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.?

How strange, independent shops are facing so many challenges these days that you would expect they would want the sale.

@EvilRingahBitch my personal attack on you? 😂😂😂😂

I'm a pharmacist and I dont allow my staff to sell piriton for a dog because legally I cant. We arent being dickheads. It's not licenced for use in dogs whether you are 50 or 70 or whether or not it was recommended by your vet. Why be mean to someone just doing their job

Why so nasty? @EvilRingahBitch was only (rightly) pointing out that this is not good to give to cats. Cats absolutely shouldn’t have paracetamol.

I’m sorry that you lost your cat. You must have been devastated 😞

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

That fact that you think 1 and 3 is a distinct possibility means that it will in all likelihood be because of 1 or 3 (and as a result - 4)

A few weeks ago you started a thread about your 85 year old mother with terrible balance problems and very hard of hearing and refuses to wear her heating aids

OP - it will likely be a communication issue and / or concern about your mother generally

The store manager agreed with me and apologised profusely.

Yes it’s true cats are very sensitive compared to dogs. For instance there are many plants that are totally harmless to humans that can kill them. I believe many plants from the mint family are deadly. I’ve had to do very careful research before purchasing house plants because of my cat. One time I had to take him to the vet because he ate a piece of onion that dropped on the floor while cooking dinner and he began vomiting. If something as simple as an onion or house plant can kill a cat I wouldn’t definitely not take my chances with human medication without consulting a licensed veterinarian first. I have given him benadryl after a vaccine reaction but that was under medical instruction. I think some folks may think because some human medications are compatible with their pets systems that all of them are and that is a very deadly assumption to make.

Why did you mention your mother was “very hard of hearing and refused to hear her hearing aids** in this OP??

Kind of relevant

Why didn’t you mention Op?

I wonder if the assistant said
“we don’t like to recommend new makeup for other people”
and your mum misheard it as
“we don’t like to sell new makeup for other people”

I'd say they'd had people return used makeup a lot. Very weird way to run a business though.

My first thought was that it was actually a lipstick vibrator or something? Or she was being difficult somehow and asking about returns. If you know the shop, call and ask.

For some reason…. The OP didn’t mention that

her 85 year old mother is -

VERY HARD OF HEARING AND REFUSES TO WEAR HER HEARING AIDS

it will be a communication issue!!!

Something that her daughter, the OP seems to also share!

Jeez feef, are you the chemist assistant or summat?

Yes it's very odd. There has to be a first time for buying everything how is anyone ever able to try new things if the assistant will only sell it to them if they already use it. It doesn't make sense!

Store manager or pharmacy manager? Either way a pharmacist shouldn’t be selling you stuff for your dog, no matter how old you are or what bearing you think that has on the situation.

Unfortunately that's part of being a manager is apologising to the customer even when they were wrong and your staff have done their job correctly. They were probably just trying to stop a complaint being put in but legally a pharmacy cannot sell any medicine for an animal unless they have a specialist veterinary licence to do so and there are very few that have this. This is something that can get the pharmacist and the person selling the medicine illegally in a lot of trouble and can result in the pharmacy getting a huge fine. It's not something I'd risk- the chance is very low but if someone reported it it would not go down well for me. Sorry but it's not something I would risk and I'm not a jobs worth at all, frankly it's a horrible job and I've left the profession because of the abuse I took just for trying to do my job.

So apologising doesnt mean you were right or that someone was being a jobs worth it just means she was trying to placate you.

I'm always impressed when people are so accurately able to recount scenes and conversations they weren't actually there for.

When I took my dying cat to the vets, my mother who was talking to them said that she considered giving puss some human paracetamol but didn't.
The vest shook his head in alarm and said 'no, no, never do that. Paracetamol would kill her'.
I'm very glad we didn't.
It can kill them, and probably not in a peaceful way. Who wants that?

Ah, Rimmel Heather Shimmer. Our 1986 selves were never so glamorous.

So you don’t think relevant the mother is very hard of hearing and refuses to wear her aids… in this scenario? 😂

I still wear Amethyst Shimmer...

The OP literally starts "DM a bit deaf". It's flagged up as a possible issue from the very start.