Whenever I walk into a shop (the small ones; this hasn’t really happened at the big department stores…yet), I’ll glance at something only to have the SA rush over declaring how wonderful and cute it is, how it comes in different colors, etc. I’ll smile, say thanks, and say I’m just browsing for now, but she will basically shadow me the entire time with a forced cheery tone and smile, rapidly recommending a bunch of things I don’t really want. I’d just like to have time to look and think without being pitched to. A lot of these stores are crammed to the hilt with stuff, so there’s a lot to see. Then if I don’t indicate rather swiftly that I am going to buy something and instead say I am still looking to see what I like, she’ll switch like Jeckyll and Hyde, looking like she wants to beat me over the head with a mannequin leg. It makes shopping very unpleasant, like to gain admission into a store I need to buy something within 5 seconds. Has anyone else dealt with this? I try to be polite, but even this is met with rudeness. :s Bummed me out.
Minimum wage, working on commission. Time is money. If you 'aint buying, you’re wasting her time.
Repeat custom is also money, as is recommendation to fellow shoppers and friends, although I wouldn’t like to spend all day in a pair of high heels speaking to ungrateful and rude customers, which most of them are.
You’d probably look quite fetching in a pair of high heels, Super Hans.
They pinch my toes and I get blisters.
I prefer that reaction to what I got when I stepped into a sports equipment store. The sales girl hears the door chime and came around the corner and then stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me. Honestly, you would have thought a bear came into the store. She promptly ducks back around the corner and 15 seconds later her and another coworker appear and react in exactly the same manner. They both look at each other and, quick as a flash, disappear back around the corner. 30 seconds later the manager comes around the corner and asks me if he can help me. I swear if I would have gotten the same reaction a third time I would have stuck my arms straight out and chased them around the store.
What on earth? Do you have 2 heads or something? 
What on earth? Do you have 2 heads or something? [/quote]
No, pretty normal looking white guy. Maybe I hadn’t shaved in a day or two or something. 
What on earth? Do you have 2 heads or something? [/quote]
No, pretty normal looking white guy. Maybe I hadn’t shaved in a day or two or something. [/quote]
They’re probably just freaked out that a white guy came into their store because that means they’ll have to speak…gasp…English!
I used to work for a Korean company and the boss would often visit Taiwan and we would go shopping from time to time, of course they would approach him first, but not speaking a word of Chinese I would translate and then speaking in English translate back to the sales person. I think on one occasion I saw the sales woman do a double take, looking back and forward with me and my boss at least 4 or 5 times, careful scrutiny written all over her face with the expression of “there’s something wrong with this picture”
hangingintaiwan, very normal behavior indeed. It’s one of the reasons I’ve become a hermit as a result of staying here and avoid buying anything, at least from small shops, where possible. The big chains are your friends, probably because people get paid minimum wage, those small shops mostly don’t pay the minimum wage, and they don’t need to ram useless shit down your throat.
Yup, wouldnt want that job ! A lot of customers are just plain rude folk.
But HK is the worst place for “just looking around” small shops.
THAT is exactly what you shouldve DONE, give em what they expected.
(you might make the next Apple Daily tho…Yeti goes crazy in store…kinda thing)
Yup, wouldnt want that job ! A lot of customers are just plain rude folk.
But HK is the worst place for “just looking around” small shops.[/quote]
No… India is worse; indeed, any place within the Indian cultural sphere of influence (Pakistan to Cambodia, Nepal to Sri Lanka).
I was in ximending looking at watches a couple weeks back, and basically the same thing happened. A BEAUTIFUL sales girl would NOT stop following me around, asking what I’d like to try on, and what have you. Oh, what a horrible experience! haha 
Yup, wouldnt want that job ! A lot of customers are just plain rude folk.
But HK is the worst place for “just looking around” small shops.[/quote]
True about HK. My ex was actually physically attacked by an old lady shopowner while just browsing in her small backstreet shop.
Or not. How would they know? Maybe a random white guy speaks Chinese fluently. Maybe he doesn’t speak any English at all because his first language is French, Russian, or something else. Who knows? They certainly didn’t.
Or not. How would they know? Maybe a random white guy speaks Chinese fluently. Maybe he doesn’t speak any English at all because his first language is French, Russian, or something else. Who knows? They certainly didn’t.[/quote]
True. Then again, they’re working the floor in a shop. Probably didn’t finish high school. Cut 'em some slack, I’d say. I tried to have a conversation about Descartes with the guy who picks up the trash in our neighbourhood this morning and he was toatlly MYSTIFIED! Just didn’t get it at all! 
Honestly, what is WRONG with these people?
It’s easy to deal with them…if they’re riding your ass after you indicate you want to look around, ignore them. If they start talking to you suggesting things, ignore them. If they start to show you something, ignore them. Enter the Bubble Zone.
Obnoxious people deserve to be ignored, so don’t feel bad for doing it.
[quote=“mups”]It’s easy to deal with them…if they’re riding your ass after you indicate you want to look around, ignore them. If they start talking to you suggesting things, ignore them. If they start to show you something, ignore them. Enter the Bubble Zone.
Obnoxious people deserve to be ignored, so don’t feel bad for doing it.[/quote]
I totally disagree.
Why ignore them if you can say something snark, sarcastic or snotty to them?
You must be non-confrontational person from the 53rd state of the US.