Question:
Originally Posted by Azsmells haha this reminds me of the guy at Neiman Marcus in Chicago who asked to test Angel Men. The saleslady reached for the bottle and a tester strip and he grabbed the bottle out of her hand and sprayed about 20 times on his hairy chest and neck and then walked out of the store. It was disgusting and 20 sprays of A*Men is just toxic. Goodness, that sounds lethal!

Answer:
Sounds like supermarky if you ask me.
TNMA

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Originally Posted by thenmarcher Sounds like supermarky if you ask me.
TNMA lol... that cracked me up.

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Originally Posted by hirch_duckfinder Cmon vijay, just give us one..... I was talking about people spraying perfumes and colognes on themselves to a regular customer. I started telling him about one of my customers, Marty who comes in and sprays every tester bottle (expensive ones only) on himself. Marty by the way IS my best customer.
I told him that if I happen to see Marty coming, I run and try to hide as many tester bottles I can. Well he would not believe me.
Well guess who walks in while we are talking, yup you guessed it, Marty.
Marty proceeded to do what he normally does , said hello to me, sprayed everything in sight on himself, asked me if I got anything new. When I said no, he said he would come back next week and walked out.
I had to open the door to let some fresh air in the store. Meanwhile the customer I was talking to was gagging and laughing at the same time.
When he finally settled down his comment was "MAN this guy is a Junkie"
Ok guys, I will give you another one, this is not one about spraying etc.
I had a lady walk in the store a year ago, dressed reasonably nice, around 40 years of age, acting very hoity toity, looking around and commenting that she had never seen these names of perfumes before in her life. Then she looks over at me and says
Lady : I didn't think you would have it
Me : Please let me see if I can help you, what fragrance were you looking for.
Lady : Oh no , this is a waste of my time, you would not have it.
Me : Please let me know and maybe I can help you.
Lady : Oh I don't remember the name, but I recognize the bottle, you would not have it because mine is made in Paris.
Me : Oh I see, may I ask where you buy it from ?
Lady : I get it from Walgreen's regularly.
Me: Ah I see.
Lady : Where do you get your products from anyway, I have never seen these names before.
Me (with a smirk on my face) : Oh I get them made locally in Wimauma madam. (Wimauma is a small rural town in Florida).

Answer:
I am making a confession here, as I was probably identified along with the above mentioned fanatics at least once in my past.
When I sampled a entire line of a fragrance house at a boutique, having sprayed about ten test strips and smelling back and forth with them side by side. The SA's started giving me odd looks as I refreshed each strip for top notes and approached me with a bowl of coffee beans exclaiming "Don't your nose get tired of all this?", and "No, I feel perfectly okay sampling like this", I answered. I took the bowl and said thanks although I felt I really wouldn't need it, then took my time savouring the strips.(I probably stood there for a good hour or so, and basically ignored SA's chattering about how strong the scents are in the store)
When I decided that I like one of the bottles enough and felt impulsive enough to buy, I re-sprayed each strip four five times of each to take the strips with me. I find doing this somehow "stretches" the top, middle, and basenotes to the length of a few days, which helps me much better at perceiving the entire body of a fragrance. This is when a SA(shop proprietor?) approached me asking me to stop spraying as this may be a disturbing behaviour to other customers. I guess her intentions where either to stop me(at my age and from my outfit wouldn't seem to be a buyer) from using up the tester sprays, or that her sense of smell could no longer stand me testing the fragrances. I supposed she was rather surprised I did have a bottle in my hand at checkout, but again I did feel that some of the test strips died faster than I'd have preferred. While some I did crazy spray at checkout lasted for a good week or so slowly expressing each note, some died in 3 days, and I really may have bought a third bottle from them if I could have more time to grow on the samples I had, but oh well... If a seller provides sample vials that's totally another story, but unfortunately this doesn't happen everywhere.
I did think it was perfectly ok to test fragrances whatever way I prefer in a shop, but now when I go to one and do the same I'd think twice. While I felt sampling something at it's fullest is really important before I shell out big money for a bottle, maybe I wasn't doing people around me justice. But it's really a perfume shop afterall, and while I am there I do think people are expecting to smell things, things they spray, others spray and/or wear, and perhaps other smelly things laying around.. but let me know what you guys think, I am a perfume snob and I am not shy/don't regret about being one.

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Originally Posted by maisonstinky [...snip]
Me (with a smirk on my face) : Oh I get them made locally in Wimauma madam. (Wimauma is a small rural town in Florida). Good one, Vijay. I love stories about 'reverse snobbery'... And it reminds me how naive I must seem to people who really know perfume.
Oh, well, I keep aspiring to be a better connoisseur... but somehow I think the field is so huge and complex that there can't be all that many people in the world outside the industry who have a working knowledge of even a small part of it.
Thank God for Basenotes! It's been a real education to me, and continues to amaze me every day. Collectively, I think we know a lot and have much to teach and learn with one another. I've certainly learned a lot from you, Vijay... You rock!
BTW, appropriately enough, I think this is my 1000th post. Do I get that coveted fifth star now?

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Originally Posted by JaimeB Thank God for Basenotes! It's been a real education to me, and continues to amaze me every day. Collectively, I think we know a lot and have much to teach and learn with one another. I've certainly learned a lot from you, Vijay... You rock!
BTW, appropriately enough, I think this is my 1000th post. Do I get that coveted fifth star now? Not as much as I have learned from you , guess we all learn from each other. That is what is so great about basenotes .
And oh yes I see you got your 5 star status, so now you are an official 5 Star Basenotes General. A salute to you my friend, you beat me to it.
Just a side note 10,000 posts get you a six star and a Basenotes JEDI status.
Wanna guess who is the closest to that status ?

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These stories are hilarious. Folks who work in retail get exposed to a huge range of society, and the seemingly boundless limits of poor taste and poorer manners never fail to shock me. Some people have no shame.
I don't know what it is, but a lot of people seem to have a ridiculous sense of entitlement - why do they allow that to eclipse their manners? Is it from the advertising that deluges us daily, showing us the "good life" that can be had by the wealthy, so certain people think that they have some sort of right to sponge whatever dregs they can find in the hope of taking some of the good life for themselves? A fancy store with lots of testers must seem like a goldmine to those folks. That's the only thing I can think of that would offer explanation for some of the behavior that's been noted. How bizarre!

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Originally Posted by kanaires I am making a confession here, as I was probably identified along with the above mentioned fanatics at least once in my past.
When I sampled a entire line of a fragrance house at a boutique, having sprayed about ten test strips and smelling back and forth with them side by side. The SA's started giving me odd looks as I refreshed each strip for top notes and approached me with a bowl of coffee beans exclaiming "Don't your nose get tired of all this?", and "No, I feel perfectly okay sampling like this", I answered. I took the bowl and said thanks although I felt I really wouldn't need it, then took my time savouring the strips.(I probably stood there for a good hour or so, and basically ignored SA's chattering about how strong the scents are in the store)
When I decided that I like one of the bottles enough and felt impulsive enough to buy, I re-sprayed each strip four five times of each to take the strips with me. I find doing this somehow "stretches" the top, middle, and basenotes to the length of a few days, which helps me much better at perceiving the entire body of a fragrance. This is when a SA(shop proprietor?) approached me asking me to stop spraying as this may be a disturbing behaviour to other customers. I guess her intentions where either to stop me(at my age and from my outfit wouldn't seem to be a buyer) from using up the tester sprays, or that her sense of smell could no longer stand me testing the fragrances. I supposed she was rather surprised I did have a bottle in my hand at checkout, but again I did feel that some of the test strips died faster than I'd have preferred. While some I did crazy spray at checkout lasted for a good week or so slowly expressing each note, some died in 3 days, and I really may have bought a third bottle from them if I could have more time to grow on the samples I had, but oh well... If a seller provides sample vials that's totally another story, but unfortunately this doesn't happen everywhere.
I did think it was perfectly ok to test fragrances whatever way I prefer in a shop, but now when I go to one and do the same I'd think twice. While I felt sampling something at it's fullest is really important before I shell out big money for a bottle, maybe I wasn't doing people around me justice. But it's really a perfume shop afterall, and while I am there I do think people are expecting to smell things, things they spray, others spray and/or wear, and perhaps other smelly things laying around.. but let me know what you guys think, I am a perfume snob and I am not shy/don't regret about being one. Well that's different, you are actually testing (if in a very thorough manner) to decide to which one to buy. Can't be anything wrong with that. The guys I was talking about in the opening posting were definitely not testing, they were just seriously overusing the testers.
But the one about having 20 shots of A*Men is the worst kind of disaster I can think of. That story turned my stomach.

Answer:
Originally Posted by maisonstinky Me : Oh I see, may I ask where you buy it from ?
Lady : I get it from Walgreen's regularly.
. Walgreen's is also the best place to get wines. Just the other day, I was asking the sommelier/pharmacist's assistant for a recommendation, and she gave me a most excellent vintage. It comes in a box and even has its own little spigot. She said it goes best with fish and poultry, and let me tell you, Captain D's has never tasted so good!
And, yeah, I agree about the 20 shots of A*Men. Although, the guy who posted here that he sprayed himself 40-60 times with Gaultier and then followed it up with "sillage is important to me" didn't do wonders for my stomach either.