JOIN USI like shopping. Usually. There’s something very satisfying about being able to buy things and spend money, something thrilling. There is, of course, a problem, albeit an occasional one – sometimes big, sometimes small, rarely unnoticeable – of having to speak to a uniformed customer service assistant.
An enquiry will earn the shopper an indifferent shrug and a petulant refusal to search for the item in question, and sometimes, there’s a stock answer, ‘out of stock.’ A recent trip to a CD store left me a little confused, because I was told the CD I wanted was ‘out of stock’. It was only later that I realised that the said CD hadn’t even been released in the country yet, and was hence unavailable. ‘Out of stock’, I presume, is akin to ‘sold out’. But if something hasn’t been released yet, where is the question of it being sold out?
And there are a few cosmetics shops one dreads to go to. I was offered eye shadow makeup to hide dark circles, a lipstick that was four years old and ridiculously overpriced, and various comments on the overall condition of my face. I didn’t ask for the comments, and nobody likes random comments made by total strangers.
Tact is a much needed virtue. Everybody has an ego, after all, and one believes one looks fairly decent. By the time the comments are done, one is led to believe that one has a complexion more pockmarked than the moon’s surface.
And the time I asked to buy a particular shampoo, the shop girl was flabbergasted. What would I do with it? It wasn’t suited to my hair type! That was hardly important, besides being a tad too inquisitive. It is difficult to say which is worse – undue, unwanted attention, or total indifference. When shop assistants lounge around the store, gossiping, giggling, taking products from shelves and examining them with glee – the customer is treated as an interloper, an intruder on sacred premises who must be stared down with contempt, poor thing. To enquire about such–and–such item would earn one a severe stare, sometimes a glare, before the sorry thing is thrust into one’s hands – and the customer is expected to move on so that the fun may begin again. In addition to all the yelling that takes place between cash counters, oftentimes over the exasperated customer’s head, and items tossed around like toys.
Clearly, a little assistance with politeness goes a long way, especially in stores. Professionalism is a wonderful trait to acquire.