Have You Been Snubbed?

[travelover]

I found this an interesting concept - the worse salespeople treat you when shopping for high end merchandise, the more you want it.

Luxury Brand Lovers Are Secretly Masochists, Study Suggests : Mental Health : Counsel & Heal

New research reveals that rejection actually boosts desire for brand affiliation. Customers who visit high-end boutiques are more actually more likely to purchase and display items when snobby salesclerks have snubbed them.
"Our research highlights the fact that we are profoundly attuned to social threats and are driven to buy, wear, and use products from the very people who are disrespectful to us," study authors Morgan K. Ward of Southern Methodist University and Darren W. Dahl of the University of British Columbia, wrote in the study.

Maybe this explains why no one waits on me at the Porsche dealership.

 

[REWahoo]

...the worse salespeople treat you when shopping for high end merchandise, the more you want it.

Reminds me of this place:

Frost Bros. was a high-fashion retail chain based in San Antonio, Texas. The retailer opened its first store in 1917 at 217 E. Houston Street in Downtown San Antonio. Frost Bros. was known for quality personal service, including name recognition, purchase preferences, and personal shoppers. Their customer service was on the same level as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Nordstrom. Frost Bros. filed for bankruptcy protection in April 1988...

Frost Bros. was legendary for the 'frostiness' of their sales staff.

 

[braumeister]

Sometimes if you're in a high end store (Porsche or Mercedes dealership for example), you're more likely to get good service if you dress down like you don't care, rather than try to look like you can afford their products.

I knew a guy who owned two Rolls-Royces (drove them himself, too) and I never saw him in a necktie.

 

[robnplunder]

I found this an interesting concept - the worse salespeople treat you when shopping for high end merchandise, the more you want it.

Luxury Brand Lovers Are Secretly Masochists, Study Suggests : Mental Health : Counsel & Heal

L B Y M to you too. That's how I spell ell u ex u are why and the reverse psychology poo poo does not work on me.

 

[Walt34]

I saw that article or one similar and that surprises me. When I get snubbed in any store I just leave and never go back.

Of course I can't say that you'll find me in many luxury brand stores anyway....

 

[travelover]

.............Of course I can't say that you'll find me in many luxury brand stores anyway....

My idea of luxury is shopping Costco instead of Walmart.

 

[NW-Bound]

Hey, if you can go shop at all, it's a luxury no matter where.

Me, I only stay at home and BS on the forum.

 

[RetireAge50]

I guess I "snub" the sales person as I rarely want their help.

 

[splitwdw]

I would take my business elsewhere if I had a rude sales person. We order high end trucks and corvettes. The former corvette dealer treated me like I was stupid and kept trying to sell me on a car he had in stock. He told me a little girl like myself couldn't handle a ZR1. Similar with the truck dealer. I got the corvette I wanted at a different dealer and made sure I went back to the other dealer so he could see the corvette.

 

[travelover]

......... I got the corvette I wanted at a different dealer and made sure I went back to the other dealer so he could see the corvette.

Yea, but didn't it really make you want to own a Corvette?

 

[FIREd]

I saw that article or one similar and that surprises me. When I get snubbed in any store I just leave and never go back.

Same for me. I usually feel very uncomfortable in luxury stores (clearly I don't belong). I did go to Tiffany's recently to buy a bauble for DW and they were very nice even though I did not look like much.

 

[Walt34]

I did go to Tiffany's recently to buy a bauble for DW and they were very nice even though I did not look like much.

I suspect the experienced sales folks in high-end stores realize that the high-end spenders don't have to give a damn what they look like when shopping.

 

[powerplay]

My idea of luxury is shopping Costco instead of Walmart.

+1

 

[easysurfer]

I think the psychology is the VIP mentality and it's human nature to want what we think we won't get. How often on an add we see "for sale, last one."

The feeling probably goes back to growing up looking for a BFF

 

[splitwdw]

Yea, but didn't it really make you want to own a Corvette?

It made me want to go someplace else to buy the corvette that I wanted. Not what he thought I could afford or handle. Just wanted to make sure he saw the commission he lost from the "little girl".
I'll be ordering 2015 corvette this Fall. I'll make sure I take it back there as well!

Don't mess with little girls!

 

[brewer12345]

I always feel vaguely uncomfortable in high end stores and hotels, like I do not belong. The fishmonger's son has no business walking into a Baccarat retail store.

 

[rodi]

My idea of luxury is shopping Costco instead of Walmart.

Don't knock costco out of the luxury business. I was there today and there was a bottle of booze that was $5k. What does that work out per shot? Pretty darn luxurious. (It was in a locked cabinet). I never noticed it because I don't peruse the expensive end of that aisle.

 

[REWahoo]

Don't knock costco out of the luxury business. I was there today and there was a bottle of booze that was $5k. What does that work out per shot? Pretty darn luxurious.

Was the checkout clerk snobby?

 

[MooreBonds]

I found this an interesting concept - the worse salespeople treat you when shopping for high end merchandise, the more you want it.

Luxury Brand Lovers Are Secretly Masochists, Study Suggests : Mental Health : Counsel & Heal

Maybe this explains why no one waits on me at the Porsche dealership.

While there may be some in the "bourgeoisie" that will want luxury items more if they are snubbed, I don't quite think that most of the well-heeled will walk into a store like Tiffany or Coach, get what they feel is poor service, and suddenly walk out.

Most of the ultra luxury brands only have one store per city, so it's either that store or nothing. And if someone blowing their money on a status symbol like that is in the mood to buy, they're doing it because they want that brand. IMO, that drive for that brand isn't going to be tempered by the quality of service they get.

They will of course complain about the service to their friends and on Facebook...but I doubt it will temper their demand for that product.

 

[rodi]

Was the checkout clerk snobby?

LOL - nope. But then again, I had the $21 kirkland branded vodka.... (A really big bottle and now on par, pricewise, with Skyy... my former go to inexpensive vodka.)

 

[Telly]

Aren't clerks in high-end stores basically butlers?

They handle the stuff, but they can't afford it themselves?

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I have a feeling most people who post here are likely to be impervious to a lot of marketing gimmicks, snobby clerks included.

 

[growing_older]

Brands - even luxury brands - are not the only providers of their products. If Tiffany treats me poorly (they never have) then I can always go to Cartier. If some people respond by stubbornly insisting on buying when given poor service, then they are welcome to the places that treat them poorly. I rarely have any interest in luxury goods, but have usually been treated very well by salespeople despite my usually very casual dress. In the rare cases I have had bad sales experiences, I have not bought, have not returned, and found other ways to satisfy the desire for that luxury - which sometimes just means don't buy that ever, it is after all a luxury and can be lived without. I hope no marketing gurus get ahold of this notion that people treated badly are more likely to buy. A fad of deliberately snobby salesclerks would make shopping miserable.

 

[audreyh1]

I have a feeling most people who post here are likely to be impervious to a lot of marketing gimmicks, snobby clerks included.

+1

I'm not sure I would even notice.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

The last time we went to buy a car, I remember the sales people at one dealership kept saying "do you love the car"?

Love the car? It isn't a custom made Rolls Royce or a one of a kind old master painting. It is a used, budget priced economy car we are buying for one of the kids, and if we don't buy it here we will buy one of the other 500 almost identical models, perhaps in a different color, available for sale in our metro area, next week or the week after.

To which they replied "Do you love the car?"

The part I find scary is that presumably the love the car line must work on some / most of their other customers or they wouldn't keep using it. This is another marketing tactic I just don't get.

I think many of the people who post here are just wired differently than the masses.