Except the subway.
No.
For a situation when someone is offering free samples of tea or another food product, I’d just say, “No thanks.” and keep walking. I know there’s no hard sale involved. If it’s a time sales or other pushy hard sales type, I’ll give them the no thanks, but I’ll get rude quickly if necessary.
I don’t give an excuse I’d be more likely to give the finger.
I knew a guy who would turn away offered food with, “No, thanks, I just ate a bar of soap.”
I don’t mind those giving away free samples of anything, food or otherwise. I know they’re only doing it to try to actually sell product (hoping you’ll like the sample), but you have no obligation to buy anything & it’s nice to get something free once in a while (if you want this, of course).
I usually just shake my head.
Specially insistent cosmetics ladies have gotten “I don’t use creams. I plan on being a wrinkled old lady like my grandmother was.”
People from Club del Libro Planeta (Planeta Book Club, Planeta being the editorial group) get either the shake or if they insist an explanation that my parents used to belong to their club, and Mom said she’d stop when she had 3K books. She actually stopped after we ran an inventory and came up with over 5K. They usually go “wow” and agree that yeah, we don’t need to be pointed to the bestsellers section. But if we ever decide we want some nice editions in our life, we know where to find them!
One time I had a dude from ACNUR/UNHCR getting physically in my way, giving the spiel anyway. I stopped dead and growled “because of assholes like you. I used to, but the constant nagging was worse than my mother. So fuck off out of my way.” As I went away I heard one of his younger coworkers say “she did have a point, you’re not supposed to get in people’s way…”
Just “nope” or “not today.” I find that if I say “no,” it’s usually followed by “thanks,” and I don’t want to say “no, thanks,” because there’s nothing for which I feel that I’m thankful; they’re bothering me, and should be thanking me for having given them a modicum of my attention, or apologetic for having disturbed me. “Thanks,” indeed.
You seem to be reviving a lot of old threads. We welcome you to the boards, but what you’re doing is something we discourage unless some significant information is being added to an older thread, particularly repeatedly as you’re currently doing.
Thanks.
Rare is it when one of my own threads gets resurrected.
I feel like I should be in a club or something
I was at a mall once and walked by a perfume shop and there was some damn fool spraying perfume on everyone that walked by ! I am very allergic to some perfume and I went into the shop and told them they shouldn’t be putting perfume on everyone that walked by their shop ! I say “NO thanks” to all free samplers and walk by .
I typically just say, “Sorry” and walk away (also my preferred response to panhandlers), but the other day a guy in Bloomingdale’s* tried to pitch me one of those very expensive wine recorking devices, and I said, “I’m sorry, I don’t drink alcohol,” to which he responded, “Well they make great gifts.” As I walked away, I was thinking that he did have a point, and there was absolutely no reason for me to give him an excuse – it just came out when I saw what he was selling.
*I walk through Bloomies several times a week as it’s the most convenient way for me to get from my train stop to Target. I’m pretty sure I haven’t actually purchased anything so far, although if I see something I really like, I sometimes try to find it on Amazon.
Best visual ever at :50 of the Curb trailer:
'Curb Your Enthusiasm' Trailer: Nothing Has Changed For Larry David!