We went to Sam’s Club yesterday (yeah, I know they are part of Wal-Mart, but we have no other wholesale clubs here; don’t have to pay the membership fee as we are on the in-law’s business account; and we use the Sams Club optician). While walking around the store, my wife and I were accosted by THREE different hucksters hawking their non-Sam’s wares and services.
These are not like the people they’ve had handing out food samples since they’ve been open - these are the kinds of obnoxious, pushy salespeople that you try and walk past at home shows and conventions while they try and sucker you in. One guy tried to engage me in conversation but I got away; my wife (who uses a walker and is more likely to converse with strangers) later mentioned he asked her if we had cable or satellite, and would not leave her alone until she told him “We have cable, and we are NOT changing services!” Another guy, situated near the big-screen TV area, was selling TV installation services and attempted to pounce on me, found out I still have my New York fast-walking skills; and a third lady got my wife’s ear about a bag of Dead Sea cosmetics (that were a knockoff of Ahava, the established brand) for “only” $100. It took my wife a good 6-7 minutes to get away from her.
What the hell, Sam’s? Are you going to be putting pushy panhandlers in every aisle next week?
Costco has some of these situated along the Walk of Shame between the place where you pay for your shit and the exit where you have to prove you paid for your shit. Selling… to be honest, I don’t know, because I never look at them or acknowledge their existence. Could be asbestos siding or timeshares in Afghanistan, I guess. At that point, all I want is for St. Peter in Reverse to pretend to count my items and mark my receipt with the day-glo scribble that lets me out of Hell.
[Prepare to be pitted for not having manly man-parts strong enough to withstand this petty annoyance, which is for your benefit anyway, you whimpering pussy who clearly can’t make his way in the world.]
I completely agree. Going on a Friday or Saturday to pick up some bulk groceries can be a nightmare of not only dodging the food-samplers, but the sound-system-equipped goo, knife and cookware hucksters… and then the crowds around each, blocking your way to the next aisle.
The number of people who come at that time just to graze all the food carts is staggering. That they are nearly all fat cows is unsurprising.
The urge to bellow “YOU! Shut the fuck up! And YOU, get your fat ass out of my way while you suck down that cheese dip!” gets overwhelming sometimes.
This might be a good place to note, for both those interested and the cadre that follows me from topic to topic to make snide remarks about old threads, that I have a solution formulated, and hope to unveil it before summer. Consider this the equivalent of hearing something about a new kind of bomb in the spring of '45.
I’ve very occasionally encountered outside salesmen in BJ’s, but they’ve never been the pushy type whatsoever - quite the opposite, they’ve been friendly and easy to be rid of. If they had been annoying, I would have definitely complained.
I hate Walmart, but sometimes my husband announces, while we’re out, that he needs to go in and pick up something. So I go in and wander back to the electronics section. After all, it’s possible that they have something that I didn’t know I needed, right? I have to confess to an ulterior motive, though…it appears that Walmart allows some sort of TV subscription service to set up a table in that area, and the salesperson accosts everyone, asking what sort of TV service they have. I have to admit, the salespeople are generally polite. At any rate, I get a kick out of saying “I have no idea, I don’t watch TV*”. Then I watch their heads explode. Now, a couple of weeks ago, there was a particularly sharp guy…he told me that he’d be happy to sell me a subscription anyway, and that I could STILL not watch TV.
Hey, I gotta take my amusement where I find it.
*I did watch TV yesterday. Elinor Burns (Quilt in a Day) still has one of the most annoying voices ever, but I liked the quilt she was making.
BJs is rather upscale and elite as box stores go. (They are really overgrown grocery stores more than warehouse stores, IMHO… and their prices aren’t that good unless you have only midline or elite grocery stores to choose from.) So yeah, they do treat their customers a bit better than Sam’s Club. What’s surprising is that Costco can be so crass and in-yer-face on this level.
The last time time-share hucksters tried to collar us in Vegas, I just waved my hand and said “These aren’t the droids you are looking for.” Got a laugh out of the huckster and we passed the gauntlet unmolested.
I wonder if these stores track lost sales from people who avoid the area of the hucksters or avoid the store all together? Say the knife guy is setup in front of the TVs. I’m not likely to browse the products sold in that area because I’m trying to flee from his sales pitch. I’ll avoid the area entirely if possible. So the store is losing out on any sort of impulse buy I may make. Also, it makes my shopping experience more of a hassle, which makes me prefer to shop at other stores. I like to be able to browse without being accosted, and will chose to shop where I can do that.
Walmart has audio/video displays at the end of some aisles. Those also encourage me to leave the area. I find the loud audio very annoying. I have no idea what the product being advertised is because the media is so grating it causes me to leave.
They are probably negligible. The mindset of club/warehouse shoppers is already as close to cattle as possible. I don’t say that as a sneer as much as a fact; no one who walks into Sam’s expects a Nordstrom, or even a Target, or even a general mall experience. It’s just about the most naked sell-sell-sell, buy-buy-buy situation in the spectrum. So being hollered and hooted at is considered reasonable by most.
Since the membership stores track everything but farts, I suspect they know exactly what the tradeoff is, and don’t care about us snobby few who don’t want to be hassled on every aisle intersection. Just look at the crowds who obviously (and literally) eat it up.
ETA: I suspect that one thing they look at is shopping totals on days they load up the store with carts. If there was any trend of people leaving without a purchase, or a drop in individual buying from people in a hurry to leave, they’d see it. Clearly, it’s not a significant factor. Unlike non-membership stores, they can track entrances and exits and make more precise judgments about buying levels.
I’d say what it could/should/might bring, but I’d just get smirked at.
I wrote some more, but deleted it; I’m not ready for a full unveiling and trying to write around that results in pointless mysterioso. I’ll just say “‘stay tuned,’ and keep those moronic catcalls comin’.”
Fuck the Girl Scouts and their mommy mafia setup outside the doors. If I want your cookies I’ll knock over a truck or get them from my neighbour. Maybe I’ll knock a truck over and blame it on my neighbour, I don’t know.
