Cloyce on the Upsell

I have a dear old friend, I'll call him Cloyce just to give him a name, who once managed a video game store. One of the things he had to do was upsell; that is, encourage customers to buy more than they were actually looking to purchase. That's fine in my book, so far as it goes, if you don't push too hard and the buyer might have an actual need.

The company published a monthly, in house magazine which offered gameplay tips. Cloyce was supposed to ask each customer if they would like to buy a subscription, selling it on the admittedly obvious value it might have to a gamer. Again, that's all right so far as it goes.

A grandmother came in a bit before Christmas one year, a woman in her seventies, Cloyce guessed, who wanted to buy a video game for her 13 year old grandson. She told Cloyce what system the kid had, but had no idea what games there were or what they were about. Indeed, she only knew the system type because she asked the kid's parents what he had. Cloyce suggested a new game very popular with that age group, which she bought and left.

It happened that the area manager was in the store that day. "Why didn't you try to sell her a subscription to Fantastic Amazing Video Game Monthly, Cloyce?" he asked.

"She's not a gamer. She's a Grandma buying a gift," Cloyce mildly protested.

"You should have tried. It's policy," the guy demanded.

Cloyce disagreed. I'm with him. He's long quit that job, and that was one of the reasons.