People's park beauty rip off

[movingtospore]

I've found shop assistants to be completely useless here, by and large. They seem to know absolutely nothing about the products they sell. Even the most mundane questions seem to produce the blank stare and blink as a response. If they're out of something, the standard answer seems to be, "don't have it." To which I'll often ask, "well, what about your other outlets?". Blank stare. Haven't thought of actually ringing the other Courts etc to see what's in stock.

[x9200]

Useless? You were extremely lucky then. I found them most of the time making shopping more difficult. Always on your way thinking only about themselves (packing/unpacking, shuffling something on the shelves right in front of you), blocking aisles/passages or following you 2 steps behind after being told already a few times you would call them if really needed.

[JR8]

Useless? You were extremely lucky then. I found them most of the time making shopping more difficult. Always on your way thinking only about themselves (packing/unpacking, shuffling something on the shelves right in front of you), blocking aisles/passages or following you 2 steps behind after being told already a few times you would call them if really needed.

^ I believe this is because they get paid partially on commission. So especially if you're even vaguely an FT-looking type they're on your tail so once you have chosen a product, without their help required, they can lead you to the cash-till (usually under a bloody huge sign reading 'PAY HERE' ) and get their staff number on your receipt. Indeed they usually show their staff ID card to the cashier while your item/s are being rung up on the till. I have found this a particularly common occurrence in Courts, especially in their bed/furniture departments.

It drives me nuts too. As a) I usually have researched what I want beforehand b) as X9 says, they invariably have zero product knowledge c) their hovering is an infuriating distraction, a negative.

My wife and I have code/alert-words re: such people. We go into a shop, try to locate what we know we want, pay and leave, pronto. If we get distracted and browse and one such person is homing in on us, one of us will say 'Klingons [i.e. cling-ons] on the starboard bow!', or simply 'Incoming!'... either is the signal to immediately leave the area or indeed the entire shop.


Funny isn't it, the shop encourages staff to hound potential customers, causing some to simply turn away and exit; but presumably on-balance it must be in the shops' interests.

Whereas in places like IKEA even if you want advice it's hard to find someone to give it to you. Also places like IKEA know that when you're done with the hard-core targeted shopping, that if your 'home run' through the store towards the tills ends with a hall of ultra-high-margin discretionary products (huge bags of candles, mini watering-cans, packs of tea-towels etc*1000 - i.e. stuff you don't need but impulsively decide to buy) then that is where they make a lot of their profit margin. They also know that if they have any staff in that area hectoring customers then those discretionary sales will likely evaporate... similar strategy as supermarkets having racks of sweets and snacks right at the cash-till queue.