I like to shop at drugstore chains like Watsons and Guardian, just randomly browsing the range of products they offer.
And each time without fail, whether I am indeed searching for something, promoters will come up to me and ask me “miss, what are you looking for?” And in the past, being naive and trusting, I will tell these promoters that I’m looking for a facial cleanser, or a toner, etc. And I got duped too many times to trust these commission-driven bitches anymore. Once, I was looking for an alcohol-free toner (because my skin is sensitive to alcohol) and this promoter at Guardian insisted that whatever product she was selling was better, and that it is alcohol-free. I asked if I could test it, and she said, no tester, but it’s good because she herself uses it. So I bought it at a hefty SGD20, to come home to realize not only it is laden with alcohol, and that it only costs 670yen, which is less than SGD10 in Japan (where it was produced). Talk about being double-duped.
That is not an isolated incident; I have been blinded by these ruthless promoters in other instances. There was another time recently when I was looking for toothpaste, and this promoter came up to me, “miss, what are you looking for?” I honestly told her “toothpaste”, and in the back of my mind I thought, they can’t possibly have promoters for toothpaste, can they? Well it turned out true enough, she wasn’t a toothpaste promoter, and disregarding what I said, she started to promote some skincare product. I was pretty miffed at that point I wanted to ask her, “so miss, I can brush my teeth with this?” And recently, I met a relentless one who doesn’t seem to understand “never mind, I can look for it myself”. I feel that these promoters have this underlying assumption that I cannot make my own choice when it comes to buying things. I must have the face that says “I’m a sucker come fleece me”.
So my bottomline is, I hate promoters. I’m sorry to stereotype them all, but I have met more evil lying scheming promoters than genuinely good ones. So I can’t be faulted for being antagonistic towards them, and my tendency to avoid them, right?
And after discussing this matter with my mother and sister, we came to the conclusion the next time promoters ask me “miss what are you looking for?” I will reply henceforth:
1. Mas Selamat
2. Inspiration
3. money
4. opportunities
5. soy sauce (in a drugstore)
6. my primary school teacher
7. my true love
8. my mother
9. My pet snake that escaped
10. Glycol stearate-free products (or input any other cheem chemical terms to throw them off)
having worked as a salesgirl, can sort of understand their position. as a customer, can understand your perspective because i too hate these sort of promoters; just the ones following me around is enough to irritate, what more those fake insincere salesgirls who will say i look good in whatever i try on, no matter that the dress is ill-fitted to my body.
that’s why when i worked as a salesgirl i didn’t have an aggressive / assertive attitude because i knew as a customer many people do not like being pestered to the point of harassment! wasn’t that good for my short-lived retail career, haha… not that i have any long-term plans in it! i’m never going to work retail as a full-time job.
But your work as salesgirl wasn’t as commission and sales-target driven as these promoters, who’d do anything to make you buy their products? Heh.
one of my salesgirl job was commission-based on top of basic pay, and the basic was good, so i wasn’t as motivated as your salesgirls.
also, i would never take a total commission-based job because i don’t want to risk spending the whole day working for pittance! and i’m not aggressive like that, i guess. haha.
Well, let’s just say there are two kinds of people in this world; those suited to sell insurance policies, and those suited to sell toilet paper. I belong to the 2nd kind, the only things I can sell are necessities that don’t require me to hardsell. Heh.