Not Rocket Science

This week I was teaching a lovely groups of women in Burlington. As I was going back and forth I passed by the outlet mall each day. I decided I would stop and do a tiny bit of shopping as I need some smaller clothes.

For the record I hate shopping. I hate looking. I tire of the whole situation very quickly. You would think that I would like shopping more in a smaller body, but that is not the case. Having many more options is much worse for me. I am much more picky about how things fit. They must be perfect now.

I am uninterested in having a lot of anything. Just enough of right things are all I want.

Since I was uncertain of exactly what size I am I needed to go to real stores to try things on. I went to the first store (J Crew) and picked some things out. A nice women working at the store offered to take them to a dressing room that I eventually found and tried things on. The sales associate disappeared. I would have liked to try on one pair of pants in two sizes smaller than I first picked out, but since there was no one to go get them I ended up just buying one pair that fit well and not getting two different pants.

I went to another store (Banana Republic), and there were no customers in the store, but two sales associates with head phones on were standing together. As I walked in they both turned away from me and faced the shelves they were standing in front of. Neither of them said a word to me.

I started to look at the clothes. One of the two headsetted women walked by me and did her very best to not look me in the face or speak to me. I continued looking around and rounded a corner just at the second associate was walking across the store, not more than six feet away from me. She turned away from me in silent ignoring.

I decided not to even bother trying anything on and left the store without a word to either of the employees who had gone as far in their careers as they ever will.

I walked across the sidewalk to Tommy Hilfiger. There was one other shopper in the store, but just one. I headed to the back of the store where I noticed a sweater folder working. She saw me, but did not say anything to me. I picked up a shirt, holding it up. It was not right so I carefully refolded it and placed in neatly back in the pile from whence it came. I continued looking, without ever being greeted or offered any help. At this point I was not going to spend any money in a store where not one worker could summon even a greeting.

At this point this shopping trip was just turning into a mystery shopping experience where I wanted to see how much or little employees could do for me. I went into Chicos. Most of the clothes in Chicos are not my style, but at this point I was just experimenting. As soon as I was in the store, a woman came up and said Hi and told me her name and asked me mine. She asked me if I was looking for anything specific and if she could help me. I told her I was just looking, but appreciated her offer.

I did find a blouse I liked and she took it to a dressing room. It turned out to be great so I told her I was going to buy it. She introduced me to the women running the cash register who took over the transaction in a friendly way. She asked my phone number and discovered that I was entitled to a $50 coupon if I spent $41 more. This would make the blouse I was buying $9 cheaper and give me a $41 item for free. She then left the register and helped me find two tanks that qualified for this deal. Chaching.

Last stop was tried and true Talbots. A faceless sales associate mumbled a greeting when I came in and that was the last I heard or saw of them. I tried on three pairs of pants that were all fine, but I decided they were uninspiring and did not want to give them any money for no service.

In my one hour of shopping I may have seen about seven different customers in the whole place. One would think that any potential customer would be cherished. That was not my experience, except at Chicos. Banana Republic and Tommy Hilfiger were the worst respectfully.

I may need some clothes, but those places will never sell me any. It’s no wonder I hate shopping. These may have been outlets where service is limited, but these people were almost anti – service. Just say Hi to customers. IT’s not rocket science.