By Nancy Collisson
Girlie shopping for cosmetics or perfume in Dubai consists of running gauntlets of displays guarded by ubiquitous pods of cartoonishly fair-and-lovelied, red-lipped, false-eyelashed Filipinas who home in on their customer targets while collectively whining Madaaaam! Can I help youuuu? Is there something special you’re looking forrrr?
Sephora, Paris Gallery, Carrefour cosmetics section, LaSenza, Victoria’s Secret, etc., you’re all guilty.
The tolerant among we mentally DO-NOT-DISTURB sign carrying patrons then feign gratitude: No thanks, ladies. I’m good.
The wisest among us just order online.
One wonders what drives the obsequious, sycophantic behavior of these attendants to employ their execrable girlilla marketing tactics.
Compulsion? Coercion? Commission?
Judging by the number of clerks who can become involved in our purchases, they must imagine that our big fat decisions between tangerine sex or raspberry bomb lip gloss are more complicated than our having to weigh the risks of getting chemotherapy during pregnancy because nobody gets as much advice from an oncologist as they’ll get about the mighty decision about whether to buy a 29-dirham bottle of nail polish from a gaggle of Filipinas at a cosmetic shop in Dubai.
SOLUTION:
Two stacks of baskets, one gray, one black, at the store entry. Gray means: Just looking, black means: Help!
Shopping is supposed to be the coolest way to spend time in the hottest city on earth. Let’s at least make it less irritating.
Lofty Themes Writing Company 