Naivety in Sales?

When I was younger, like many others, I was quite gullible as a child. You could probably could have sold me on anything. Everything was either new, fascinating, or of interest to me as a child. I was curious, I was excited, and I was naive. I had little to no knowledge about any product that flashed in my face. I remember walking down a New York City street, and we were headed somewhere. But along the streets, there were many vendors along the side. I remember standing in line for something, and the whole time, this street vendor was screaming to every passerby, “A scarf for $1, $, $1!” And he kept repeating himself, and I kept thinking how annoying he was! He just wouldn’t shut up, and he would hold the scarfs up close to people, trying to show them his product. That was my first day I started hating salespeople.

That was an example of a pushy salesperson, and I will always picture that guy when I think of street vendors in NYC. However, this isn’t about that story. In that example, I wasn’t so “naive” to take the bait and buy a scarf. I was like 8 then, too…so, I don’t know why he was trying to sell to me. Anyway, my naivety (or I should say, my dad’s naivety) knows no bounds.

During Christmas time, I always went shopping with my sister and dad to get my mom something. We often loved getting her jewelry. One time, I remember us going to an expensive store that was actually selling out.

We entered the store, and a lady was quick to assist us. She began asking questions, and my dad was answering a few questions. My dad knows very little about jewelry, so he just answered as best as he could. The lady led us over to a case where there was a “specialty” set of jewelry, and it was gorgeous. The lady started explaining to us what it was, how it was made, etc., trying to entice my dad into buying it, telling him things she thought would get us to buy it. My dad, being naive, was like, “what do you guys think?” to me and my sister. I thought it was ugly and that my mom wouldn’t like it, but my sister was more inclined to just agree with my dad.

We ended up buying it, and to this day, I am pretty sure my mom never wears the earrings we bought. My dad bought the jewelry based on the salesperson. Did she do well or was my dad naive? Did she take advantage of our naivety?