Up-selling, as I’m sure you know, is a little game that is played by sales people to persuade you to either buy a little bit extra, or to buy something a little more expensive. If you’ve ever worked retail or worked in the food industry, your employer has probably persuaded you that up-selling is a good idea to increase your sales. And, it is.
Personally, I hate it when someone tries to up-sell me. Especially when it’s just so freaking obvious that they are trying to get me to buy more or buy something more expensive. Actually, it kind of comes from some deep, dark place inside of me, I feel this gurgling, rumbling indignation begin to rise from some place I didn’t know existed and I just want to scream, “I just want what I came in here for! Leave me alone!”
Last weekend, on a very pretty Saturday afternoon, my daughter and I went to the “professional” car wash. You know, the kind where they do all the work for you while you go inside and wait and watch them do all of the work. My daughter likes to watch the car actually going through the wash, how it gets all soapy and goes through the “woogie-woogies,” those big long pieces of fabric or rubber that hang down and move back and forth over the car. It’s a little treat we enjoy – she digs the watching, I dig a really clean car.
As we drive up, there’s a fairly long line. Actually there are three lines of three cars. We are waved in to one of the lines. Within moments, one gentleman walks up to the window and welcomes us and let’s us know that a young man named James will be with us in just a moment. He says something nice about the weather, and then thanks us for coming in today. He then moves on to the car behind us that has just arrived.
I can see James. James is a tall, gangly young man who is wearing a baseball hat ever so slightly turned to the side: he is two cars away from us. He doesn’t seem to be in much of a hurry, but he also doesn’t look like he’s loafing.
When he arrives at our car, I wait for him to provide me the “menu” of options from which I can choose. This particular car wash has about 10 different ways that they offer to clean your car. I think the first option is that they just spit on it and use an old dirty rag to knock off the dirt, and they will do that for $2.99. And then there is the “Diamond Deluxe with Express Wax” wash, the top of the line wash. For $29.99 they’ll wash and clean the inside and outside of my car, they’ll wax and vacuum, spritz and spray, dust and dry, shine and polish everything, so that by the time I leave, I’ll feel like a new man, somehow. Then there is a host of options somewhere in between those two, prices going up as they offer more services.
When I arrived, I knew how much I wanted to pay. I couldn’t remember the name of the wash I wanted, but I knew how much I wanted to spend. Let me reiterate, when I arrived, I knew how much I wanted to spend to clean my car. Then James started talking to me.
He welcomed me to the car wash and then asked me if I would like to participate in their special. He launched into what their special was, but I am not an amateur at these up-selling efforts and I deflected his attempt with a quick, but cursory reply letting him know that I was not interested in the special. He did not seem taken aback at all and politely moved on, offering me the “menu.” I opted for the “Ruby” wash. He asked me if I knew what the “express wax” option was? I say no. He proceeded to describe it to me. At the time, it sounded pretty cool. I remember thinking to myself, ‘that sounds pretty cool,’ even though I can’t remember now what it meant. But I recognized that he has just trying to up-sell and I quickly came back to my senses and replied that I don’t think I’ll need the “express wax” today. He nodded, totally unaffected.
And then with machine like precision, he started running through the list of add-on options that they had for me today. Would I like my tires cleaned, my trunk vacuumed, my exterior vinyl cleaned (that I don’t have), my plastic floor mats (that I don’t have)? Would I like the single foam, double foam, triple foam? How about the clear coat or the spray wax, white walls or rims? Would I like the ‘Express Service number one’, or the ‘Express Service number two?’
As he started rattling off options, my brain felt like it was starting to scramble just a bit. Then, when he was finished with his list and I had successfully rebuffed the options I was not interested in; he started with a series of options he could provide at discounts. And that’s how he got me. I resisted until he threw in the tire and rim cleaning with the next higher priced car wash on the menu.
For a moment, I felt pretty good that I had struck this deal with James, the car wash guy. Then, after a few moments passed, I thought about it some more and realized that I had completely blown the budget I had set for myself. Upon arrival, I was set on how much I would spend. By the time James was done with me, I had spent $5 more on the wash than I had planned – and somehow felt like I had made a great deal in the process.
Most of the time that James was talking to me, I knew what he was trying to do. Yet, in his incessant efforts, I got sucked into the process, he found a weak spot in me, exposed the weak spot and I finally caved. Perhaps this is what causes me to want to scream, “Leave me alone!” when someone starts up-selling to me, because I spent the next few hours replaying the event and justifying to myself how the tire and rim cleaning really was a good use of the extra $5 I had spent.
MEANINGFUL CONSUMERISM 