False Familiarity

Sales Tactics, Social Engineering

I recently flew to Toronto for a week on business, and our hotel had a pool but I had forgotten to pack swimming trunks. I stopped into a local mall and at one of the big name clothing stores found a pair of shorts that I wanted to try on. When I went to find the change rooms, I was met by a sales representative from the store. “I’m sorry, what was your name again?” she asked. I had not given her my name. I just landed in Toronto for the first time in my life several hours ago. We have never spoken before this exchange. When I told her my name, she quickly replied with a warm smile, “Oh, now I remember. Right this way please.” Once secluded  within the walls of the small change room I thought to myself, “I’ve never met this woman before in my life – why would she claim to remember my name as though we were old friends? Is it possible I might have known her from somewhere else and I’ve simply forgotten her? After all, I’m working in a city not my home, maybe she used to live elsewhere and our paths had crossed somewhere?” As I was trying on the shorts I overheard in the hallway the voice of the same woman engaged in the exact same conversation with another patron. “What was your name again?” … “Oh right, now I remember.” The light bulb clicked on. I have never met her before, and neither has the guy she’s talking to now. She is merely inducing a method of establishing a false sense of familiarity to boost her sales quota, and/or using a form of loss prevention whereby the reasoning might be that if the salesperson knows your name you are less likely to try to leave with unpaid merchandise. It’s no different than stores like 7-Eleven installing bells on their doors and requiring their staff to greet every visitor who enters because the theory is that  acknowledgement of their presence makes less likely shoplifters.

In retrospect, perhaps I should have called her on it, but I was in a hurry and it’s much easier to rant about it later. The swim shorts do look nice though…

All Rear Turn Signal Lights On Vehicles Should Be Yellow

Common Sense, Driving, Traffic

I like to think I am a courteous driver, and I know that it can be tough changing lanes on a busy motorway. When I see someone’s turn signal on ahead of me, I usually try to give them room to make the lane change. However, there is one thing that irks me to no end about the design of vehicles in North America, and that is the double standard color of tail lights on vehicles. A lot of imports seem to have gotten it right: turn signals are yellow. However, many of the domestic cars I see on the road tend to still have the brake lights flash when the driver is really intending to make a turn, a practice that I think makes no sense and should be changed. Here’s why:

Brake lights mean “I am slowing down or stopping”, turn signals mean “I intend to change lanes or alter my direction of travel from the status quo.”

In order to determine whether a brake light is being used as a turn signal, you need to be able to see both tail lights, and to study them for a few cycles of operation; if they both light together, the driver is braking – if only one of them is flashing, he is probably turning. If one is lit solid and the other is flashing, the driver is slowing down AND intending to make a turn. When the running lights are on, the brake lights already appear to be on,  and you have to pay even closer attention to determine what that driver’s intention may be.

Often while driving, you can only see one of tail lights on a car, truck, van, bus, etc. With brake lights sharing signal duty, it is not always clear if the driver is trying to turn or is just tapping the brakes. This is particularly so in bumper-to-bumper traffic, when a driver may be braking and letting off the brake frequently as his vehicle crawls forward. Drivers in adjacent lanes who cannot see both of his tail lights may misinterpret his brake light signals for wanting to change into their lanes. Conversely, the driver who assumes that the brake lights mean just that – braking, may assume he is merely slowing his vehicle down. The driver with his turn signal on gets frustrated because no one is letting him in, while the drivers in lanes adjacent to him take little notice of his repetitive braking habits, and think he is an irresponsible driver when he eventually juts into their lane, apparently without giving any warning of his intention.

When you see a yellow turn signal light on, you always know that driver may need to be given some room. Even if they are using them as hazard lights, the reaction of “give that guy some space” is still appropriate. When hazard lights share the brake lights, you lose the hazard blink whenever the brakes are applied. When hazard lights are yellow, they can continue to flash giving other drivers warning of your condition, while still allowing the brake lights to indicate your intention to slow down or stop.

If all turn signals were yellow, much confusion could easily be avoided. Besides, all front-facing turn signals are already required to be yellow, so amending the rules to include rear turn signals is not a giant leap. It would not have to be retroactive, all existing vehicles made under the old laws could be grandfathered in, but going forward for the generations of drivers to come, it sure could save a lot of unnecessary frustration on the road.

Price Tags

False Advertising, Taxes

I went down to the local convenience store today to purchase a tasty beverage. The sign in the glass cooler window read “$2.39” below the bottles I desired to purchase, so I grabbed a bottle of soda and went to the counter to pay. “That will be Two Sixty-Two,” the lady at the register announced. “Oh, ” I replied in my sweetest voice, “there must be some mistake – the sign in the cooler said this costs $2.39.” “That’s right,” the lady continued, “but then there are fees and taxes on top of that price.” “Well why doesn’t your sign read ‘$2.62’ then?” She shrugged her shoulders in reply.

Bottles of Pepsi In A Cooler at a Convenience Stor

This practice of posting the base price only even though there are additional costs that must be paid prior to purchase is preposterous.

It’s 2014 – Is anyone really being fooled?

Why not have the price tags just show the “this is how much it will cost you to walk out of here with one of these” price?  That’s what we’re all interested in after all, isn’t it? I took a look at the receipt, which outlined the additional costs involved:

  • Pepsi Cola – $2.39
  • Plastic Deposit – $0.10
  • Plastic Recycling Fee – $0.01
  • GST (National tax in Canada) – $0.12

Would it not make more sense to just show the customer what the bottom line price is at the product? You could still break out these line items on the receipt for those so inclined to know, but at the end of the day, I’m still going to have to pay all the fees and deposits and taxes anyway, wouldn’t it be better if I wasn’t annoyed and frustrated by the process? It’s almost a bait & switch.  I wonder if I’d have an argument to say that I was charged more than the advertised price of the product in this case? After all, the price tags on the shelves do not say “Plus Deposit and Taxes…”

Four-Way Stops – Learn Them!

Driving, Entitlement

I pulled up to a four-way stop the other day. First order of business: See who else is already stopped at the other three ways. Wait for those vehicles to go, and then proceed. Simple, right? This particular intersection had vehicles already waiting at all three other ways, so I waited for all three to go, and then started into the intersection. At that moment, a woman in a gray SUV rolled through the oncoming stop sign, proceeding against my left turn path and then gives me the one-handed, “What are you doing?!” gesture. There is no suitable counter-gesture that I know that would effectively convey the message that was going through my mind, “YOU just rolled through a four-way STOP sign, WITHOUT STOPPING, and are asking ME what I’M doing?!?” So I smiled and waved as it dawned on me that I just had the topic of my next rant.