Usually I'm immune to mall salespeople, but literally the exact same thing happened to me a couple years ago. Same products, same mall (SF Westfield), same tactics, Israeli salesperson. They've got the formula down to a science, apparently.
The only difference was the salesperson was a cute girl and I was single at the time...
I had an intern that worked as a "Chugger" [1] once and I asked her (an attractive female) how many people she managed to sign up for direct debits in day and she said "It depends how many silly boys there were around."
Those people (and their employers) are the worst. They stand on the street begging like your average panhandler, but they are FAR more aggressive, making psychological warfare on passersby, and they are basically stealing from the charity recipients they claim to be fundraising to help.
The only difference was the salesperson was a cute girl and I was single at the time...