Food Demo employee "Melts Down" in WALMART

On 9/13/2014 brii said: Anybody grabs my arm would be in trouble.

ITA. And the manager did nothing.

The Demo ladies are "hawking" the products they are using in their samples. When you taste something and ask how it's made, she always shows the stuff that she used and the bottles are all there on the table.... I assume they are getting paid by the store.

I hope that second sample was in some kind of container and wasn't picked up with a bare hand.

The demo ladies don't work for the store! I looked into it once, its pretty good money.

Sounds like just another way of keeping prices low at Wal-Mart.

On 9/13/2014 HHC1 said:

I couldn't believe my eyes! There was a Food Demo lady passing out samples in the grocery section of Walmart. A customer approached the table and took a sample. She commented that the food was good as she reached for another sample.

The Demo lady grabbed the customer's hand and made her put the second sample down. A huge arguement erupted and another customer ran to get the store manager.

Unbelievable!

Perhaps worst of all, the store manager did nothing. He asked everyone to calm down. Meanwhile, the customer left the store in frustration.

The Demo lady went right back to work!

My mother-in-law, who is now 89 years old, has worked as a food demo person for about 20 years now. She works mostly weekends at regional chain grocery store. She has told me lots of stories about people that sample the food she puts out. These are always a promotion by the store, but for many different reasons.

Many times they are trying out new products to see if there are enough people buying this product to possibly start stocking their store with the product. Other times they are just promoting an item to reduce the number of them that are in stock, some with an expiration to sell date of them.

Knowing my mother-in-law she would not grab anyone's hand as did this person. She however would not have a problem telling someone that what she is doing is for demonstration purposes and not to replace a meal for anyone.

It all goes back to how 2, or more, people interact nowadays in certain situations. You "couldn't believe your eyes", while to me? Nothing surprises me these days and the longer I live more things I see and I just shake my head. But surprise me? Those days are long gone.

On 9/13/2014 hckynut said:

On 9/13/2014 HHC1 said:

I couldn't believe my eyes! There was a Food Demo lady passing out samples in the grocery section of Walmart. A customer approached the table and took a sample. She commented that the food was good as she reached for another sample.

The Demo lady grabbed the customer's hand and made her put the second sample down. A huge arguement erupted and another customer ran to get the store manager.

Unbelievable!

Perhaps worst of all, the store manager did nothing. He asked everyone to calm down. Meanwhile, the customer left the store in frustration.

The Demo lady went right back to work!

My mother-in-law, who is now 89 years old, has worked as a food demo person for about 20 years now. She works mostly weekends at regional chain grocery store. She has told me lots of stories about people that sample the food she puts out. These are always a promotion by the store, but for many different reasons.

Many times they are trying out new products to see if there are enough people buying this product to possibly start stocking their store with the product. Other times they are just promoting an item to reduce the number of them that are in stock, some with an expiration to sell date of them.

Knowing my mother-in-law she would not grab anyone's hand as did this person. She however would not have a problem telling someone that what she is doing is for demonstration purposes and not to replace a meal for anyone.

It all goes back to how 2, or more, people interact nowadays in certain situations. You "couldn't believe your eyes", while to me? Nothing surprises me these days and the longer I live more things I see and I just shake my head. But surprise me? Those days are long gone.

Thank you for your response. I know things are crazy these days, but actually putting your hands on a stranger is entirely different. I think the Demo lady is lucky that the customer left the store. This incident could have involved security at the minimum.