Lessons From Furniture Stores

I realized today that one of the kazillion things I love about Ikea is the following:

No one follows you around and tries to ask you if you need help finding anything and tells you their name as if you were actually interested in knowing it.

I went to three separate furniture stores today with the sole intention of doing some window shopping. At each one, a salesperson materialized from thin air and peppered me with questions.

It was incredibly annoying.

And now, I shall forever think of the annoying salespeople when I walk into a patient's room and start rattling off a barrage of questions.

"Make it more casual," I'll tell myself. "Maybe it'll pay off to let them do some of the asking once in a while."

I just have to make sure I refrain from asking something like, "Oh, hi, what brings you here?" lest there be blank stares and glares for days.