Chemist refused to sell my Mother make up. How odd?

[fortifiedwithtea]

DM a bit deaf but all her facilities and aged 85 .

She wanted to buy her granddaughter (my DD2) a lipstick for her birthday. DM went to a local independent chemist. The sort that stinks of perfume the moment you walk in. She explained to the sales assistant ( who mum presumed was the owner or manager ) that she was looking for a colour to suit someone with blonde hair, fair skin tone.

Assistant replied sorry I know this sounds awkward but we only serve people who have bought a product before as its caused problems in the past.

So mum went to Boots with the exist same request and was helped , no problem. Except now she is over thinking it and worrying the lipstick could cause God knows what skin allergy.

Does this sound really odd? I wondered if first shop thought she was buying for a child. Dd2 is 20 years old btw. Or do you think its because make up choice so personal its highly likely its not to daughter’s taste. But why should that be of any concern to the shop, everyone should know make up can not be returned.

To me its a weird business model only to sale products your customers have had before. How is business growth achieved if nobody tries anything new.?

Well I’ve put my afternoon on hold now.

I'd assume she said "for my granddaughter" and the assistant thought she meant a young child and was worried about sensitive skin. (This only came to mind as I initially thought DD2 was 2, so I could be well off the mark.)

I used to work at an M&S and it was a nightmare at Christmas with well meaning husbands and boyfriends buying make up for their partner, then the week after Christmas trying to return it all for refunds. Make up is so personal and it's hard to get right for someone else.

I'm not defending whatever's gone on in the shop, but I can understand why there may have been an attempt to dissuade.

Maybe the shop assistant worded it wrong, and was trying to say they don't sell make up to people who are buying it for someone else? Only reason I can think of is they get make up gifts being returned which they find an inconvenience?!
Bizarre, let us know what they say op!

Ooh place marking for explanation!

Ah yes, this sounds likely- something like "we'd sell you a lipstick for your DGD if she had bought it before and so knew she liked it, but she may well not like it and then you'll want a refund but we don't refund make up because it can't be resold".

She could just have said "no refunds".

Was she looking for a foundation product or just blush or lipstick? There are many different kinds of fair skin. Maybe that is why? For example my sisters and I are all technically fair skinned but my sister has red tones (a summer) and I have pink tones (a spring) while the eldest is considered a winter as she has white tones. You might not know to look for it if you’ve never been told and it would be hard to tell if they aren’t there in person. Though still I’ve never had a make up store straight up reject a sale over it. They usually just explain they recommend it as you’ll get the best results. If you insist of course they will continue the sale.

Ooo I wonder if it’s a chemist I’m thinking of which pulls these random tricks all the time?! Suburb of London per chance?!

Honestly they’d argue about you buying tampons but are revered locally by devoted clientele. I don’t get it!

I've cancelled appointments and cleared my desk.

Having worked in the makeup industry, I suspect the sales adviser has been told they are not trained to give advice. I worked for a particular brand, and although I would happily help any customer look at different brands/products, I could not give them advice as I don't know about the items. The self-selection make-up is exactly that, self selection. If the member of staff is a pharmacy employee they would not know the products well and make up is non refundable so has possibly had issues in the past when helping someone make a selection and then the customer attempted to get a refund.

Drums fingers annoyingly on table

I get a feeling there’s been crossed wires or miscommunication and that’s not what the staff member said at all!

This is gonna be a thread we all get bizarrely invested in isn’t it

If you have hearing issues though it is perfectly possible to hear one person in one shop clearly and not in another. There’s all sorts of factors at play.

I couldn’t understand a word someone in a cafe said to me the other day. Combination of poor acoustics and a strong accent. Doesn’t mean I can’t hear other people absolutely fine. It is the most likely explanation.

Agree, it must be, anything else is utter madness!

I remember my sister had a melt down as her then (now ex) husband bought her $150 lipstick for her birthday and she couldn’t return it as it was the wrong colour and hated it. She nearly killed him for blowing the money that way.

The first could have been wearing a face mask too maybe and the second wasn’t…

Maybe just crossed wires. My nan was baffled and a bit affronted when the M&S lady told her to go up the travel agents for a packet of biscuits. The lady had actually said go up the travelator.

Oh no all the place marking for lipstickgate 🤣 I hope I don’t disappear and be one of those threads that never gets resolved

I think the possible reasons are

1 mum over egged how fair and sensitive my daughter’s skin is and assistant got cold feet

2 assistance couldn’t be arsed that day

3 mum went into dithering mode and assistant closed the conversation down aka assistant being ageist

4 assistant didn’t understand mum was buying for a young adult woman not a child

nearly finished my soup, no call back yet.

I hope I don’t disappear

😆😆

I’m afraid to ask but what is lipstickgate? 😂😂😂

The only plausible reason is thinking the granddaughter is a child.

@Redead lipstickgate is a saga with a lipstick! Seriously, you’ve heard of Watergate?

I love it that your mum has all the facilities too 🤣

Can just picture her wheeling along a ladies loo and an ATM with her

Can’t wait for the outcome! I’m on tenterhooks! This is me for the afternoon!