AIBU to have reported this RI shop assistant?

[Vikki88]

I went into my local River Island store today, knowing what I wanted to buy having seen the items online but wanting to try them on before buying. I had the usual “Do you need a hand with anything?” from the shop assistant but I told her I didn’t need any help and she went away.

After seeing me picking up what I wanted, she came back over & asked if I was ok – to which I obviously said yes, she’d only spoken to me 2 minutes ago. Not paying attention to my answer, she then ‘helpfully’ started pointing out other items which she thought were nice before adding that they’d suit me & possibly “even more” than what I had in my hands – all in that annoyingly false happy/enthusiastic voice. Now I can only say that the clothes she was trying to push me towards were frumpy, boring & not at all me. I bit my lip but to me her underlying thoughts were that I didn't have the figure to wear the clothes that I wanted to buy and should wear clothes which covered more… something which really is nothing to do with her.

Already feeling insulted, I ignored her & went to try on my clothes but not before she ‘helpfully’ added she could help me out if I needed any other sizes – we all know what she was insinuating with that. Anyway, I tried on my outfit & as it turns out I did need bigger sizes and I was perfectly willing to go and sort this myself without any fuss. However, as soon as I leave the changing room I see her and she asks, and I quote, “Were they alright for you? Do you need anything bigger?” and with that I’d had enough. I don’t come into shops for snarky comments or to be judged by staff. I said “no” and walked off… I felt too embarrassed to go & actually get the bigger sizes and to give this cow the satisfaction of being right. I did see her supervisor/manager as I was leaving & went over & reported her and she apologised on her behalf – I never report anyone but I thought she deserved it.

The shop assistant was a young girl but that doesn’t give her the right to be blatantly rude to customers. I’m very aware I’ve been putting on weight recently and don’t need people like her making me feel insecure about it. I wonder how many other customers this girl has offended with her lack of tact?

Do River Island sizes come up small?

Doesnt They always used to come up small, doubt they've changed

I get that the 'do you need bigger sizes' could have come across as loaded, but she probably knows the sizes come up small.
And she was probably tactless, but teens are sometimes.

Oh yeah they're small. That's my story and I'm sticking to it because I once got stuck in a boob tube in RI

Thankfully the 'young girl' or as the OP so pleasantly put it, 'cow', was there to help me out of it, which may have involved her bracing a foot against the changing room bench and heaving away.

This is completely all your own insecurity.

That girl was just doing her job - to help the customer by running round instead of them, and to upsell - assumedly because the store rewards large transactions.

Get a grip - and change your body if you are so unhappy with it.

Murder that's what I thought. Thus she may have said "bigger" because a lot of people need to size up.

YABU

Poor girl.

Poor girl.
Customers like you are the reason I would rather clean peoples toilets in peace than have to ever work in retail again.

OP, out if curiosity was the woman who served you prettier and slimmer than you?

TickTock80 It's not as black & white as that. Now I've had time, I accept that I was probably wrong to call her a cow on my original post. In the heat of the moment, I was always going to tell her supervisor since she was there - although I wouldn't have gone seeking her out. The shop assistant does need to be spoken to but I wouldn't wish it to go any further than that.

Someone far more deserving of being called a cow is someone who'd call somebody they don't even know a "wanker". hobnobsaremyfave

I wish shops would learn that nothing like this would even happen if they didn't hassle their customers from the moment they entered the shop.

I'm 22 and work in the hospitaltity industry - you have to do this. I hate. guests and customers hate it. but what can I do? company tells me to do it.

incidentally, I'm, 22. I look about 16 or less at work given strict rules on makeup and so on (this is obviously different in a food environment), and am regularly spoken to in this patronising way, especially compared to my older so obviously more experienced colleagues, even though I have loads more experience than them in what I do and I'm bloody good at my job.

Mystery shoppers, and those online surveys, are huge. Your comment will not only have counted against that one SA, but her whole store, the wages and bonuses paid to managerial staff who weren't even there, special measures put on that store given it's ranking and scores against brand standard in the region and so on. I get it's annoying, and perhaps she could have chosen her words more carefully, but (as mentioned) in this kind of job damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Hendricksandcucumber That has absolutely nothing to do with anything.

I hate it* not I hate guests!

ah the irony op.

Well your weight is clearly a sore point. I'm curious if you'd have reacted with such vitriol if the sales assistant had been noticeably larger than yourself. So actually I think it does have a point, even just as a non answered question. Your reaction says to me that Yes, this woman was probably slimmer and prettier and while she may have phrased one offer of assistance clumsily she got your back up initially through no fault of her own by being slender and attractive.

probably hendricks

used to work for river Island and you haaave to - recommend extra/ matching items, offer to fetch different sizes if you need them,upsell lashes/ sweets etc and smile! So basically she did her job to the letter!
Yabu, the girls manager probably told her you were as wellim sure she'll be ok!

Well if the OP's shred of self-confidence she had before entering that shop hadn't been destroyed, it certainly has now. I hope no-one upsets all your DD's like the OP has been.

Gotta say, I'm inclined to agree with Hendricks too. The OP is clearly very insecure.

You should make it a New Years resolution to get in better shape that you are happy with OP, or failing that work on your confidence.

I would hope that my children would not behave as spitefully as the OP has angelos02.

angelos, making the lives of other people unnecessarily difficult does not make one's own any easier.

Op. No one likes to be hounded by shop/sales assistants but I do think that you are did hugely over reacting. Your poor and insecure self image has affected your perception. I bet you would read something negative into anything anyone says to you about your image at the moment. The sales assistant may have been over enthusiastic but it sounds like she did know what she was talking about. She did point out you needed a larger size, which you did.

Maybe you should try and work on your image insecurities or look at dropping the weight you have put on recently rather than finding reasons to blame someone else for how you feel about yourself.

From what you have written, I really don't believe the assistant was following you and saying staff to purposely make you feel fat or whatever. You really need to take responsibility and ownership for how you feel about your size. You read more into the situation than was needed and your insecurities made you feel the way you felt.

Somehow I don't think you will accept what anone on here is saying because that would mean admitting you were a bit out of order for reacting they way you did and complaining to the supervisor.

Yab sooooo u

What everyone else has already said. She was just doing her job ffs.

God hendricks Absolutely no need for that, what a mean thing to say, yes OP was BU due to her sensitivity about her weight but that is uncalled for

Bet the OP feels just great now.