The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Me hours ago when I wasn’t tired: Eh, I’ll write the blog later.
Me now: Well, I’m falling asleep at the keyboard, I guess I’ll go to be… oh wait, blog.
I’m a genius.

In any case, I wanted to talk about the customers at Kohl’s. I, of course, have to push the silly credit cards that we sell as someone on the register. It’s just a job, and it doesn’t bother me. (It does bother me a little that I’ve gotten caught up in the leaderboard bullshit because people keep telling me I’m good at doing it, but oh well.) I ask, and the moment they say no, I shut the fuck up. Other people go super-hard-sell on some customers, and that just seems crazy to me. That seems like bad customer service. I can’t blame people for not wanting a Kohl’s card. I most definitely have no plans to get one, and it would make getting my employee discount way easier for me. I can layer the Kohl’s Charge discounts on top of my employee discount, too. There are more benefits for me. But fuck if I want one. So I can’t blame people, but I ask because it’s my job.

In any case, when people say no, the one excuse I hear all the time is “my husband would kill me,” or some variant, such as “I would get in so much trouble with my husband.” At first, I thought nothing of this. But the more I’ve heard it, the more it started to bother me. It seems like such a stereotype kind of answer. “I am a woman and we are supposed to love shopping and not be good with money so if I had a card I would spend too much ha ha! Stereotypes!” I’m supposed to accept that because “Oh, of course stereotypes are real” or “I hear you I am the same way we are such women who shop too much ha ha!”
Of course, that might actually be some people’s situation. Their husband could be in charge of finances, and they could have bad impulse control when shopping. It’s possible. But I hear it way, way too much for it to be true for so many.

In any case, I was trying to figure out why one would lean on stereotypes like that. I suppose it just goes back to all those people who hard-sell these stupid cards. They feel like the only way to get people to shut up is to put the decision-making onto someone else. If that’s the case, I can’t follow up, right? I wouldn’t, but they’re making sure I couldn’t. If they actually make it clear they’re able to make decisions and think for themselves, then I suppose they assume I am going to hound them and generally make the interaction unpleasant. There is a co-worker I have who I will not name who will literally take the application, waves it in their face, and attempts to push a pen into their hand and get them going on things. It takes at least three no responses before this co-worker will check people out at the register, which is this co-worker’s actual job. This co-worker comes off as someone I don’t want to be around! This co-worker is making the shopping experience a bad one. I do not want to be anything like this co-worker. I understand wanting to dodge that kind of treatment.

But it’s really kind of sad. It’s weakening yourself, belittling yourself, and not for fun reasons. Sure, it’s just an interaction at a stupid retail store, but I know from experience that bowing down and using this kind of technique to dodge stuff again and again will eventually wear on you until it becomes more true than you’d want. People shouldn’t have that sort of erosion happen over a stupid credit card.

If you’re in my line, say no. I’ll shut up, having read the script I am required to read and thus done my job. If you’re in someone else’s line, say no. If you’re asked again, be annoyed as you have a right to be, and tell them that you “really need to get going.” This is not a lie, as I’m sure you need to not be in that situation and thus need to get going from it. Let that be the end of it. Alternatively, just ignore repeated questions after the first no. Pretend you heard nothing. I find that shuts things down pretty fast as well. But just, you know, trust in your own power to know whether or not you need another credit card. Because I’m sure you know that. I’m sure you can make decisions for yourself.