This.
Two days ago, a cashier read and commented upon a greeting card I was buying, fer Christ’s sake! :mad:
I don’t mind when people want to be genuinely human and friendly. I quite like that, in fact, though it took some getting used to when I moved to Vermont. It’s the preprogrammed sales pitches that piss me off.
I’ll second this. My wife works at a bank and hates, hates, HATES asking you this shit. But her pay is based on it. And yes, she’s looking for other jobs. Has been for a while. But right now, we need the money.
I first noticed this annoying phenom when I went into the Home Depot back in Anchorage. Lowes was always a more user-friendly store, and it seemed like HD workers would do backflips to avoid having to answer a customer’s questions. Then, overnight, they wanted to be my best friend 4-evah. SWARM…SWARM!!!
Actually, I’m pretty sure NCR invented them.
But then, I work for NCR, so that might just be what they’re programming me to think …
My daughter is only 7 right now, but in another ten or so years when she starts dating, I am forbidding her to date sales people, since “no” obviously means anything but “no” to these people.
And the next sales person I run across who can’t take no for an answer, I think I’ll give a polite-but-in-a-forceful-tone lesson about how “no” means no, anything else is not respect (and, for good measuure, throw in the above and tell him to “stay the hell away from my daughter”. If that makes him quit his job then and there, I’ve done my job. 
)
There used to be a store where all employees did what you said. You couldn’t spend more than a minute without being bothered. Somewhere around employee number six through twelve while I was standing still I would get pissed. Management decided to train cameras and mikes on employee customer interactions at one point, according to an employee. This resulted in the policy being changed and the remaining customers not being hounded. Had this not been a store I had to shop in I would have stayed away before they changed the customer harassment policy. This was a long time ago.
I encountered this at the Food Lion near my work. Sometimes I run in to grab a gallon of milk on the way home, and I’m immediately assailed when I walk in the door - usually by a clerk who’s checking someone else out. I’m not antisocial, but I don’t appreciate being forced to respond to every freekin’ employee between the front door and the dairy case.
Although I had to laugh one time. I was going thru produce to get onions or something and I heard “Welcome to the produce aisle - the best aisle in the store!!” The guy then went on to explain that he had to say hello to everyone who came within earshot - company policy. He obviously thought it was stupid.
That night, I went to their website and told them how annoying the policy was. Not that it mattered - they still yell at me when I walk in. I never heard back either. I’ve taken to carrying a list that I study intently as I enter. Surely I’m not ignoring them if I’m reading my shopping list… Plus I know the nice man stocking the seafood case really doesn’t care how I am.
Friendly is fine. This stupid policy is not. Just leave me alone. Thank you.
I was in the south, Florida or Georgia, and stopped for breakfast at a pancake/waffle place. All the waitresses would stop what they were doing every time the door opened and they would greet whoever came in. Half way through my meal I couldn’t stand it anymore; got my check, paid, left.
When I walk a local trail for exercise I take my IPod and wear the ear buds. My IPod is turned off, but it stops people from talking to ya.
Most grocery stores follow something along the lines of Walmart’s 10-foot policy - if you come within 10 feet of a customer you must acknowledge them.
I much prefer people mumbling hello in the aisles of the grocery store to the situation in most department stores, where people to help you are as scarce as liberal Republicans. I’ve never had a problem in the grocery finding someone to answer a question. The checkers are not overly chatty, though we got to know some when we brought our guide dog puppies in and got oohed and aahed over. They have never commented on groceries, and the asking for help out happens only once at the end.
There is one clerk in Borders who comments on EVERY book or item I buy. I recently repurchased a CD of Vivaldi’s The 4 Seasons and she told me how much she liked this music etc. She gets on my very last nerve. I am tempted to find the raunchiest porn Borders has (that may be a non-sequitur) and purchase it, just to see what she says. I actively try to avoid her.
Other stores supposedly give me something free if don’t call me by name (Mrs Last Name). Well, my name is only 5 letters long and is pronounced exactly as it is spelled, but 99% of people do NOT pronounce it correctly. It’s annoying, but technically, they fulfilled their part of the bargain. :rolleyes:
And can I just throw in here that I am NOT a “guest” at Target? I am a paying customer–a respectable role, thankyouverymuch.
I really loathe corporate policies like this.
I firmly believe that every company has one dimwit marketing guy, who, when he sees the numbers are down, commissions a gazillion focus groups, asking folks what would make them buy more from said company.
Of course, the answers to such questions are usually (in descending order, with dimwit annotations added):
-
Make your products cheaper (“I can’t tell the executives that - they’d fire me!”)
-
Make your products better (“And cut into our margins?”)
-
Carry more stock (“And throw our supply chain out of whack?”)
(533 other perfectly viable ideas, that said marketer is to chickensh!t to present to upper management) -
Be nicer, and say hi? (“BINGO! Send out a memo - everybody will be nicer and say hi!!!”)
If my wife and I walk into a garden shop, looking for a very specific rose bush, or perhaps a hardware store, looking for a specific size washer, I might appreciate someone asking me if I need help. But if I walk into the Best Buy, where I’ve been 50 times before, and which has 10-foot signs hanging from the frickin’ ceiling telling me where stuff is, no, I don’t think I need every idiot in the store to ask me if I need help.
And the funny part is, when I do actually need assistance - say for instance what happened last week, when I walked into the Best Buy and, when asked “can I help you?”, responded, “do you have 3 foot TOSLINK cables?” - I get a blank stare.
Ooooh, I hate that! Being called a “guest” gets on my last raw nerve. The word “guest” should be exclusively reserved for the hotel industryy. It implies that I am in your store for the ambiance and hospitality, when in reality, I am there to buy stuff. If your business has what I need, and your employees do not outright insult me, I feel you have accomplished your mission.
The cashier question “Did you find everything that you needed today?” seems like they’re looking for feedback on what sort of merchandise they ought to stock.
But the few times I’ve truthfully answered, like: “No. You don’t seem to carry camembert/quality beef/splits of Italian wine/white unfarmed shrimp/honeycrisps/comice pears/frozen White Castle burgers” or whatever, usually ends up in them staring at me gobsmacked as they try to process what I just said.
Nowadays I just sigh and say “yep”.
Oh my shit. I think I would just stare in wonderment. As I’ve mentioned before, “Someone’s thirsty!” as I mind my own business buying water irks me to no end.
But yeah, Borders has started with a greeter “Welcome to Borders! Let me know if I can help you with anything!”. Darn, but at least it’s a less obnoxious version.
Oh, and urrrggg…I go to Wal*Mart the other day and buy a new TV (woot). The cashier tells me to have the receipt handy because they will check at the door. The guy next to me wheeling the HUGE TV box out on a HUGE cart tells me to have my receipt ready because they will check at the door. I get to the door and to make things smooth, immediately hand the guy the receipt. He kind of stares at it for a few beats and then says “Is this for the TV?” :smack:
I’m glad I haven’t seen that trend hit my area yet. I think I’d go batshit on some poor minimum wage employee after too long. Or maybe if I reached the breaking point, I’d make them sorry they asked.
“Oh, my, thank you for asking, let me tell you, I’ve had better days. From the moment I woke up and hit my head on the headboard I knew this was going to be a bad day. Why, on my way to work, I…”
When I’m going shopping I just want to get my crap and get out. That’s one of the reasons I love my nearest supermarket: Self-checkout. No smalltalk.
Plus, is anyone fooled by this sort of false sincerity? Does it really make anyone feel better about shopping at a particular store when you’re thanked and asked how you’re doing and engaged in smalltalk when you know it’s all just empty stroking?
I shop at Food Lion most of the time, and this bugs me, too. It’s bad enough every random employee is required to say hello, I hate that the poor clerks in the checkout line are forced to keep one eye on the door and greet everyone who walks in.
I dislike the “Welcome to Moe’s!” thing I get when I (umm) walk into Moe’s, mainly because I know it’s corporate making those poor slobs say that, or risk getting fired, tho they tend to mumble it more than anything anymore. I almost expect R. Lee Ermey to walk in one day, wearing a Moe’s corporate logo, and say, “Bullshit! I can’t hear you! Sound off like you’ve got a pair!”
And yet if I get distracted and don’t make a point of specifying that I want paper, THAT’S the time that they DON’T ASK and I end up getting plastic.
Or (the flip side), I get asked twice whether I want paper or plastic, once by the cashier and once by the actual bagger. Why ask if you’re not doing the actual bagging AND don’t pass the message along to the person who is? Grrr. I hate repeating myself unnecessarily.
They can’t ask a practical question, but I get “greeted” every ten feet. No thanks.