Yogis,
Hi! Welcome to Banana
Republic. Would you like a bag to use
while you shop?
The holiday shopping had only begun and I could already
sense the energy of it. I have never
been a big fan of store greeters. Seems
a bit too sugary and demands my attention when all I want to do is get in and
get out. I used to find pleasure in an occasional
shopping trip but that fizzled years ago.
Now I have become a little more male in my shopping – a hunter. The
greeters are obstacles.
Did you find everything you were looking for? …… if
I say no and explain that they never have enough size smalls, will they
listen? Will they care? Or will they just nod their head ……. Yes I
did thanks.
Can I have your email address? No thanks.
Do you need a bag? Do you have another ID? Would you like to open a Banana Republic card
and save 20%? Any cash back? Questions…questions...questions.
Hi! Welcome to Under
Armour.
Did you find everything ok?
Receipt printed or emailed to save our planet (or something to that
effect)? I hear those around me spouting
their email addresses in order to be green.
Does anyone, I mean anyone, truly believe that the email address will
only be used for the receipt and not to send you a new email every single day,
every day of the year for the rest of your life? Yes please
send me emails as I don’t seem to get enough!
Hi! Welcome to J Crew.
This is exhausting and I have only bought 5 gifts so far. Can I have your name? Wow!
Now that was a new one. I pause. I am only buying a $12 pair of panties that
promise no lines and you want to know my name?
That seems a little too intimate.
Uh, no.
But it doesn’t stop with the human questions. Whenever I swipe my card to pay for even groceries, a small machine asks no less than 5 or 6 questions, while those
behind me in line shift from one hip to the other. And just as I think I am done and turn to put
the bags in the cart, the checker points to the screen and asks if I want to
donate $1 to St. Judes. Everyone
watches as I say no. Ugh.
Do you want a car wash?
What is your zip code? Are you a “member”?
What is your pin? Did you take a shower today? …..that one I
made up but I feel it coming.
Know your customer.
Isn’t that the mantra for retail?
So they gather data. Statistics
to help them sell more. I think Amazon
even knows what time I go to bed. Questions….questions…questions to learn who I
am. To sum me up, to predict my next
step.
But they (by the way there is no “they”, but that is for
another writing) will never know “me”.
They will learn all they can about Sarah but “I” have no statistics. “I” actually need nothing. “I” am just the observer to this new trend in shopping. “I” cannot be labeled or placed on a graph. “I” am centered and unchanging.
The only way to know “me” is to look deep into my eyes and
see my soul. Hold my hand for a while,
or hug me so close you can feel my
heartbeat. Sit and lean against me. The questions are outside noise. It is in the silence that you will hear me.
A man in front of me in line the other day looked at the
checker as she finished ringing and said “yes, yes, yes”. She looked confused so he explained. Yes I need a bag, yes I want a receipt and
yes I am a member”. He has noticed too. I smiled.
Going within to be with me,
SARAH
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