# Why do grocery stores allow sales people to come into their stores and harass their customers?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-grocery-stores-allow-sales-people-to-come-into-their-stores-and-harass-their-customers/1016135>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 26, 2025, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-grocery-stores-allow-sales-people-to-come-into-their-stores-and-harass-their-customers/1016135 "2025-03-26T12:05:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-grocery-stores-allow-sales-people-to-come-into-their-stores-and-harass-their-customers/1016135/61 "2025-03-28T20:49:23Z")

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> [@psy1967a](#):
>
> . In no particular order, they are Money, Sex, Power, Territory, and Reproducing.

And all are summed up and explained by the definite vice: greed.

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**Author:** ![psy1967a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@psy1967a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psy1967a)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-grocery-stores-allow-sales-people-to-come-into-their-stores-and-harass-their-customers/1016135/62 "2025-03-28T20:53:28Z")

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The only place I tend to see this is inside my local Costco. Various people selling various products and services. Most are low-key and polite. I always ignore them EXCEPT if (1) My wife and kids aren’t along and (2) It’s a hot young sales girl. In that case, I’ll stop and PRETEND to be interested for 5 to 20 minutes. Just to flirt. And then I’ll finally say no thanks and walk off. 🙂

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**Author:** ![psy1967a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@psy1967a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psy1967a)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-grocery-stores-allow-sales-people-to-come-into-their-stores-and-harass-their-customers/1016135/63 "2025-03-28T21:00:21Z")

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As a history and biology buff, I’ll respectfully disagree. Just like almost every single animal on earth, humans are hard-wired to seek and hold onto territory. We’re hard wired to reproduce. We’ve learned that money and power are helpful and even neccesary to raise healthy children. Greed only comes into the equation, when the acquistion of money becomes a psychological obsession. Especially when one desires money far beyond that which is needed too have a good life and retirement.

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**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-grocery-stores-allow-sales-people-to-come-into-their-stores-and-harass-their-customers/1016135/64 "2025-03-28T21:03:29Z")

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> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> AT&T’s relentless sales tactics bug the hell out of me, and I say this as an advertising person.

I’ve found them pretty bad. They’re the only door-to-door salespeople I’ve ever shouted at, telling them to leave immediately.

I’ve seen people selling cable and occasionally other things at grocery store and retail outlets. A few years back Bass Pro Shop had some people selling timeshares, Sam’s Club had people selling cable or satellite dish, and someone at Kroger was selling something but I can’t remember what. Nothing I was interested in at the time. It’s annoying because I don’t want to be hassled in a retail store by something completely unrelated to why I’m there in the first place.

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**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2025, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-grocery-stores-allow-sales-people-to-come-into-their-stores-and-harass-their-customers/1016135/65 "2025-03-29T19:08:24Z")

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> [@psy1967a](#):
>
> The short answer is : MONEY.

Yep! and welcome!

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