Changing rooms - whose are single sex and whose are mixed sex? John Lewis, M &S, et al...

[loveyouradvice]

I thought a thread might be useful....

Yesterday in Brent Cross:

M&S - yes mixed sex, so I changed on the men's floor - full cubicles with doors... felt very comfortable, other halves in there too...

John Lewis - clear that it is single sex (and always has been!!!)

What are your experiences?

I was in Primark getting a couple of t-shirts last week. Needed to try, as I've lost some weight and not sure what size I was any more. Clearly marked "Women's Only" and "Any Gender", so I went to the women's. Bit of a queue. The assistant came over and was all, "there's spaces on the other side" and when I replied "yes, but they're mixed sex" she looked astonished that no-one wanted to use them.... The rest of the queue were also middle aged women, with and without younger daughters. When I came out, they were herding all new queue joiners to the mixed side, so no choice. Tbh, I didn't see any men, but it's not really the point.

@CapabilityBrownsHaHa I wonder if it's like toilets, where they start from the assumption that men and women need equal space, resulting in longer queues for women. I would hazard a guess that the majority of Primark customers are women, so they should provide more changing rooms for women.

John Lewis - possibly that particular store had always been single sex, OP, but in general they've been 'change wherever you identify fuck off bigoted wims' for years.

Pleased if that's changing but it would be a change.

Last time I was in John Lewis, there was a male assistant in the women’s changing room (or what I thought was the women’s) handing out item tags and pointing out which spaces were free. I chose to put my clothes back because I knew I was going to have to probably ask for different sizes and I usually just stick my head out of the door in a not-fully-dressed state to do this.

I really didn’t feel comfortable with a young guy being in there. I asked the two middle-aged female staff members who were coming off-shift while I was in the queue, whether it was usual for a man to staff the women’s changing room and they said it was.

Would anyone else have felt the same way about this? I’m guessing they’d have allowed a man in to change if they were allowing a man to staff it? This was in the female section so not anything remotely ‘mixed sex’ about it.

I honestly don’t do much shopping that isn’t online now - it’s not worth the bother of all this shite.

In the M&S I go to the most the changing rooms don’t have a sex assigned to them - it just says “Fitting room” and is either in the men’s section, the women’s or the lingerie. Obviously customers will assume they match the department they’re in but there’s no actual labelling.

I probably would still use the changing room, but in a hurry and feeling irritated. Which removes the pleasure from non-essential shopping. Which would make me less likely to shop there.

Brilliant financial strategy, management!

I se to recallBaroness Nicolson writing to both John Lewis and M&S about this

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4225097-Article-in-the-Daily-Express-on-John-Lewis-and-Changing-Rooms

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/m-s-s-gender-inclusive-changing-room-policy-is-a-mess/

In my experience, M&S is essentially mixed sex, even in the lingerie dept. They have the cleaning spay and towel on the counter too 🤮

@DragonRunor - No!!!!!! Did u ask more??

I wouldn't like that much but presumably he wasn't going to come into the changing area. If I want another size I either take a selection with me or dress and go and get it. I wouldn't call for the sales assistant to do it for me - mind in Primark one did, but I was fully dressed and had come out to put aside the garment that was (yey!) too big.

AFAIK John Lewis stores label their fitting rooms 'women' and 'men' but the policy is for customers to use the one 'they feel most comfortable with'.

So they are single gender, not single sex, and have been for some years.