Not being waited on because of how you're dressed?

[farmwoman59]

Have you ever been in a department store and had a salesperson look you up and down and then walk away? I went to an upscale store in a local mall a couple of weeks ago to look for a nice pocketbook. It was my birthday and my family wanted to buy something to celebrate the occasion. I had on my blue jean capris, a pullover knit shirt, tennis shoes and no makeup. As I walked into the handbag department there were several women looking around and one salesperson that was chatting with them. After a brief look for the particular pocketbook I was wanting and not finding it I turned towards the salesperson expectantly and waited to get her attention as soon as she finished with the other women. She got through, looked me up and down, and walked away. It was quite obvious I didn't meet her standards for appropriate clientele! My daughter was with me and she was just as flabbergasted as I was.
The clothes I had on were my standard attire. It's what I'm most comfortable in. I can't stand makeup and never wear it. I've reached the stage in my life where you either have to take me as I am or hit the road.

Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience?

[Ravenlost]

Yes, I have BTDT. I was in a store looking at clothing for my daughter who is quite slimmer than I am. I asked a saleslady a question and she stuck her nose in the air and said, "WE don't have anything in YOUR size". I replied that I was looking to buy my daughter something, but I certainly wasn't going to buy it in her shop with the the attitude SHE had and walked out.

[Bandit]

The Scene in Pretty Women with Julia Roberts in the High End clothing store comes to mind .

[snoozy]

I haven't really experienced this, although I have found young salespeople could use some serious etiquette training. Nowadays, people dress any ol'ways any ol'wheres, and nobody seems to have any standards at all.

I have experienced more often snooty behaviour on the part of customers who treat salespeople like minions.

[grandma12703]

It's not good either way! My husband does well with his job but he gets dirty. We live an hour from where we work so when he gets off of work we go eat. We get plenty of those looks in a few of the restaurants...funny thing is it isn't the establishments you would expect it from. Actually most of the nicer restaurants don't even act like they notice...LOL we have gotten the occassional, you look like you worked hard today.

Just think of it like this...it's their loss. Most of them get a commission and other than that don't make much money. You probably make more working off the farm than most of them so as grandpa used to say.....just laugh all the way to the bank.

Oh an who wants to shop in a dept. store that doesn't have all sizes? I am medium/large or something of the sorts, my momma was large, one daughter medium, one tiny...on and on. When we go shopping together we wouldn't go to a store without all sizes.

[Danaus29]

Report them to management. I know a couple former salespeople and they hate the co-workers that do that. When they report the incident management doesn't give a whoop. When a customer reports it, management listens.

Hasn't happened to me at a store but I've had servers at restaurants walk away from my table like that. Managers really get flustered when customers get up and walk out. I was once offered 4 free meals at Steak n Shake because of that. Turned it down.

[Macybaby]

no, but I have been not waited on because I'm female.

We live in a town with a Cabela's and go there often. Most of the employees at the gun counter know me and my husband by sight. I stopped in one day without DH to purchase a rifle they had on sale, and I waited at the counter and watched the sales guys finish up and then look around, and go wait on a male customer. I was ignored by at least three sales guys when I finally spoke up when a male customer walked up and stood looking at the scopes about 5 feet from me, and the sales guy came up and asked him if he needed help.

[Common Tator]

Before we found and bought our ranch, we found another place for sale, I approached the elderly gent that owned it. I asked him how much he was asking for the place. He looked at me and said "Oh, you can't afford it!"

[TNnative]

Years ago, my uncle, who is 6'6" and a large guy, went in a snooty male clothing store looking for a suit. When he inquired about a suit in a certain size, he was informed by the salesman that 'they didn't carry clothing for elephants'. Yes, he said that to my uncle's face. I believe my uncle went straight to the management with that but I don't remember what happened.

Farmwoman, you should try TJMaxx or Marshall's if you are looking for a nice purse. You can find the same brands that are in the upscale stores at a better price.

[KimTN]

yep it's happened. I was actually with a millionaire friend. She was really down to earth and both of us walked into the store wearing jeans and t-shirts. We were totally snubbed. A clerk actually "snuffed" at us and turned her back. Unfortunately, her husband wouldn't buy the store for her so she could walk in and fire them all. Sounded like something fun to do, but as her husband pointed out, that store was a bad investment. I got a chuckle when I read that the store went belly up a few years later. Wonder why.

[grandma12703]

Originally Posted by Common Tator

Before we found and bought our ranch, we found another place for sale, I approached the elderly gent that owned it. I asked him how much he was asking for the place. He looked at me and said "Oh, you can't afford it!"

Oh now I think I would have to say something about that....

[homefire2007]

No excuse period for some one to treat another like that. I'm an older lady and sometimes my attire is 'interesting.' I don't know what ever happened to good manners and customer service. And I don't mean slavish sycophancy, just plain good manners and helpfulness.

[jamala]

I have had this done several times. Once was a computer company that was local and the man who owned it knew me well. I asked how much to work on a printer and his comment was "you can't afford it". Needless to say my 3 other computers and printers came from other stores.

Then after we built our house my mom and I went furniture shopping. The sales person looked at us and walked away. I called the manager when I got home and told them they lost me as a customer and I was there to buy an entire house full of new furniture.

[countrysunshine]

BTDT

My favorite recent stupid salesman was a couple of car salesmen. I am a middle aged woman. I was looking to buy a new Mustang. I wanted a manual transmission. The first salesman told me, "We don't have any and even if we did YOU wouldn't be able to drive it. They are 6-speeds and those are very difficult to drive."

Ummm....He might not be able to drive it but I am the daughter of truck driver, the step-daughter of a junk dealer and the wife of a farmer. I have never found anything I couldn't drive including manuals without a synchronized transmission. He didn't sell me a car.

Second one kept trying to talk to my husband who kept saying, "She is buying this not me." He didn't sell me one.

The guy that sold me one never batted an eye when I said I was buying it and asked ME if I wanted hubby's name on the title. I did. He also didn't question if I could afford it when I showed up in jeans and a t-shirt and no make-up.

Life is too short to deal with shallow people. Move on and give your business to those that appreciate it!

[grandma12703]

Originally Posted by countrysunshine

BTDT

My favorite recent stupid salesman was a couple of car salesmen. I am a middle aged woman. I was looking to buy a new Mustang. I wanted a manual transmission. The first salesman told me, "We don't have any and even if we did YOU wouldn't be able to drive it. They are 6-speeds and those are very difficult to drive."

Ummm....He might not be able to drive it but I am the daughter of truck driver, the step-daughter of a junk dealer and the wife of a farmer. I have never found anything I couldn't drive including manuals without a synchronized transmission. He didn't sell me a car.

Second one kept trying to talk to my husband who kept saying, "She is buying this not me." He didn't sell me one.

The guy that sold me one never batted an eye when I said I was buying it and asked ME if I wanted hubby's name on the title. I did. He also didn't question if I could afford it when I showed up in jeans and a t-shirt and no make-up.

Life is too short to deal with shallow people. Move on and give your business to those that appreciate it!

Amen!!

[sss3]

Years ago was at a banquet. Nothing formal, one of the men had a big hat on. Waitress asked him to remove it. Can't say i really disagree with that policy.

[Rainy]

Yes, i had went into one of the local retail shops and i was just looking for something really nice to wear for one of those"you have to go" things because Hubby worked with them, i also had on no makeup and was dressed in my usual attire which at that time consisted of a nice tshirt, sweats and clean tennis shoes.. i had 5 acres and tons of things to keep up with,last thing i had on my mind was that i needed to look like a movie star to be waited on, i ask a Lady for help on finding my size in a outfit and she walked away... wouldn't help me at all..... had this happen once also when my hubby and i went to look at a duplex... we loved this place that we looked at, told the Lady we would be back with money in hand the next night... she took the rent sign down, and we had a time set to meet, when we got there we had just got off work, i cleaned hotel rooms, he worked out in the heat all day with a survey crew... looked us both up and down, and said no way she would rent to us cause we were dirty..OMG.. we had just got off work it was 5:15...... People have and will always continue to amaze me with there rudeness ...

[Common Tator]

Originally Posted by grandma12703

Oh now I think I would have to say something about that....

He was probably right. Part of his place was an apple orchard on the parts that were hidden from view from the highway. His parents had planted it. That was the part we wanted to buy. Last I heard the orchard was gone and the place was used to stack mounds of thousands of pine trees that had been cut in our battle against the bark beetle. So he sold to someone with tons of money, but didn't appreciate the history of the place. They just needed the land.

Our ranch also has an old apple orchard. One of our friends heard him bemoan the fact that his beloved old apple trees were gone, so our friend gave him some apples fresh from our trees. We're told that made him very happy.

If he had wanted the orchard to be loved and cared for, he could have accepted less money and sold to us, but we never got that far in the conversation.

Anyway, he is gone now. I hear he passed away some time ago. We found a gorgeous place that we could afford, and in fact have fully paid off now. We have our apple orchard and love the place. It is more beautiful than the other place, although smaller. We have 42 acres while the other had 100. This worked out well for us.

Edited to add: Krikey! Turns out he was right. I just looked the old guy up, and he sold ALL of his acreage, not just the part we were interested in for over $5,000,000.00! We couldn't afford it!

[sherry in Maine]

I have tatts on my arms. I usually wear 3/4 sleeves or long sleeves when I go out.

Ocasionally I will wear short sleeves when it is unbearably hot.

Used to frequent a pet store, spent good deal of money in that store; owners were familiar with me and polite helpful, etc.

There were two employees who always acted like I was ready to steal something or use a bad credit card. No one else ever got asked ( in front of me or behind me in line) for their i.d., drivers lisence, proof of residence, lots of hemming and hawing. All because my tatts peeked out of my sleeves. One of the cashiers was really taking a long time accepting my debit card, finally the owner came to the front to see what was the matter. 'this lady wants to pay with debit' . . . . ? (like everyone else was) Not sure about wether should accept her card. . . .

Owner said 'yes, she's a regular customer'. Clerk still didn't want to ring me up.

I am in my 50s, clean, buy clothing from thrift store, but so what? I spent lots of money at that time on my pets (now not so much, but not because I dont want to)

I know this is about clothing, and probably lots of you are repelled by tatts. But, it's part of me, and I feel like I deserve to be treated with respect like everyone else. My money is same color too.

[MJsLady]

You know when I was working I always said something nice about a customer. Just something I do in general. If a lady looks nice I tell her so and so forth.

I do this to everyone not just customers.

One gal got all huffy when I said she looked pretty in her out fit and said, "I won't buy more just because you compliment me".

So to be fair snootiness goes both ways. I told her, I don't expect you to. Being nice is just part of who I am.

Generally I do not take boo off folks with out saying something. Sometimes though I just shake my head and walk away. You can't fix stupid.