Speak for yourself. I'm in London and I think beyond the slight humorous theme of your post I can't help but think you're actually being serious about things like leaving a store because of the over-zealous staff and how you seem offended when someone asks if you need help? I don't actually see a lot of nice people in stores in London, most of the ones I've seen tend to be somewhat rude and unhelpful (and I don't mean not knowing the answer to my question, but just not doing anything about it e.g. trying to find someone who knows). There's nothing wrong with someone asking me if I need help, it's their job and all I have to say is yes or no - where's the harm in that?
I work in retail part time and I don't pounce on people the moment they enter my area, and I don't go and ask every customer if they need help but at the same time I don't just stand around waiting for them to come to me. It's a bit of both, really, and usually it's more a case of me approaching the customer. I appreciate you're totally capable of asking for help, that's great, but at the same time there'll be someone the exact opposite of you complaining about how an employee never approached them for help, they had to do it themselves.
Anyway, in sales you'd have to be active. There'll always be the few customers like you and I who probably know what they want and just want to buy it (hence the online shopping for you, I guess), but in my experience the vast majority of people who come in to the store where I work will expect someone to come help them, and honestly if they just see me stood around, not engaging them, they'll go to another rep for another company.
