Beware of the Dead Sea products kiosks at the mall!

[St. Theresa]

My kids wanted to hang out at the mall on Halloween, so I took them. I'm not a mall person. Except for some of the larger chain stores, I find things way too expensive.

I was minding my own business, walking around to see if I could find my Best Buy purchases cheaper elsewhere (because then I could go to Best Buy for a partial refund) when I was basically grabbed by someone at a kiosk selling skin products made from Dead Sea minerals. Though I don't part with my money easily at all, they got me. I still don't know how. Guilt? When I asked how much the stuff was they were rubbing all over my hands, I got a reaction like I had just slapped the guy across the face.

They soaked me. And as I walked away, feeling like a fool, someone else grabbed me and he soaked me too, for herbal wraps you can heat up or freeze. I actually use one of the wraps every day, but I paid too much for it. I'm going to give the others in the package away as gifts.

All sales are final, so there's no changing your mind. When I got home, I was so mad at myself, I looked at the website that was printed on one of the products I'd bought. It was all in Hebrew, but anyone can see that the site is not designed to showcase and sell products. It's to get salespeople on board. "Sucess in America," was the only English I saw.

I posted about it on another forum and someone replied about their experience with these high-pressure salespeople. He was must stronger than I, and as he walked away, the saleperson began to cry and said she wouldn't be able to eat if he didn't buy something and, by this time, had reduced her price from $60 to $12!

Oh, how I wish I'd known. Just keep resisting and the prices go lower and lower and lower. You know you've reached their lowest price when they cry and beg!

So as you're doing your last minute shopping, keep in mind, if you end up at one of these kiosks, that prices vary depending on how much you resist. And if you're not interested, have the cahones I lacked that day to just say, "NO!" Not even, "No, thank you." Give them a firm, "NO WAY!" Otherwise, I swear, they'll literally hold you hostage until you buy something!

[Coleroo]

lol... we have those at our mall too! they're very high pressure. i've always been good at saying no though and walking away so i usually just get my fingernails buffed and then say no thanks after they speel on the price. i DID succumb once though last december and got the giftset they were promoting.. it was only 30$ after the discounts and it was my birthday money.. so *shrug* i made off good.

i didnt know they were ALL high pressure like that! i just thought the girls and guys at my mall just enjoyed the products.. lol.. i kinda like my little set.

[nanamom]

WOW I do live in a small town. Never encountered that. I do remember when I used to visit Baltimore every year there was a kiosk that has hair stuff and jewelry that seemed pretty hard sell. Then again I am pretty determined and they never got through to me. Never had them cry though.

[banned]

Dead Sea Products

Yes, they are extremely aggressive. I just said the products were, great, but I couldn't buy them at the time. It makes me feel a little guilty because I was trying the product. Then they seem to be able to decrease the price etc. It is hard to get away from them...

[St. Theresa]

so i usually just get my fingernails buffed.

Oh, my yes! The shiny nail! I swear, the routine is the same. First they do the salt thing, followed up by some lotion. Your hands feel like a baby's butt and you ARE impressed, but concerned about the cost....

Then comes the shiny nail. I have to say, I was impressed. But the guy made me turn away as he buffed! Why??? They gave me the nail set for "free," but I paid dearly for everything else and hide it from my 13 year-old daughter, lest she starts slapping everything on like there's no tomorrow.

I use the nail stuff and yes, they're shiny, but not quite as shiny as that day in the mall. I'm probably not doing it right.

Oh, and I'm going to be 42 next month. The guy says, "How old are you? 24? 25?" Now, I don't actually look my age, but I certainly look older than 25. I was like, "Ok, now you're just full of it."

Still, I took out my checkbook. *kicks own butt*

[Caoineag]

I got them down to $20 the time I bought from them. I thought that was reasonable and let them keep what was left of their commission. Very nice stuff. However, if I am not in the mood to buy, I just don't make eye contact and move quickly past. Not because they can pressure me into buying, just because I don't want to waste 15 minutes of my time.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Hard for me to imagine what a cosmetics kiosk can do to be high pressure. Giving you a squirt of lotion and buffing your nails is part of being high pressure?

I was in a jewelry store next to one of those Dead Sea products kiosks. I came out of the store and a young woman walked toward me with a bottle in hand and I think she commanded me to go put my hand in a big bowl of something, if I remember correctly. I didn't quite understand what she said anyway, but suddenly her face went blank, she cut herself off in mid-sentence and said, "Oh, you're with him," and pointed away with her elbow. She gave up [insert cricket chirps here] and just stood there, frozen. I looked in the direction she had indicated and, sure enough, there was my husband about 10 yards away. Huh? How could she tell I was with him? And what rude thing must have my husband said to her when she had stopped him to try for a sale?

My husband denies he said anything rude at all. But somehow she knew I was with him and that a sale to me was hopeless.

Hey I'd love for those mall places that sell massage chairs to give me the hard sale. "Here! Sit here! Doesn't that feel like what you need every evening? No, no, don't get up! Enjoy it! Let me tell you about our sale. Just sit back, now, enjoy! Sit, sit! Do you have a store card? Sit there and I'll bring you an application. We can get it filled out in about two shakes of a lamb's tail. Ah, yes, isn't that wonderful?" I'd just soak it up, tell him the chair is wonderful but that I don't want one, thank you. Then I'd be on my way, happy with the massage.

I don't even need a way to pay when I go to a mall. I hardly even go into the stores. I just go to watch other people, and not more than about thrice a year at that. They should charge me admission to go into the mall for my people watching entertainment.

[St. Theresa]

Hard for me to imagine what a cosmetics kiosk can do to be high pressure. Giving you a squirt of lotion and buffing your nails is part of being high pressure?

Like you said, she basically commanded you to stick your hand in the bowl. Flattery, guilt, begging - anything they can do. Like I said, I'm very good at saying "no" when it comes to spending money. These people? I can't explain it. I felt like I HAD to buy stuff, even when I told them I had nobody to impress.

[disneysteve]

We encounter these folks all the time. My wife just says "no thanks" and keeps walking. It has never gone beyond that.

[St. Theresa]

Ok, so I'm a weakling. But I'm sooooooooo frugal and have said no to lots of high pressure sales - like the guy who came to my house and wanted to sell me a vacuum cleaner for like $1500. No! Just.no.

These people? Well, if I'd known about them ahead of time, I would have been prepared. It just so happens that I had only gotten like 2 hours of sleep the night before, so maybe that's why they got me.

[jodi]

I've never seen or heard of this company, but I don't think I'd have any problem walking away. It seems to be like dodging all those people handing out coupons and cards on the corners of NYC, which I'm pretty good at. I just don't make eye contact and walk past. Somehow looking them in the face makes you feel guilty, because they're probably just average joes trying to make a living like the rest of us (albeit aggressively).

[jasanderson]

Whatever you do - don't make eye contact and you may be able to ignore them. It works for me sometimes. I clear a wide berth around them if possible.

[JanH]

Happened to me, too. I bought one time. I stopped to be polite and they just kept on and on and on. Now, I just turn the other way or say I don't have the time. Don't feel too bad about succumbing. They are really aggressive! And I think there are now TWO of the kiosks in one of our malls. They try to get you coming and going. I don't know if they are both the same company...I don't look their way if I can help it.

[St. Theresa]

After I got screwed over at the skin care kiosk, I was grabbed by the herbal wrap kiosk. I told him I'd already spent too much money. He GRABBED MY BAG, looked at the purchases and the receipt and said, "Oh, well, since you purchased items there, I can give you a discount."

Oy.

He got me, too.

The only one I managed to escape was yet another skin product kiosk. I showed them my bag of goodies and said I'd already bought. They said theirs were better and I said, "Maybe so, but all sales are final, so I'm out of the market." They didn't push me any further.

[FrugalTexan75]

Oh boy. A few weeks before Thanksgiving, a friend of mine who is going through a nasty divorce and is financially barely hanging on and I got together at a local mall to go walking. When the weather is nice, we will do our walking at a local park ... but the weather was nasty that evening and we still wanted to get some walking in.

So we're walking by the Dead Sea kisok - my friend N gets grabbed by one of the ladies there. The lady starts talking to both of us - asking if we're sisters, saying how nice our skin is, etc. I think she could tell from my face/body language that the only reason I was still standing there was because of my friend, so she gave up on me and put her full focus on my friend. She put the hard sale on, and my friend ended up purchasing the nail buffer gift set -- then the lady tried to add on the other lotions - by that time my friend had finally found her backbone and was able to walk away.

The prices of their items are ridiculous to start with - probably to give them lots of room to negotiate down and make a sale - making the person think that they're getting a "deal" and that the manager thinks they're really "pushing hard". etc.

Those kisoks are just one more reason to stay out of the malls - unless of course you are strong enough to resist their siren call. Needless to say, I don't plan to ask this particular friend of mine to go walking with me in a mall again - will have to figure out another place to walk indoors.