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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
notallytuts · 29/12/2013 23:53

I dont understand tbh Confused

There are lots of reasons for this including it being the best way to keep the stock available for sale.

If I can't try something on as the changing rooms are closed, I either don't buy it, or I buy up to 3 sizes to try on at home and then bring back. Given that I may end up returning all 3 items if none fit right, how does that help with keeping the stock available for sale. It means noone else can buy the item for realistically a couple of weeks (as I wont go and return things during the sale!!) and when they do eventually get back onto the shop floor, most of the people seeking bargains won't be shopping.

ravenAK · 30/12/2013 00:06

I never buy for myself in the sales - I hate all the overcrowding & I hate faffing around in changing rooms at the best of times. Online all the way.

Having said that, I do despatch dh to shop for the kids, for things like school coats a size too big to last into the next winter.

So I couldn't care less about your changing rooms; but suspect I'm not your target customer, anyway.

blueshoes · 30/12/2013 00:36

OP, have you heard the customer is always right?

It does not matter to a bricks-and-mortar customer what is most convenient or efficient for your store. The customer is in your premises to try on stuff before they buy, otherwise they will be tapping on their laptops and mobile devices instead. If the queue is long, at least they still have the choice to queue or not. If there are no changing rooms, it is perfectly reasonable for the customer to then off load the clothes in the nearest convenient place and then walk out muttering under their breath, poisoning their impression of the store for the next 361 days.

If the competition from online shopping does not kill physical stores, then customer-unfriendly attitude from retailers like the OP's surely will.

blueshoes · 30/12/2013 00:38

The sale period only requires the store to put on more staff for 4 days. Is that so difficult?

DingDongHairyPOnHigh · 30/12/2013 00:48

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.

Mahatma Gandhi

I like this quote. Smile It should be what's better for the customers, not the shop.

Caitlin17 · 30/12/2013 02:18

I hardly ever shop at sales except occasionally at a couple of local boutiques and Hobbs who don't close their changing rooms.

I'm so ancient that I recall when I first went to university long before ATMs and debit cards that if you ran out of cash on a Saturday you bought any random item in M&S and paid by cheque and exchanged it back for cash. It was always M&S because they had no changing rooms so never quibbled.

AlaskaNebraska · 30/12/2013 03:06

Bloody changing room staff should put it on hangers

DoYouLikeMyBaubles · 30/12/2013 03:08

Should put what on hangers?

Alisvolatpropiis · 30/12/2013 03:14

In the main Yanbu.

I have spent years honing my skills on the spot sizing. In the last 10 years it has been rare I have got it wrong.

AlaskaNebraska · 30/12/2013 03:42

Clothes obv

DoYouLikeMyBaubles · 30/12/2013 03:45

So changing room staff should put your clothes back on hangers for you, is that what you're saying?

AlaskaNebraska · 30/12/2013 03:46

Yes.

DoYouLikeMyBaubles · 30/12/2013 03:46

Why?

Are you incapable of doing it yourself? You took it off the bloody thing, you put it back on! Anything else is just sheer laziness.

AlaskaNebraska · 30/12/2013 03:54

No need to get cross. It's part of the service. Any good shop does it. In the states they take stuff to the changing room for you. Get you accessories. They are trying to make me buy something. If I'm fiddling around with hangers it will out dm off

DoYouLikeMyBaubles · 30/12/2013 03:58

I'm cross because it's a ridiculously lazy and entitled attitude. They're not your slaves. You're not in the states. And if you get put off by tidying up after yourself then that's just childlike.

AlaskaNebraska · 30/12/2013 03:59

That's rather blinkered though. Most retail trends originate in the trends.

Changing room staff rehang clothes. Job done

AlaskaNebraska · 30/12/2013 03:59

"In the states"

DoYouLikeMyBaubles · 30/12/2013 04:03

You rehang your own, job done.

Instead of one person being lumbered with countless people's clothes and hangers.

AlaskaNebraska · 30/12/2013 04:04

This isn't like trying on a mates clothes in their bedroom. They are serving you. To make you buy stuff. Same way that in supermarkets they collect Trollies

AlaskaNebraska · 30/12/2013 04:05

Only in England are we embarrassed to get people to do stuff for us! Plus it creates employment

DoYouLikeMyBaubles · 30/12/2013 04:09

Stop trying to make excuses for your laziness.

Do you also leave hotel rooms in a mess because it's the cleaners job?

It's not embarrassment, it's courtesy for your fellow human being. I'd be more embarrassed to be incapable of putting a piece of clothing back on a hanger Hmm

AlaskaNebraska · 30/12/2013 04:12

You're really cross about this! Grin You can't judge my perceived laziness or not really. Can you.

DoYouLikeMyBaubles · 30/12/2013 04:16

I'm glad you're amused Hmm

No I can, you're lazy. You want someone to do something you are perfectly capable of doing, because you can't be arsed. What a lovely person you are :)

mumeeee · 30/12/2013 09:11

I always put clothes back on hangers before handing them back. to changing room staff. I would take them back to the shop floor but they don't want me to do this. They ask me to hand them any clothes I don't want before I leave the changing rooms, However I don't shop in Next at the beginning of their Sale, I think it"s madness to get up and go shopping at 6am

AlaskaNebraska · 30/12/2013 10:02

Oh I might shove towards hangers. Won't ponce about making them immaculate.

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