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

[acrabadabra]

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.

Hmmm. I kind of get why shops close the fitting rooms, but the very point of an actual physical shop is the experience of shopping, which includes being able to try garments on to ensure best fit, suitability etc. For me, this is the very foundation of the service. To deny that element makes the physical shop redundant really.

I understand that it is a difficult time for those who work in retail, but ultimately is part and parcel of the industry. Shops have run xmas sales forever and ever, and the closed fitting rooms is a new phenomenon really. Perhaps not cramming every last article onto the shop floor on day 1 would be more beneficial than closing the fitting rooms???

And yes the queue for the fitting rooms may well be long, but firstly it still gives shoppers the option of trying on in the fitting rooms, and secondly, if it is as slow moving as you claim then that gives plenty of dead time to sort through the unwanted items ready to return to shop floor looking "new".

Only if you are going to pay the petrol and car parking money to bring things back!

Normally I'd agree with you. When it's busy it's difficult to manage all of those returns. However, if you are shopping for a specific event during a sale time and need to know what you have fits and looks good then it's hopeless if the changing rooms are closed.

My local M&S will have my custom forever for specially opening their changing rooms for me the day before a close friends wedding - too much Christmas cheer meant my original dress didn't fit and I was in a panic. I loved those M&S people that day.

Marks and Spencer never used to have changing rooms and they never used to advertise either.

I remember this made them seem very special.

I don't understand anyone who buys clothes for self without trying them on first. Socks and pants excepted, I suppose.

Our main clothes outlet locally was a branch of Sainsburys with no changing rooms; so I would buy maybe 4-6 pairs of jeans, take home to try out, maybe one would fit well. What a pahlava to take them back and keep them pristine until return, and could be an argument if price changed since I paid. Same if I bought for DC.

I propose no sales. Or no sales season, anyway. And no Christmas for that matter (searching for my Scrooge hat now)

At end of day, trying clothes on in shop is the one advantage bricks + mortar stores really have over online shopping. If you want bricks+mortar shops to stay open, then changing rooms are an essential.

I suspect the fact that the retailers purposefully make the shops look like jumble sales (so you'll imagine everything is cheaper than it is) for the sales contributes to people having less 'respect' for the clothes. Retailers spend lots of money on research and know how different shop layouts and presentations affect shopper behaviour. Yet at sale time they pack in as many racks as possible with inches between them and no way of seeing what's on them without rummaging for the sales (often bulking the unsold stock out with tat produced specially for the sales).

I actually refuse to shop in the sales. I hate shopping at the best of times but the thought of the next Boxing Day jumble sale brings me out in hives. I don't generally shop for clothes online because I want to try stuff on and I can't be arsed with returning the 90% of stuff that won't fit or look good.

What more can we do to convince you op? I think you have been brainwashed ...

Marks and Spencer never used to have changing rooms and they never used to advertise either. I remember this made them seem very special.

Yes, to the point they almost went bankrupt.

It's not a question of reasonable / unreasonable.

It's a question of what will bring the shop the most profits.

Different shops will have different policies based on their experience of the sales season, in order to maximise sales.

From your perspective maybe as you work there. However, quite frankly, if I'd picked out an armful of stuff to be told that the changing room was closed, I'd shove it at you and walk out.

Shops are run in competition with each other.
If you don't provide a good enough service, customers will flock elsewhere. Never mind what's more convenient for you.

Ironic that there's a banner advertising M&S sale at the top of this thread!

I was very nonplussed to go the sales for the first time in years to find the changing rooms closed - a stiff letter to the CEO of M&S is in the offing.

Of course I agree that the actual answer is more staff.

But the fitting room closes for a max of 4 days!! I'm not suggesting they close for the other 361 days you can all shop.

As I say, I'm not a hobby shopper myself so maybe even as a customer it just wouldn't bother me. I think it's a poor show when you talk about shoving stuff at the staff before walking out. Walk out by all means but don't take it out on the shop staff who, let's face it, haven no influence over the policy whatsoever.

But if you want to make money during the sales, compared with other shops, then keeping changing rooms open might make the difference.

It's not the best policy as far as I'm concerned. I don't buy clothes without trying them on, I don't go shopping in the sales (at least not the 1st few days) and (if this is about Next and/or M+S) I wouldn't be seen dead in any of their clothes anyway.
Being rude to the sales assistants is out of order though. It's not their fault that most shopping is such a crap experience.

Yes I do feel sorry for the staff at sale time. I think customers can be especially careless and rude too, which makes their job more difficult, but the problem is basically not having enough stsff to cope with the number of customers. Otherwise they would be able to offer the normal level of service including fitting rooms wouldn't they?

The problem with Next is that the clothes, without exception, look like shit.

That is particularly true for the sales. I think Next put out particularly ghastly clothes for the sales. Or maybe that's what's left after the big rush. What do I know?

I guess closing the changing rooms has some merit, but being taken by surprise on this one posses me off. Had this in M&S the other day and the only reason they still got the sale was because I was able to take sale jeans next door to try on in Tesco and then return what I didn't want without an extra round trip. Had I known I'd have bought online. What else differentiates the high street if not being able to try on?

Pisses

How is it that some stores manage to maintain customer service during sale times and others fall apart? I did go to the sales this year and went to one store (50% off everything), I was able to use a change room, staff were friendly, happy to change sizes, and even went out the back to get other items. The shop was neat and tidy, despite being absolutely packed with people. I spent over $1000, and I don't need to take anything back or return anything.

So how did they do it? They had enough staff to manage the whole process. It's not really rocket science.

YABU, I don't buy things if I can't try them on. So if a store doesn't have a fitting room available I don't shop there. which means they lose my business to another store where I can try things on.