Ever go into a store where the storeowner doesn’t pay attention to you? Like they’re already doing you enough of a favor by opening the door?
I’ve been in a few stores like that here in Israel. But there’s something about it that I actually appreciate.
The salesperson doesn’t look up doesn’t follow you around the store doesn’t sell himself.
There’s something written about that how we shouldn’t try to over-spruce up an item for sale. We don’t have to sell our souls. Just the product. Something about it strikes me as pure. Here’s the product. If it’s good and/or you need it buy it.
I once went to a store to just look around. I pretty much know what colors and fabrics and patterns are good for me. If something catches my eye I’ll try it on. But as I walked into the store a saleslady rushed over to me.
“I’m Helena ” she says.
I say hello. She immediately starts selling. “Do you like this?” She holds up some bright turquoise print with birds on it.
I shake my head nicely just to say no thank you.
“This?” She holds up something equally bright.
“No thanks.” I try to put on my “I’m-just-looking face.”
Helena followed me around the store until I just wanted to leave as fast as I could.
When our relatives mostly third-generation Americans come to visit us in Israel they always get a little frustrated when we go into any of those stores where no one pays any attention to you.
I ask my son who just came back from America to describe the difference between here and there.
He gets a smile on his face. “There’s a different code of business in Israel ” he says “Like they’re thinking Why are you here? You have to prove yourself worthy of being in their store. You have to show you have serious intent to buy.
“In Bloomingdale’s everyone’s happy to serve you. You’re greeted by a salesperson who wears a name tag so you can even complain if something doesn’t go right. If they don’t have something in your size three people get involved. One’s on a walkie-talkie while the others run to the storeroom.
“In Israel ” he says “sometimes you walk into a store and there’s no one even there. The owner stepped out for a second and just left everything.”
But that’s exactly what I love about it.
We had a neighbor once. Chaim Cohen. His father’s father came to live in the Old City. In the days when water was only for thirst and flour only for bread to stave off hunger. Chaim Cohen’s family lived in Mamilla. I don’t know if you’ve been to Israel lately but Mamilla right outside Jaffa Gate is now the Fifth Avenue of Jerusalem. If you want to find The North Face or Cartier you’ll only find it there.
But during Chaim Cohen’s childhood Mamilla was a small impoverished North-African immigrant settlement. One-room stone houses. Pebbles for toys. Most days the children played in front of their houses where their mothers could hear every word and step.
At the time there was a church right across the street. In fact the building’s still there. They believed they were there to help save the impoverished children in the streets of Jerusalem. They would try to snatch souls by offering the children chocolates and candies in colored wrappers.
Although they were always hungry Mr. Cohen told us he and his friends never once took a candy or chocolate.
I think about how Judaism doesn’t try hard to sell itself. Sometimes like in the case of a convert it even tries to push him away to make sure it’s really what he wants. When people buy something they want to feel that what they buy is to fill their need not the need of the salesperson.
Israel is also like that. And it works better than any sales pitch in the world.
I buy it. —