I have mixed feelings about salesmen in the US. On one side, they are much nicer than the typical seller in Italy. Too much, in a sense; but the effort of being kind with clients is not something that disturbs me, even though it strains my usual lack of social skills.
The downside of the behavior of many salesmen in the US is the fact that they will act as if you stab them in the back if you end up not buying what they spent some time into convincing you to buy.
In Italy, salesmen are not as nice as in the US, but they tend to show no concern if you leave without a purchase. I have grown more used to that behavior…
Yesterday I decided to buy a small gift for my wife, as a random sign of appreciation for the wonderful person she is. I had a few hours before the Chicago-Munich flight, so I spent a couple of hours in the Fox Valley mall, looking for a ring. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, and I am not a newcomer with precious stones - so I decided I would look everything that the market offered for the thing I was looking for, and proceeded to visit all the jewelers one by one.
Once salesmen (actually only women - do you say saleswomen ? Ok let’s try that) understood I was determined to complete a purchase - the story about the trip to the US and the random gift seemed to convince them I would have my credit card out in a second - they were all exceedingly nice to me. They showed all they had, discussed clarity and color of the stones, went to look for the same article in yellow rather than in white. But after seeing what was a possible choice, I invariably gave them the cold shower: “Ok, I saw what you have - I will look in the other shops here and maybe I will be back soon”.
This appeared to change their humor from sunny to stormy, invariably. It happened six times, and every single time as I was leaving they looked as if I had cursed on their father’s tombstone. Come on! It is not a matter of life or death if you sell one more or one less ring. But that is what happened with all of them. Some tried to oppose to my leaving, claiming theirs were the most brillant stones - fool nobody, a stone is a stone, and if it has given color and clarity indices that pretty much fixes the amount of light they will disperse, given a well-done cut.
I do not understand that well, from the sheer point of view of maximizing sales. Once I am leaving, I am leaving. Or do clients who see the unhappy faces get scared and come back ? I do not think so: rather, as a buyer I would more gladly go back to the most stable smiles.
All in all, buying something that requires shopping around for the best deal is quite a exhausting experience in the US! It looks like things will go smoothly only if you stick to a given store and leave with a purchase…
