Glenna Heckler-Todt » Injustice in Justice

Injustice in Justice

I embarrassed my two oldest daughters Saturday while we were shopping at the mall. My middle daughter is going on vacation with her grandparents and needed some clothes for the trip. She had a gift card to a certain teeny-bopper store (read the title of this post and you’ll know which one I’m talking about), so we stopped in to see if they had anything in the price range of the gift card. Everything about this store goes against the grain of who I am and who I want my daughters to be. However, I also try to be frugal and that gift card was “going to waste” at the bottom of my purse, so . . . in we went.

The Issue

After about five minutes of looking around, my daughter found a pair of shorts she wanted to try on, so I combed through the sizes: 7 slim, 10 slim, 12 slim, 8 slim , 14, 6. None of these were my daughter’s size, regular 8. We moved on to another rack with another pair of shorts: 8 slim, 8 slim, 10 slim, 14 slim, 12, 10, 6 slim. Again, no luck. Move on to third choice: slim, slim, slim, not her size, way not her size, slim, slim, etc. You get the picture.

Finally, she tried on a pair of 10 slims that fit her waist fine but were cut way too short in the crotch, meaning the shorts rode really low on her hips, which she hated (great, mom doesn’t have to make that argument). We looked for another acceptable pair of shorts in her size but found more of the same; 50-80% of the sizes on the racks were slims with a sprinkling of “regular” sizes but none in my daughter’s size. Now, my daughter who is 10 years old is a very thin little girl; she’s about 4 feet 5 inches and only weighs around 65 pounds. Therefore, for the store not to have 1. her size seemed very strange and 2. to have an over abundance of slim sizes seemed purposeful. I think the thing that really set me off was that on each rack was a sizing chart that gave the range of girls sizes from slim to regular to half (plus) sizes. Needless to say, I didn’t see a single half size in the store.

The Embarrassment

The salesgirl’s first mistake was letting me comb through the store for fifteen minutes before approaching me. If she’d approached me five minutes in, I wouldn’t have had the chance to see how many slim sizes there were in the store, and I wouldn’t have had the chance to get worked up about it. Her second mistake was saying anything other than, “I’m sorry.”

Salesgirl: ”Are you finding everything alright?”

Me: ”As a matter of fact, no. There are way too many slim sizes in this store. It is ridiculous that a regular sized girl can’t come in here and not feel like a fatty because there are only slim sizes on the racks.”

Salesgirl: ”That is not at all the image we are trying to portray, and I think it is really inappropriate to say. . .”

Me, cutting her off: “Inappropriate? You do not call a customer’s comments inappropriate.”

I then called my daughter out of the dressing room where she had just gone with a 10 slim to try on, put the items on a nearby table and said, “You’ve just lost our business.”

Once back out in the mall, I expected a hail of cheers from my daughters for standing up for little girls everywhere who come into that store wanting to look like all the other little girls in their class only to leave feeling like a blimp because they can’t cram their perfectly healthy normal sized bodies into the slim size. And heaven forbid if she’s an overweight girl! Do even bother; you’re too fat to wear “our store’s clothes” or at least that is the message I got from this experience. But my daughters did not cheer.

My oldest was mortified, “Mom, she’s just a salesgirl; she can’t do anything about it.”

But I beg to differ. First off, she obviously had never been properly trained in any type of sales techniques let alone how to deal with customer complaints. Rule number one is to always apologize even if you think the customer is wrong. Ideally, if the girl had responded in this way, I probably would have found something in the store to spend the gift card on and made a purchase:

“I’m sorry to hear you feel that way because that is not the image our store wants to portray. My manager is here; would you like to speak to her/him?” OR “My manager isn’t here right now, but I’d be happy to pass your concerns on to her/him .” Or even, “Here’s the phone number of our district manager; perhaps you’d like to pass your concerns on to him/her.”

But she didn’t; instead, she called me “inappropriate,” which on her part, was the inappropriate answer in my opinion.

My middle, the object, in my eyes, of this injustice, was obviously embarrassed although she later agreed with what I had done.

Was I Wrong?

Not according to my husband who did cheer me when we told him what happened. Perhaps I was as an overweight woman who often has trouble finding her size on the store rack projecting my feelings on to my daughter and other unknown girls who shop at that store. My daughter didn’t say she felt like a “fatty,” but I could see she was frustrated with the lack of size selection in the store. However, as I looked through the store, I couldn’t help but think of her friends; girls with perfectly healthy bodies who would never find a size in that store if their only choice was “slim” (the labels of the sizes in themselves enrage me, but that’s another blog). I also couldn’t help but think of the overweight girls as well.

Girls and women in this country have plenty of opportunities to tear themselves down when they watch TV, go to the movies, and look at magazines and see airbrushed women who aren’t even as thin as they are portrayed in the media. Eating disorders are on the rise and girls as young as 6 worry about their weight, my absolutely thin 10 year old daughter being one of them. Girls’ stores should be seeking to make young girls feel good about themselves no matter what size they are by offering a range of sizes in FLATTERING styles for all body types because, unfortunately, the girls have their entire adult lives to obsess about their bodies. Why help them get an early start? Where’s the Justice in that?

Blog, Uncategorized | glenna | June 16, 2010 9:43 am

10 Comments

By MOM, June 16, 2010 @ 3:25 pm

YOU GO, GIRL!!! I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!

LOVE YOU, MOM
By Aunt D, June 16, 2010 @ 7:35 pm

Good for you. We have had Cassi with us a couple of weeks and we took her shopping for clothes at some of the trendy stores – nothing would fit. She wanted to go into the store I believe you are referring to so I took her in and we did not find anything that would work. We did find some nice things at Sears and more at Penneys in the plus sizes. I thought to myself – someone should come up with some trendy clothes for hard to fit children smaller or larger. It is hard for them to fit in as it is. Let’s go into business Glenna! We can design and make clothes.
By glenna, June 16, 2010 @ 7:48 pm

Sounds good to me, and then when we’ve totally recreated the children’s clothes industry, we can start on the women’s.
By glenna, June 16, 2010 @ 7:48 pm

Thanks!
By Seana, June 16, 2010 @ 8:00 pm

WOW — you were so right in getting outraged by this treatment! Thanks for the blog! BUT…I guess inventory truly varies, as this ‘un-named store’ is one of the few places that my large tween could find clothes last summer. They had stylish things in sizes 14 and 16 out here. We never noticed the “slim” issue here.
By Jane Luddy, June 16, 2010 @ 8:39 pm

Glenna, that was an awesome thing to do. My oldest daughter has been hypothyroid since the age of 16 and this is an issue that never goes away for her. She can finally say, “mom size is just a number” but she has gone through alot to get there.
By Anonymous, June 16, 2010 @ 8:46 pm

Well I think that the sizing charts are inappropriate. I don’t think that people’s sizes should be based off of an “ideal” size. It is really unnerving to be walking around a store and look at the sizing charts on the racks and seeing the different sizes and in the middle it says average size– 6… I can count on one hand how many women I know who naturally are a size six. It’s all total rubbish!
By Cousin Sandy, June 16, 2010 @ 9:38 pm

I totally agree. My daughter still gets frustrated with sizes. Every store is different and she is a thin young woman. I know I embarrassed my children while shopping many times. I have worked with the public enough to know that “The customer is always right.” You are right, the salesgirl’s comment was inappropriate and more than likely, did not receive the proper training. I hope your oldest can understand why you reacted the way you did and how the salesgirl could have handled the situation differently. Good luck and don’t ever change. Love,Sandy
By Cousin Lynn, June 17, 2010 @ 7:52 pm

I totally agree with your opinion. I too, in my liftime have had my daughters be embarrased when I stood up for something that I felt passionate about only to find them as they get older doing the same thing. So…keep setting a wonderful example for your girls. Take Care,Love,Lynn
By Linda, July 9, 2010 @ 9:11 am

Amen, and Amen! Thanks for what you wrote. It is unfortunate that body image is so important, and then for it to begin at such a young age. With all the ads we see in magazines an on TV, I just don’t know if it will ever change. But it will take people like you, that are not afraid to speak up, to get things rolling. I enjoy reading your blogs. You did set a wonderful example for your girls. Love ya, Linda