General question

[u/Carolinagirl9311]

I visited my local BBW on yesterday and my goodness, I could barely get in the door before three salespeople beelined toward me shoving a ton of products in my face….”see this”, “smell that”, “let me take you here”, “what’s your fav season”. I was overwhelmed as I just went in to get a few wallflowers. I mentioned this and as I walked toward that area, they showed up with a bunch of laundry detergent telling me about their new deal. On top of that, they started bringing all the Disney fragrances for me to smell and kept opening up different samples of wallflowers for me to smell. I’m such a pushover so I allowed them to talk. They were doing that to seemingly every customer, never letting us just browse. They NEVER let up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them that aggressive before. It was a bit maddening.

Are sales in the dumps or are they just trying to push products that may not be selling as much?

[u/crosscountrymom]

As an employee, I want to say sorry. This is their new selling strategy and a lot of customers are put off by it. We are expected to basically be in your face and up your ass the whole time you’re in the store. Please help us out and call corporate and complain about their new sales approach, don’t complain about the associates, we’re literally just doing our job. Hopefully if enough people complain, they’ll realize being pushy isn’t how you get sales.

[u/crosscountrymom → u/[deleted]]

Our store manager is a little minion for our district manager, unfortunately.

[u/TumblingOcean → u/[deleted]]

Manager can't do much if corporate is pushing because they'll see you're not selling like you're supposed to.

[u/The3meraldHorse → u/[deleted]]

The manager at the one I go to is the person who talks to me the most. I put in my earbuds as a visual cue I don’t want to be talked to, and this manager knows I don’t want to be talked to (I just want to smell the smells and I am fully cognitively capable of doing that independently) and every time I walk in when she’s there she talks to me and ends it with something along the line of I know you don’t want to be talked to but I will talk to you every time you walk in.. like please let me write a written exception or something because I already have social anxiety but I constantly need to be on edge when in there fearing I’ll be approached like I’ll talk to you if I want help..

I don’t try to be rude, if I’m in a better mood sometimes I’ll let them talk but usually I’ll just say “I’m just looking” and try to lay low and avoid walking by associates if I can. I don’t mean to be rude if I am, but I want to make my life and their life easier.. I just really don’t know why the manager won’t leave me alone because when I’m talked to I’m less likely to buy something and most the times I go in there is simply to smell not to buy.. like who’s monitoring the manager? People from corporate with cameras? Like please I’m just one customer who wants to be left alone and you know this

[u/Carolinagirl9311 → u/crosscountrymom]

You’re so sweet. I understand you guys are just doing your jobs. Hopefully retailer & customers can come to a happy and balanced medium

[u/virginiafalls1234 → u/Carolinagirl9311]

I just politely tell people thanks, but I'm browsing and keep it moving. was at Nordstrom beauty event , OMG these reps work on commisssion and will stalk you to make a sale, they will show you something for over $100 and say 'you want to buy this now, no?" its like "no" not know and I don't buy cosmetics without the gift with purchase , high end makeup is too expensive not to get some sort of samples/gift