Very interesting, TJ Max experience. I was at the checkout counter.
And the girl comes up straight through. I feel like this sales strategy is single handedly ruining the experience of shopping in store for a lot of people. I used to work at Home Goods, so I’ve been on the other side of the counter. And Home Goods is owned by the same company that TJ Maxis. So it’s the same kind of concept they really like during the training process, they push these credit cards hard. Like it’s a whole section of training that you need to ask every single customer, no matter how small their purchase may be, if they’re buying something for $10 or $1,000, because at home goods, there can be furniture that they can buy. It doesn’t matter. You need to ask every single one. And of course, that is uncomfortable for the customer like 98% of the time because nobody wants a store credit card they can own, only use at TJ Max or marshals or home goods. Like, I know people go there a lot, but it’s not like the most versatile of cars. It doesn’t give you points that you can use for travel or anything like that. But not only is it uncomfortable for them, it is just like completely like mortifying to be on the other side and to get not only rejection after rejection, but just to feel like you’re a broken record. Like you have to ask every single person and it’s demoralizing. It’s like after a certain point, you’re like, okay, like I know that they’re gonna say no. There’s something that happens to your brain when you hear no over and over again from different people. Some people wanting to let you get the words out before they’re saying no, which is rude. But I mean, I do get it. I get both sides. And she mentioned that sales associate said that she had a goal and if she opened a credit card, then she would be helping her get to that goal.
I didn’t have a personal goal. They might have that at different stores, but the store itself had a goal. And if you got like, I think the goal was like 10 credit cards per day, which is a lot like who wants this credit card? So if you didn’t get any the previous day, or if you were below 10, the managers were really adamant, like they would be on you to ask everybody and to make sure that you get these credit cards. They put a lot of pressure on people. Sometimes at my store, the regional managers or whoever would come through the line. And of course, as sales associates, we don’t know these people by face. So they would come through the line and if you did not ask them if they had a credit card or wanted to sign up for one, they would report it to the managers. And from what I understand, like people didn’t get individually in trouble for it, but it was kind of like you all are not asking, like you need to ask everybody. They had cameras above the registers, which of course, was to monitor for theft and things like that. But they also were monitoring to make sure that we were asking people, this may be too strong of a word, but I feel like it almost makes the store like a hostile environment because you as the cashier, you’re not just focused on like smiling and giving them great service. You’re already kind of like nervous in anticipating like, are they gonna say no and be polite? Are they gonna say no and be rude? You just don’t wanna get rejected again. And then the person who is buying the items is like, I don’t wanna have to go through the whole spiel of, do you have a credit card, do you wanna sign up, you get 10% off, 5% cashback. It’s just for both people on both sides, it’s just uncomfortable. And that’s why I feel like a lot of people just like myself would just rather shop online. My style was very laid back. Like if I saw someone was buying like $10 worth of stuff, I just wouldn’t bother asking them, even though I knew it was against the rules. But if someone was buying like $2,000 worth furniture, I would try to sell it to him a little bit more, but I was never as pushy as what the creator said the sales associate was in her previous video. And the thought process of getting people to sign up for these credit cards that have horrible interest rates and you can’t really use anywhere else, is that if they have the card, they will be more likely to come back to the store and spend money. But I think these CEOs need to think about how horrible the in store experience is when you have people on both sides who just don’t wanna deal with that process. Like, don’t try to sell me something I don’t want and don’t try to force me to sell something that I also don’t want to sell.