to want Christmas sales staff to back off?

[MardyBra]

I was browsing for stocking fillers for the DC in Hawkins Bizarre (as I like to think of it) yesterday, and every time I so much as touched a product, one of the staff members came up and told me how much fun it was and how it was their favourite thing in the shop, in an attempt to get me to buy it. In the end, I had to request that they back off, because my peri-menopausal head couldn't cope with all their chatter when I was trying to work out what tat to buy.

The same thing happened in Body Shop last year. I was happily browsing the gift sets and I had 5 or 6 approaches in succession from staff members desperate to help me in my purchasing decision. I just wanted to look, compare and think ffs. I'm afraid I lost it and snapped at them to be left alone in the end.

I know sale staff are under instructions to be chatty and help. But if a customer has been approached once, surely that should be enough.

Ugh, I had a Christmas job in Body Shop once and was astounded by how corporate it was, for such an ethically-minded company. We were given daily sales training, part of the job was to approach EVERY customer and say "hello" and we had hourly checks of sales figures, to identify which products we had to push (i.e. "We're 3% down on white musk - sell, sell, sell!"). The upside of this is that I learned why I was being harassed in chain stores and how the best ways to get around it...

"I've lost count of the number of people who have said that they don't need any help, and then ask for help"

That would be me then - when I go into a shop I often don't know what I'm looking for and I like to look around and see what's available and get ideas and then I might want to ask a more specific question; say in a clothes shop to ask if they have my size in a particular colour, or something similar but with long sleeves, or in a bookshop if I found the second book in a series I might ask for the first.

Also people might want to see what the prices are like first before they embarrass themselves by asking for something it turns out they can't afford.

I don't really shop on the high street very much. I shop increasingly online but I do go in M&S for bits and pieces of food now and then. The staff in there are ever so helpful if you ask but never hassle you. That is the model all shops woudl do well to copy.

see, I don't mind that at all - If someone asks me if I want help, I hate it, but I want to be able to ask for help when I want it.
I should be the one in control of the situation, not them.

There's nothing wrong with saying hello, and making it obvious that you're available for help when they're ready.
It's not okay to keep pouncing on them to get them to ask you. It just makes them feel stressed.

We ask if you found everything at the till because in the store I work in all the staff make sure the ques are as short as possible so we are free to help the customer we are with as much as possible , I know that is not the case in every store though.

Managers never ever listen to staff even though weare reporting things directly from the customers , if they do listen they nor
ally take credit for the idea too the annoying thing is most retail managers are fresh out of uni and have no experience of the job yet still won't listen to us mere assistants (even if we have been there fir years and know the job inside out.
I used to work in Debenhams and selli g that stupid store card was the bane of my life . You would be disiplined if you didn't push it on every customer.