I work in a shop selling school uniforms, AMA

[janeyre]

Long time lurker, first time thread starter. I work as a shop assistant selling school uniforms for the local primary and secondary schools and I thought as this is peak season for uniform buying maybe people would have questions

I felt perilously close to losing it during (part 1) of our recent uniform quest. Has anyone ever really properly lost their shit during the process (adult, not child)?!

I am out the other side of uniform buying now. But can I just say those thet work in uniform shops deserve a medal.
I would not have the patience.

I genuinely didn't realise it was such a stressful occasion? I must have always been lucky and not had any problems.

What do people get so stressed about?

There has been a lot of publicity where I live about how much parents have to spend on certain uniform items that have the correct emblems etc on, and how this is too much for a lot of families. What would you say is the average spend on uniform when people come in to get kitted out?

Would you make emblem badges to sew on?

Who has been your most entitled customer?

(I used to work in a book shop and we'd get lots of private school parents coming in with book lists at this time of year - our best one was a woman who trilled loudly to her mortified daughter that they paid for her to go to her posh school so she wouldn't end up a shop assistant. Joke was on her obv, we all had degrees.)

@FlatheadScrewdriver yes people have lost it. Usually trying to return things without tags/ past return date, but also when our supply chain has messed up orders again so in all fairness they have a point (not that I can do much about it...)

@Sparklingbrook thank you 😊

@ems137 people get stressed about everything from the cost to their child’s behaviour to the lack of minute or enormous blazers to the fact that (on one memorable occasion) someone has nicked their paid for uniform from inside the shop

@EllebellyBeeblebrox average spend for our local high school would be around £150, including PE kit, gum shields etc but not including shoes. Most people only buy the minimum amount of branded stuff from us but it still adds up - something which ironically I’m not comfortable with and I do my best to promote our savings scheme etc as people do struggle . For primary schools it can vary from £60 for reception kids with parents anxious to get all the “right” stuff to £10 for those with older kids who know that in reality one logoed jumper for the school photo is enough

@GummyGoddess no we don’t, although I think in the odd case it has been negotiated that a particular size/ type of clothing is embroidered specially

@sleepyhead people don’t tend to be too entitled, just stressy, but probably the woman who had bought shirts without the child there to try them on, then ripped the packaging so it couldn’t be resold (it is possible to open them properly and I’m not even overly fussy about folding, I can do that myself) , didn’t have a receipt (which is in our return policy above the desk) then proceeded to yell at me in front of a packed shop calling us incompetent etc, all because I wasn’t allowed to offer a return. Apparently it was our fault that the shirts didn’t fit the child who we had never seen

Wow £150 I'd better start saving! One of the issues round here is that several schools have converted to academies, so have new uniforms. I do think it's an added pressure on a lot of families, and appreciate you do your part to make that easier x

Oops sorry, I feel really strongly about it obviously!

Haha don’t blame you tbh. Awkward really as we’re obviously supposed to sell stuff but we often end up saying things like “well we do do the shirts but they are cheaper at Asda”...

I have a little tip! Buy the cheap cardigans and jumpers from Asda cut out and sew the logos from last year on to them and repeat every year it saves hundreds!

I know this is old now, but I just thought I’d add a couple of ways we try to help people afford the uniform as well as our savings scheme (which works like a gift card that you can add money on throughout the year) in case they are in operation at any other shops which would help people as often customers don’t realise. One, we are very happy to put uniform away for you until payday in e.g. August, if you come to try it on earlier in the month for whatever reason (I have no kids but most of my colleagues are supporting families on not much more than minimum wage so we know what it’s like). Two, where people are eligible we liaise with the LEA for uniform funding (although the gap between where people struggle to afford it and where it is funded is sadly pretty big).