Wesley’s Week – Aug. 6-12, 2007

by Wesley

I try to avoid having pet peeves, since I do believe in and have been practicing all my life following the philosophy of “Do not sweat the small stuff.” With that in mind, however, I must say that if I go into one more store and they ask me if I have a membership card with them – and of course I never do, so I always say “No” – and that prompts them to hit me up with their sales schpiel, I will scream.

I had this happen to me twice this week, once at Best Buy purchasing a new laptop during the state tax-free weekend, and the other at Barnes & Noble, which was incredible to receive the pitch there, because I was redeeming a gift card at the time. The situation just reminds me of why I hate to shop at stores nowadays, simply because I know they want me to take part in a service that will benefit them much more than it will me. Thankfully, I am not a shopaholic (although I will admit to having a weakness for rare TV programs and movies and related paraphernalia), so I have little to no benefit even if their shopping cards offer me a discount of 10 or even 15 percent – I just do not need to purchase many items beyond what I can find at the supermarket.

That does not stop most sales clerks from pressing me onward, however. For some of them, a customer saying “no” does not indicate to them that they have to stop their pitch. So they insist that I consider the so-called advantages and options offered by their cards a little more before I reject them out of hand. I give them a moment, then of course I reject them out of hand and ask to complete my purchase.

I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way about membership cards from businesses, and I definitely would recommend businesses cut back on the heavy push for their services, because otherwise you are assuring that any potential future customers who are sick of the hassle of the process will favor shopping online instead – just look at the revenues of Amazon, for example. So consider yourself warned, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble and others – we consumers are not going to take it from you guys anymore!

Permalink |  Save on del.ico.us

Commenting is closed for this article.