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When I first moved to the Pacific Northwest, I found that people were nowhere near as friendly as any place else I've lived - Cali, ATL, the Midwest for school.
That being said, I was taken aback when people would start chatting me up at the gym, at Starbucks, at a food court. The first time it happened, the guy was in my general line of work, so I agreed to meet him outside of the place to talk about the "business" we had in common. He brings his wife (he was a bean pole and she was a chunkster) and they proceeded to talk Amway. I was LIVID. I ate my sandwich and excused myself.
Since it kept happening more often, I saw that the sequence of events is ALWAYS the same. The exchange is at no-point genuine and spontaneous...and drum roll... the fourth or fifth question is "What do you do?" On a few occasions, I have gone borderline medieval on these people to the point that they've gotten up and left.
Don't get me wrong. I love talking to people in such places. Just last week, this really neat retired lady whose parents were German speaking immigrants saw that I had 2 travel books at B&N by my chair and proceeded to talk to me for at least an hour. No sales pitch! The way it should be.
So, to people who think they are being hit on, it could be, in about 1 out of 5 cases, you are being sized up as a "multi-level" candidate. Has it happened to you? What have you done about it? Have you put them in their place as they rightfully should be?
I have never heard of that nor has it ever happened to me the way you describe. However, I have had the religious marketers come harass me if I was sitting alone somewhere, you know the ones trying to get you to attend their church or convert to their religion. Rude and rude either way! I usually cut them off before they've finished speaking and they walk sheepishly off looking for their next victim. That's the only thing to do with marketers of any sort, firmly tell them off, or else they continue to harass you.
Sounds like one of the hazards of just being too darned nice of a fellow.
I think it happens to anybody who looks halfway approachable, particularly if they are in a relaxed state, working on something at Starbucks or B&N. I had a lady I worked with tell me that it happened to her....she said, "you feel kin of used...that there was an ulterior motive." She became a partner, so she was hardly a push-over.
As for being nice, I try to be. But I have my limit. When I verbally go for someone's throat because they have sized me up for multi-level, I make sure that everyone around me can hear me tell the person off. It gets nasty. They usually leave embarassed and I go back to what I was doing. LOL.
I am normally a friendly, very accomodating person. I accept AND enjoy talking to just about anybody without prejudice EXCEPT when they are trying to sell me something and frankly when they go about it in a dishonest, wasting my time way, the part of me that is left over from my youth near Boston rears its ugly head and I get nasty and rude quick.
A friend told me it's because I carry myself like I "know the score".
My daughter said it because I look like an undercover cop.
My wife said it's because I dress like a bum.
I was told that they like real clean-cut looking people. They project that you can then get more people into the "pyramid scheme" with your salesmanship which would theoretically benefit you, but mostly them. Boy are they surprised when the East Coast Italian flavor is unleashed on them.
I used to work with a girl that was heavily into Amway. She wanted me to join. I said no. I then did a lot of research on the company & started asking her questions that were way beyond her level. She would always promise to ask her upline & the answers would always be the same, come to a meeting. Everytime I run into her I always ask her if she a double diamond yet.
I think it really pisses her off.
Everytime I run into her I always ask her if she a double diamond yet.
It's a cult and therefore kind of sick.
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Everytime I run into her I always ask her if she a double diamond yet. 
