For those of you that shop in malls, do you ever run into those annoying people who man the hair care/skin care/nail care kiosks? You know the ones -- they practically accost you if you dare make eye contact with them or walk within twenty feet of their stand.

At our local mall there are two pain-in-ass kiosks manned by equally pain-in-the-ass employees, and of *course* they're situated right outside of Victoria's Secret and Sephora. Every time I go by I have to duck my head, walk quickly, or wave them off. I *hate* being rude, but it seems like they leave me no choice. A simple, "No thank you, I'm not interested" or, "No thank you, my hair is already naturally straight, so why would I want to purchase a hair straightener?" never seems to suffice. Grr! less

Oh!!! Are you talking about those people who will have the huge coolers in the backs of their pickup trucks and will try and convince people to buy their meat?

I remember one time a couple years ago, the weird meat peddlers came by my house and after five minutes of trying to convince the redneck guys that "I don't want any of your dodgy meat, please go away", I finally closed the door on them. I peeked out the window to see when they'd leave and the guys were just sitting there and one was standing in what I thought at the time was an odd posture with his back towards my house.

They left behind an empty whiskey bottle in a brown bag and took a piss in my yard too.

*Sarcastic sigh* Gotta love living in the south....

P.s: ^ that's not meant to offend anyone, by any means. But come on, you all would be irritated too if some weird boozed up guy peed in your yard just because you didn't buy his sketchy meat, lol. less

YES!! I'm so glad I'm not the only one annoyed by those people. First they want you to look at their little home-printed "list of meats". If you say no, they whip out their big box of mixed meats and try to convince you that you really want this stuff. And when you still say no, and this really gets me going, they tell me/other female customers to ask their husbands what they think....uuummm, maybe I earn/control the money in this household. less

I've never had that much problems with the kiosks people. I guess since I walk around with my arms crossed and practically glaring at most people (I don't generally tend to be in a good mood at the mall).

My biggest problem is with those people trying to sell "discount designer" parfume or large boxes of meat. I used to work in a convenience store on the only Hwy between two larger towns and these guys used to stop in all the time. Several times we had to call the police because they wouldn't leave us or the customers alone. What about "No soliciting on the property" do those people not understand?! less

I like this post. Kiosk people are like the people that hand out fliers in Times Square, I think. When they take a chance on singling you out, they are letting another potential buyer walk by. So they learn to select the most likely targets a.k.a. to pick people that look "open." It's how all scammers and con artists look. Tourists looking up at the pretty tall buildings get accosted by Dude With "Free" Tickets to Some Comedy Club. Business man weaving through bodies with the "I'm looking past you" face on? Not so much. One is a likely buyer and the other isn't. One is a risk, the other isn't.

If all else fails and you can't master the "I'm looking past you" face then I would recommend consulting the quintessential show about Manhattan that speaks to the quintessential "I'm busy" face. less