So, I don't know if this is a regional thing (I live in Northern California, USA) or whether it's more widespread, butlately I've been noticing a lot of the following:
- More and more shops employing "greeters" (and more often the sort that stand two abreast on either side of the entrance, waving flyers in your face as you attempt to pass between them).
- More salespeople accosting customers in gauntlet fashion with "are you finding everything okay?" inquiries as one attempts to make one's way through the aisles.
(Doing this once is fine. Having it done by no less than five people between one side of the store and the other is obnoxious and in my case makes it practically impossible to think straight about why I'm there in the first place.)
- A preponderance of what I would call "fake helpfulness" (wherein the clerk offers to help you, but has no more information than you do, or worse, has less information than you do.
E.g., if you ask a FakeHelpful clerk if they have Philips screwdrivers of a certain size, they will tend to do something like point to the very obvious display of screwdrivers you are standing next to and say "oh yes, screwdrivers are right here!"
Or, in another variation, FakeHelpfuls who clearly have no clue what you are actually looking for will follow you around from one display to the next, chattering all the way as if to provide moral support or something.)
- More and more solicitors hanging around storefronts imploring passerbys to sign their petition for X, or "help keep teens off drugs" or whatnot.
(I actually ended up yelling "Don't ACCOST me!" at some Petition Guy outside the grocery store recently. Yes, free speech and politics and all that, but ye gads, do not scamper up to me with your flyer and yap like a terrier at me to sign it when I am trying to, you know, focus on getting into the store without colliding with anyone, etc.)
- More stores blasting extremely loud music throughout the establishment, and/or displaying video screens or TVs playing cartoons or advertisments.
(For example: there is a pizza place nearby where I live that, I kid you not, has a little flat-screen TV in EACH BOOTH. And each TV can be set to play something different.
And on top of that, they have satellite music or something (set to some kind of atrocious "Smooth Jazz" channel, no less) piping throughout the place.
The one time I went in there I spent the whole time waiting for my food with my head down on the table and my fingers in my ears, trying to block out the combined Finding Nemo-Noggin-SpongeBob-Kenny G onslaught. Needless to say, I don't plan on going back there again!)
In any case, all the above mean that whenever I need new socks, or a replacement sprocket for my gadget, or a loaf of bread, etc., I am subjected to a veritable barrage of demands on my capacities to verbalize, respond quickly to incoming inputs, process sensory information, etc. And this would be true even without all this "extra" stuff I've noted here. The "extras" simply make things much, much worse, to the point where it starts pushing into "I cannot enter this establishment, let alone actually shop/eat there".
Which is why I am considering it an accessibility issue, as I know I can't be the only person (autistic spectrum or otherwise) who experiences problems in this realm.
Of course I am not blaming the clerks themselves for what is, more than likely, "store policy". This should not be taken as a rant about cashiers or even greeters, as generally they aren't the ones with the power anyway.
Having spent some time working in a coffee shop (Peet's) myself, I know that in at least some establishments, employees are monitored by managers watching to make sure they greet every person who enters the shop straight away (and that clerks are definitely not the ones responsible for the "turn the music up to 11!" thing or for installing TV screens everywhere).
I actually got put on "employee probation" within my first few weeks at Peet's for (among other things pertaining "standard social skills" and my apparent lack thereof) not automatically greeting everyone who came in. After that I was given a script ("Hi, what can I help you with?" or something along those lines) to recite whenever a customer came in.
So I dutifully spoke the Words of Greeting from then on, as soon as each incoming patron shut the door behind them.
I didn't particularly like doing this, knowing how disorienting and annoying I found the Immediate Greeting when I walked into stores and such, but I felt very lucky to still have a job at all; a lot of places would have just fired me, I figured, rather than doing the probation thing. Plus, that job gave me free coffee, which was a nice perk (pun intended).
Moreover, while it was flabbergasting to consider, being told so emphatically that customers liked to be greeted right away got me wondering if perhaps a lot of people did appreciate that sort of thing.
Which is what I'm wondering still now, and even more so lately given the aforementioned apparent upsurge in hyper-(un)helpfulness, demanding doorway solicitation, and eardrum-and-eyeball evisceration courtesty of massive speakers and ubiquitous LCD screens.
So, I offer this query to the readership:
Do some people actually enjoy this kind of thing?
Do most folks aiming to pop out to the market for tomatoes or cheap underpants genuinely wish they were going to a throbbing-walled nightclub staffed by armies of Care-Bears on MDMA?
Or does it just not feel like that to most people? I honestly have no idea, but I do know I'm exceedingly glad for online vendors these days. It's not that I think nobody should talk to anyone in public, or that store personnel should ignore all their customers completely...but just, gah, can't someone at least consider toning down the excessive Helpiness (especially when it isn't actually helping!) and turning down the volume on the speakers?
(end rant, and yes, I still really do think Existence is Wonderful...doesn't mean I can't find certain things really annoying!)
15 comments:
Yes! You live somewhere in California, right? It might be a regional thing, because during my recent trip to San Francisco I was amazed at the number of in-store greeters, sales staff enquiring* after my well-being, "Are you finding everything okay?", and the unbelievable throngs of petition-waving, badge-wearing volunteers on the streets. It was really unbearable after a while. Before entering any shops, I'd scan the door area and if I saw a person waiting with that vacant half-smile to pounce on any incoming guests, I'd look for another door or not enter the shop at all.
And the only time I actually reply in the affirmative to "Can I help you find anything?" is when it's a big store and I don't know the layout, and I need to quickly get to a specific section. That's really all they can help me with.
* I'm pretty sure this spelling is as acceptable as "inquire". I don't know why my browser underlines it in red.
Anne, I can relate to your discomfort with obnoxious "greeters" and overly "helpful" staff. Let me share an alternate experience:
When I lived in Japan I became accustomed to the standard practice there that any employees within a comfortable distance of the door would greet incoming customers with a pleasant "Irrashaimase!" (we humbly welcome you) and upon leaving, one would almost always hear "arigato gozaimasu" meaning "thank you for continuing (to use our store.)"
Apart from that, service was typically available but unobtrusive.
When I left Japan and returned to California, my adjustment period and culture shock was greater than when I had moved to Japan! I was repeatedly irritated by the rudeness and incompetence of employees, even little things like when I thanked them and they said "no problem" as if I had apologized for putting them out!
Of course it's been several years now since I returned, and it's all pretty much normal to me again...
Karo:
Yep, I live in Santa Clara actually, which is near San Jose (and about 40 miles from San Francisco). And I'm getting to the point where I'm doing similar things re. trying to find "unguarded" entrances or avoiding establishments altogether when they've got too big of a welcoming committee.
On that note, part of what bugs me in particular about the petition folks and charity solicitors is the implied "you must give me your time/money/etc RIGHT HERE and RIGHT NOW, in order to prove you care about important issues/aren't an unfeeling yuppie jerk who can't be bothered to help the less fortunate".
When in fact the solicitor has *no idea* what a given passerby might be doing in their lives to take important ethics-related action or help mitigate poverty, etc.
Moreover, if I am going to donate something to a cause or sign something I like to have a comprehensive understanding of the issues involved and also to have "vetted" the charities for legitimacy and reports of where their funds actually go, etc.
The whole culture of "giving to X in public view to prove you are a Nice Caring Person" seems terribly destructive to me, as if you aren't careful you might end up actually perpetuating something opposite to what you'd like to when you help fund operations that are Getting It Wrong(TM).
[This is especially true when it comes to stuff pertaining to disabilities (when the charity orgs tend to be very pity-oriented -- e.g., anything that uses a "poster child" is suspect IMO.).]
And re. spelling underlines: meh, I wouldn't worry about it...Blogger underlines plenty of perfectly legitimate words, and isn't very good with cross-regional stuff. I sometimes use UK spellings and word-forms just because I think they're prettier (my biological mother was a Brit and I was raised with a considerable amount of anglophilia about the household) and it complains about those aplenty.
Oh and I should also state as an addendum to my last comment that I am NOT actually bothered by homeless people standing nearby buildings, even if they're pan-handling. They don't have a whole lot of choice as to where they hang out, and the proportion of rude/obnoxious homeless people seems to be far lower than the proportion of rude/obnoxious solicitors. I don't always give them change, etc., and I often have to ignore them in order to keep my brain reserves for whatever objective I left the house for to begin with, but still I find them way less obtrusive than the folks who presumably COULD go somewhere else if they wanted to.
Jef: Ha, wow, what you describe re. shops in Japan is pretty much exactly what I would like to see here. I love it when staff in stores are there if you need them but not in your face constantly if you don't.
Ahaha, holy crap. My first thought when I saw that pic was "I want that on a t-shirt!"... and then I saw the image url. Sometimes (whenever I have to verbalize to people I don't know very well, really) I wish everyone spoke with pens and notepads, honestly.
Sounds like a regional thing. Aside from Wal-mart, stores around here cannot afford staff for those kinds of offensives--double entendre intended. Solicitors at doors are usually discouraged by the stores, too, which they can do, because it's private property. Those who aren't are usually hired by the store, get special permission, or worked for the Salvation Army during the Christmas season.
As for whether people actually like that sort of thing...I can't imagine why they would. The non-helpful "helpiness" sounds like poor training to me.
Safeway is a big offender of Fake Helpfulness.
Another thing that bugs me in many stores is reading your name at you off the bottom of your receipt like they know you.
Option C: Hee, I was wondering if anyone would notice the image title. :P And I actually do plan on making a t-shirt of that, and possibly a button (that a person could pin to his/her shirt if needed on a day of running errands). I shall likely have it in my zazzle shop so I will post a link to that when I upload the graphics.
Stephanie: Yeah between yours and Karo's comment I am thinking what I am seeing might be at least partly regional. California can be a weird place, and I am sure the mild year-round weather probably helps attract the folks standing out front with their clip-boards. I have seen some half-arsed attempts to control solicitors, e.g., at Trader Joe's they sometimes play loud 80s pop music or something near the entrance, but that doesn't seem to deter many people (and I am sure they realize that anything TOO obnoxious would drive away customers as well).
Re. the economic angle, though, even if it is somewhat regional I have also been wondering how the stores around here can afford so many greeters and (apparently) extra salespeople who seem to have nothing better to do than follow customers around dispensing un-helpful advice. It isn't every store, but still, you would think more places would be cutting back on that sort of thing rather than increasing it during a recession!
And definitely I think poor training is part of the issue re. unhelpful-overhelpfulness, as you suggest. One thing they did right at Peet's, at least when I was there, was put us through "coffee school", so that we would be able to identify and discuss the different characteristics of coffees from all over the world, and also know how to perform (and explain the differences between) various brewing methods. I think ALL stores, etc., should be that thorough because seriously, people who come into a place to get something should be able to expect that the employees might be able to tell them something they don't already know! I have had the most frustration in this regard at hardware stores, I think, and I am by no means an expert on tools.
Mr. P: Gaah, yes, Safeway is definitely a major offender when it comes to this stuff. Again I know it is mostly a matter of bad training/stupid store policies than congenitally obnoxious cashiers, but still. The amount of random chitchat and fake-friendliness and logistical confusion that takes place at the registers at Safeway has managed to result in my getting really disoriented almost every time I go there. Once I even left my ATM card at the register by mistake because I was so distracted by the yammering and Safeway Club Card stuff that I lost track of my materials.
Luckily they saved it overnight for me and I was able to get it (my ATM card) the next day without having to cancel it, but geez. And they also do the "pretending like they know you with the name" thing, which is indeed irksome.
From a business perspective, stores generally target one of two things:
1) Lowest possible price
2) Best possible service (with higher prices to pay for the training and personnel)
You rarely get both. I don't recognize any of the stores you mentioned, so I don't know which they'd fall into.
As far as hardware stores, I suggest Ace if you have them. If not, stick to the smaller "neighborhood" stores if at all possible. They usually hire more knowledgable staff, and the stores are small enough for the staff to know where everything is (at least in theory). I don't know much about tools, but I always get what I need (both merchandise and help) at Ace.
Where I live, I don't really have a problem with such aggressive helpfulness. I usually don't need help finding anything, so I just want people to leave me alone. I have to be in a certain mood to want or at least tolerate interaction with other people. It's especially true when I go out to eat. I can be a little cranky when I haven't eaten. LOL
Mozart: I generally don't need or want help in stores either, but that doesn't stop people from wandering up to me and repeatedly asking if I need it, etc. On the rare occasion I do want help finding something (or when an item I want is behind the counter, etc., such as in some electronics stores when you want to get RAM), I prefer it for people to be *available* to help but not right up in my face about it. I can deal with verbal stuff a lot better when I have had opportunity to prepare a specific question in advance; when people come up randomly I am caught very off guard.
I'm working in a Wal-mart right now. Their rule in-store is "The Ten-foot Rule" - you are supposed to greet and ask anyone you get within 10 feet of if they need help. You can even get in trouble if management notices that you aren't doing it.
I have actually found working in Wal-mart helpful to keep some of my problems under control. The frequent but not intense interactions with others help me avoid getting too isolated from other people, which has been a problem for me in the past.
Post a Comment