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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To wonder how clothing retail is ever going to recover....

130 replies

Loveden · 27/08/2020 21:43

.... while the changing rooms are all closed?

So today I visited a large shopping mall with my teenage DD. While it wasn't the main purpose of the trip, neither of us have had any new clothes since lockdown so we also looked in a lot of the fashion stores, and saw loads of things we quite liked - BUT all the changing rooms were closed so we couldn't try anything on.
Given that the shopping mall is around an hour from home and we're unlikely to be back any time soon, returning any unwanted items would be a round trip of c.80miles - so despite money in our pockets to be spent, we didn't buy a thing.
(The only alternative would have been to buy the items, try them in on the mall's public toilets and then return them there and then if they were no good. But that wouldn't be very hygienic either!)

AIBU to think the policy of closed changing rooms is going to do more harm than good?

[PS Can anyone actually explain why they're still closed? If I wear a mask and gel my hands when I enter the store, what is going to happen if I try something on, that won't happen if it pick it off the rails, finger the fabric and hold it up against me? Is another just another one of these Covid "rules" which make no sense in the real world?]

OP posts:

mayandjuniper · 27/08/2020 21:47

The clothing industry is going to majorly change anyway over the next decade or so. Changing rooms will probably have very little effect compared to the large scale rejection of fast fashion and modern day slavery.

FluffyKittensinabasket · 27/08/2020 22:04

There won’t be any clothing shops left on the high street soon. Or any shops. The future is Amazon style “distribution centres” staffed by robots. Hundreds of thousands of retail workers will be unemployed.

SheeshazAZ09 · 27/08/2020 22:05

Yes I had similar experience yesterday trying to shop. Wanted to buy hiking boots and hiking sandals but they wouldn’t let me try them on without socks, which I hadn’t thought to bring as normally you can borrow a pair. So handed them back to the assistant and walked out. And in M&S wanted to try on bras but changing room was closed. They had a sign saying you cd take things home to try on and return them if not suitable but like the OP the town is a long way from my home and I hardly ever go there. I couldn’t work out how my taking stuff home and trying it on there was any more hygienic than trying on in store! It is utterly crazy and so irrational. I will have to continue to shop only online. I wonder though, do shops make up these rules themselves or Is the govt forcing them? It seems these things are their own silly ideas as I hear some small boutiques are allowing ppl to try stuff on in the changing room.

StrawberrySquash · 27/08/2020 22:08

Yeah, it makes no sense. I can see that quarantining tons of clothes for 72 hours would be a nightmare, but is it worse than no one buying anything that needs trying on? I want to shop, but always try on about 10 things for every one I buy. The other week I went to the shopping centre public loo before a long journey home to check that the safeish stuff I'd bought actually fitted. Madness.

AnyFucker · 27/08/2020 22:13

Is it another just another one of these Covid "rules" that make no sense in the real world

You got it

DieSchottin93 · 27/08/2020 22:14

I don't see how trying things on in changing rooms is any worse than ordering online and sending it back

Mrsmadevans · 27/08/2020 22:15

I go in the loo and try it on . I don't worry about it being hygenic because everywhere is antibacced to the MAX.

BrightYellowDaffodil · 27/08/2020 22:18

It absolutely makes no sense.

I could buy something, take it to the shopping centre loos to try it on and take it back within the half hour. But I can’t try it on in the store, not even if it’s a cardigan I could put on over my clothes. I can hold it up against myself but the moment I put my arms in the sleeves I’m Breaking The Rules.

I went into H&M recently and browser the sale rail. Saw a few things I liked the look of but I couldn’t be arsed with the hassle of buying them, taking them home to try on then having to schlep back with the one I didn’t want, perhaps to find that the prices had been cut further in the interim and I wouldn’t get all my money back. So I didn’t bother.

Shops either have to start letting customers try clothes on or accept that customers just won’t bother.

Lemonylemony · 27/08/2020 22:19

@DieSchottin93

I don't see how trying things on in changing rooms is any worse than ordering online and sending it back

Agree. Surely taking items home and then coming back a different day to return them is more risk of spreading virus than using a changing room

MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously · 27/08/2020 22:20

Was in Clarks the other day buying school shoes. Assistant wouldn't bring down everything in her size for me to look at. Thing is, if I'm spending £50 on shoes for a child, I want to see the options irl and not just on a tablet screen. Assistant made me feel like she was doing me a favour letting me spend tons of money in their shop!
I CBA with this - I'm tempted to but a foot measure and order online from Next in future.
Have to go to Apple store on Saturday, so will see what's it like in a bigger town, but it's such a pita to take stuff back that I doubt I'll buy much tbh. We need changing rooms to be open - I don't think I'm going to catch Covid from trying on a coat that someone else has tried on!

MissCalamity · 27/08/2020 22:21

I tried on a pair of trousers behind my car, parked at the furthest end of the car park and backed into a space, had cycling shorts on under my jeans so wasn't intentionally flashing, if I needed to buy something then I'd probably do that again, not if it's raining though

MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously · 27/08/2020 22:24

See this is madness. That can't be more hygienic than a changing room! I'd much rather buy something that another person has tried on in a changing room, than something which has been taken to a public loo!

RoadworksAgain · 27/08/2020 22:25

With their ridiculous one way systems and stupid rules for trying, or not trying things on, it's almost as if someone, somewhere, wants to bring about the end of the high street.

I have money to spend, but hate wearing a mask, I want to try things on, and find the whole shopping experience so unenjoyable that I'm just not bothering.

JockTamsonsBairns · 27/08/2020 22:27

I totally agree. I took DD (11) to River Island last week to spend a voucher she got for her birthday. We live very rurally, so it was a two hour round trip. DD picked a pair of jeans and took them home, only to find they didn't fit. Had to do another two hour round trip yesterday to return them for a different size. If it hadn't been her own money, I wouldn't have bothered. And I won't be clothes shopping again in a hurry.

Regularname · 27/08/2020 22:29

I suspect some shops are very risk averse both related to staff and customers. If you return something there is one point to return then the cashier can put garments to quarantine and sanitise their hands. Presumably in a changing room they have to make sure that the garments are put away but also clean things like the rails/doors/handles regularly as well as quarantining the clothes. This would work in a small shop. In a large shop it would need more staff. If you have just two instead of normal ten cubicles then you need to sort out a SD queue.

Someone must have calculated that it is not worth it. From the executives/shareholders I suppose they don’t care if the profit is from physical or online shops. However bad service in shops puts me off using them online.

BananaPop2020 · 27/08/2020 22:31

Retailers really need to sort their act out and quickly. Some of them are acting like it’s a privilege to let you spend money in their store.

RoadworksAgain · 27/08/2020 22:31

Have to go to Apple store on Saturday, so will see what's it like in a bigger town

Apple store in Liverpool on Saturday - queued up outside and got to Sales Assistant 1 where we explained what we were there for. She directed us to Sales Assistant 2 where we again had to explain what we were there for. He took our temperature and directed us to the queue right outside the door where we had to explain to Sales Assistant 3 what we were there for. She directed us inside to Sales Assistant 4 where - you've guessed it - we had to explain what we were there for. At this point it had been 15 minutes and the same conversation 4 times, and I'd really lost the will...

We were actually there to get the glass screen protector replaced on 2 phones because they'd cracked. If it's something you can buy online I'd strongly recommend that you give the store a miss.

WanderingMilly · 27/08/2020 22:35

I went to a retail outlet at the weekend and found they had changing rooms OPEN! It was really useful, we were in masks and each cubicle was sanitised between customers. Anything tried on but not bought was put on a rail to "rest" for the required number of days before going back on the shop floor.
I ended up buying items as I'd been able to try them.

GlassOfPimms · 27/08/2020 22:38

I'm so fed up trying to buy clothes online that don't fit that I braved the shops today. Utterly pointless as the changing rooms were shut everywhere and I couldn't see anything properly as I wear glasses and I was steaming up with the mask and the rain!

I bought nothing and it was a totally miserable experience that I won't be repeating for a while!

BananaPop2020 · 27/08/2020 22:40

@RoadworksAgain you have more patience than me, that sounds like a right trial. As for this taking the temperature business, that is massively OTT.

SkatingWithPenguins · 27/08/2020 22:42

I ended up buying a jumper in two sizes and trying it on outside the store, looking at myself through the shop window in a mirror then returning one. That was fine. But not the other side of the window.. ?

MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously · 27/08/2020 22:43

Roadworks unfortunately DD has cracked her screen and also needs a new battery, so I have to go in person. I did make an appointment though, so I'm hoping that speeds things up a bit. Dreading it tbh - I hate the Apple shop at the best of times.

Oly4 · 27/08/2020 22:43

But I’m so sick of shopping online and returning stuff that I think touching fabrics, seeing materials, weighing up souses in real life IS worth the hassle. Even if there will inevitably be some returns of things that don’t fit

ShesMadeATwatOfMePam · 27/08/2020 22:45

It'll do the planet a lot of good if it doesn't revive. The fashion industry is the second biggest polluter after the oil industry.

Ginfordinner · 27/08/2020 22:46

@WanderingMilly

I went to a retail outlet at the weekend and found they had changing rooms OPEN! It was really useful, we were in masks and each cubicle was sanitised between customers. Anything tried on but not bought was put on a rail to "rest" for the required number of days before going back on the shop floor. I ended up buying items as I'd been able to try them.

Where was this?

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