Thoughts on high-end shoe salespeople RANT

[DrewDevil]

God damn, if anyone ever suggested that something was too expensive for me, I'd go freaking ballistic.

[JJ Jampolsky]

word up, drew.

[TheWorstPlayer]

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Slightly offtopic, but potentially useful anecdote:

I had a similar experience at Bartolotta at the Wynn. I went there with 3 guy friends of mine. We are all in our 20's, quite well off, and dressed appropriately. But, we don't have the movie-star-son-of-a-sheik-big-balla look by any means.

Anyway, our server at Bartolotta treated us like a couple of teenagers that didn't belong there. The most egregious example is, when we were ordering and I asked for the lobster, he pauses, gives me this look, and says, "Sir, that's a hundred dollars." I was so flabbergasted by this and didn't know how to respond in the moment, so I kind of stammered and was like, "Ummmmm, yeah, uh huh... (And?)"

I (and my friends) really didn't want to make a scene, so we didn't say anything and just left a meager tip (thus probably confirming, in his mind, his suspicion that we were a bunch of cheap teenagers that didn't belong there).

As an aside, the other restaurants at the Wynn that I've been to, I enjoyed immensely - SW Steakhouse, Okada, and the Country Club.

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This kinda [censored] happens too often in the USA because people put up with it.
Last fall, when i got back to the USA, me and my boys went out to have dinner to talk about what every1 had been doing while i was gone, and we go to this really nice steakhouse.
I ask for a bottle of tequila, this is how the conversation goes.
Me : Id like to order a bottle of tequila.
Him : Ok, sure, what kind.
Me : U got Patron Anejo
Him : I dont know
Me : Ok how about you go find out
( I am already not happy cuz if hes gonna ask me what i want he should know if they have it or not)
Him : OK, i guess i can do that
(Comes back ...)
Him : We do have Patron Anejo but it is $200 a bottle, so u might wanna order something else
Me : Get your manager, im not having a condescending [censored] like you serving me.
(I might have been a little over the top, i just had a 19 hour flight)

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I hope you also bought the restaurant, fired the guy, and then sold it (a crazy aunt of a crazy friend of mine actually did this with a little boutique retail store once).

[Boris]

Holy Smokes El Diablo! I havn't seen you this steamed since the Rib incident. I mean WOW! The poor lady was just trying to give you a little helpful advice man. And since when did a good salesman not try and upsell?

[Aloysius]

Diablo - I'm a little surprised this happened, perhaps this girl was intimidated by your guns?

I don't spend alot on stuff, but shoes is one place where I think there's a pretty commensurate increase in price & quality, so I've gone to higher end shoe places and bought there.

I've never really noticed this type of behavior and usually find the salespeople very helpful (I also do a ton of research before dropping $ on anything, so am probably an above-average customer in terms of being knowledgable). Also I'm not sure what would motivate them to be this way at a luxury retail shop.

I'm actually in the market for a new pair of black, dressier shoes. I'll report back and see if the salesperson is a condescending biatch, as was the case with you.

-Al

[ChipStorm]

Boris,

Absent any other information about the customer, the higher the quality and price of the item in question, the less presumptuous the salesperson has the right to be.

If I walk into a shoestore with $300+ shoes on and indicate an interest in buying another $300+ pair, the salesperson has no place suggesting to me in any way, shape or form that I don't treat my shoes in a manner that suits my own best interests. If I want to trash 'em and buy a new pair every month, then that's exactly what I'll do, and it's my business, not yours.

To imply otherwise is to make the customer wrong, which of course breaks Selling Rule #1. Always a mistake, but especially a mistake with people with money: they generally have larger egos, and rely more on their own judgement than that of others.

[DcifrThs]

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doublea,

If you look beyond the surface into the deeper meaning of this rant, it is really all about how ridiculous it is that certain types of salespeople actually look down on and sometimes even obviously consider themselves superior to their customers. Facets of this exist in various high-end/luxury sales situations.

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this has not yet happened to me in the food/cookware industry.

i recently added some serious stuff to my kitchen and the helping peopl were very jnice and helpful. i almost bought a iron chef quality food processor... but the cuisinart turned out to be enough in reality.

Barron

[El Diablo]

Chip: Exactly. I'll often have a pair or two of shoes that I don't care about and trash pretty good. It's when I wear these shoes into the store that these guys often take that condescending attitude about shoe treatment. They are oh so polite and nice and helpful, but I know what they are thinking. I'm good at reading people like that.

Al: Actually, the woman was not a bitch, she was quite nice and just being helpful with the sanding shoe trees comment, I just stuck that in there cuz I thought the very thought of sanding shoe trees was hilarious. It was another salesperson who clearly had some issues w/ my devil-may-care attitude regarding shoe care. Anyway, go in w/ some torn up or crappy shoes and you'll find out how snobby people can be. Or go in wearing some cheap clothes into the high-end designer section.

Boris: It's not about upselling. It's about some salespeople feeling like they are better and more deserving of wearing this sort of stuff than their customers. This is not really an issue for me these days, but when I was younger it was quite common.

dj: See above, that part was mainly just comic relief. The saleswoman was actually quite nice and very helpful, resulting in a nice sale for her.

td and others: I agree 100% re: treating service people just like any other people, and I definitely believe in the old adage that you can tell a lot about people by how they treat service staff. I always get tons of great stuff like free upgrades on planes, at hotels, lots of extra service at bars/restaurants, etc., just because I am friendly and treat people with respect. It's pretty common that I'll be jumped to the front of the line by a bellman at a casino or hotel if I've stayed there a couple of times just because I naturally do stuff like say "Thank you" when someone opens a door for me. Stuff like that gets remembered a lot more than a couple extra bucks in tips (I do tip well as well, though).

turnip: Seeing that specific thing occur relatively recently is what actually had me generally irritated about this stuff. I really, really can't stand it when people who are paying what is really a lot of money for them to have a certain type of experience are patronized, sometimes seemingly looked down upon, by staff.

tbg: Exactly!

phb: I think that "first time here" question is valid at places where there's some non-standard thing, like everything is family style or you can opt to do either entrees or shared small plates or whatever. At many restaurants, I agree, it is just plain stupid.

ytf: OK, here are the shoes I currently own that I can think of (I'll probably miss a couple):

Nike running shoes - for running
Nike tennis shoes - for playing tennis
2 pairs Nike cross-training generic sneakers - just for walking around, going to the park, going to the gym, whatever.
Adidas sambas - for indoor soccer and walking around
Adidas copas - cleats for soccer
Nike soccer cleats - gift I don't really use
Adidas sandals - mainly for before/after soccer, also pool, etc.

Brown shoes (Rockports or something) - just standard nice casual brown shoes
Brown hiking boots - generally for snowboarding trips plus of course the occassional hike

Onitsuka Tigers - casual sneakers that are appropriate for going out in
Adidas casual "walking around" shoes - same function as Tigers

Rugged Black boots (Kenneth Cole or some other mid-range brand) - good for crap bars, concerts, etc., where they are likely to get beer spilled on them and crap.

To Boot New York laceup black dress shoes - nice pair of business/dress black shoes
Allen Edmonds black slip on dress shoes - another nice pair of business/dress black shoes
To Boot New York laceup black dress shoes - third pair of standard business/dress black shoes

Mezlan patent leather shoes - generally worn w/ tux

So, that's 17 pairs I can think of. There are probably another couple of pairs that I don't really wear. Guess that makes me 100% gay in your book. I, however, don't think it's weird at all that I have multiple pairs in three distinct categories of shoes - athletic shoes, casual shoes, and dressy shoes. In fact, come to think of it, I could probably use a pair of nice brown dress shoes.

[DMBFan23]

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doublea,

If you look beyond the surface into the deeper meaning of this rant, it is really all about how ridiculous it is that certain types of salespeople actually look down on and sometimes even obviously consider themselves superior to their customers. Facets of this exist in various high-end/luxury sales situations.

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it exists in any sale of specialty goods IMO...

see Jack Black in High Fidelity for a hilarious example

[DMBFan23]

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my devil-may-care attitude regarding shoe care

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LOL. does this give anyone else the picture of ElD laughing and jumping up and down, banging shoes into things and throwing them around?