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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think retail stores will never survive if they don’t let customers try things on?!!

244 replies

TheNewLook · 21/10/2020 22:48

How are we supposed to give them our money when we can’t try anything on? Nobody want to schelp into town, buy a tonne of clothes, trail them home only to return most of it?

Same with online shopping. I return far more than I keep. It’s an exhausting process. Ordering, opening, trying, parceling up and waiting at the post office!

Let us try things on!!

I don’t care if the person who tried it on before me was harbouing Covid. It’s highly unlikely to live long enough on fabric to be able to contaminate me afterwards.

OP posts:
MsVestibule · 22/10/2020 16:58

For those concerned about not buying a bra without trying it on first, Bravissimo are still doing fittings. Which is just as well, as I'm not paying £40 for a bra without trying it on first!

StrawberrySquash · 22/10/2020 16:58

Thanks, @melj123. So is it that if people have to buy to try on they end up buying fewer items of clothing? And hence you have space to quarantine them? And you wouldn't if we were trying on normally because too many things would get tried on.
Have clothes sales dropped off a cliff because of this? I guess it's hard to know what's fitting room effect and what's general pandemic effect.

ginsparkles · 22/10/2020 16:59

I work in a jewellers. People are still trying on jewellery. They sanitised their hands first and then we clean everything before it goes back in the window. It must be so hard for the clothes shops.

StrawberrySquash · 22/10/2020 16:59

@melj123 Also, are you quarantining and sanitising? How do you sanitise?

User27aw · 22/10/2020 17:00

If they don't let you try on clothes then they should at least give you a refund. The sales assistant at House of Fraser told me they would only be giving credit notes. I won't be buying clothes there anymore. Shops will go out of business if you can't try them them on, why can't they see this?

fruitpastille · 22/10/2020 17:01

It's driving me crazy. Is it the changing rooms that are more of a problem than the actual clothes? It's fine to try on shoes and it seemed ok to try coats in tkmaxx but of course you can do that in the main part of the shop.

I'm stuck with buying stuff from next just because there's one 10 mins drive away and returns are straightforward!

StrawberrySquash · 22/10/2020 17:02

Added to this we need people to clean every basket and trolley
Are places actually doing this? Nowhere I go to seems to. I sanitise hands post shop on the assumption that the trolley isn't clean.

ClumsyFool · 22/10/2020 17:06

I can’t comment for everywhere but certainly where I work yes we do, we have a designated area for customer to take them from which the person on the door directs them to as we know that they have been cleaned after the last person used them.

MoltenLasagne · 22/10/2020 17:07

This would be easier if the sizing was what they claim it is - we could all just grit our teeth, take measurements and then check whether e.g. 40" hips are a 10, 12 or 14 in that shop.

Unfortunately I've tried doing this with online shops, ordering exactly by measurements and they are massively out. One size 8 t shirt claimed to be for a 28" waist and measured 38" when it arrived. Not a boxy style either.

I also won't be shopping in store where returns are for store credit only. That seems to be an increasing number of places now...

BewareTheBeardedDragon · 22/10/2020 17:12

Agreed - there's no point currently in going to an actual shop. Online shopping is way more convenient when you can't try on in store.

Second the pp who said Bravissimo still doing fittings. They don't touch you and can't adjust the bra for you, but they still advise and obviously quarantine the bras which have been tried on - which they can do because the fitter knows. There's no way I could have bought a bra without trying on and I desperately needed some having lost weight. Turns out I'd gone down 1 back size and 4 cup sizes and had been wearing seriously badly fitting bras while I thought nowhere would let you try on ShockShock

MyWedding · 22/10/2020 17:16

Wow I'm shocked that some stores are not even letting you return for a refund. I would definitely stop shopping there.

YANBU most stores I shop in will let you return for a refund but surely trying on in the store is less risk than taking them home

AvocadosBeforeMortgages · 22/10/2020 17:21

YANBU

I'm
A) a funny shape, so I really do need to try to stuff on to check it won't look ridiculous
B) far too busy to go and buy stuff, take it home, try it on, go back into town and get a refund

They've just sucked all the joy out of shopping - and one of the things I always liked was trying on things that I wouldn't normally wear (and sometimes I'd end up buying them) but that's not happening right now

Apart from buying some new socks, undies and Primark jeans (I know my size in there, though 28" leg jean availability is hit and miss) I've bought nothing new since March, and I won't until I can try it on unless I'm absolutely desperate

Changedmyname26 · 22/10/2020 17:23

I work in a popular high street shop, one of the reasons for not being able to try things on is because we can't maintain SD in the changing rooms. Customers are allowed to try coats, jackets and shoes/boots on and we do not quarantine. We quarantine refunds for 2 days. It's just as frustrating for the staff as it is for customers, we're taking much less money because people (understandably) want to try before they buy, then having to refund the money we are taking when things don't fit. And we get grief all the time for not having our changing rooms open when it's completely out of our hands.

RuleOfCat · 22/10/2020 17:23

Here in Germany there have never been any restrictions on trying on clothes because the risk from touching textiles is comparatively low. Just disinfect your hands upon leaving the shop. There's something of a weird obsession in the UK with clothing being dangerous. If you were working on a covid ward and wanted to get out of your scrubs after a shift I could understand the sentiment - but in H&M it's well over the top.

Fluffycloudland77 · 22/10/2020 17:25

@RockingMyFiftiesNot

Agree. I am ashamed of the state of the bras I am wearing at the moment, but even when measured in M&S I need to try on a dozen or more that they bring me of different styles and sizes before I find one that fits.
Please use boob or busts website and measure at home. M&S are really bad at bra fitting.
purpleme12 · 22/10/2020 17:38

It's a pain and I've brought lots of things back but I'd still much rather shop in person than online. I don't shop online. I find it much easier when I can see the things and feel them in person. Much easier.
But I can walk to town... Don't know if that's the case for people on here. Mind you even if I couldn't I still wouldn't buy online!

buzzbuzzbumble · 22/10/2020 17:39

the M and Co near me covered up all the mirrors so you couldn't even hold clothes up in front of you to see if they suited you. Now closed down.

Whammyyammy · 22/10/2020 17:47

Walked through my local town today, so many shops closed or closing, edinburgh wool shop etc
I think the high st will suffer as a whole, and more and more people getting used to Amazon

Funkypolar · 22/10/2020 17:53

I foresee thousands more retail workers being made redundant sadly.

JanewaysBun · 22/10/2020 17:54

There's a small department store in South London where you can try clothes on (elys)! I bought a new pair of jeans and am so happy to have one a that fit after guessing and getting the wrong size in h and m.

I also do the try on in the loos and return which I know people on here hate Wink

Other than that it's Asos all the way.

PecheMelba · 22/10/2020 18:04

My clothes are gradually falling to bits and I can’t be arsed with the shenanigans of buying and returning unwanted clothes. I have embraced my new style completely, heirloom rags all the way.

Mumblechum0 · 22/10/2020 18:08

As a PP said, I don't get why textiles are such a big deal, I also avoid shopping in person now not because I'm remotely worried about Covid but because all the pleasure has been sucked out of it.

RockingMyFiftiesNot · 22/10/2020 18:10

@Fluffycloudland77 I did try that after reading about it on here but the size it came up with is the same size as some bras I put away for if I lost weight and they come nowhere near me. Are you supposed to buy bras from particular places once you've calculated your size? Even the bras that fit me well vary in size and cup size

nosswith · 22/10/2020 18:15

It is not for ever. Although inconvenient.

Business rates, people losing their jobs, lack of support for Tier 3 areas and ideas such as £75 a week congestion charge that Mr Johnson is trying to force on Londoners within the North and South Circular are more likely to accelerate the trend of high street stores closing.

MrsR87 · 22/10/2020 18:20

@melj1213

Surely buying it, taking it home, trying it on, bringing it back is more risky than trying it on in the store? They can easily clean the fitting rooms between each customer & even isolate the clothes for a day or two before putting them back out.

No it actually isnt.

I work in a supermarket that sells clothes and we have closed our fitting rooms. This is so that we know exactly what has been tried on and we can quarantine only what is necessary.

If you take it home, it gets quarantined because we know it has been tried on. If you just try stuff on on the shop floor then we dont know what has been sanitised and what has not. If you take 4 sizes of Jean's into the fitting room but the first pair you try on is the right size, we still have to quarantine all four pairs ... but if you just take one or two home and return the wrong size, we only have to quarantine one pair.

Anything that gets returned has to be put into quarantine for 3 days, sanitised and then returned to stock. We do not have space in the warehouse for this so our fitting rooms are being used for the quarantined items - each day the rail of clothes that have been returned is wheeled into a fitting room, door closed and a note put on it as to what day it was quarantined, and each other fitting room is filled with previous days rails. This also gives colleagues a confined area to sanitise everything and check it is saleable before returning it to the shop floor

This makes sense and I totally get the logic behind it. Unfortunately, on the odd occasion I have braved the clothes dept in my supermarket, the fact that the changing rooms have closed just seems to be encouraging people to try it on on the shop floor. I went to get a baggy jumper to cover my huge baby bump last week (did not try on) but in the 5 mins or so I was choosing which one to but I saw someone try on a pair of shoes and put them back, someone try on a coat and put it back and someone try on a jumper and put it back.