Pushy Salespeople

So, last night I took a trip to my not-so-local (17 miles away) supplement store to buy another 2.2lb jug of Monster Milk.  I'm a straightforward kind of guy who operates in stores similar to a hunter seeking his quarry - track, locate, kill, and retrieve.  Simple enough, I walked into the store, grabbed the 2.2lb jug off the shelf and started toward the checkout counter.

That's when the blitzkrieg happened.

There were two people working in this little store.  The one who divebombed me was "Stacey".  It started innocuously enough - "Can I help you find anything?"  Nope.  My sought quarry, chocolate Monster Milk, was in my sights all but bagged.  "Do you need a shaker cup for that?"  Nope.  My blender does the job just fine.

What followed was a barrage of questions and suggestions that came so quickly that my stuttered responses made me look more like a novice weight trainer than a seasoned gym vet.

"How many meals do you eat?" "Does that include snacks?" "How much protien are you eating? You need more protein."  "How often do you work out?  Oooh!  That many!  That makes you an elite athlete.  You need protein, and aminos, and multivitamins, and blah blahblah blah blah."

While I appreciate the "elite athlete" comment (and I'm ANYTHING but "elite" at this point), I can't stand that this person, who by her own admission neither eats a decent diet nor exercises regularly, felt it necessary to barrage me with a bunch of information she memorized from the staff handbook.  I've been in the fitness and health field now for about a decade.  If I don't research it, I'm not taking it.  If the research doesn't show a demonstrable intrinsic value for a particular product, I'm not buying it.

She didn't even stop when I informed her that her L-Carnitine supplement has 2 ingredients that, when found in combination, form a know carcinogen (citric acid + sodium benzoate = benzene, for the curious out there).  It should have been readily apparent that I am not a noob when it comes to what I consume!

Just sell me my Monster Milk and let me leave, please!

Let this serve as a warning to some of you who might find yourself on the receiving end of one of these pushy sales types.  Chances are they don't give two turds in a toilet bowl about your health; they just want to get into your wallet.  Taking a bunch of supplements in order to make up for dietary shortcomings is good for the store and bad for you and your finances.  Eat the right foods frequently and your diet is probably 98% complete.  A multivitamin might be a good safety net, but don't be talked into forking over more money based on the word of an uneducated nitwit who is simply regurgitating corporate sales bullpucky.