Rant: Snobby shop people

clarnibass said:
I don't really see a problem either, but it doesn't mean I feel 100% comfortable with it either... maybe because of the local culture of music stores behaving the way they do. Everything I sell is for minimal profit, or sometimes no profit at all (which I only know after the fact, beause of some tax issues i.e. it's a small chance but for the prices I sell them, I might even lose a little bit). I also first made sure no one in the area was selling something equivilent that was as good value.
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I think the main difference is that you're living off doing while others live off selling. You might sell only stuff that enables you to preserve and present your work as good as possible (eg a pot of cork grease) or that enhances the quality of your repair (a new rag, a new case, maybe a box of reeds or a mouthpiece), or simply because the customer asked. You're providing "only" added value while a "proper" shop must sell gear in order to survive.
 
zagor said:
yeah, here in stockholm you can have similar experiences...
Last week I was in a store, looking around... no one came and ask something. I´ve been walking and watching about 25 minutes, and no one from the crew (I could count 5 people who had the store t-shirt, so I guess they´re working there) come and asked me something.
By the way, I was the only customer...
so I just left...
Sometimes in certain store you can have the VIP factor... some famous musician come in in the store, and everyone jump on him... and you, poor doubler/not TV famous musician/studio owner won´t get some help...
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Yep! In principle I would like to "buy local", but I recently went into a local place to buy some reeds, not unusual ones either. No sales staff approached me, so I located the reed display on my own and looked at the display (the ones I wanted were not there). Still no approach by sales staff, whom I would have asked if they perhaps had them behind the counter. I had already noted that the price of comparable reeds was nearly twice that of what I knew I would pay online, even factoring in shipping costs. Had I been treated with some kind of courtesy, I might have bought them anyway, but as it was, I left, still with no attention from staff. Lordy, perhaps I have become invisible!

I ordered online!
 
I knew a guy who claimed he had a sure-fire method of getting service in a Macy's department store (no mean feat, that). He would behave very suspiciously, doing his best to imitate a shoplifter.
 
I can be the best sales person on the planet (or off it for that matter), it's just that I'm in the same boat with those guys *points up*.
As easy as it would be for me to sell a Monique, I'd feel a terrible gut-guilt inside watching the customer walk away with a clari-no.

Alto-Ruth, I love ordering online for that same reason, I get suspicious with too-nice sales staff, and I find it bothersome to have my neck breathed down by the guy who insists "This drop cloth is better because it's blue and pretty" when it costs an extra buck. (Not that I've ever met that bad of a sales person yet, but I have a feeling that day will come, I'm prepared)

I also like ordering online because it saves me gas and time.
buying horns, mouthpieces, barrels, etc, I do prefer to test them. I always feel like it's a gamble if I can't test a MP. I hate that experience - made a bad mistake in my early clarinet days buying a $100+ MP online after hearing some guy say how great it was, only to realize I hated it (I was good enough to know how "wrong MP for me" felt at the time, trust me).

I always have to bring a box of 3.5s and 3s and usually try several reeds on a MP just to be sure. The guys at the shop here let me do that at least. That's another thing I hate - the people who say "Hey you have 30 seconds to put the MP on the clarinet and test. Hurry up."

Excuse me? It takes me at least 7 minutes to be able to judge a MP (and that's a low ball number, I like to examine). If there's nobody else in the store that is "waiting their turn", where's the fire. Luckily I have some good shops around here.

Bottom line, is I can't stand pushy, rushy sales folk, I'd understand if time was tight and the shop was crowded, though.
 
Princess,
Given a choice between "pushy" and "absent", I'll take pushy, who at least can be persuaded (or coerced) into pointing the way to the the item I'm looking for. Actually, I much prefer simple courtesy from salespeople, which actually makes them much more effective at their job than the offensively pushy, whom, I might add, I have no trouble whatsoever "straight-arming" when necessary by donning my most repressive demeanor!
 
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I myself am a terribly sensitive person and get ruffled very quickly and easily by the pushy types (at least I can keep my composure better than George Washington) and if I know what I'm looking for and where to find it (in the stores around here, everything is easy to see and easy to find), I'd prefer to do so on my own.
Well the deal for me is, I'm the type who likes friendly, polite sales people who don't try to use that as a manipulation tactic. Although I won't fall victim to it and waste cash, it still ruffles my feathers.
 
Gawd help the pushy or snobby music store saleperson who does that to me. But then, I can be as loud, brash, and outspoken as necessary. Part of that is genetic and part of that is from my 20 years in the military. Most people think I'm laid back too. :cool:
 
I too can be that way, but I blame the Italian blood.
I'm laid back in public, and a little on the modest side, but when Jenn get mad, Jenn get mad.

See, I have this thing where I'll have the whole situation (for instance, what reeds I want and why) but I won't be able to put it in words.
Like, if someone asks me "So, why 3.5s?" "Why Vandoren"? It just doesn't come out right. I hate the sales people who do that. Now whenever people do that, I just say, because I like it. Not because they're less grainy, or my embouchure is this/that/whatever, or the darker tone I get, I just say I like them. I used to be this person what would give everyone a novel and lecture on why I like what, but I realized I don't quite have a way with words that's clear enough to understand and people have trouble following and misunderstand a lot.

So, for me, the best thing to do when people (including sales people) are pushy and nosy, is to shut up and use one word answers. And if that's not enough for 'em, I make sure it is in other ways.
*Princess holds up duct tape and cracks a twisted grin*
 
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