And it's not just us. Dh has gone into them kinda stores for gifts for me before. Once in jeans and a t-shirt ... no service. Once in a suit and tie ... shop-girls flocking all over him trying to help.

The other day, a friend of mine went to the store and a little girl (about 6) said to her mom, "Mommy, does that lady just have a fat belly or a fat belly and a fat butt"...as if that wasn't bad enough, the mother answered, "I think both, honey"!!!!!!

years ago when my son was young.. i was waiting with some other moms for the kids to get out of school... when this woman comes up and asked me in front of everyone when my baby was due. terrible question to begin with.. but this woman knew i wasn't pregnant... she did it to embarrass me. so i quickly knocked that smirk right off her face when i told her... oh i'm not pregnant.. i'm just fat! i said it in such a way that her face went about ten shades of red.. and the other moms started snickering.. that woman (not very popular with the other moms) high tailed it outta there... lol

Well I had to exert some new confidence yesterday while clothes shopping.. for the first time in 20 years I went into some regular stores and even hit two stores where the young teenies shop.. bought two funky shirts but still had a moment of feeling self concious when I asked the sales girl to grab me a large in a shirt that was hanging up.. mentally I kept thinking she is looking at me thinking NO WAY GIRLFRIEND ARE YOU GOING TO FIT INTO THAT! But that was my former and crazy inner voice!
I hit another store and grabbed a top I had been in love with in an XLG and a pair of Size 11 pants.. the sales lady was older and very sweet with an accent.. she said.. hmm what size shirt you have there sweetie as I was walking into the change room.. I told her xlg and size 11/12.. she said oh no no no.. going to be too big for you.. you tiny take medium shirt and 8 in pants.. I almost laughed out loud! But she was right and they fit.
I belive kharma will give everyone a sales lady like her at some point in your life that will make up for all the young snooty things you deal with in the past.
Debbie just make sure you know how good you look and feel and don't let some young thang make you feel bad.. gravity will start to work on her body one day too :)

I get self-conscious in some stores now that I can shop in the regular department - and, especially when I am looking in the petite section (since, apparently in the eyes of pants manufacturers, I am a friggin dwarf:kissluck: ) I just mentally hear the other people around me saying to themselves "She doesn't belong here" I guess it takes a while to get comfortable with the new body.

The average american woman is a dwarf in the eyes of most pants makers Kim! :dizzy:


As for the snooty young things, before I became the merchandise maven, I put myself through school working retail nights and weekends. At least one night a week I would be training a new hire. 9 times out of 10 that new hire would be gone within the month.

I've come to the vaild conclusion that there are two types of people that work retail.

1. the crazy ones, who love it, are good at it, and even when they leave it flock back
2. the ones that do it simply for the discount and really don't care about anything but the discount

75% of store employees fall into Category 2. The ones that are the really good ones are the ones that stay for years and have customers that keep coming back year after year to see the same sales associate.

Now if you wanted to get me started on customer pet peeves, I could go on and on for a good couple of pages. ;)

I went to a restaurant one time and one of the employees there pointed at my belly and said, "Is it a boy?"
I've also been asked by a stranger if I was pregnant with twins...

People just dont understand. NEVER ask a woman if she's pregnant! Unless you are REALLY, REALLY, 110% sure!!!!!!!!!

Interesting point about shopping for someone else too. I didn't even think of that and I shop for 14yo DD who's a 00 (yes, double zero) all the time. Maybe they just assume I'm shopping for someone else because looking in that size there's no way my calf would fit in something like that.

That's the Junior's Department for you. Though I have to say when I used to work the department you would not believe how many women were trying on Juniors clothing that by far should not even think about buying Juniors clothing. :) Trust me, I became quite good at persuading people into the right fit.

I worked in women's retail to help pay my way through college and that is where I had my worst foot-in-mouth experience. It was the late 80s and I was working with only one other person on a Friday evening when in walked a distinguished older man (late 50s was my guess) with a very young lady (22, 23?) Our store was directly across the street from the college campus so I assumed it was a father shopping with his daughter over the winter holiday.

As they glanced through a rack of sale sweaters the man kept asking the girl, "what about this one?" or "what about that?" and she kept wrinkling up her nose like "no" or "ick". Then he said something like, "isn't there anything you'd like me to buy you?" and I said, "Boy, I sure wish my father wanted to buy me some clothes." And the girl said, "I do too." It was at that moment I realized I was waiting on Dennis Hopper and his very young bride. I just wanted to slink into a hole and die.

The moral of my story...A lot of young girls in retail mean well. They are just not terribly couth or sophisticated yet.

:rofl: That's too funny!

I had a nasty Victoria's Secret episode too.. one of those young snooty girls trying to "help" me. At the time I was a size 12 and wore a size Large. When I received a VS gift card, I went right away to redeem it. Well the girl that was "helping" me assured me that they didn't carry anything in my size and that I should try Lane Bryant instead. My friend just stood there with her mouth open in shock. I nearly threw the card at her! I decided to ignore her remark and find something on my own. I found a lovely frock and then hunted down another sales girl to take care of my sale. I then strategically stuck my tongue out at the first girl on my way out the door. Ahhh.. satisfaction. :-)

my only experience like this was after I had my daughter.. she was almost 3 months and I went back to work and this girl was like " hey girl.. you ever going to have that baby" .. I just laughed and walked on. I figured she would find out eventually and feel like a complete ***. :)

My sister Kristi and I were shopping in Kolhs the other day, looking at swimming suits. I showed her this really cute bikini and said, "I wish I wasn't so dang fat. This is so cute!" My 6 yo daughter Mataya looks at me with these big, sympathetic eyes and says, "Ooooh, it's okay mommy. At least you are not as fat as Aunt Krisit!" My jaw drops, my sister looks at my kid like she could strangle her. Then Mataya realizes that what she said was rude, so she tries to backpeddle, "I mean, you guys are not that fat, just kind of fat......but well, Aunt Kristi is the fattest one. But.....uh...um...I mean...." We just dropped it and moved on after that, but oh man, I was so embarrassed!

Don't ya just love kids?