People At Mall Kiosks

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I took my daughter out for a special "mommy and daughter" day. She loves to shop. I hate it, but I had errands to run. I enjoyed a fun day with the kiddo.

What drove me nuts was being frequently approached by people working at those mall kiosks selling things. I walk with purpose, as quickly as I can with a four year old in tow, talking to my daughter intently and ignoring them. In other words, doing all I can to look unapproachable. But apparently it doesn't matter. I get:

"Excuse me miss, can I show you something?"
I keep walking, not looking in their direction.
"Miss? Can I show you...miss?"
I continue on my path.
"Gee, yeah, thank you too lady."

WTF? Nag and pester me and be offended and give me attitude when I ignore you?

I know, it's weird. I do say, "no thanks" with a smile. If you're getting rude talk despite not engaging them, I'd see if you can report them to mall management. Tell them it's no longer enjoyable to shop there when they have "carnies" saying rude things to you unprovoked.
It's like telemarketers, completely uncalled for.

I work at a mall and I see these people harassing customers everyday. They even try to stop me although I'm obviously on my way to work. The really annoying ones at my mall are all from Israel and if they don't sell enough they'll get sent back. Customers complain to me all the time. Reporting them to management doesn't do anything, the mall needs them for the rent money.

I usually get attitude too. Well, until more recently when have I opted to say "sorry, not today" every which way I turn. I really don't feel sorry, but it shuts them the hell up!

I live in a really crazily split neighbourhood. South of the main street is all 1/2-1 million dollar homes and across the main road are subsidized housing units and north of (in this particular area) are a number of "crack" buildings"....*sigh* So, while there are bidding wars going on for the million dollar homes, the main street is becoming overrun with pan handlers. Same spot each day, different story to tell and well, sometimes, I just plow through hoping to appear unapproachable.

If I want to/am in position to help, I will. No differently than if I want your product or service. Sales people are trained to be bullies these days. It is brutal. I cannot simply seek them out when necessary, they have to pound on my door (to no answer, of course ), jump in my face and try to sell it to my children instead (with attempts to guilt the unapproachable me) or call through the backdoor of my answering service to leave strange sales messages (like I am ever going to call you back!!)...

People drive me mad

I normally have two approaches to this. One is to turn on my music player, and either pretend it's so loud I can't hear what they're saying, or really turn up the volume so that they can hear the music, which should tell them that I can't hear them anyways, and should stop trying. If they don't stop, it doesn't matter anyways because you can't hear them, so they're not bothering you. For better effects, use a large set of headphones that pretty much anyone can see.

The other tactic, if there's no music player around is to use the glare. If they start approaching you, just fire a nasty or evil glare at them, and make it worse if they don't stop it.

I'd also simply just ignore them if all else fails, but if they're really persistent, I guess you may just have to resort to saying something nasty to them. Besides, you don't know who they are, and someone that annoying probably isn't worth being your friend.

I've had retail jobs in which the boss wanted me to act like that. I couldn't do it. I went through a lot of retail jobs that way.

I do get a few, but they are really the most brazen ones.

I am 6'3"
About 270lbs (19 stone for you brits)
I have a goatee and usually wear a scowl when having to go to the mall. I am not a big fan of malls.

i don't go to malls much ,but when i do i anticipate that they might try and say something to me i try to walk away and avoid them as much as possible. I don't have to worry about that where i live though ,just at the mall.

I got attacked by one of them the other day. I was looking down and talking to my mom, who had driven an hour just to take me shopping because I can't handle that kind of shopping by myself. So I'm staring at the ground, and all of a sudden there's this lady grabbing my hand and gushing over my fingernails. She's asking me if they're my real nails and all. I'm totally confused, because I didn't know where she came from or what she wanted. So I didn't know what to do, and just stared at her. I finally figured out that she was trying to sell something or other, and ran away.

I don't mind them. what I can't stand is the people at radio shack. Even if you tell them you don't want any help when you walk in the door, your bound to be asked if you need anything at least three more times, by two other employers before you walk out 5 minutes later.

When Steve Courson (former Steeler) was alive, he'd always be walking around our mall. I didn't know he was an ex NFL player. I just saw a "big scary guy in weird clothing." I'd duck into stores to avoid walking past him. He, noticing my reaction, would walk to the door of whatever store I was in, and wait for me to come out. Then he'd say 'Hi." It was really funny the one time I ducked into Claire's - he stood there looking through their bargain bin of girl accessorys. I can only imagine he mistook my "that guy has to be a murderer or drug dealer" reaction for being an "Oh my god! That's Steve Courson!! ! What do I do, I better move aside" reaction and though I'd love having him talk to me.

Again, the advantages of living in the greater NYC area benefit me greatly...
1) There's 50 billion malls in the state of New Jersey alone (okay, maybe an exaggeration, but it sure feels like it), so you can pick and choose what mall to go to

2) The old "keep your head down and walk with a purpose" trick still applies in the area, and usually works towards being left alone by kiosk people...

Pretend like you are on the cell phone.

For the cellphone companies I usually say "I have the most expensive phone with the most expensive plan, don't bother" as I am walking briskly away not turning or stopping.

For the beauty products ones me and my wife just have a loud inapropriate laugh at their expense.

someone offered to pierce my 1 year old baby daughters ears from a kiosk once and we looked at her and said "oh my god you are not touching my baby" Part cause we were actully shocked, part cause: WTF!?!

For the remote controlled car/airplane/video game ones I just let my Spectrum son (too young for Aspergers dx, but will probably join me there soon) have at it... they want the kids to mess with the toys so the parents will be manipulated into buying it. After 20 minutes of my son playing with their remote controlled car, and me not buying anything or making any move to try to stop him, they are sorry they ever messed with me.

Just ignore him, because he is not respecting your other conversation.