It's All About Hair seems to be all about in-your-face sales pressure

Samara Kalk Derby  —  11/12/2008 6:29 pm

It's not all about hair.

It's also about badgering, intimidating and encroaching on the personal space of shoppers, say some of those who have been approached by salespeople from a kiosk called It's All About Hair at West Towne Mall. The business sells professional-quality hair straighteners and curling irons.

Kiosks -- or carts, in mall parlance -- have been a growing and profitable part of the mall landscape since the 1980s. There are about a dozen in both East Towne and West Towne malls, and while catching a shopper's eye and initiating conversation as people walk past are hallmarks of successful operators, a number of shoppers who have called The Capital Times or were interviewed at West Towne Mall say the It's All About Hair employees cross the line.

But the owner of the kiosks -- one at both East Towne and West Towne -- says he has had only one complaint. Managers of both malls say there are rules against harassment, though the manager of West Towne, where the issue is apparently bigger, left a phone message but would not answer questions.

Complaints at West Towne are many.

Alysa Smith, 22, walked by the stand -- just outside Limited Too -- a number of times while she was at West Towne and couldn't avoid an employee there who put on the hard sell. The saleswoman walked at least 20 feet beyond her stand to encourage Smith to come over to the kiosk for a sales pitch and a demonstration, which Smith called way out of line.

"I don't see why they have to hassle you over and over again," she said.

"I just think they could show more respect for what people say because they stopped me, like, three times today," Smith said.

She said one of the employees said something like, "Oh, don't we know you? We can give you a sale." Sometimes they say, "I have a question for you," she said.

Smith, a student at Madison Area Technical College, admitted that she's an easy mark but told the salesperson she didn't have enough money to afford a $100 curling iron.

The Capital Times' visit to West Towne was prompted by Dr. Keith Meyer, a physician at UW Hospital, who called to say his college-age daughter came home in tears after a recent experience at the kiosk.

She went to the mall with a friend to have lunch, not intending to go shopping or to buy anything. A salesperson at It's All About Hair came out, took her by the arm and told her to come see something. Then the person asked her to be a model for the business.

Meyer's daughter said "no, thank you" and that she wasn't really interested. The salesperson kept after her, even physically trying to make her sit back down, Meyer said.

"My daughter tried to get up quite a few times," he said. "She's not an aggressive person. She has been taught to be nice and congenial and all that."

The salesperson finally got her to buy a curling iron, but that wasn't enough: She was asked to buy more items, he said.

Meyer went to return it the next day but was told sales are nonrefundable. The owner of the kiosk showed up 10 minutes later and confirmed that there are no refunds, he said.

Finally, the owner agreed to refund his daughter's money to her bank card, but it took him more than half an hour.

"I got to watch them in action while I was sitting there," said Meyer, who later complained to mall management. "They were just in the face of the shoppers. I don't ever recall people being like that at a mall. People from other kiosks don't come out and try to tackle you."

But the owner of It's All About Hair said he's only gotten one complaint.

"We are actually a demonstration cart. We are allowed to say, 'Hi, how are you? Can I ask you a question? Can I show you something for your hair? Do you like your hair curly? Do you like it straight?' " said Tal, who declined to give his last name. A list of business licenses granted in Davenport, Iowa, for It's All About Hair, however, lists his name as Tal Nemezar.

"And then if they answer and they say 'yes' and they agree, we are willing to show them something. And then we let them sit on the chair and show them all the styles, and we show them the product, and if they want, they buy it," he said.

The Capital Times reached Nemezar by phone after getting his number from an employee at the It's All About Hair cart in East Towne Mall. At least on one afternoon at that mall, sales practices appeared to be more restrained than at West Towne.

"We've never pressured somebody into buying," Nemezar said, adding that his locations have been operating in Madison for a year. Others have been in operation for five years around the Midwest, he said.

Employees work on commission, he said, "just like anywhere else."

The cart gets plenty of repeat customers, some of whom bring friends, especially around Christmas time, Nemezar said.

"We don't need to pressure people to buy it," he said. "The product sells itself."

That wasn't true for Brenda McArthur, 49, who got so tired of the tactics at the kiosk that she called customer service at the mall. She was told her message would be relayed to the employees of It's All About Hair, but she made the complaint almost a year ago, and nothing has changed.

"It's 100 percent a nuisance at the mall," she said in an interview there. "I've actually avoided portions of the mall to stay away from that kiosk."

McArthur, who visits the mall about once a week, said she always pretends she's hard of hearing and tries to stick as close to the shop windows as she can. She tries to look in a store window or talk to a companion.

They usually keep saying, "Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me," McArthur said, followed by "have a nice day."

Mall management should really crack down, McArthur said. "It's like a carnival atmosphere where the carnies are yelling, 'Come and trust your luck.' "

But Hanny Cohen, one of the two salespeople working one recent Sunday, was surprised to hear that mall customers were saying that she used strong-arm tactics.

"Seriously?" she responded.

"We're not doing that. We're standing here next to the cart and just asking," said Cohen, 21.

She said mall management hasn't said anything. "If there were complaints, I should know," she said.

It's not clear how many customers have complained or how mall management has responded to complaints about It's All About Hair or any other kiosk.

The Capital Times has left repeated messages over the past two weeks with West Towne Mall general manager Paul Matyas, but his only response was a voice mail on a Sunday in which he said that there are mall rules that cover aggressive sales tactics. He did not address any particular complaints about It's All About Hair.

"We encourage all sales associates here to demonstrate exemplary customer service," he said in the voice mail. "Mall management very much believes all customers should be treated with dignity. Any customer complaints are taken seriously and resolved on a case-by-case basis."

East Towne general manager Tammy Rozek said she hasn't experienced any problems from It's All About Hair firsthand but said the mall has rules and regulations for all of its tenants.

"Any comments we receive from customers are handled on a case-by-case basis to ensure our shoppers have a pleasant shopping experience," she said, also in a voice mail.

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection hasn't had any complaints about It's All About Hair.

"Although no one has filed a complaint about this, I have experienced these aggressive vendors myself and don't like it," said the agency's spokesman, Glen Loyd. "It's a form of high pressure. It's not good to make a buying decision when someone is pressuring you."

That seemed to be the case for Denise, 39, who didn't want to give her last name. She wound up spending $375 after being approached by an It's All About Hair employee at West Towne last month. She called the saleswomen "aggressive" and "real pushy," and said that if she wasn't in such a hurry she might have thought about her purchases longer.

She bought a straightening iron, a small curling iron and a larger one.

Denise, who is looking for a job, said she was nervous about spending all that money.

"She talked me into it," Denise said. "She kept bringing the price down and I had to leave."

Samara Kalk Derby  —  11/12/2008 6:29 pm