Yesterday afternoon, I picked Caleb up from chorus practice and the school book fair and took him to run an errand with me. We went to a local kids’ clothing store to get a Christmas present for Nicholas, my nephew who will be here with his mama today.
Caleb stuck with me, his nose in a book. I’ve been to this store a million times before, and I generally like the women who work there. This time, the woman who owns it was working, and she did something to cause me to generally dislike her.
Not once, not twice, but three times, she asked Caleb if he’d seen certain merchandise. He was clearly reading and not interested in shopping, so he didn’t start begging for it, but still: Girlfriend was trying to upsell to my child.
We are unapologetic TV watchers, so from the time he could talk, we’ve taught him that THE COMMERCIALS don’t make decisions about what you buy, YOU do. We talk about the quality of products, if they’re worth the cash, yadda yadda.
Yesterday, I didn’t quite know what to say. I probably should have pointed out that I’m the one with the credit card, not the ten-year-old boy, or something. I at least should have said something to Caleb so he could recognize what she was trying to do. I guess it just took me too long to put a name to what was happening, and by then we were in the car on the way home.
What would you have done? Me, I’m just going to not go back. That, and post this on my blog.
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6 comments:
Wow, that's nervy! I would have WANTED to say something like, "How could he have not seen it? You've shown it to him three times already?" But I probably would have said to him, "Ok, you ready to go?" Because I lack the boldness that I wish for!
She may just have been trying to engage a "bookish" child, which I always hated when I was a kid. However, it's not too late to talk to your son about sales tactics! Sounds like you're raising an educated consumer -- congrats!
When are my boys going to stick their noses in books, when Jenny, when??? I think I have another couple of years....Oh wait, they can't read yet...ahh, that's it. (ha ha ha)
'Tis the season???
if you really are not going to go back, and that's why, you really should tell the lady why. She needs to know her icky sales practices are contributing to customer loss. you don't have to make a big scene about it; just send her a note.
I get very irritated by "pushy" sales people. And pushing kids to get their parents to buy things is horrible. However, to attempt to understand why the owner of the store might have done this I'd ponder the current economic climate. As a local kids' clothing shop is she afraid this may be her last year open? It's the small stores that are going to take serious hits this Christmas. As an act of desperation small retail stores may find themselves being very pushy indeed.
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