David Fletcher

UK

Software engineer

Sarah,

Why do you find it necessary to take along a male companion? If you left him at home or parked him at the nearest bar while you do your shopping he'd be far more happy and the sales assistant would have nobody but you to make eye contact with.

I always get annoyed by the attitude that women somehow need special treatment in these situations because they are women. Anybody who is purchasing a technical item will need to read the manual at home to understand how to operate it. Therefore they can comprehend the written word and can find out for themselves everything they need to know about items of interest, either from the Internet or by reading the relevant magazines. Which means that the purchaser should know exactly what She wants before ever going into a shop. All the sales assistant then needs to do is provide Her with a quick "Test drive" of the item, scan the bar code, smile and say "Thank you" as She enters Her PIN into the payment terminal.

Knowledge is power. Get some and take control.