Conducting business and dressing comfortably.

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AUFred

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Seems to get me in trouble occasionally. People don't want to take people wearing shorts seriously. We went car shopping Friday and the high was in the mid 80's. I put on my usual golfshirt, shorts & tennis shoes. I do live in Alabama after all. When we negotiated to the final price and I told the guy I was planning on writing a check for the car he acted like I had a screw loose. He said he needed to contact our bank to make sure the funds were available I told him no problem. I told him sure and gave him the bank manager's name. I called to touch base with our banker and he was at a different branch for the day. He gave me his cell number for the car dealership to call and talk with him directly. The salesman acted a little different after that. Too funny.

Moral of the story. Don't judge a book by its cover.


My grandfather was comfortable in his own skin and did not believe in spending much money on clothes so he bought the old uniforms at the uniform store which sold for next to nothing. He often looked like a bum. He walked up to the last two houses he bought and paid for them in cash. He was a frugal old dude.
 
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Darrell

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When Acura was first released my Grandpa had a very similar experience. He was Retired Army, and a Retired Engineer. He wore tore up pants, white v-neck t-shirts, and old tennis shoes. Why? Because he didn't care what people thought.

He bought my Grandma a brand new Acura Integra, and paid cash. Literally, one hundred dollar bills. He said that they counted that money by hand, with the bill counter, and marked every single bill with one of those counterfeiting pens, and then spent 20 mins waiting while the salesman asked if they could even accept cash.

He wasn't real impressed with them. :24:
 

Joe the meek

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Up in New York a company I worked for bought out an existing company (purchased a couple of years after I got there) that had two partners. Paid close to 5 mil for the entire operation. One of the old partners would always come into the office, a real nice guy, but he always looked (dressed) like he just came out of the good will store. One of the guys told me that the previous year the guy (who sold the company) was sitting out on a bench while his wife was inside doing some grocery shopping. As he was sitting on the bench, a stranger walked by him and handed him a dollar because he felt sorry for him LMAO
 

AUFred

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When Acura was first released my Grandpa had a very similar experience. He was Retired Army, and a Retired Engineer. He wore tore up pants, white v-neck t-shirts, and old tennis shoes. Why? Because he didn't care what people thought.

He bought my Grandma a brand new Acura Integra, and paid cash. Literally, one hundred dollar bills. He said that they counted that money by hand, with the bill counter, and marked every single bill with one of those counterfeiting pens, and then spent 20 mins waiting while the salesman asked if they could even accept cash.

He wasn't real impressed with them. :24:

I find those stories funny because it is true you never know about people. I literally walked out of hotty totty jewelry store because the salesman acted like I was bothering him. There were two of this particular jewelry stores in town and they had an exclusive piece of jewelry I wanted for my wife. I went to the second one and bought the piece from the older gentleman there. I informed him what had happened at the other store and he was more than a little irritated. He told me I was not the first with a similar story. Seems like people would treat people with a certain amount of respect regardless of how they look.
 

AUFred

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Up in New York a company I worked for bought out an existing company (purchased a couple of years after I got there) that had two partners. Paid close to 5 mil for the entire operation. One of the old partners would always come into the office, a real nice guy, but he always looked (dressed) like he just came out of the good will store. One of the guys told me that the previous year the guy (who sold the company) was sitting out on a bench while his wife was inside doing some grocery shopping. As he was sitting on the bench, a stranger walked by him and handed him a dollar because he felt sorry for him LMAO

My wife's grandfather made a habit of going on carlots and haggling over vehicles and then paying cash on the spot for them although he walked on the lot in overalls & work boots.
 

BadBoy

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When Acura was first released my Grandpa had a very similar experience. He was Retired Army, and a Retired Engineer. He wore tore up pants, white v-neck t-shirts, and old tennis shoes. Why? Because he didn't care what people thought.

He bought my Grandma a brand new Acura Integra, and paid cash. Literally, one hundred dollar bills. He said that they counted that money by hand, with the bill counter, and marked every single bill with one of those counterfeiting pens, and then spent 20 mins waiting while the salesman asked if they could even accept cash.

He wasn't real impressed with them. :24:

I want to buy a car with a hundred bucks! :) How long does it take to count a hundred one dollar bills anyway? And marking them with those pens? Silly. :p
 

Darrell

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I want to buy a car with a hundred bucks! :) How long does it take to count a hundred one dollar bills anyway? And marking them with those pens? Silly. :p

Yeah, I know. It takes all of about two minutes. I remember him telling me that he almost snatched the money out of their hands, and told them to fuck off, but he wasn't that type of person.
 

slicktrickery

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We have heard similar from a friend who is a high end jeweller and she was helping a customer who bought a $35,000 diamond ring. After the ring was ordered and the customer had left the store, our friend told us this about her co-worker (we will call her sally). Sally asked our friend if the guy bought the ring? Our friend said of course he did. Sally went on to say, oh I never help the men in jeans too much, it's the guys in the suits that have more money!!!! Can you believe that.... and here is what is funnier.... this city is completely a Redneck city, and many many many of the young men work on the oil rigs, and many many of them are loaded. What a snippy attitude of miss jewellery expert.
 

jassilem

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We have heard similar from a friend who is a high end jeweller and she was helping a customer who bought a $35,000 diamond ring. After the ring was ordered and the customer had left the store, our friend told us this about her co-worker (we will call her sally). Sally asked our friend if the guy bought the ring? Our friend said of course he did. Sally went on to say, oh I never help the men in jeans too much, it's the guys in the suits that have more money!!!! Can you believe that.... and here is what is funnier.... this city is completely a Redneck city, and many many many of the young men work on the oil rigs, and many many of them are loaded. What a snippy attitude of miss jewellery expert.

I have seen it happen! This is a oil town.. most of the oil works even the high ups don't wear suits.. they are all cowboys at heart... LOL..

My MIL and I are regulars in one Jewellery store... My MIL and I will go in all in comfy clothes.. The boss sees us and nods.. then the newbie is the only one out in the store.. she ignores us... the boss comes out and asks the girl why she didn't serve us... the girl says to the boss.. oh they aren't here to buy they are just looking.. The boss say oh.. Comes over to us greets us by name and then goes and gets us a drink and chairs and asks us what we want to see.. the newbie didn't last very long... :D..
 

Dana

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Appearance is everything. My moms man and I had an argument about this. It goes with getting a job as well. You could be a best suited for a job but if your looking tore up from the floor up and the next man is in clean slacks or even denim with a nice dress shirt that dude will probably get the job or attention ahead of you. A friend of the families went into a bank to get a visa gif6 card and was wearing dirty sweats and his hair was unkempt and nobody gave him the time of day. Is it right? No but thats how it is.
 

MoonOwl

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Every car I've ever bought I've paid cash for and was wearing sweatpants or jeans & tshirt when doing it.

All jewelry I've bought I've been wearing the same.

I dress to be comfy. I was taught not to show my money through my clothes. Especially when making a large purchase.

Now, for a job interview I would dress up. Heck, I wore a suit to my retail interview and sat next to a chick in jeans & a tshirt. I'm still w/the company. She isn't.

I also find it funny. Just cuz I'm comfy doesn't mean I don't have many zeros in my bank account. In fact, if I were to win a large lotto, you'd never know it by looking at my clothes. Now, the jewelry I'm wearing might be a give away but you'll never see an expensive label on anything I wear. It's never been important to me.
 

rback33

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Dana, I think you missed the point at least partially... a job interview is WAY different than a retail store.
 

Joe the meek

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Every car I've ever bought I've paid cash for and was wearing sweatpants or jeans & tshirt when doing it.

All jewelry I've bought I've been wearing the same.

Just spent some serious money (IMO at least) on a new computer system for the house. 18 months same as cash, and there was no upfront surcharge on the price of product picked up. IF you can play with someone else's money/time and know there aren't any hidden costs for going that route, can't beat it IMO (I'm guessing some are banking on the fact that you might miss a payment and pay like 20% or higher interest compounded).

I do love the auto stores that advertise cars for only $68 a week though LOL
 

slicktrickery

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I have seen it happen! This is a oil town.. most of the oil works even the high ups don't wear suits.. they are all cowboys at heart... LOL..

My MIL and I are regulars in one Jewellery store... My MIL and I will go in all in comfy clothes.. The boss sees us and nods.. then the newbie is the only one out in the store.. she ignores us... the boss comes out and asks the girl why she didn't serve us... the girl says to the boss.. oh they aren't here to buy they are just looking.. The boss say oh.. Comes over to us greets us by name and then goes and gets us a drink and chairs and asks us what we want to see.. the newbie didn't last very long... :D..

oooo very good the Newbie was dealt with... that is so insulting... a browser is a potential customer, as well we customers can always spread the word about how we were treated... that girl was incredibly rude. (ooo hunny we are not all cowboy wannabe's here ahahahaha)
 

jassilem

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oooo very good the Newbie was dealt with... that is so insulting... a browser is a potential customer, as well we customers can always spread the word about how we were treated... that girl was incredibly rude. (ooo hunny we are not all cowboy wannabe's here ahahahaha)

The boss apologized for the newbie's behaviour and double our normal discount :D..

I know that.. I just like making fun of Redneck heaven...
 

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Somewhat related to this topic...I'm a big hockey fan and as such I enjoy shopping in sports stores for Flames gear. Nothing bugs me more than to walk into a sports store, wanting to buy something, and be completely ignored by the guys that work there (yes, it's always guys). I actually didn't think much about it until one time when it happened at a store in Winnipeg. I walked in, was ignored as usual. My dad walked in a few minutes later..."Oh hello, can we help you with anything..." That's when I realized that they were ignoring me because I was female. Idiots. And I was jersey shopping that time too. I went elsewhere. :D
 

Darrell

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Somewhat related to this topic...I'm a big hockey fan and as such I enjoy shopping in sports stores for Flames gear. Nothing bugs me more than to walk into a sports store, wanting to buy something, and be completely ignored by the guys that work there (yes, it's always guys). I actually didn't think much about it until one time when it happened at a store in Winnipeg. I walked in, was ignored as usual. My dad walked in a few minutes later..."Oh hello, can we help you with anything..." That's when I realized that they were ignoring me because I was female. Idiots. And I was jersey shopping that time too. I went elsewhere. :D

They missed out on a good sale, hockey jerseys aren't cheap.
 

slicktrickery

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Somewhat related to this topic...I'm a big hockey fan and as such I enjoy shopping in sports stores for Flames gear. Nothing bugs me more than to walk into a sports store, wanting to buy something, and be completely ignored by the guys that work there (yes, it's always guys). I actually didn't think much about it until one time when it happened at a store in Winnipeg. I walked in, was ignored as usual. My dad walked in a few minutes later..."Oh hello, can we help you with anything..." That's when I realized that they were ignoring me because I was female. Idiots. And I was jersey shopping that time too. I went elsewhere. :D

Welcome to my life... hahahahaha only that happens to me in the workforce... I have worked in the oil and gas business for decades and get treated similar. I get calls from clients, and they always think I am the secretary... No no I actually have a titled position in a specific field.... and when they come in in person they always are asking to speak to "someone in xyz field" hahahaha the old boys of the old school business don't wanna deal with females.
 
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Tim

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Yeah, I know. It takes all of about two minutes. I remember him telling me that he almost snatched the money out of their hands, and told them to fuck off, but he wasn't that type of person.

Car dealers do not like people that pay in cash or by check. People always come in thinking they are going to get a better deal because they are willing to pay cash when that's not the case. When a dealer sells a car, they make most of their money on the financing so the price of the car can be lowered. Whenever someone pays cash, the price of the car needs to go up a bit to make up for that lost revenue....
I guess my point is, dealers do not like getting cash for a car so don't expect to be treated better. :)
 
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