Shop In Peace

The other day a friend of mine and I were out for brunch and then afterwards decided to wander around the shops in the area—really just to hangout, not really to shop. We did go into shops that we would normally shop in but, neither of us were looking to buy anything that day. The first shop was a small family run business, Gold Bug, where we were warmly greeted as we came in, some small talk was made and then we were left on our own to shop - awesome. I saw two things I feel I absolutely MUST own sooner rather than later so, I’ll probably go online and buy them unless Santa’s feeling generous ;) The second store happened to be Crate and Barrel where we made it all the way to the second floor and about 15 minutes into a conversation on one of the couches I already own before a sales person approached with a simple ‘are you guys doing ok?’ to which we answered that we were ‘great’ and he left us be - also awesome. We sat on that couch chatting for quite some time, undisturbed. After deciding to relinquish the couch we wandered by the two seat sleeper section, which I do happen to be in the market for and tried out a couple with the help of another sales person who waited till we wanted help to approach. Now as I continue my search for my future sleeper I am comparing everything to the one I loved at Crate and Barrel. So far nothing is measuring up so, they will likely get my business. The final store we went in was Roche de Bois and the moment we entered the store a sales associate came up to us and asked if we had ever been in the store before—I hadn’t and wasn’t sure if I wanted to be in the store even now as I had JUST stepped inside. I made the mistake of saying ‘no’…so she launched into the history of the store and all the locations they have and all the designers they have and all the collections that are on display and on and on and on. Not only was her ‘pitch’ never ending but she interrupted my friend and I’s conversation, which I really wanted to finish before I forgot what I was even saying. I walked away from her and my friend to another corner of the store thinking maybe she’d stop talking if the person who had never been in the store before was no longer listening. My friend also escaped to come over to where I was and guess what….not one second later the sales associate has appeared and is now going into great detail about the new item we are looking at. We both walked away this time, did a quick lap around the store and got out of there. I have no desire to ever go back and I can assure you, I won’t. Yeah, there were some items that I might have liked but, I never got the chance to discover them on my own with my own set of needs and appreciation in mind - not awesome.

I once was a sales associate, and in fact once even a commission sales associate, so I get it. The Roche de Bois associate was doing what she was trained to do, give a sales pitch. Not everyone wants to be ‘sold to’ and some people truly are ‘just looking’ but, if you let them be there’s a good chance something will catch their eye and they will be back, be it in store or online. If you run them off with a sales pitch the moment they enter the door, you lost them forever - sorry.