My enemy at the grocery store

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I did it again.

I yelled at one of those aggressive sales people who sets up outside the entrance of my supermarket and tries to sell stuff to the people who come out the front door.

Often times they are affiliated with the grocery store....but that is not always the case. There was some aggressive seller of gym memberships a couple years back who used to get his jollies off by intimidating me.

I didn't mean to....it just sorta happened and I was a little beside myself...i would have behaved differently if I could have controlled myself..but this was my gut-animal reaction to having my senses jangled.

I was already several paces away when the girl started calling very rapidly in a shrill voice for me to come back to her table. I said NO!...and she kept on calling after me and I hollered back "LEAVE ME ALONE"

Interractions like that generally leave me ruffled up for at least an hour afterwards.

I am not looking for advice on how to better handle these situations. I know what I should have done....The best thing would have been to just walk away...or wave and shake my head and carry on..

i was just wondering if any of you have difficulties in similar scenarios...or if scenarios like this have caused you to act defensively.

Currently I am tempted to complain to the store management about how annoying it is to have sales people posted right outside the exit.

Complain. Worst that can happen is that the sales person remains but gets instructed to never ever talk to you again.

One time at the bus station there was a homeless elder men who went to the other people on the station and asked them for cigarettes. I was half aware of him and quickly forgot when he didn't ask me. I was busy watching an autistic teenager I had seen in a magazine before through the window of a library on the other side of the street. And then suddenly, this homeless elder men approached me and said something... I didn't catch it and stared at him in panic when he came closer. His tone was suddenly loud and angry and I didn't understand anything he said -

I just panicked, got angry, managed to screech 'noooo' so loudly all the other people looked at me and this man and fled away to the other side of the station.

I have at times been a lemonade salesman myself at baseball games. I will say that as a vendor you can get a little carried away with your product. When I am on the job as a salesman I have the compulsory habit of being nice to everyone, but because of that, when I am not vending and am the customer I sort of deal with feeling that I have license to be rude to clerks because I figure that (like me when I am vending) they are obligated to be nice to me. Sometimes I take too much advantage of that obligation and feel like them being a clerk gives me a license to be rude to them almost but I don't actually have that license.

I agree that's it's always better to be nice, or at least polite, to salespeople and vendors. HOWEVER. It is often INCREDIBLY annoying to have to deal with them, especially when they're set up in areas where you just can't avoid them. They know this and sometimes take advantage of it.

I, too, hate those kinds of confrontations and it takes me awhile to recover from them. But I'm the type who'll be polite and listen to their spiel because I don't feel comfortable saying a simple "no, thanks." I get really resentful of that many times.

I think we have more difficulty sometimes than NT's because of our social cluelessness and klutziness, and we have much more trouble figuring out the "rules" of interactions, even simple ones like with salespeople. That's one of the reasons why I think these things kinda bother us more than they do others.

No, after I shake my head, stick a finger up in the air, totally ignore said person if I'm feeling particularly "autistic", and/or do whatever, no one has forced the issue.

They don't bother me at all; I'm sure if someone ever followed me I'd just ignore them, ignoring people is my thing.

i can get really rude to the cheerleader types, or scouts (unless it is a bake sale) because they'll set up a large group of small children right near the doors that i have to wade through. I usually just say no and smile, but small children are persistant and pushy, wanting donations to their causes.

what i really hate is when it is store sanctioned (coughs best buy) i will get to the point in those stores where the next person to ask me if i need help will get told "yes if they would call every phone base/register, describe what i am wearing, and warn everyone not to approach me, else i will go on a shopping rampage, find one of everything i have ever wanted in the store, put it in the cart then just leave it." I know it is store policy though, so i usually try to stay out of range of the employees.

Hard sell topic

I agree, poopylungstuffing, to be badgered by these 'sell or perish" types. I get the same aggressive template in these rigid religion mongers, the ones that come to your residence. Door to door delivery.

I have trouble saying no and continuing to walk without feeling really sorry about it. I don't know why.
I realized this pretty early on and know that I have to be wary with pushy sales people or I end up agreeing with whatever they say.

Of course a few times when I was ignoring people who seemed like pushy sales people, they turned out to be someone who was trying to give me back something I dropped. That was pretty embarrassing.

I've cultivated a "look" over the years I think. Don't ask me how it's done...I'm not sure...it's just happened with age.

Anyways...all I normally have to do is tell them "I'm not interested, thank you" and look at them...and they usually can't get away from me or off of my front porch fast enough.

"Run quickly or the evil witch might cook us." ...sort of thing.

Three neighborhood kitties licking their paws after eating on my front porch does nothing but add to the atmosphere for the door to door type pests.

I'm very sorry that happened. Pushy salespeople (especially those people that work at the kiosks in the mall) are tiring and difficult to deal with as an NT. I can't imagine how wearying it must be for someone with an ASD.

Keep your head down and keep walking.

I don't think yelling back at someone who is already yelling at you (unprovoked) should be considered rude. A table and sign (and pleasant greeting) is enough advertising for a vendor outside a store. Screaming at people that don't want their products is stupid and a good way to create a hostile relationship with your company and the host (grocery store).

Just paste on a dumb smile and keep going.

It was kind of early in the morning and they were just setting up. There wasn't even a sign out yet advertising what they were trying to sell.
I guess the girl thought she was gonna get an early start on me or something.

I did send an e-mail of complaint to the Kroger headquarters...and later, when I went back there (happened to be wiv my parents)...cooincidentally or not....The table was turned away from the door and facing the street...much better...with a big sign advertizing FREE FINGERPRINTS...ok...visible to anyone approaching the store from the parking lot.
It is not the sorta thing you would have to aggressively flag people down for...if they want free fingerprints, they will go and get free fingerprints...

I thought most of us already had fingerprints. . .

Yeah...me too....

Since i live in a sorta high-crime-ish sort of area, it immediately seemed to me as if they were trying to profile as many people in the neighborhood as they could in advance.

I also hate those damn Cell phone people at the mall they always try to get me to buy one of there stupid phones and they are pushy about it! I always ignore them put some of them are just TOO pushy thats when i yell at them !

Oh, Lord, ain't that the truth, cell phone pushers are the WORST of the worst salespeople!! And they usually set themselves up in places where you just cannot avoid them, and they know it.