retail employees have to act friendly and be nice to you
As an European, if a retail employee ever acts friendly or even smiles at me I’m not setting foot in that retail chain ever again.
I don’t want creepy freaks bothering me while I’m trying to shop, I just want to shop and be left alone unless I ask for something (which would also be a red flag, the products should be sufficiently well organised and labelled that asking will never be necessary).
Haha, I worked in a high-end gift shop and spent my day reading labels for ladies too vain to wear reading glasses.
I’d help them pick out the gift they needed, often for their mother in law which I think is unfair, it’s HIS mom. Then while we wrapped the gift, they’d get several other items for their own home.
We weren’t on commission so it was never a “hard sell,” and I was always sensitive to people who prefer to shop alone because I do too. But some customers want attention or at least human interaction.
And sometimes I would take a mom’s little kids around the store, showing them the things it was okay to touch and steering them away from the fragile porcelain, so their mom could relax enough to think about what she needed to get. Fortunately we had a section of “grandma gifts for children” so I could always take them there if she was comfortable having them out of her sight.
And then a few times a year we’d get a man, who was shopping for his wife or his own mother! We’d always help them out because they’d be lost, and often it was less about finding the things, and more about asking about her, so we could help them figure out what she might enjoy and appreciate.
As an European, if a retail employee ever acts friendly or even smiles at me I’m not setting foot in that retail chain ever again.
I don’t want creepy freaks bothering me while I’m trying to shop, I just want to shop and be left alone unless I ask for something (which would also be a red flag, the products should be sufficiently well organised and labelled that asking will never be necessary).
I understand not wanting them to bother you, but even if they smile?
If I wanted to be creeped out I’d go to a haunted house or something like that, not to a store.
Haha, I worked in a high-end gift shop and spent my day reading labels for ladies too vain to wear reading glasses.
I’d help them pick out the gift they needed, often for their mother in law which I think is unfair, it’s HIS mom. Then while we wrapped the gift, they’d get several other items for their own home.
We weren’t on commission so it was never a “hard sell,” and I was always sensitive to people who prefer to shop alone because I do too. But some customers want attention or at least human interaction.
And sometimes I would take a mom’s little kids around the store, showing them the things it was okay to touch and steering them away from the fragile porcelain, so their mom could relax enough to think about what she needed to get. Fortunately we had a section of “grandma gifts for children” so I could always take them there if she was comfortable having them out of her sight.
And then a few times a year we’d get a man, who was shopping for his wife or his own mother! We’d always help them out because they’d be lost, and often it was less about finding the things, and more about asking about her, so we could help them figure out what she might enjoy and appreciate.
are you scandinavian because I feel like that’s what one side of my family is like, the swedish/dutch side