Store Owner’s Unprofessional Reaction When I Offered Afghan Rugs

[u/Successful_Taro_1842]

I recently tried to sell a hand-knotted rug to a retailer. I walked into a rug store that was full of rugs from different countries, mostly from the Middle East. I wanted to ask the owner if he might be interested in hand-knotted rugs from Afghanistan.

After greeting him, he immediately started asking me very direct questions. I explained that I was importing rugs from Afghanistan and asked if he had customers for them. I admitted I wasn’t familiar with retail pricing and gave him my offer, hoping to hear his counteroffer.

But before even discussing numbers, he suddenly became rude. He said things like: “If you were in my country, I would throw you out of my store,” and “My rugs are better than any rugs—how dare you suggest this price?”

I was shocked. I just stayed quiet and realized this was how he treated people. I’m not sure exactly where he was from, but he had a Middle Eastern/Arabic accent. Regardless, I thought this kind of customer service was very unprofessional, especially here. I still don’t understand why he reacted that way, but it left me with a very negative impression.

[u/Immediate-Living-530]

I don’t think it’s typical behaviour to walk into a store here and try to sell the owner things. I guess if you were trying to have them sell some of the items you had, you should probably set up a meeting with them, and also learn more about the store’s current products being offered before suggesting that what you have is better than whatever is already being sold. Your expectations are just not appropriate. Are you from Afghanistan? Maybe you are used to selling things this way, but that’s not really how it’s done here. Maybe research local ways of doing business?

[u/BoringPassion1767 → u/Immediate-Living-530]

I can smell jugement from here

[u/Immediate-Living-530 → u/BoringPassion1767]

The long response was meant to be a gentle way of breaking the news that it’s probably not the best approach. I don’t work in the rug industry but I’ve worked in retail before (never as an owner) and the few people who came in trying to sell things to workers were pretty annoying. Like I can’t walk away from my shift (without losing my job). That sucked.