You think you are safe. After all, this isn’t a dusty marketplace in Calcutta. This is a shiny indoor shopping mall blasting AC and Top 40 Muzak. Sure, there are things to buy everywhere, but they are all in safe stores were the merchandise itself may be seductive, but no one will bat an eye if you leave without buying anything.
When I think of Mall kiosks, I think of bored teenagers sitting on their cell phones in front of carts of Designer knock-off sunglasses or cell phone accessories. But these guys are slick. Predatory. Young and beautiful, with syrupy accents and hard eyes.
My sister told me about the time she was manipulated into buying a 25 dollar jar of Dead Sea salt scrub from a beautiful Israeli woman who promised my sister the skin of a goddess in five minutes a day. I laughed at her that she could be conned like that.
I am so sorry, lil’ sis. I understand now that you were powerless to resist.
I have really curly hair, and the young man at the Colourful Kitty (yes, I said Colourful Kitty) kiosk asked if I wanted him to straighten it “for fun.”. I didn’t have to stop. I never stop at kiosks. But the straightener was kind of cool. I’d never had my hair completely straight. I haven’t wanted my hair to be straight since I was about fifteen.
The straightening iron did a great job, but he wanted way too much for it. He said I should make him an offer. Even as it was happening, I was thinking how interesting it was that I that someone who considers herself as a critical thinker was allowing herself to be hustled like this.
The worst part was, I didn’t even want the stupid thing that much.
Now I have stick-straight hair and my wallet is minus a days wages. At least it’s a nice straightening iron. If I ever cut my hair, I might actually use it.
October 13, 2007 at 1:24 pm |
You can tell your sister I bought the exact same stupid bath salts. They were a gift for my mom. I paid WAY more than 25 for them, too, but they were same sweet talking Israelis who swore they were “cutting me a deal.” I knew I was being taken for a ride, that’s the worst part. And when it was all over I just wanted to slap myself.
We all have to go through it once. Part of being human, I guess. Annoying, though.
October 13, 2007 at 6:03 pm |
I will definitely tell her. She thought my experience was hilarious. I am still reeling, myself.
October 18, 2007 at 1:37 pm |
Oh, they are the same ones that have the nail buffer. I get taken by them every year for a Christmas gift, but, I know not to pay more than $20 for the kit. They get angry and I tell them I don’t need it that badly. In the end they begrudgingly sell it to me for the $20. (I’ve seen it priced anywhere from $49 to $69)
November 20, 2007 at 9:21 pm |
Tell your sister I also bought the sea salts today. Today was my first day “cruising the mall” in years–and what a revelation! I had my 2 sweet boys along for a day off. Every Kiosk was staffed by an Israeli and I thought, “what is going on here!?” So I came home and googled it. Here I am thinking, what just happened?
First, it was the gal with the straightening iron which I refused at $200! Sorry to say, next was this very suave and handsome Israeli who scrubbed my hands with Sea Salts. Somehow, as if in a trance I bought his salts (for $70!!! but with his “free” gift of foot or hand lotion)–even though I knew it was foolish. I drove away feeling ashamed for being so gullible. Wow, what a revelation today was. Check out this link to understand the phenom: http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16425
Have to say, I will NOT even step foot near those kiosks next time I go. I’ve a Graduate Degree and professional career–amd still got sucked in.
December 11, 2007 at 9:25 am |
Also got hooked for the Dead Sea salts–$29.90. And, yes, the saleswoman was bright, interesting and engaging. I wasn’t even upset to be taken. Interesting how easy it is to sway customers who are used to indifferent, preoccupied, resentful sales help.
January 9, 2008 at 3:23 pm |
I am in Chicago for a few days, and had one of these ladies approach me. I let her buff my nails and use some cuticle oil on them…she even showed me some lotions and what not. She then went into her sales pitch. I was only out window shopping and all I had on me was my bus pass, driver’s license and a cell phone. When I told her thats all I had on me…the fun was over. She told me to come back before she closed at 7PM…She asked me if I wanted to meet her there. I thought “where else would we meet?”. I said sure, even thought about going back to buy the face peel stuff..but then I found it online for about half the price…soo…too bad for her!
February 25, 2009 at 2:48 pm |
Hi, i was wondering what the brand was of the sea salts in the mall? They did a wonderful job of my boyfriends rough hands but i wasnt gonna pay 80 dollars for them. Thought i would look on ebay but cant recall the brand name??? anyone know??
thanks
rachel
April 28, 2009 at 12:57 am |
I actually worked for a short time at a similar Kiosk in Toronto, Canada. It was fun: my job was practically to flirt with girls all day to pump up sales.
The funny thing is, I actually wrote about a kiosk that I encountered on my blog (http://phaedronrising.blogspot.com/2009/02/fine-art-of-haggle.html)... About a week before I ended up starting a job at a similar kiosk!
Here are some of the things that I learned…
There’s often a colossal margin at an Israeli-style kiosk between a product’s “list price” and the minimum price at which a salesperson can actually sell the product. Those prices are never listed in a way that you can browse through without talking to the salesperson.
The salesperson needs to make a lot of snap judgements about a potential customer very, very quickly. The best thing to do is offer the product at a high margin, building enough room into the sale to pay for “free gifts”.
There are two main ways of dealing with a price-based objection:
1) You (well, I) would use the margin between the higher “list price” and the minimum price at which the product can be sold to pay for those “gifts”.
2) The salesperson can be willing to lower the price.
The first approach is much more common, and here’s why:
First, the salesperson knows that 90% of the time that the customer has a money-based objection (“I can’t spend that much”), it’s not true. Maybe she can’t spend that much AND get that cute top she wanted. Of course, she is not going to say that, so she couches the objection as a one-dimensional issue of cost. By adding in those freebies – already paid for by the large margin of the sale – the salesperson can, in effect, sell 3 or 4 things at minimum price while letting the customer walk away with the feeling that she’s gotten a fantastic value.
Second, the salesperson can lower the price. This will only happen when he truly believes that you don’t have enough money to pay the higher price.
It’s a sales structure that we’re so unused to in Western retail – the idea that prices are rarely fixed: the price at which an item can be sold becomes, ipso facto, its real price. We’re used to seeing a shining red widget on a shelf with a $42 tag on it, and everybody pays the same. In a kiosk like this, the same item will sell for $130, $50, and everything in-between throughout a salesman’s day.
It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that it’s “unfair,” but even in North America, we have a culturally accepted example of this sort of flexible-equilibrium price structure: real-estate.
The price of a house is – by definition – what people will pay for it. We’re just not used to seeing hair-straighteners, nail kits, makeup or skin care sold in the same way.
But do you want to know the most interesting thing that I found while working at a kiosk? People that bought, almost always returned for more. The hardest part is for a salesperson to get that person to make that first purchase!
And when the first sale is made at an expensive price, the customer walks away feeling like they have something extremely valuable: it’s the feeling of having that $130 luxury skin cream. She won’t want to go back to the $40 stuff she was getting at her local store.
Truth is, what the kiosks are great at is taking a product that’s moderately better than the competition, and commanding a substantially greater price for it. Of course, the overhead on a kiosk is far lower than a store at a mall, so the kiosk *could* technically afford to sell a higher-quality product for the same price as the competition. But why would they? In the case of consumable goods like skin care or makeup: if it’s sold for the same price as the competition, a customer will assume it’s of similar quality to the competition’s.
It’s the people that you sold to at a “discount” rarely return.
And since I wrote far more in the comment than I’d planned to, I think I’m going to copy this to my own blog.
June 29, 2009 at 1:37 pm |
The Dead Sea thing is so annoying. I usually ignore them and keep walking but once, I was sucked in by cute salesguy and his “come hither” look. I fell. Within no time, I had spent over $100, but of course he threw in a “gift” for me so I didn’t feel quite so bad. Long story short….he also threw in his phone number and I ended up getting to know him a bit. (Hey….they really do give great massages!!) It’s a total scam going on. They are taught exactly what to say and when to say it…I mean EXACTLY. They will all do the exact same things. They will pick you apart….compliment you and critisize you at the same time. They will talk of spoiling you or ask when the last time was that you were spoiled…or spoiled yourself with a treat. They will offer you ’special deals” and “free gifts”. It’s all BS. They rape people and then they make fun of you and call you a sucker in Hebrew as you walk away. I promise you this! They are all from Israel and 90% of them are illegal. What really stinks is that I love the products….it’s the sales pitch and the people that turn you off. I feel like wasting hours of their time. Time is money and they hate when they try to sell someone and the person ends up walking away. I feel like having them demonstrate every piece of product they have. Remember that the next time you’re bombarded by one. If you’re strong….and I mean really strong (they are VERY persuasive) let them try to sell you for a while and then walk away. Even as I’m tying this, I’m not sure I could walk away without purchasing something for too much money!! I have SUCKER written all over me.
[Reply]
July 17, 2009 at 11:09 am |
hay you were suckkd in big time next time do woy i do i wreck there brains today the guy told me i was the craziest women ever as he tried his best to sell me the calts for no less then £70.but i stuck my ground he was smashing his head against the wall and oulling out his hir when i left him ha ha loltry the constant haggle game and dont give up they will not stand a chancelol
July 21, 2009 at 7:25 am |
Smile – You are funny!!! I’m really enjoying messing with them now! They don’t know what a “crazy woman” they’ve played with!!!
July 23, 2009 at 10:34 am |
I actually LOVE the dead sea facial peel. my mom got hooked at a mall in torotno and gave it to me. i’m desperately looking for it. you should all not make snap judgements about where people are from. if you dont want to buy it – keep walking. what does it matter to you? kiosks are great ways of show casing products that need to be tested to be appreciated.
July 23, 2009 at 2:01 pm |
You’re right when you say the facial peel is great and it’s great to see the products in action. The demonstrations are wonderul. My problem is the game. I have a problem with one person selling you something for $60 and the next day, at the same place, someone will sell you the same product for $40 and then they’ll throw in a free gift just because you’re so special. Such BS. Pick a price and sell your products. The products are great. The sales tactics….not so much. (And I know for a fact that every sales person in this area is from Israel…not that that is a bad thing. They’ve given themselves a bad name by the games they play and the fact that they aren’t supposed to be working in the US is just that….a fact! Again….dead sea products – wonderful!!!! Sales games….NOT!
August 11, 2009 at 4:53 am |
you people are retarded all those israelies invited here with a special working visa. they are trained to screw you over so good. u.s. gives them visa really fast they get the money out of your pocket really easy hahahaha. they get paid more than you hahahaha.
lmao
August 30, 2009 at 6:57 pm |
I spent $80 on salt stuff last year but I think the girl really did give me a deal (I don’t feel I was scammed)- She gave me 1 cleanser, 1 body scrub and 1 face cream. You go to Macys and they are same prices. I used the products. I liked the cleanser and the scrub but the cream was pretty useless. But useless creams are nothing new to me- See I have acne so I have to be really careful with face creams. I do think $80 was worth it, I’m always trying different products to help my skin. And I mean EVERYTHING, so I didn’t mind trying this. HOWEVER, when I went to the mall that particular day, I was with my daughter and we were going to the Halloween store. I wasn’t expecting to spend $80 on skin stuff but again I didn’t mind that much because I’m always willing to try something that would help. My 9 year old daughter was pulling my hand and telling me not to buy the stuff, she wanted to go look at costumes. The sales lady saw how I was being dragged away by child, so she threw in the extra products to keep me there and make a sale. That was last year. Yesterday, I was at a different mall. I had just purchased some new organic skin stuff at Trade Secret that was on sale for 75% off!! Again, always buying skin stuff for this acne..always spending money on skincare! Never ends! I left Trade Secret with my purchases and was immediately approached by Israli man selling skin stuff from the kiosk. I said sorry sir I purchased the salt stuff last year and it didn’t do much for my acne. But he said he doesn’t sell salt stuff and “who would put salt on their face?” He asked. This is weird, but I could see the lie in his eyes. Almost like, I knew he PROBABLY used to sell the salt stuff he is now bashing LOL. Anyway, He said his stuff was better than salt….”come you see” But I opened my bag and said: look I just purchased skin stuff at Trade Secret. He was VERY pushy but finally let me go because I had the bag of skin stuff from Trade Secret so that was a good excuse!! Hey maybe you all should walk around with some old bottles of skincare and say: sorry your too late I already purchased my skincare, see (pull out bottles when they bother you)It worked for me.
October 27, 2009 at 8:37 am |
We have one of those Israeli girls selling the dead sea salt scrub and other products at the mall and she tries it out on you, shows you how well it works, and then slashes the price.
But, I searched online for the same product and a jar with four times as much dead sea salt scrub is available for $5 a jar! So everything above less than a dollar’s change is pure profit for her!
November 6, 2009 at 6:19 pm |
I just left a mall in Stamford, CT where I was approached by two gorgeous Israeli girls trying to sell me skin products. She put some stuff on one hand that took off the dead skin and then put lotion on it that sucked it up. She put the same lotion on the untreated hand and it just sat there on my skin – no soaking. So I guess it works. The had on short skirts and good cleavage; they talked really fast, with Israeli accent. One girl worked on one of my nails and it really started to shine; it’s still shining. I told her that it looked like a girl’s nail. Anyway, I am convinced that the products work, but I wouldn’t pay $89 for each. They were even nice when I said no. I have no complaints. They were cute, sexy and I enjoyed talking with them and looking at them.