You know you must look like crap when...

[imlateasusual]

Was in London at the weekend and was planning to treat myself to some perfume and makeup. I'm overweight and perimenopause has caused my hair to thin, so I know I'm not in my prime 😬. I was shocked though that not a single person in Harrods, Selfridges or F&M attempted to try to sell me anything or even talk to me, even when I made eye contact. I asked an assistant for a sample of a very expensive perfume (that I wanted to buy) and she actually looked me up and down and had a weird, almost like she'd smelt a rancid fart look on her face before spraying it on one of those card things and then looking away. Decided not to buy from her incase it's commission based.
I'm not upset about it, more bewildered at how I was 'seen' but purposely avoided, as if I was profiled for not being either able to or worthy of buying high end products.
Are they told to give their time/attention to a particular type?

@Nannylovesshopping

Jesus if you got treated like that as a size 10 imagine how I would be treated? I am at the moment an 18/20. The assistant would be screeching for security "Beached Orca by the polyester blouses".

Similarly, estate agents! Off topic sorry. But I made an enquiry about viewing a property this week. I had a call back, we arranged the viewing, the estate agent took my details and my husband’s. My husband who had not even spoken to this man received a confirmation text to say his viewing was arranged - addressed to Mr Timetochangetheoil! They had my number because they had called me back on it, I received no such text. It just felt like they were leaving this house viewing and buying business to the man of the house 🙄 maybe I’m just overthinking..

Dd just reminded me that we had booked into EL&N (on her request) we arrived and the waitress said she was just going to clear the back area with the nice seats for us. A more senior man came over and said he had alternate seating and asked a man who was sitting in a squeezed in corner to move and he led us there. I said the waitress had already allocated us seating and we didn't mind waiting for it to be cleared and he looked us up and down and said that was for someone else. I must be a complete minger to only be worthy of a corner that no one can even see 🤣

We’ve just had this trying to buy a car. DH and I are chubby 50 somethings who wear jeans, T-shirts and trainers. We don’t dress up and don’t feel the need to, we’re comfortable in ourselves.

Last time we bought a car was 10 years ago and all the garages we went to (dressed the same) couldn’t have done more for us. This time round BMW (which I had previously) wouldn’t let us anywhere near test driving a car. It wasn’t one garage, but two 50 miles from each other. Couldn’t get anyone to help us in one garage, everyone avoided eye contact. Second garage we had one salesman who grudgingly let us sit in two cars but was unavailable for a test drive. Tried to schedule a test drive, he said he couldn’t and gave us his card.

At that point I got the arse, and went to the Volvo garage and they couldn’t have been more helpful. So they got our 40k and very nice my Volvo is too!

I just find it weird we’re in a demographic of people with money why would you ignore a big sale?

That's not nice. I don't think it's a case of not looking rich tho. eg not only rich people shop in Harrods. Its when they think you don't look well put together, they see you as just a 'browser' so don't pay much attention. It's stupid really but thats the way of it.

Love the comments on No7 as my son worked on their counter and treated young and elderly the same.One particular older lady said he was so helpful he could have the free gift for his GF.He didn't want to explain he had a bf.
He told me he would compliment customers on nice nail varnish or scarf or something only in a genuine way though and I'm sure they loved it.Customers are customers and the shop assistant shouldn't be judgey about class or money.

This reminds me of a recent thread where two separate people had walked into estate agents to enquire about expensive properties and were treated badly - and both bought the houses from someone else. Don't these people WANT commission? As pps have said, the richest people often don't dress up. They don't need to!

That's just weird. Jeans trainers and a raincoat is very standard clothing and Whistles is hardly YSL. Why on earth would they look down on you wearing normal clothes?

Wow the complete lack of awareness on here of people commenting rudely about people only being a shop assistant. Yes some are rude. Many are not but look at you people all thinking it's ok to spit back 'ooooo and they are only lowly shop assistants'.

What a short sighted way of looking at the world that unpleasant woman has.

I have a sort of opposite story. I’ve name changed for this because it’s outing. I was in Selfridges last year - I’m post menopausal so older than you OP. I’m quite self-conscious anyway so was apologetically moving around their make-up hall. I stopped for a second at Trish McEvoy and this little face peeked round the corner .. she got me to sit on one of the stools and be fussed over for a bit. She was so personable I ended up spending about £1,200. The most I’ve ever spent on myself in one go, including bags & winter coats.

It happens that I was poised to buy (had a special occasion coming up) but nowhere near that much. The girl who served me put me in a good mood so I felt better about spending. She was savvy. The woman you encountered is clearly not.

A friend recently went into a car showroom with the cash to buy a new car outright. She is overweight and doesn't wear makeup. Several sales assistants pointedly ignored her. Needless to say she bought the car elsewhere.