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

[TheNewLook]

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.

Do people really need to change bras do often? I'm still wearing ones from a £12 twin pack I got in M&S a good 10 years ago, and they're my comfiest ones!

Misses the point

Trying on clothes for many means taking off their own clothes. No one is sanitising their bodies beforehand, are they?

COVID doesn’t seep out of all your pores! It comes out in your breath. Your hands are sanitised because people touch their mouths, cough, touch surfaces others have breathed on.

I feel very sorry for clothing shops and their staff. Lower sales must be a worry, and too many of the general public have a go at the (generally low paid) workers on the shop floor who have no choice about the rules.

@Iftheclouds

I feel the risk of people using changing rooms is too high.

Why? What is the risk that you perceive?

There are many touchpoints that Covid survives on such as the metal and plastic that are used for hangers , clothing fixtures , handles

Not so, it is now accepted that fomite transmission is minimal.

Fitting rooms are generally a step too far for most. Each one would need to be cleaned between use, perhaps usage of different ones staggered. There simply isn’t enough staff or stock to do it

No they wouldn't, toilets aren't cleaned between users and I would have thought they were more risky (generally not just covid).

I went into town recently wanting new make-up and clothes but realised it was much easier buying online.

No make up samples out so you could even see the products (I understand no testers, but I want to see!!).

I went and had a glass of wine in the wine bar instead, but I would happily have spent a couple of hundred quid if I could have tried things on. Back to eBay!

I'm in tier 3, Liverpool. Covid doesn't touch you if you are eating, but if you are just drinking, then there's nothing down for you. It can't get you in a sports class, or now in the gym, but it can in a changing room. It was dangerous in Spain, but not in Turkey.

Covid is obviously a psychopath, not a virus.

Why don't shops limit the amount of changing cubicles open so social distancing can be maintained and only allow one item to be tried on per customer. That would surely help?

I got hollered at in primark the other day for trying on a coat. Felt like I'd had my arse slapped 🤷‍♀️🙄

So true. Hobbs fitting rooms are open in my city.

I simply don't believe that anyone gets coronavirus from touching clothes. Especially not if using hand sanitiser before and after. I think this will eventually be scientifically proven to be a hysterical over reaction that has unnecessarily ruined the economy. It's main transmission is airborne and the emphasis should be on good ventilation imo.

I've been into toilets in M&S trying on some clothes I had delivered to Next etc over summer - the trouble with doing that though is some people get annoyed if you're trying clothes on rather than going to the toilets.

I've also had the irritation of having to take clothes back to a shop or wait for a courier to collect (which is handier for me) - already I was behind with one item of clothing so had to keep that.

Weary&Bleary - exactly - makeup counters haven't seen up close much but how can you try e.g. lipstick on. You can't! I did go into a MAC store just before they closed as wanted a new lipstick and they showed me a nice one which was what I wanted. Superdrug etc it's not too bad as you can see and swatch stuff.

@mrstoothybitch

I cant remember the exact date House of Fraser said they were changing their refund policy, but around mid October.

It's all very well saying that if stock is tied up in quarantine then it can't be sold and therefore there's no money coming in, but there's no money coming in if stores don't have any customers.

I've given up shopping in stores because there's no use if I can't try things on (and stores only have themselves to blame, since their sizing can be entirely random - I can be an 8, 10 and a 12 in H&M on the same day, depending on the garment). I have once bought something, tried it on in the loos then taken it back and exchanged it for the correct size, but that's a faff too so I don't bother with that either. I shop far more online, as long as I can return for a full refund.

I’m not sure how the high street will survive, we used to go clothes/shoe shopping once a month to buy something for ourselves and the kids after pay day. That’s all stopped, now it’s only essentials we buy due to the hassle of buying , taking them home aNd then having to take them back if they don’t suit.

Shopping it’s just a miserable experience anyway
I’m still working from home despite the lockdown weight gain all of my winter clothes still fit there’s not going to be any Christmas parties and get-togethers this year so I don’t need to buy any new outfits new make up new shoes Etc

No point getting a new Christmas jumper there is nowhere to wear it to

Bleurgh

The guidence should change while there is still some kinf of High St left.
Evidence for formite transmission is far far lower than was initially thought, so quarentine is an excessively damaging policy compared to its benefits. If anyone doesn't want to risk the chance of shop stock having been handled, then online still solves the issue for them by adding in a time delay through despatch and delivery.

Unfortunately I am no saviour for clothes retail. I have enough regular clothes for hanging around the house or teamping around parks, and no occasions to justify being tempted into buying something for the fun of it. I have an awkward shape and need to try most things on (I only really buy sportswear online due to forgiving stretch.)

I decided to treat myself to a great big winter coat from Decathlon (as you do when you only went in for swimming trunks...). I'm a size 8 top, 10 hips and Decathlon sizing is a bit inexact anyway. So by the time I've even retrieved the S and the M from the top rail, I've had to reach to my maximum stetch and tip toe in through the rails to see the size tags on each garment thus brushing my (visored) face and body on each garment on the rail. It turned out that the padding was such that the S was snug anyway and needed the M which id unusual for me. I'm not willing to spend £££ for something that doesn't fit then have to drive back up the motorway again to deal with it. The next customer is no more likely to have caught Covid off the S that went on over my clothes than the XL that I ended up brushing all over on the rail.

Trying to fit all shopping into one big weekly shop including food, the only clothes I’ve bought recently have been from supermarkets where I know my size. eg for jeans, I only buy one style I know is comfortable. I take my reading glasses off as they make things look bigger than they are and err on the side of caution like buying a 12 instead of a 10 even tho I think a 10 might fit. Bought some mens skinny joggers by sight (no glasses) and holding them against me at the mirror which fit ok - I,m wearing hoodies & joggers a lot in the house, to save wearing out "proper" clothing. Got some one size socks and underwear too. I only buy one type of bra, which is from Amazon.
I haven’t been near the high street in months and miss it badly but then remind myself of the necessity to wear a horrible sweaty face mask and all the pleasure of comparing different styles in various shops is gone. It's bad enough trying to fit clothes shopping into a food shop!

@OhLookIveNameChanged

As my name suggests, I've name changed.

I work as management in retail for a department store who've made a lot of redundancies. We just can't physically cope with opening the fitting rooms and the huge amount of work it would involve to maintain them. We are working like workhorses to just get through the day, everyone is exhausted.

Every item of clothing that is tried on has to be quarantined. So if you've taken three pairs of jeans and three tops in to the fitting room but decide you don't like any of them, the next ten customers do the same, that's 60 items that need quarantining and we have no money in the tills, for three days. If the customer buys the clothes and takes them home then the returns are staggered, we won't have virtually empty shop floors because you're more likely to buy what you think might fit.

If we catch someone trying things on on the shop floor then we ask them to bring the item to us so we can quarantine the item.

I know you're all unhappy, we're not feeling great with the abuse being hurled at us on a daily basis either. But we can't open the fitting rooms, we'd have no stock to sell fairly quickly. The actual processing of stock after its quarantine period is up is also labour intensive.

Please try to be understanding, we're doing our best. We've lost colleagues, we have people having to isolate, we're bloody tired.

But this doesn't make any sense! I understand closing the fitting rooms if SD doesn't work but people are touching the clothes in the shop all the time. Looking for their size, taking something then changing their mind and putting it back. You don't quarantine those do you? Madness.

COVID doesn’t seep out of all your pores! It comes out in your breath. Your hands are sanitised because people touch their mouths, cough, touch surfaces others have breathed on.

Do you trust people to try clothes on, not take off their mask and to not do all the things you mentioned? People barely wear them properly and you trust them to abide by the rules in a fitting room?

@cologne4711

There are many touchpoints that Covid survives on such as the metal and plastic that are used for hangers , clothing fixtures , handles

Not so, it is now accepted that fomite transmission is minimal.

Exactly. The Lancet states that "transmission by fomites (inanimate surfaces or objects) has been assumed on the basis of studies that have little resemblance to real-life scenarios"and that the risks have been "exaggerated". So why has the government made these rules to the retail sector? Do they have shares in Amazon?! And are they law or merely guidelines that retailer can chose to follow or not?

I was in a Tesco today (buying food, anyone thinking I might have been so awful as to enter a shop to buy a non essential item) and went to the toilet. One cubicle only in use, one sink only in use. Why? Why is that safer? All it did was create a queue of people waiting to use the loo, people spending more time together in a closed environment than they otherwise would have... It made no sense.

Back to the actual point of the thread... I am gloomy about the prospects for a lot of offline retailers, tbh. If I can't try it on in store, why even buy it from a physical shop, I may as well just buy online.

Agree. I'm desperate for new bras and no way can i buy without trying on first

Could you buy a couple in brands you already have? You know they'll fit. Unless you've lost or gained. I always buy the exact same bra because it fits so well.

@Snog

So true. Hobbs fitting rooms are open in my city.

I simply don't believe that anyone gets coronavirus from touching clothes. Especially not if using hand sanitiser before and after. I think this will eventually be scientifically proven to be a hysterical over reaction that has unnecessarily ruined the economy. It's main transmission is airborne and the emphasis should be on good ventilation imo.

Quite. German shops reopened in early May (after a lockdown which was half as long and not as tough as in the UK, sorry) with masks already mandated, and I haven't heard of a single case of covid being passed on by touching items for sale. Mask compliance is pretty high because you need a doctor's certificate to be exempted. Out of habit from spring, when we weren't so sure what the primary driver was, I still disinfect on entering and leaving ships

Stores do not have to give you your money back for a change of mind though...... only if an item is faulty

What are trading standards going to do?

I've only been clothes shopping twice since lockdown, one for a holiday and the other for a new job. I just go to primark and buy what I need slightly bigger than what incould usually try on. I've just been making do. If you wear a mask in the changing room and hand sanitize after it's no more risk than getting on a bus or public lol. It's all just madness.

Also the issue over trying on

You have to remove your own clothing, maybe get a bit out of breath/breathless from the exertion of changing and putting on new item whilst keeping tags in place

Viral load you shed whilst doing all that movement is maybe the issue?