I know that last year you changed your changing room policy to gender neutral (mixed sex).
Did you think about the impact of this?
Today, I had to use your changing rooms. I managed to find one cubicle that had a curtain that covered the entire doorway! The others didn't. If I had not found this cubicle I would have had to have left without purchasing anything as I don't feel comfortable exposing my wobbly bum to everyone!
I was really grateful to find this cubicle because after I started to undress I heard a man a few yards down from me persuading his partner to try on clothes. He was very loud and kept insisting that she tried the clothes on even though she kept saying that she wasn't sure and didn't really feel comfortable trying them on. By this point I was really happy that my curtain could fully close because he kept pacing up and down and if it couldn't close then he would have actually seen me in my undies!
When I left the cubicle, I saw a mother with a young teenage girl looking for a decent place to change. I told her about the cubicle that I had found with a good curtain and she thanked me. I said to her that it was difficult to find somewhere to change here with privacy. She agreed with me and went to the cubicle that I had shown them.
When leaving, I walked past the loud man. He was inside the cubicle with his partner still trying to get her to try on those clothes! She didn't look very happy.
The jeans I tried on didn't fit past my wobbly bum so I handed them to the changing room assistant on the way out. I asked her about the policy for allowing men into the changing rooms as I felt a little bit uncomfortable with a man being in there. She said that the policy has not come without problems. She said that they can't really ask a man to leave unless he is going into someone's changing cubicle. She also said that they have had men refusing to use the changing rooms upstairs in Topman as they prefer to use the changing rooms where young teenage girls and women go. I guess this is fair enough though as these gender neutral changing rooms are for everyone now! She said that it sometimes makes her feel uncomfortable when grown men go in there but she can't say anything. She referred to cross-dressers, but I didn't correct her terminology as she was only young and probably doesn't know about the stonewall trans umbrella.
Anyway, back to my point. I know it's nice to be nice and nice to include everyone so they can buy your clothes, but I decided to walk away from your store today without purchasing anything because I just felt so uncomfortable in those changing rooms with the loud man and the way he was treating g his partner. I also didn't like that your young staff have to make decisions about who they can let in to use the changing rooms, so they just let anybody in no matter how uncomfortable that makes them feel.
Regards,
A. Mumsnetter