Was this retail assistant a bit U?

[AlleyOop]

Bit of background
My mum usually comes with me on the last day of the kids school term and we have a day out and she buys me some shoes in the early sale for my birthday- it’s a tradition we’ve done for years and I always wear those shoes on Xmas day

Sadly she’s very poorly (cancer) and not mobile at the moment

I drove to the shopping centre and found something perfect (I’d actually had my eye on them for months not able to buy them myself when they were full price in September )

I find that they don’t have any nationwide in my size (and annoyingly they’re in the sale) in store they only have small sizes

As I leave I notice there’s a pair of the mannequin next to the till and I ask if they’re my size she says no and says those shoes are huge.

Disappointed I leave and call mum (who’s ringing a lot asking where I’m going so she can “be with me”) and I mention the shoes

She persuades me to go in ask if they can check the shoes on display and they refuse saying that they cannot sell them as they will then have a half dressed mannequin - and that she knows that they are my size but she won’t give them to me.

What would you have done?

I know this is an incredibly pathetic first world problem but because I was in my own and channeling my very feisty mum I pushed them a bit more- in the end 3 sales assistants got involved- giving their reasons why I shouldn’t have the shoes

What would you have done?

Blimey.
Middle ground.
If they are busy/shortstaffed/need to take mannequin down to get shoes I can see where they are coming from.

I think if 3 of them had the time to stand around arguing with the OP, then they probably weren't rushed off their feet.

If you got the shoes in the end, what's the problem? Am I missing something?

I work in retail and at this time of year we expect a 'surprise' visit from Head office to check the store is up to standards.
We'd definitely be marked down for an unfinished display and head office rarely care about the wants of individual customers. They'd argue (wrongly imo) that the money lost by potential customers being put off by the half finished display would outweigh the money made from selling the display shoes.

Fwiw I'd have sold them to you, but you'd have had to wait for me to re-dress the mannequin first.

Annoyingly I had this with a wedding dress. Wouldn't let me try on the one in the window, hadn't got it elsewhere in store. Different store of same chain happily stripes their mannequin cos you know, sales make money and plastic figures can be redressed

Bizarre. The point of shops is to sell stuff. They could have put a larger sized shoe on the mannequin or different ones.

You sound like a pain-in-the-arse OP. Isn't that what "feisty" really means? Unless you were barefoot and these were the last remaining shoes in the world, you were unreasonable. Pity the poor other customers who got no service because you had 3 staff running round with your demands.

YANBU, I would have refused to leave the shop without them!

Good on your mum.

The only instance in which they could refuse to sell a display item IMO is if it's part of a set.

@HundredMilesAnHouror they could have, I dunno, sold their stock to a paying customer?

Seeing that fashion including shoes change every few weeks, I can't see any benefit of them keeping an 'old' style on a mannequin!
Surely it would be better to advertise what is going to be for sale in the new range?
Bonkers!

This happened to me yesterday on a much more minor scale. We were looking around a shop that sold all sorts of odds and ends. On display on a table of small items was a miniature galvanised bucket which I thought would be ideal for keeping the scouring pad and pot scrubber beside the sink.

So I took the little bucket up to the assistant (who I think was the proprietor) and proffered it to him and he looked at me quizzically and said “Err...what do you want to do with it?” to which I replied that I wanted to buy it. He said that that wouldn’t be possible as it was their display item and that if he sold it to me there would be none left to sell. At this point, a woman who I took to be his wife joined in and emphasised the point that they would have none left if I bought that one.

Now I was in no mood to argue or make a scene, particularly over an item costing £4.65, so I replaced it on the table next to its label which read “scouring pad pot £4.65” and left the shop. But I did wonder why you would display something that in reality wasn’t for sale. And then I went about my day.

If I owned a shop I would rather have cash in the till and change the shoes over than stubbornly keep them on the mannequin. What are they like OP? Maybe the power of Mumsnet can find some similar ones.

@ToastyFingers that’s a really good point - thank you

Feisty = Massive pain in the backside who thinks saying they are feisty allows them to be a massive d*

YABU OP. Stores have different policies. Stores are also busy this time of year, so fannying with a mannequin can be time consuming. Don't understand why you would nag after being told no.

@AlleyOop I'm glad you got your shoes though :)

The OP has said it didn't warrant a complaint to head office. Why other posters seem so keen to try to get the assistant into trouble is beyond me. Spiteful.

I can see from both sides.
Surely the whole point of dressing mannequins is to give the customer an idea of what they can buy. (As in the exact shoes) and a shoeless mannequin is hardly "half dressed"
However knowing how busy shops are at this time of year, I can see that assistants might not want to, or have time to undress the mannequin and find it more shoes.
And as pp said maybe their store has rules about it, although I would think a sale is a sale and try to accommodate the customer if possible.

I assume if they were in the sale they wouldn't be going into full-time stock again, I would have asked to speak to the manager as I don't see why you could not have them. I would be inclined to send a nicely worded email describing the issue and if you can purchase them as they obviously won't be sold as they are on mannequin. Btw I work with the general public you won't have ruined her day, trust me they take alot worse than that in the run up to Xmas x

Today I wanted a gold table runner from Marks and when they checked the stock there was only one left which had literally Jsut been used in a display which they were still finishing off. They sold it to me with good grace.

Personally I'd have left the shoes, I can't imagine wanting a particular pair of shoes that much! Sorry OP, probably YANBU though!

I'm really surprised they wouldn't let you have the shoes!! Those are unreasonable grounds, I would rather have made a sale and then have to pop shoes on a mannequin than lost out on a sale and potentially upset a customer.

It's kind of you to not want to make more of a fuss, but as a shop manager, I'd want to know if one of my staff (or more in your case) was being unhelpful. Just a "I am unsure if this is your policy" kind of email, not a "your staff and shop suck"

I'd have asked for the manager, no need for the assistants to take up their time. I've also worked in retail and where I worked everything was for sale, we'd have got into trouble for stopping some buying something but I accept there may be shops where other things are more important than sales.

Don't feel guilty OP, the assistant wasn't doing outside her job description.

Absolute jobsworths the bunch of them 🙄
They could’ve put a different pair of shoes on the mannequin. Crap customer service and I’ve been in various customer service roles for 28years.

When I worked in a shop, I would have happily taken the shoes of the mannequin to sell to a customer.

I’ve had similar OP, then sent my husband back to try. He asked and they got him what he asked for with no complaint.

Just depends I guess. I hate retail, it’s no wonder shops are closing/ going bankrupt so frequently.

I bought a jumper off a mannequin once. This was NEXT.