The phone trader
You are having a meal at a restaurant when a phone salesman stops at your table and starts promoting his product. He's a young man, well-dressed, looks fresh out of college, looking like he's just trying out his luck. You have no intention of buying his product. What would you do?
1. Ignore him as he talks
2. Cut him off and forcefully tell him to go away
3. Let him finish what he wants to say and then tell him you're not interested
4. Ask him to sit down for a drink
This is what I notice.
Malaysians tend to do (1).
Singaporeans tend to do (2).
Americans tend to do (3).
I tend to do (3) even though I spend more time in Malaysia and Singapore these days. Once in a while I do (4).
I guess we all have our reasons why we do what we do. Mine is this.
We all eke out a living by the grace of those kind enough to give us money, even though we complain about it.
The guy hawking his wares table to table under the sun and rain probably has to work 20 times harder than I do sitting in a comfy office to make the same dollar.
He too needs to go home and feed his family. He chose the dignity of work rather than stealing. The least I can do is say thank you for his effort, wish him luck and not slap him in the face for ruining my nice evening.
I've seen the rich turn into paupers overnight, now groveling at the feet of those they once despised.
Life is uncertain. Death is certain.
6 comments:
I usually thank the salesperson, and say I'm not interested. So I guess this is option (2). I think (1) is kinda rude. I see many people doing that and would tell myself I shall not repeat that similar annoying behavior when the sales person comes to my table.
When it comes to salesmen selling goods at the dining table, I often do not bother to show any interests {even though sometimes I am really interested with the gadgets they offer} because I always have the impression that it is very rude of them interrupting my meal time.
But I agree with what you said. They are too making a living and at least, they do not lie or steal to gain those money. Rephrase, they might be lying with things they say about their goods....but at least they are not stealing.
So yeah... the main reason I do not purchase from them is just because I dislike the way my meal time is interrupted...
Nice phrase you have there in the end. =D
but don't u think it's more cruel when u let him do his 20 mins sale talk and then in the end, tell him u r not interested when u were already not interested when he first approached u? he could hv used the 20 mins to explain to someone who's interested, no? i indirectly 'helped' him to save time & his saliva, his energy... :p
diff ppl, diff perception, i suppose... me, i do no. 2.. in order to be kind, i hv to be cruel :-) and if i were the salesperson, i think i'd prefer it this way lor... u leh?
So far i have not encounter any phone trader. Only salesperson selling goods. If i have a lot of money, i would buy from them just to help them out. But too bad, i don't have so much money. So i would say: sorry not interested to save their time. If the goods is cheap, maybe i would buy but if its too expensive, i would say sorry i cannot afford it. Actually its not easy to persuade people to buy things especially under the hot sun or rainy days. Sometime they have to walk from one table to another table or other places just to sell the goods. What if they unable to sell anything. The person have to be very thick skin, patience, courageous & a lot of humility...
@hweicheng,
"Rephrase, they might be lying with things they say about their goods....but at least they are not stealing."
Exactly, and if you've seen the executive circle at work, you'll find that some of them are not all that clean. And its not just on Wall Street. In the office I've dealt with falsified expense claims, staff who do less work than they declared, take 3 hour lunch breaks, etc. What do we call getting money through dishonest means? Stealing.
I used to assume that the door to door salesman is a scumbag but now I don't because I have been proven wrong a few times.
@angeles,
Salesmen also need to take a breath when they talk so I just wait for that moment. I won't cut him off halfway thru his sentence (maybe I'm raised not to do that) and I don't shoo him away like a dog like many ppl do. But you are right, they have better use of their time so the responsible thing to do is tell them you're not interested and let them move on.
@stella,
You seem to understand their line of work and treat them with honesty. I guess its human nature to look down on people who earn less than we do. One thing I learnt from community service is that even beggars have dreams and aspirations. Even they will protect a child from harm and even they get happy and sad. We lose sight of our humanness so easily.
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