Susan, I've done your walk past the kiosks in the mall, and I agree with the feeling of being bombarded. And I don't have kids with me, so the salespeople have even more interest in me as an easy mark with apparently nothing to distract me!!
There have been kiosks in malls forever, but it seems only recently did they become the home of aggressive sales pitches. What happened to the nice old days, when college students sat and read books at their kiosk while people browsed or walked by?
I actually like malls. I do. I like shopping, most of the time, and I enjoy the stimulation of being in a place with a lot of people, sights, sounds and variety. But even saying that, I will say that I do not do well with pushy salespeople. (And I wonder: Who does? Are there people who actually cave to the woman with the straightening iron? Who wants to sit in the mall and have their hair messed with by a stranger at a kiosk?)
I hate the message that is so pervasive today in society that something about us could always be better if we would just (fill in the blank). Imagine my utter dismay when my 11-year-old niece last year declared that she was not thin enough. Eleven! And the extra frightening thing is that she IS thin. She's actually long and lanky and growing like a weed, and has to wear belts to hold her pants up. But because another child on the playground had asked her about how much she weighs (and I have to wonder what messages THAT child is getting at home), my niece suddently decided she must weigh too much.
Perhaps we should open a kiosk ourselves. We would sell T-shirts that say "Sales Pitches Do Not Sway Me" or "Just Smile And Walk Away, Now" or "No, I Feel Fine The Way I Am." And I don't think we'd even have to be pushy to sell them. I think they'd be flying off the racks.
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Susan, I've done your walk past the kiosks in the mall, and I agree with the feeling of being bombarded. And I don't have kids with me, so the salespeople have even more interest in me as an easy mark with apparently nothing to distract me!!
There have been kiosks in malls forever, but it seems only recently did they become the home of aggressive sales pitches. What happened to the nice old days, when college students sat and read books at their kiosk while people browsed or walked by?
I actually like malls. I do. I like shopping, most of the time, and I enjoy the stimulation of being in a place with a lot of people, sights, sounds and variety. But even saying that, I will say that I do not do well with pushy salespeople. (And I wonder: Who does? Are there people who actually cave to the woman with the straightening iron? Who wants to sit in the mall and have their hair messed with by a stranger at a kiosk?)
I hate the message that is so pervasive today in society that something about us could always be better if we would just (fill in the blank). Imagine my utter dismay when my 11-year-old niece last year declared that she was not thin enough. Eleven! And the extra frightening thing is that she IS thin. She's actually long and lanky and growing like a weed, and has to wear belts to hold her pants up. But because another child on the playground had asked her about how much she weighs (and I have to wonder what messages THAT child is getting at home), my niece suddently decided she must weigh too much.
Perhaps we should open a kiosk ourselves. We would sell T-shirts that say "Sales Pitches Do Not Sway Me" or "Just Smile And Walk Away, Now" or "No, I Feel Fine The Way I Am." And I don't think we'd even have to be pushy to sell them. I think they'd be flying off the racks.
December 11, 2008 - 9:16amThis Comment
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