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.?

This is SO WEIRD.

does it apply to everything in the shop, or just lipstick?

Budge up! 👀

This made me literally lol so loudly that my cat jumped out of the box he was inhabiting.

I expect it’s the assistant’s nervous and badly worded reaction to someone who wasn’t sure what would suit the person they were buying for and was concerned about the sensitive skin too. It would have been better customer service to offer a gift voucher or something than just say no!

I was also thinking this.

I was wondering that. I would want to know the reason behind such an odd decision.

You're confusing it with Iran Contragate, the eighties remake, which no British person has ever understood.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran–Contra_affair

Highly recommend the Rest Is History podcast miniseries on Watergate by the way. play.acast.com/s/the-rest-is-history-podcast/107.watergate-part1

I was in pg refused Liquid Gaviscon for heart burn - something my MW and GP had recommended - by one chemist as apparently despite bottle saying it was fine in pg as I was pg couldn't have. DH went in by himself and got it for me.

In another chemist I got refused a nit treatment that worked by suffocation rather than chemicals- because apparently nits were developing immunity to that when I pointed out that wasn't true for this type they wouldn't budge nor offer any solutions bar daily combing - with five of us two with long hair that wasn't practical timewise- I found it on-line from then on.

I mistakenly told an assistant in Tesco pharmacy that the piriton I was buying was for my dog.

She got very defensive and refused to sell it to me.

I got the manager and told him that I am an adult of fifty plus years (at the time) and resented her condescending attitude that I didn’t know what was best for my dog which incidentally I had been told to buy Piriton for him from my vet.

The manager told her to sell it to me and she became very dramatic and said she couldn’t bring herself to. At that point a few people who had overheard what was going on started to pipe up, one saying loudly to the manager that the woman assistant is always horrible to him and he should sack her!

St this point the embarrassed pharmacist had to come down to the counter and he sold me the piriton.

The woman just stood there stone faced.

As I walked out the manager accompanied me and apologised some more.

Bastard jobsworth!

I realise many of you are now sitting in your cars waiting for DC at school collection time and I am sorry I do not have an explanation from the shop. However, I have fabricated an excuse to ring my mum to drill some more information out of her.

The purchase was very early 2 days ago. She had gone to the pharmacy counter first and then went to the make up counter. There were 2 women standing behind the counter. Neither looked typical make up assistants in that neither of them were wearing obvious make up. Begs the question , mum are you sure they even worked there? Mum says yes because they were behind the counter.

No other customers in the shop none of the usual attractive young make up girls visible.

Mum was told very directly we do not like selling make up unless the person knows what they want and what brand. Mum went on to say granddaughter is blond with fair skin and the assistant brushed her off “Oh there are lots of colours that suit blondes”

Even more odd the second time and in fact darn right rude.

I'm shamelessly placemarking for the explanation.

Oh my god that would wind me up massively! I cannot STAND how some people think it's perfectly okay to refuse to sell things to pregnant women, like they aren't grown ass adults capable of making their own decisions. I had a barista insist I needed a decaf coffee one time, to the point I just walked out because she refused to serve me. WTAF! Some people....

I think the PP who worked for M&S has it - they're pissed off with returns that they lose cash on

How big is your local independent chemist if it has its own make up counter and staff?

(We have that in Boots but all the independent chemists are essentially just small shops with stocked shelves and a an area where the chemist make up prescriptions)

All they need to say is, we don’t refund or exchange make up. Does any chemist, anywhere, accept used lipsticks back? I doubt it.

I doubt that you will get a call back, OP, and even if you do you won’t get the truth. Which will be, Sheila on the counter didn’t want to use her common sense or risk getting into trouble, and nor is she interested in the business, so she fobbed your mother off with a stupid story.

This is even worse! How rude!

And it’s slowly ticking down to dawn - is it worth even going to sleep now? Should I stay up watching the World Cup or Ramsay’s hotel horrors or whatever that show is called? Is that the crowing of the rooster that I hear somewhere in the distance? Will DH be home from his night shift soon? And will Wales ever live down the shame of being beaten by Iran???

I was wondering whether it was a specific brand they have had issues with, but it sounds like she asked for advice on which to choose so they could have referred her to an alternative brand

I'm a pharmacist myself and to be fair, the assistant was actually in the right and it sounds like the pharmacist was bullied by the store manager to sell it when it's not their place to instruct a pharmacist to do so, as they're not clinically trained and have no idea about medicines and laws and regulations.

Medicines from supermarkets/pharmacies aren't licensed for use in animals, and if anything happens to the animal after you have sold it to them, it's your professional registration on the line. Vets know this and it's a pet (haha the pun) peeve of mine because they're not supposed to tell pet owners to buy medicines, it should always be prescribed.

On another note - very strange about the makeup!

I think perhaps you might want to Google to see it is way before Reagan

I have returned lipsticks many times for different reasons from saying they made my lips dry and peel to being a different colour when applied (orange when should be pink) and have never been refused a refund, exchange or in years gone by, a credit note.

Boots, Harvey Nichols, John Lewis, Debenhams, M&S are just a few that spring to mind, so yes you absolutely can return a lipstick.

Interesting you say this - I'm sort of a suburb of London and have heard of this.

Didn't happen to me but happened to a friend of mine approx. 5 years ago. She wanted to get MAP, went to a local chemist where an Asian man served her and refused to sell this to her as he said it was against his religious beliefs. To be fair to my friend, she just said "ok then, I'll find a Boots or Superdrug then" turned on her heel and walked out, not even a hissy fit but was a bit shocked as it was her local chemist in her high street! She couldn't be bothered to complain.

I'm surprised at the chemist - do they sell a wide range of brands/lipsticks? Because in most larger Boots you have far more choice, including high end brands and my favourite ever Fenty lip gloss!

There is no safe dose of paracetamol (incl Calpol) for cats. I'm going to report this post.

"I got the manager and told him that I am an adult of fifty plus years (at the time) and resented her condescending attitude that I didn’t know what was best for my dog which incidentally I had been told to buy Piriton for him from my vet."

Her condescending attitude? Are you sure?

@Redead Try President Nixon!