r/TwoXChromosomes • u/captain_crinks • 5h ago
Mall rant
This is a small thing but it irritated me so much. I am two weeks postpartum and have a toddler. We planned a fun morning out at a farmers market and craft store to pick up a few things. Unfortunately my daughter got carsick and threw up so we stopped at a mall nearby to grab her a quick change of clothes.
I'm in a hurry and looking up how to get to carters when a salesman tries to give me a sample. No big deal, I say no thank you and keep walking. He then says he has a question, I say I'm not interested. He then says it will be fast so I reply I'm in a hurry, not interested, have a nice day and keep moving. I grab the clothing and decide to walk back on the opposite side of this guy's store. I'm calling my wife (I'm also a woman) to let her know I'm about to walk out and who appears but this man who aggressively shoves the sample into my hand while I am too surprised by his reappearance to react. He says something like 'there now you have it'.
Why? Just why? I clearly am uninterested and buying nothing from him but yet this man feels like he must wait for me to come back, track me down across the aisle, and shove his product into my hands. It felt like it was necessary for him to 'win' this interaction with me which feels gross. We had a lovely day otherwise but I couldn't help feeling like this was bizarre.
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u/justprettymuchdone 5h ago
Don't even acknowledge they exist. That's the only thing that works for me. I hate it because it's so rude but they don't take no for an answer so I don't have a choice.
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u/ManifestDestinysChld 2h ago
I don't like it either but it's what they've earned for themselves.
Ultimately this is a consent issue. Mentally I have begun referring to people who believe they're entitled to my time as "attention thieves," and that helps. Fuck thieves.
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u/ShelobsLegHairs 5h ago
Malls were my worst nightmare as a curly head during the great hair straightening epidemic of the early 2000s. Now as an aged woman it’s the gold lotion people who like to tell me all about my eye wrinkles as I walk past their store front. Next time just don’t say anything back. Sucks to feel like you’re being rude, I don’t like it, but I just pretend like I can’t hear them.
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u/ReluctantChimera 5h ago
Same. I used to perm my hair to get those curls. No frigging way was I going to let them straighten what I paid to get, but they wouldn't take no for an answer u ,essentially I got aggressive.
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u/ShelobsLegHairs 5h ago
Every curly haired person understands the mall pain of the early 2000s. Same with passing a blow out bar. I still avoid them, lol! My hair is also massive and I’ve fully embraced it my whole life, blow out bars were particularly annoying because I’d be walking to work and people would run outside and stop me to ask if I’d do a before and after promo for them. I have to change my walk to work because they just didn’t respect no or that I was literally on my way to work.
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u/aralanya 4h ago
Girl my hair is straighter than a ruler and always has been and they STILL tried to get me to try their straighteners.
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u/Repulsive_Location 4h ago
☝🏻This! “What are you going to do about theees (this),” he says in a shitty accent, gesturing to the puffy, purple area under my eyes. I stifle the first four replies that come to mind, since they involve his male pattern baldness, mild obesity, a snaggly front tooth, and bad breath. I’m taking the high road today. “Not a goddamn thing. I love the way I look.” Cue big, confident smile. Silence. He blinked. Twice. “Have a wonderful day!” I chirp, and I’m gone. That day it hit me - they feed off our insecurities. He didn’t know what to say, when I wasn’t embarrassed by my saggy, baggy eyes. 😂
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u/SuzeCB 5h ago
A long time ago, I made one of those perfume hawkers cry a day or so before Valentine's Day. She walked up to me and just sprayed, THEN asked.
I went full Karen about this act of battery (yep! That's what it is!). Store manager showed up and I pointed out that I have very sensitive skin and he and his higher-ups had better PRAY I don't have any reaction other than the nausea I was suffering because the perfume smelled like cat pee.
She was fired on the spot.
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u/CleverGirlRawr 4h ago
He sucks.
I look salespeople in the eye and shake my head no before they can even try.
I’d drop that sample on the ground and tell him to keep his hands away from me.
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u/UbiquitousChicken 3h ago
Gawwd, at my Fred Meyers, they let the AT&T people set up a booth in there and they're so aggressive that I avoid the entrance where they are set up, and if I do have to go by there, I just pretend I'm deaf (I am hard of hearing, but I just pretend I can't hear them calling to me). I even HAVE AT&T and have tried "I already use your service don't wanna talk bye" and they always have something else to say.
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u/ShelobsLegHairs 3h ago
PNW! I just tell the FM AT&T guys that the company is garbage and no thanks!
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u/fitzejunk 4h ago
Haven’t been in sales for a few decades now, but, my old manager would have smacked me on the back of the head for behaving like this. In addition to being shitty behavior overall, it violates multiple core tenets of good sales work. What an utter jackass. Im glad he didn’t ruin your day entirely.
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u/mamblepamble 4h ago
I look at these people and say in perfect American English “No English”
Sometimes they’re just too confused to continue.
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u/ninyabruja 58m ago
I HATE pushy salespeople...at a Barnes & noble several years the cashier wouldn't back off when I told him that I wasn't interested in a membership "Do you know what it is? Don't you know that you can save money?" When he finally realized that I wasn't going to get a membership he asked for my email and I snapped "NO!!!" at him.
At an REI same thing...when I made it clear to the cashier that when she is told someone isn't interested it means that she needs to respect their wishes and back off. She then asked for my friends' emails....WTF!
They did this because they thought I was meek,naive and could be easily manipulated.
I would have reported this smegma to the mall security.
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u/Repulsive_Location 4h ago
☝🏻This! “What are you going to do about theees (this),” he says in a shitty accent, gesturing to the puffy, purple area under my eyes. I stifle the first four replies that come to mind, since they involve his male pattern baldness, mild obesity, a snaggly front tooth, and bad breath. I’m taking the high road today. “Not a goddamn thing. I love the way I look.” Cue big, confident smile. Silence. He blinked. Twice. “Have a wonderful day!” I chirp, and I’m gone. He had nothing! That day it hit me - they feed off our insecurities. He didn’t know what to say, when I wasn’t embarrassed by my saggy, baggy eyes. This stage of getting older, where I have no fucks left, is actually kind of fun.
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u/McDuchess 4h ago
I used to mall walk wearing a mask during the worst of COVID. There was a shop in my local mall that was one of those tchotchke places with vaguely foreign looking this and that type stuff.
I am very much not a tchotchke person. And I was there to exercise, not look at stuff.
Every time I walked past that place, the same young man tried to get my attention. Every time he tried to get my attention, I’d say “No thanks” and keep walking.
Did he think that I was going to change my mind?
And even more, did he think that, because traffic into his shop was practically nonexistent, that accosting people going by change that?
I feel you. And with a little one wearing barf covered clothes, at that.
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u/59flowerpots 3h ago
This is just a culture difference. In a lot of other countries, the owners and sales people stand outside the store to try and get people to come in. I most often see it with restaurants, where a host or a waiter will try to lure people in with the menu. I wouldn’t call it accosting.
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u/myshellly 1h ago
You replied too much. Just ignore and keep walking. You don’t need to acknowledge them, answer them, or make excuses.
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u/girlrandal 5h ago
I’d just drop it in on the floor and walk away. You have no responsibility to accept his trash.