pressured

There are many things I really enjoy about shopping for yarn online. First is that online yarn, even with shipping, is usually cheaper than in-real-life shopping. Second is that nobody looks over your shoulder and says, "May I help you," every few minutes when all you want to do is check out the price. Third is that nobody, when you decide to inquire about the yarn, makes you feel like you really have to, need to, should feel guilted into purchasing the yarn right there and then.

I obviously had a bad experience with this. I was in a yarn shop anyhow to pick up something else, and I decided to check out if there was any decent yarn for a project I'm thinking of knitting. The store person was very knowledgable in leading me to the type of yarn I was looking for, and calculated how much I'd need (which isn't hard by any stretch of the imagination), and then told me how much it would cost. It was a lot. Especially for a piece that, by its very nature, is supposed to be sort of dumpy-looking. I said, "That's expensive." The store person argued that any yarn I bought that was wool, as this was (part wool, at least), would be expensive and told me all about how it was worth it and all that jazz. Normally this is okay and I can just say, "All right, maybe I'll come back," but not this time. Store person tells me that there are only x number of balls that are in stock and if someone came and bought some for something else, there might not be enough for my project - e.g. BUY IT NOW!!!! I thought that was semi-good salesmanship, but also really tactless considering the fact that I was already concerned about the cost. Would it really be good for a person to buy yarn, paying three times as much as they wanted to, just because they felt like they HAD to? Would they be likely to come back to the store anytime soon? Certainly not, especially since their finances would be completely wiped out.

I chose to live in that fear (sarcastic) that someone might come and buy up my yarn (there ARE other ways to buy yarn, you know...). I purchased the little things I had come for and left and now don't want to set foot in that store again unless I am there to buy that yarn, because that's the thing with local stores: the store people remember you. They remember what you buy, what you don't buy, how much you spend. And I feel like I'll be judged by that. Like they'll say, "You never buy anything, don't come in here!" Perhaps they've never had a budget and had to take into account more than "Ooh, the yarn looks pretty," when they go to make a purchase.

Unfortunately, THIS client, for one, is not like that.