Via ockphoto / @gioalves421 TikTok
A car salesman says he has a surefire way to tell if a visitor is there to buy a car, and it involves looking at the clouds.
Of all of the salespeople in the world, it really feels like car salespeople are the ones who want it the most.
If you go to a store and tell an employee you’re “just looking around,” chances are high that they’ll simply leave you alone. At a car dealership, however, this is not the case. A car salesperson will be more than happy to follow you around and tell you all about the cars on the lot in the hope that you’ll drive away with a new vehicle without calling your girlfriend first.
The reason for this persistence, it seems, is the shared belief amongst dealership employees that no one is really “just looking” for a new car. If you’re at a car dealership, you’re there to buy.
That said, there are a few things that employees look out for to know whether you’re serious. One of the most unexpected things that a car dealership worker might look at is the weather on the day you walked in. But why?
Can Weather Determine Whether You’ll Buy A Car?
In a video with over 2.7 million views, TikTok user and car salesman Giovanni Alves (@gioalves421) shows a dreary day in Fall River, Massachusetts.
“If you see a customer pull up to the dealership in THIS weather… you already know they’re buying,” he writes in the video’s overlay text.
In short, Alves is saying that if someone decided to brave the storms and rain to come to your car dealership, it’s likely that they didn’t do that just to have a look around. Instead, they’re probably looking to buy—making it the perfect time for a car salesperson to make their move.
Alves isn’t alone in this belief. In a Reddit thread, one user claimed that it was a common belief among “old dogs at the dealership” that “if they come out in this weather, they are BUYERS!”
But is this really true?
Weather, Car Dealerships, And Buyers
Weather does seem to have an impact on sales—in more ways than one might expect.
To start, car dealerships often report that bad weather leads to lower in-person car sales. Good weather, in contrast, can not only bring more people into a dealership, but it can also influence the kind of car they buy.
A 2015 study from the Quarterly Journal of Economics analyzed more than 40 million new and used vehicle transactions and compared them with the weather at the time of purchase. According to researchers, warm weather increased the proportion of convertibles purchased, while snowy weather increased the proportion of four-wheel-drive sales.
It’s A Two-Way Street
While car dealership workers may believe they’re more likely to make a sale if someone comes in on a rainy day, that same belief can work in the other direction.
As noted by Edmunds, some buyers believe that, as rainy days tend to be quieter with fewer customers, salespeople are hungrier to move vehicles. Therefore, if you visit during one of these days, you’ll be more likely to get a good deal. This is because a salesman will make a good offer to move a car.
There’s not a lot of data to support this. Plus, some argue that this belief could draw more people into dealerships on rainy days, thus negating any supposed benefit.
Still, it’s an interesting dilemma. Salespeople might assume a visitor on a rainy day is desperate to buy, while the visitor might assume the salesperson is desperate to sell. Who’s right? That probably depends on the situation.
Viewers Support The Theory
In the comments section, users responded to the idea of a rainy day car sale.
“Now that I think about it I’ve only seen my parents get a new car when it was raining,” a user wrote.
“You are right, last September it was raining and it was a Saturday. My dad went to the dealership almost closing and got home with a brand new F250 Lariat,” recalled another.
“They ain’t call it a rainy day fund for nothin,” joked a third.
@gioalves421 East Coast Problems 😭. #noreaster #eastcoast #fallriver #ma
BroBible reached out to Alves via email and Instagram direct message.