Odd customer

[Nimisha]

She wasn't sucky at all, but I wanted to share this.

Ok, I'm not working at a "sports" store that sells a lot of non-sport related goods. I work in softgoods, so sell shoes and clothes.

Anyhoo, Customer comes in, I do my usual "Hi! Are you looking for anything in particular?" She says yes, and then proceeds to tell me she's looking for a few new shirts that look good on her. Ok, so far so good, right? She was of a fairly athletic build, so most clothes look ok. However, she was wearing biking gear (I think. Far too much spandex for ANYONE anyway) that didn't match. Not brightly colored or anything, but just... didn't match.

So I spend the next half hour helping her find some nice t-shirts, a pair of capris, and a pair of sandels. She gets me to wait outside the dressing room, and tell her how they fit on her and such.

She was very polite and thankful the whole time, and it wasn't busy so I had time to kill, but the whole thing was odd.

a) I'm lucky I can dress myself. I have the fashion sense of a toddler.
b) I have no idea who you are or what you do. I can't even judge by what you are wearing what kinda clothes you are into.

She seemed happy enough with it all, so I must have done good. Luckily I have such a sweet demenor that I can tell you that that shirt making your arms look puffy and no one gets mad LOL.

I REALLY have no idea how to judge what looks good on people! I get it a lot with shoes ("How do these look?"). I usually base my answer off how they seem to be reacting to them and just validate what they already think.

Is this a skill I'll learn?

[katie kaboom]

Given enough time in retail, yes you will learn. It always struck me as odd too that people would rely on a stranger's opinion and sense of style. If i wanted feedback on the stuff i was trying on i'd bring a friend or my sister or mom with me. Because anyone with half a brain would realize we're just going to tell the customer what they want to hear anyway.

[Nimisha]

Based on the mannerisms of this person, I have a feeling she didn't have anyone to bring with her. Like I said, she was nice enough, just... odd.

I find it really hard mostly cuz some of what we sell is just plain old ugly LOL

[katie kaboom]

I find it really hard mostly cuz some of what we sell is just plain old ugly LOL

I had that problem when i worked at Ross. Pretty much everything they had was just ugly old crap the real department stores couldn't sell.

[RetailWorkhorse]

I had a lady just yesterday ask about how she looked in a couple pairs of reading glasses (I chose the slightly oval ones versus the square ones. Just made her face look softer). Actually, a lot of people will ask me about how they look in sunshades and readers.

[Alfie]

I get this alot, having to choose for a customer what they should buy. I still don't understand why my opinion should matter, we have a uniform at work, so it isn't like they can see that I am fashionable etc. I always get my coworker to agree with me "I like the blue bag, Coworker, what do you think?" Coincidently , they will always go for the same one that I "like", which then proves that we are right and they should buy the one we pointed out. I for one don't think that my opinion should have any weighting at all, especially in the fashion world!