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Mood: Distorted ]
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Currently: Eating Breakfast – Blood Orange Tea and Organic Shreddies Knockoff ]
So yesterday the Maternal Unit and I went shopping for some maternity clothes for me. It was a Christmas present from her to me.
Now I hate shopping for clothes. I don’t like to play the game "Do I look pretty in this?" or "Does this make my butt look big?" or "Love it, but it shows too much cleavage for work." Still, because of the pregnancy, my shirts are beginning to be to tight. And not in the belly area. I was like a 18w/2x before the pregnancy, but given that I have technically lost weight (the doctor knows and she is fine with that) I am now most likely a 16x/1x or smaller once the baby is factored in.
No, no, it is my fabulous stripper boobs that are causing most of the problems. And given that I am a teacher of boys just hitting puberty, I can’t be showing off those too much.
My strategy in this pregnancy is to buy one size up from my current size. I have tried to buy clothes in a maternity store that purports to cater to plus size women. That experience at Motherhood Maternity was overwhelming negative. And when I contacted corporate HQ, they didn’t really seem to care about that. "We’re the only ones in Canada with plus sized maternity clothes," was their attitude. Translation, shut up fat chick, you are at our mercy.
So we hit a new retail development near my houses. We went to Reitmans, a Canadian chain that sells plus size clothing. We immediately went to their Encore (read plus size) section to look at the tops you have. After a few minutes, I had quite an armload of tops to try on. At this point I began looking for a sales person to help me. There were plenty in the store, which was not that busy. Two young women, one with red hair and one with longer, dark curly hair were within view, but they seem to be more interested in loudly chatting about what their holidays were like rather than actually helping anyone.
About five minutes later I had pretty much combed the Encore section for tops. I headed to the changerooms and waited for someone to direct me to where they wanted me to go. No one appeared. I was in fact one of about four or five women wondering what to do. One woman said "I guess we have to wait for someone to help us." My answer was "We’ll be waiting a while given what a good job they are doing of ignoring us." That brought some cynical chuckles from the other women. I guess I wasn’t the only one feeling neglected. At this point I walked into an empty room and started trying on my selections.
Luckily, when I needed an different size it was my mother who did the running, not the store’s staff. At one point during this process, I noticed the red headed salesperson was now helping customers while still continuing her loud conversation with the dark haired young woman. I passed the young darkhaired woman, who was now at the front of the changing area putting away unwanted clothes, everytime I went out to show my mother a new top. She looked at me several times and clearly overhead my conversation to my mother about needing another size. At no time did she ever offer to help us or get us another salesperson to help.
As my changing room session wound down to its end, a third salesperson happened by and asked if I needed any help. I told her that she was the first person to stop and offer to help, even though I had been in the store for awhile. I joked that I thought the store should give my mother the commissions on the sales given all the help she had given me. The woman mentioned that they don’t work on commission. I then said they should pay my mom an hourly rate. Then this young woman said the strangest thing. She said that she wouldn’t have thought to help me given that my mother was already helping me. This comment lead to a bit of sarcasm between my mom and I later when she couldn’t remember where a top was and I had to point it out to her. My mother said "I better learn the layout of the merchandise given that I am your only help."
I went back into the changeroom to finish up. As I came out, the long dark haired young woman from earlier came by my changeroom. She gave me a bizarre look. I didn’t think anything of it until my mother mentioned after we left that the third salesperson had spoken to an assistant manager who had gone to speak to the dark haired young woman. The assistant manager had told her that they’d had a complaint and could this woman please check up on customers. The salesperson began to complain. The assistant manager cut her off, saying "it’s not a big deal, just do it please." I guess that explained the look. She still never spoke to me.
I ended up selecting three tops, for a total of $117.00. The red headed salesperson ended up being the one to ring us through. She seemed surprised that I was buying two full price tops.
At this point I am on the fence about returning to that chain. I liked the tops I bought, but the service left something to be desired. Perhaps if I do return, I will come alone, as apparently bringing a friend or family member means I have to fend for myself.
Contrast that to my experience at Thyme Maternity next door. First, the salesperson greeted us promptly and set up a changeroom for me right away. Second, they had xxl sized pants! With the stretchy belly band! They fit like a dream.
Reitman’s and Thyme are owned by the same parent company, yet the experience is soooooo different. And I have contacted corporate in both cases. We’ll see what they say.