Followed Around by Shop Assistants

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This happens to me all the time though, and they don't often ask me if I need any help.

I'm not sure about the "off" vibe, I don't know anyone brave enough to tell me how I appear IRL.

Happens everytime. Infact I've been 'escorted' out of B & M bargains by three staff claiming I was suspicious when I was only browsing. And if i'm in the street, sometimes people phone the police because again I look suspicious. Even been frisk searched by the police. Fun times... Not

This happened so often when I was young. I would get completely terrified of whoever was following me.

I have learned that if I walk near the first employee I see and say "Good morning," or "Good afternoon," and then walk away they don't tend to follow, especially in medium-sized or large-sized stores. What works especially well is to pretend that I'm doing something else like am on a phone call or listening to music, and say it to them as if I'm busy with the phone call or listening to my headphones.

Pretending that you're on a phone call and don't realize there's someone there is also a good way to avoid people sitting in front of stores asking for change or trying to sell things like cookies or chocolate.

I almost never go into small stores unless I know exactly what to want, exactly where to find it, and can get out quickly, because in small stores they will follow or will watch closely. For example, I would never go into a store like GAP or like Banana Republic. It's even difficult for me to go into larger stores if I've never been to them before.

Nope.

The least they are in contact with you here in a lot of stores, the better to them.

Or at least in my case.

Rarely.

But you know, it actually is very common to have shopkeepers in Germany follow you around.

Actually, I've never experienced this.

Of course, there are nearly no small businesses in the USA anymore - the large corporations like Walmart killed them, and large store employees don't care.

I have had it happen a few times, and they are not very good at hiding it either.

One time a few months ago I was very obviously being followed around by a security guard. So I went up to him and said "Excuse me? do I look like some kind of career criminal or something?" when he said no, I then asked him why he was following me around. He said that he was just doing his job, but couldn't give me straight answer to why he wasn't following anyone else around the store. In the end I just dumped all the things that I had picked up to buy on the floor and told him to stuff it - I'd go shop elsewhere!

It's not very often I'm that brave, but it sure did feel good

Wow!

You all garner great customer service.

What's your secret?

Must be doing something to garner attention: like dress in big overcoats in hot weather.

It's the opposite here in Australia where shopkeepers avoid serving you and in big department stores often run away when you have a question. Australians are not that culturally that big on hospitality in general (it's considered fake ala Paul Hogan).

Famously in the early 1980s when hospitality became a university degree the American lecturers found they had to teach the students how to smile.

One time, I'd been comparing bits of hardware for quite a while, and was accosted outside. I didn't have to, but I emptied my pockets to prove that the guy had been wasting his time. Or, they may want to discourage anyone unfashionable from cluttering up their decor. I don't go to expensive stores - maybe the help there has to look busy, or hope for commissions. One friend of mine was shopping for hardware, and trying to figure out what would fit his repar job, but he couldn't focus because he had just heard about a friend having died. He gave up and left, forgetting he had a dollar's worth of stuff in his hands along with his own sample bits. He got hauled in and lectured, and forever after, that same clerk watched him like a hawk. He could have invited the high school in to shop free while he was there.

Not in my case. I wore trainers, tack suit bottoms and a jumper. Nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing that they picked up on was the whole no eye contact thing and how I was browsing, but not buying.

Shop assistants only seem to approach me as I'm leaving the store, as if to stop me or something. I just say "yes, direct me towards the exit".

I carry an oversized purse and wear loose clothes. And I wander around and around the same area while trying to make up my mind because I'm an impoverished cheapskate. And I talk to myself.... Hey, maybe they're just following me around to try to figure out who I'm talking to.