There’s the hard-sell, the soft-sell, the bait-and-switch, etc. I identified the “flirt-sell” yesterday at a booth fair. It’s close cousin, the flirt-for-tips, is well known. Have you been preyed upon by the flirt-sell?
I wandered away from my wife (who was busy fending off the let-me-show-you-all-the-ways sell) and was pounced upon (figuratively) by a pretty young thing working a Ren-Faire clothing shoppe. “Looking for a new shirt?” she said coyly. “A fancy hat, perhaps?” I blew her off (figuratively), because I already have a poet shirt and a $150 leather musketeer hat. She might have done better to start with the flirting and moved to the selling after.
I’m sure the technique works better on younger guys, but despite appearances, I’m old enough to know better. It’s just that I haven’t been single at one of these things in forever. I realize booths like these employ attractive girls just for this reason, maybe it was just because she wasn’t very good at it that I was taken aback by how blatant it was.
The girls are trying to sell me something?
I thought I just reached the age where I was safe to flirt with. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to tell The Wife that she was right again. (She almost hurt herself laughing last time.)
I was in “civilian” clothes, wearing a 49ers cap, which isn’t going to impress anyone. (But yes, the $$ hat does make me look handsome.)
wolfman,
It was the Scottish Highland Gathering and Games in Pleasanton. Not a Ren Faire, but plenty of the same vendors. I only realized it later, but the top she had on only covered her front. Nicely toned back, but no cleavage; it was not a bodice.
I’m bad at flirting and highly resistant to salemanship. Like I said, only because she was bad at both did I really notice. Upon reminiscing, I think it has been attempted more than once. Maybe I should sneak off to the NorCal RenFaire alone some time. Lol. As if
“Can I demonstrate the EDA implementation of a merger of 1149.1 and 1500” she breathed heavily.
Some companies are into booth babes, but I’ve never seen any pseudo-flirting - mostly they seem to be trying to avoid getting too close to horny engineers. Perhaps her poor flirting was a result of her not trying to flirt?
A sandwich shop recently opened near me and the first time I went, there was a comely young lady working the line with a lot of hand-on-the-shoulder and “What are you thinking of ordering? Philly beef? Oh my GOD, that’s one of my FAVORITES!” Obviously, I could have told her I wanted cat food on a saltine and that would have undoubtedly been one of her “favorites!”.
While I’d classify it as a flirt-sell, I guess it’s more of a “make them like the place and want to return in homes of getting the same attention next time” since we were all already there to buy sandwiches. Amusing, I haven’t seen her since in any capacity – working the register, making sandwiches, whatever. It’s like they imported her for the week.
I’ve never been into the Ren Faire/cosplay thing, but if I saw a guy walking down the street in a poet shirt and a leather musketeer hat, I’d really wish I had a mace or a flail or something.
Years ago a girl successfully flirt-sold me a pair of jeans. I never would have bought them if it hadn’t been for how she fawned over me when I tried them on, and how great she insisted they made me look. I bought into it hook, line and sinker.
When we were house shopping a few years ago a real estate agent tried to flirt-sell a house to me. She was unsuccessful. I went in during the open house just to take a quick look because my wife didn’t feel like getting out of the car again, and the agent met me in the kitchen. She was beautiful and just starting out, but she had the flirt thing down. She’s laying it on pretty thick and my wife came through the door with the kids- they wanted to get out of the car. We walked all through the house and when my wife was there, the agent was all business. When my wife was in a different room, the agent turned on the flirting again. It was kind of funny and I told my wife about it when we got back in the car.
As a former (long ago, almost another life) Festie, there are some young women working the Fairs who simply don’t know how to NOT flirt. They are blatant and constant with anything remotely within their sexual orientation - and if they think they can get something from you - even beyond it. That something may be selling you a poet’s shirt, or just getting an appreciative glance at the cleavage.
This reminds me of I time I was car shopping. I took my son along, who was 3 or 4 at the time. My wife chose not to come along. This seriously hot Latina woman was trying to sell me a new Mustang, so I decided to take it for a spin. My son sat in the back. We had been cruising through town for a few minutes, and this woman was laying it on thick. I was enjoying the attention and let her do her thing, until my son started talking about being bored and wanting to go home. I said something about going home and getting mommy and bringing her to the car lot to drive the car.
That was the last of the saleslady’s flirting.
Although, now that I think about it, maybe the fact thay she stopped when she heard I was married meant that she wasn’t flirting just to sell me a Mustang
I notice it most often with college girls trying to get me to donate to Amnesty International or the Children’s Hospital or whatever. Luckily, I’m pretty good at ignoring people.
I remember your face and awesome hair from pic threads gleaned during my lurking days and I’m sure your wife will concur: you’re kinda man-pretty. So… Rengirl may have been fawning in a legitimate fashion.
This sort of thing happens to me all the time at the mulch store.
I’ll go in there to get a few bags of pine nuggets, and the babe working the counter will say “You look like the kind of man who can appreciate composted manure!”
I was at a user conference/trade show last week, and apparently a newish tactic of tech firms is to hire smoking hot young Russian women as sales reps - but since all the ones I spoke with were also scary-smart and knew their products better than most of the guys did, I found little to complain about.
I used to attend that every year when we lived out there. Were you a regular in the 80’s and 90’s? Perhaps we’ve met.
From what I’ve seen, it’s the booths with crappier merchandise that tend to lay it on the thickest, and they’re fairly good at figuring out who not to waste their time on. I don’t get the “flirt sell” much when I’m in full regalia. Although my wife says I’m so oblivious that when the girls do try it on me I typically don’t even notice.
A coupla times in malls I’ve encountered (I’m guessing) Israeli kids, selling some kind of “Dead Sea mud mask” type of a skincare goo. The company seems to employ attractive young people of both sexes who sort of accost you as you go by. The times I encountered them, a young lady would actually grab you & start rubbing this stuff onto your arm & flirtatiously talking it up. (“Oh look at you, your skin is so dry, you poor baby, just try some of this, feels good right?” etc., that kinds thing)
Very effective I have to say.
Had all I could do to tear myself away from her and not buy a case of the stuff!
