these twerps?
And yes I know that their management makes them do this.
“I’m fine, thanks.”
Is having to say three sylables every five minutes really that much of a burden for you? If so, you could reduce it to “uh huh.”
Don’t get me wrong, I can see how this would be a mild annoyance. But personally, I’d rather see a sales staff that’s annoyingly curteous and attentive than one that’s rude and ignores you. Maybe that’s just me.
That’s funny, there must have been staff meetings all around because they bugged me in Best Buy today too. Normally I can’t find anybody there when I do have a question. But it’s not so hard to say “I’m fine, thanks” when they’re just doing their job, and sometimes you do need help.
One of the reasons stores do that is for “loss prevention”. They’re just letting you know that they know you’re there so you’re going to be less likely to slip that Linkin Park DVD or whatever under your jacket.
shrug
Robin
I love it when they bug me. If I’m in the store more than 10 minutes that usually means I am having trouble finding something or deciding between two or more brands of the same product.
The only thing that bugs me about this is when I have a question about some software.
Their response is to read the box to me.
Can I really not do that myself? If the question is answered on the packaging, would I really need to ask them? Am I stupid, or something?
Evidently.
Tell them you do need help with something, that’ll make 'em run off in some direction while they for at least fifteen minutes. Always works for me.
Discard that “while they” bit in the middle of my previous post please. Seems I really do need help :smack: .
That must be the new mantra in the retail world these days.
“Did you find everythink OK?” gets asked at almost every chain retail store these days. I don’t know what they’re getting at. If I can’t find something, I ask someone. I don’t go to check out, defeated by the store layout.
“Did you find everything OK?”
“Well, now that you asked…My kid lopped her arm off with a chainsaw and I thought I’d come in for a stick and some twine to make a touriquet, but I couldn’t find any, so I just got this Snickers bar and I’ll go back to the car and take her to the hospital. Thanks for asking.”
How funny… I got that line at the checkout at the grocery today.
What the hell is the cashier going to to do if I announce “No, I couldn’t find the small brussels sprouts today. You just had the big ones.” (in the middle of the Thanksgiving crush of shoppers, I might add)?
I’m pretty sure the cashier doesn’t give a flying f*ck whether I found everything, and I KNOW he couldn’t do anything about it if I didn’t.
I said ‘yep’ and left with my oversized brussels sprouts. I’m no fool.
You left with brussels sprouts.
Yes, you are.
Bingo. And yes, it sometimes discourages people.
I work in retail and I’m asked, “how much does this cost?” a minimum of five times a day about merchandise that has the price ON the item itself. Eventually, you learn to assume everyone is indeed stupid unless they prove otherwise. Sorry.
Don’t MAKE me start a poll in IMHO…
It’s OK, I didn’t like them when I was a kid either… 
That mean as long as I don’t like 'em, I’ll still be considered a kid? Oh goody! My last birthday sucked and I’m not looking forward to the next, but I’m still a kid! 
Shoot, I don’t even like them as an adult…although this thread makes me want to give them another try…maybe.
I sometimes ask this at the checkout at the store I work at. (Sometimes a person has more than one item on their list).
If they say no, I’ll go help them find it, and page someone else to take over the till. Even if there’s a line up.
Honestly, if you can’t handle having an employee of a store approach you - even <gasp> - more than once - perhaps you should do your shopping online.
It would probably save everyone involved a big hassle.
The problem isn’t the sales clerk approaching and asking to help - it’s when they won’t go away. A reasonable exchange would be something like:
Best Buy Guy: Is there anything I can help you find?
JerH: No, thank you.
Best Buy Guy: OK - I’ll be over in this aisle if you need anything.
I’m fine with that. I rarely ask for the proferred help, because they’ve almost never been able to answer my question, but I worked in retail and know that they’ve got to ask even when it’s obvious the person is doing OK on their own.
The annoyance is when I’ve gotten something like:
Best Buy Guy: Is there anything I can help you find?
JerH: No, thank you.
BBG: Be sure to check out the sale items over in aisle 3.14!
JerH (not paying attention, since I’m trying to shop): Uh-huh.
<pause>
BBG: Not very talkative, are you? Ha ha ha.
JerH: Yeah, maybe it’s because I’m in a bad mood and you’re annoying me. You think that could be it?
The one time I answered “no” to this question, the person looked flustered and then said, “Oh, sorry.” That was it.
This is a definite “you can’t please all of the people all of the time” rant.
I’ve been to stores where I couldn’t find help while waving a stack of $100 bills. I’ve been browsing in the same stores without two nickles to rub together where I couldn’t walk two aisles without a different associate offering me help.
I could understand if it is the same person offering to aid you repeatedly, but if it is different associates, it means that they’d rather not be stocking shelves.
As for asking your local Best Buy or other superstore clerk questions on items, especially software - don’t. You may get an enthusiast or someone who actually uses and knows the software. Or you may get someone who will give you an answer just to give you an answer, right or wrong. They are not given training or competitive analyses in the products they sell. So if you ask them which anti-virus program is better, the most honest answer most can give you is “I don’t know”. That would be much better than the misinformation that I overhear from clerks who don’t want to say “I don’t know”.
Good lord, I should be so lucky. When I’ve bought computer stuff for work from Best Buy or Circuit City, it occasionally takes me 20 minutes or more before I can flag down someone who can help me. I’d far rather they bug me every five minutes with a quick, easily-completed question-and-answer than that they disappear, or else spend all their time giving erroneous information to the computer-illiterate customers. (One time, after I finally got a sales clerk to help me, meaning she fled for 20 minutes to go get the wrong box from the back of the store, I sidled over to the kindly old couple she’d been “helping” and explained that no, a CDRW/DVD-ROM drive actually couldn’t burn DVDs, so if that was a feature they needed, they shouldn’t buy the machine she’d been pushing on them).
Daniel