I’ve been on the hunt for a new dehumidifier, and visited several stores yesterday to do some comparison shopping.
When I got to Walmart, a salesman named Lou asked me politely if I was sure I wanted a DEhumidifier: did I want to add water to the air, or take it out?
I thought that he was patronizing me and told him so – male salesperson in a hardware department thinking that his female customer was an idiot.
Turns out, he wasn’t trying to give me a hard time at all. He was extremely helpful and passed along 15 years worth of accumulated wisdom, including the comment that, indeed, some people don’t know the difference.
Turns out, he is absolutely right: I ended up buying my dehumidifer at Lowe’s for several reasons, among them a good warranty, but along the way, stopped in to see what Target had to offer.
A young male salesperson insisted on directing me, not once but twice, to two different displays of HUMIDIFIERS. I could not convince him, come hell or high water, that I was looking for a device to take water OUT of the air.
So, apologies to Lou: I am not an idiot, and neither are you, but they are certainly out there. Your customers are lucky, I hope they find their way to you from Target.