Pet Hates – Being Ignored In Shops

Sales assistants in shops seem to fall into two broad categories.

They’re either incredibly pushy ie. as soon as you walk in the door and before you’ve even had a chance to look at anything they’re right beside you trying to “help” you.

Or you have the complete opposite extreme that ignores you entirely. You know the type, they’re too “busy” chatting with other staff to bother selling you anything.

This afternoon I was hoping to buy some sports gear so that I can go to the gym (no I’m not going to turn into a fitness freak). There were a couple of things I wanted to get and a few others that I might have got if I’d been in the mood ie. if the shop assistants had been anyway helpful.

I wandered around the shop looking at things, but even though I tried to subtly catch their eye, not one of the shops staff (I counted at least 6) made even the slightest effort to assist me.

Now what about those shops where they actually look after you? One of my local menswear shops gets all my business for one simple reason: they care. I wandered in there yesterday afternoon hoping to get one or two shirts and came out of there with six shirts, three trousers, a jumper and a belt! Why? Because they made it easy for me to buy from them. They aren’t pushy sales people, but they know how to upsell to me, so I’m more than happy to spend money with them.

Considering all the tales of woe about retail I’ve been reading in the media in the last couple of months you’d think that the retailers would actually be trying to sell stuff, wouldn’t you?

I’ll probably end up buying the sports wear I was looking for from an online retailer, as at least that way I won’t feel ignored!