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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think closing fitting rooms during the sales is the best solution for all concerned?

130 replies

acrabadabra · 28/12/2013 18:24

I work in a large high street store. Policy is the fitting room closes for the first few days of xmas sales. There are lots of reasons for this including it being the best way to keep the stock available for sale.

For example, if 10 people take 10 items each to try they will invariably hand back 9 of them as unsuitable. Of these 90 unsuitable garments, 10 will be fit to go straight back to the sales floor. 70 will be on hangers but still need buttons done, zips, belts, hangers turned, size pipped etc. The other 10 will be flung at the assistant with no hangers (abandoned in the cubicle). They will be inside out and/or have make up on them etc.

These 10 customers will be in and out in 10 minutes. The stock they returned will take an hour to put back out. This accounts for all reprocessing, finding the right place on the shop floor, being asked questions and dealing with customers who need help. Times this by the number of 10 minutes in a trading day. That means around 6500 garments being tried on. Probably lots more. Plus 400 (best guess) items an hour coming back as returns.

There is an argument that this is not the customers problem and that retailers should employ enough staff to do this job and I sympathise with that but, given that this doesn't happen and is neither the fault of the customer OR the sales assistants, I would still suggest that keeping the canging rooms closed is the best solution.

Or aibu? And been brainwashed by my employer.

OP posts:

ChestnutsroastingintheFireligh · 28/12/2013 18:55

I have however bought kids stuff from the next sake (they tried on in the middle of the shop floor)

BreakOutTheKaraoke · 28/12/2013 18:56

I thought it was Next, that's their policy over the sales too. When I worked there it was also because they had to reduce the fixtures on the shopfloor due to the volume of customers, and the fitting room was one of the few places they could be stored. They also used to use the fitting rooms to rehang the THOUSANDS of garments that got left on the floor by customers.

noblegiraffe · 28/12/2013 18:57

I buy clothes for my kids in the Next sale, they wouldn't be trying stuff on anyway.

I also buy stuff in there like jackets and cardigans you can try on without a fitting room, and work trousers which also fit well enough in my size without trying on.

DontmindifIdo · 28/12/2013 18:59

Oh god if it's m&s, even worse! They are big enough to cope. Plus they aren't famed for big first day of the sales, so if stuff from the changing rooms doesnt make it back out until the next day, it's not a big deal.

timidviper · 28/12/2013 19:01

I can see both sides of this. As a customer I like to try on and resent having to travel again and pay for parking to return stuff but, having worked in retail, I know that a sizeable number of customers lose all respect for products and staff once the red SALE signs are up so can see the retailers side too.

SomewhereBeyondTheSea · 28/12/2013 19:02

I hate this kind of thing.
This is why major retailers are dying on their arses.
You are a shop. You sell clothes. People need to try on clothes before they buy them. If you don't let people try clothes on, guess what? They'll go elsewhere - or just not buy it.

You're not doing us a favour by letting us buy your clothes. That seems to be a very common misconception from a lot of big retailers and in the online age it's really a very dangerous one (M&S I'm looking at you).

Sorry to sound harsh, OP. But seriously, please let us try your clothes on.

BerniceBroadside · 28/12/2013 19:03

The returns queue in m&s today was a mile long. And it wasn't all grumpy looking women returning inappropriate christmas underwear gifts.

elliejjtiny · 28/12/2013 19:04

I don't buy clothes for me in shops unless I can try it on. So now I don't buy stuff in the next sale for me, just for the DC's

JemimaMuddledUp · 28/12/2013 19:07

Well it meant I bought nothing in M&S yesterday.

I live 1.5hrs away from my nearest big town so I need to try things on as I'm unlikely to be doing the 3hr round trip within the next 4 weeks in order to take unsuitable items back for a refund.

I went into M&S in the hope of buying a couple of skirts for work. There were a couple that I liked, plus some trousers and a couple of tops too. However as the fitting rooms were closed I put them all back on the rack.

I went across the road to Debenhams, where the fitting rooms were open. Took 5 items into the fitting room and bought 4 of them, along with a purse and a couple of things for DD. I spent just under £100.

M&S' loss was Debenhams' gain. £100 might not be much to them, but if lots of people thought like I did (and clam obviously did) it would turn into a problem.

Lweji · 28/12/2013 19:08

Surely having to return items is even less effective because the items will be out of the shop for one or more days.

SomewhereBeyondTheSea · 28/12/2013 19:09

PS. I did my sales shopping online btw. Why would I bother going into a shop if I can't even try stuff on? Easier to order online with free delivery and then send half of it back with free return postage.

This is why retailers' accountants are looking at stores' receipts and working out which ones to close. Because the people who would otherwise have spent there are buying online instead, because it's easier, more convenient and more pleasant.

The one sole advantage a physical store has is to let people try things on. Why on earth would it be a good idea to stop doing that?!

Sorry for being so heated btw - this really bothers me, as you can probably tell.

hootloop · 28/12/2013 19:12

I don't even buy things I can try on over the top of what I am wearing on pure principle if a shop doesn't want me to check I look good in their clothes it probably means I won't and they don't want me to know that.

Original poster

acrabadabra · 28/12/2013 19:12

Surely online shopping has the same outcome though? When it doesn't fit or the fabric doesn't feel good or it's unflattering, you have to return it and maybe pay for the privilege.

I'm still not convinced by those of you who think it's a bad idea. I worked when the fitt ing rooms were open and I don't remember the returns being any more or less than what they are now. Though that may be my rose tinted spectacles for the good old days of retail

OP posts:

southeastastra · 28/12/2013 19:14

what shop is this op? sorry if it's been answered and missed it.

ive been to loads of sales and never seen this would be a bit silly imo even shops liks zara manage to get stock out pretty quickly again, though really feel sorry for them! it's just part and parcel or retail isn't it/

silverten · 28/12/2013 19:18

So because the shops don't want to employ enough staff to serve an increased amount of customers, they expect the customer to pay more in terms of cash up front, and time spent trailing back and forth, and queuing for refunds. No thanks.

M&S is particularly bad for refunds in general, there is always a massive queue and it takes ages to process the transaction. I can't be arsed with that so I never buy anything I haven't tried on.

They also hit you with a further downer by only refunding what they are currently charging- so if a thing has been reduced since you bought it, tough cheese. You get less money back. Presumably they work on the premise that we don't have anything better to do than constantly shop.

I don't understand why the shops want to effectively drag out their sales so long, TBH. Doing this just means most of their decent stuff disappears in the first hours, leaving the sad horrible tat left. Then the decent stuff returns in drubs and drabs in the following weeks....clogging up the shop with a random selection of styles and sizes...looks awful and can't be all that good for shifting things at a decent price.

noblegiraffe · 28/12/2013 19:25

The queue for the fitting room would be worse than the queue for refunds!

SomewhereBeyondTheSea · 28/12/2013 19:27

Abracadabra - what you're missing is that shops should make it as easy to buy from you as possible. Not make it harder. Because if we buy online instead, who says we'll be buying from you?
You can't correlate lost shoppers directly with online sales - doesn't work like that. I shop in completely different places now I buy mostly online - based on how attractive their website is, who does free delivery, etc.
So firstly it's a mistake to think that shoppers shifting to online is revenue-neutral for your company.

Secondly, it's a mistake to think that shoppers shifting to online is revenue-neutral for you personally.
Like I said (I don't work in retail but I work in a related business where I have a reasonable overview of major retailers' strategies), the shift to online sales means that most retailers are retreating from the high street - that means closing stores. Which stores are they going to close? The ones with poor sales. That could be your store. So, unless you're really doing so extraordinarily well (or the others are doing so extraordinarily badly) that you can afford to lose customers by not letting people try things on, why would you shoot yourself in the foot like that?

You're looking at returns cashflow versus the additional cost of keeping changing rooms open. You can't measure the lost revenue from shoppers who walk in, see the changing rooms are closed and walk out. I bet that's a sizeable additional 'loss' to the business.

FortyDoorsToNowhere · 28/12/2013 19:30

Limit the amount if items to 3 into the changing room.

bugsyclaus · 28/12/2013 19:32

Well I won't buy without trying on, but I can try pretty much anything on in front of a mirror on the shop floor over my clothes.

JemimaMuddledUp · 28/12/2013 19:39

For me:

Buying several sizes in store then returning those that don't fit = an extra 3hr round trip plus the cost of petrol.

Buying several sizes online then returning those that don't fit = a 10 minute walk to the post office. Most places do free returns so no monetary cost.

A no brainer really.

AdventColander · 28/12/2013 19:45

Another one who won't buy without trying on. Some questions - Doesn't the sheer volume of stuff sold at sale time mean that they still make a decent profit, even though the clothes are sold at reduced price (and hence profits)? Are customers genuinely nit bothered about whether the clothes fit or look good on them? Are the clothrs so cheap that people can afford to take a risk that they won't fit? And do customers have enough time in which to return unwanted items? I can see why your employer does it this way, but it makes no sense from a customer' point of view.

Bogeyface · 28/12/2013 20:14

I did used to sale shop, but not now. I will only shop in places with changing rooms open, which means I dont go to Next at all now as by the time they are open all the decent stuff has gone!

Also YY to needing loads more cash available to buy stuff to return. I cant afford to do that!

Original poster

acrabadabra · 28/12/2013 20:17

You're all making a very good argument and you are definitely making me see it from all sides.

I totally agree that it is above all else a staffing issue and therefore not something that individual stores can fix.

So it's esentially a corporate policy issue. Certainty nothing that staff in stores can do much about.

I also agree that high street retailers big and small have to change yhr shopping environment if they want to compete with online.

It's so interesting to hear your opinions especially since they're not being screamed at me over a till point.

OP posts:

MrsDeVere · 28/12/2013 20:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SuckItAndSee · 28/12/2013 20:36

pissed me off no end today

I took the DDs into M&S to exchange some stuff SIL bought for them

We were told that the fitting rooms weren't open "as they were so busy with the sales". There were about 8 customers in the whole department, most of whom left empty-handed, looking pissed off, as they couldn't try on the things that they'd chosen.

we were the only ones who bought anything, as we hid behind the school uniforms in the corner to try stuff on.

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