I went to the big mall in London for the first time today. I did pretty well at first.
I dislike malls, and shopping.
I needed to buy headphones. I've never really owned any - I have a pair of earbuds, but those are especially unsatisfactory now that I am doing sound editing for a score. Anyway, I looked online and it seemed that I could get something decent for between 50-70 bucks. I went to all the places that would have headphones in the mall and I was comparing prices.
I went to one actual music store. They had three choices, 2 that were around the same quality and prices as other stores I looked at. The guy was trying to convince me that I should but the other choice - professional quality studio headphones for a hundred dollars more. Long story short, they were trying to convince me by belittling me for even considering the other ones. Making big purchases makes me nervous and there were like 4 salespeople standing around be all assy and condescending. I had my mastercard out and once she told me the price with tax, I freaked out and decided I couldn't so I apologized and left. I hadn't even left the store and the other salesmen were asking her "what was going on there?".
They were certainly not going to get my business. I went elsewhere and bought a reasonable pair.