A Rant: My Maiden Trip to The Dress Barn
- By Tracy Ames
- Published May 5, 2010
Tracy Ames
Mrs. Ames is an international bestselling author of interracial erotic fiction and a former columnist for several newsletters and magazines.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Tracy currently split time between CT & New York City with her husband, children and a host of pets.
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Today was my first trip to The Dress Barn. Judging by my girlfriend’s laughter in light of this revelation, I’m the last person on earth to visit this store. I’d never heard of it until another girlfriend mentioned her horrible experience with a sales associate.
Anyway, Eva had a concert at her school tonight and it was my perfect excuse to buy a new top. I Googled the store, printed a map and off I went.
My first impression was pleasant although I was a bit troubled by the fact that the sales lady looked closer to the grave than she did to assisting me. Hey, I’m all for the elderly in the workplace but at some point we, the customers, end up pulling double duty. In my case it was shopping and worrying about her breaking her hip in pursuit of my happiness.
Hell, if coming from behind the counter to greet me left her winded then asking her to fetch something for me would’ve bloody killed her. Yeah, go to sleep with that on your conscience!
Back on topic.
After ditching the elderly sales lady, I found a couple of tops and went to the dressing room. To my surprise, all of the doors were locked so I waited for ten minutes for this bubblegum popping twenty year old to sort out the intricate mechanism that causes the door to…wait for it…open!!
Maybe it was my thinly veiled contempt for her but she saw fit to offer an explanation for the locks: They were meant to deter shoplifters.
Deter shoplifters!? What the hell!? If management was concerned about shoplifters they’d rethink their hiring criteria. You wanna deter shoplifters? Try not hiring an old woman who by virtue of her age alone warrants a call to the Guinness Book of World Records and a twenty-somethinger whose mental competency is questionable at best and downright lethal with a set of keys in her hands.
I’m a patient shopper, really I am. But this trip did my head in. Sorry, rant over.
In the end I returned home with nothing but a sweet tea from McDonald’s and I didn’t go to the concert. Eva and Greg went alone while I, the responsible parent, watched it on webcast. Actually, I’d forgotten about an interview scheduled for this evening so I’ve been busy since I walked though the door. Now, it’s going on midnight and I have a few more ‘thank you’ cards to fill out before I go to bed.
Goodnight!
Anyway, Eva had a concert at her school tonight and it was my perfect excuse to buy a new top. I Googled the store, printed a map and off I went.
My first impression was pleasant although I was a bit troubled by the fact that the sales lady looked closer to the grave than she did to assisting me. Hey, I’m all for the elderly in the workplace but at some point we, the customers, end up pulling double duty. In my case it was shopping and worrying about her breaking her hip in pursuit of my happiness.
Hell, if coming from behind the counter to greet me left her winded then asking her to fetch something for me would’ve bloody killed her. Yeah, go to sleep with that on your conscience!
Back on topic.
After ditching the elderly sales lady, I found a couple of tops and went to the dressing room. To my surprise, all of the doors were locked so I waited for ten minutes for this bubblegum popping twenty year old to sort out the intricate mechanism that causes the door to…wait for it…open!!
Maybe it was my thinly veiled contempt for her but she saw fit to offer an explanation for the locks: They were meant to deter shoplifters.
Deter shoplifters!? What the hell!? If management was concerned about shoplifters they’d rethink their hiring criteria. You wanna deter shoplifters? Try not hiring an old woman who by virtue of her age alone warrants a call to the Guinness Book of World Records and a twenty-somethinger whose mental competency is questionable at best and downright lethal with a set of keys in her hands.
I’m a patient shopper, really I am. But this trip did my head in. Sorry, rant over.
In the end I returned home with nothing but a sweet tea from McDonald’s and I didn’t go to the concert. Eva and Greg went alone while I, the responsible parent, watched it on webcast. Actually, I’d forgotten about an interview scheduled for this evening so I’ve been busy since I walked though the door. Now, it’s going on midnight and I have a few more ‘thank you’ cards to fill out before I go to bed.
Goodnight!
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5 Responses to "A Rant: My Maiden Trip to The Dress Barn" 
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said this on 05 May 2010 10:53:43 PM CDT
LOLOLOL. Let's not talk about customer service, it has gone the way the of he dodo. It is just dead, most of the time when I go to places I'm looked at with contempt for interrupting someone's moments of daydreaming. The best was my time at Macy's shoe department where three gay men sat and looked over at me and this woman from the cash register as if we were stinking up the place. We were holding shoes in our hands but no one made a move to come to help us. She looked at me in disbelief. I laughed, rolled my eyes, dropped the shoes and left. That's why I shop online. It doesn't matter if you're spending a lot or a little. I always feel like I'm spending more and getting less LOL.
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said this on 05 May 2010 11:24:41 PM CDT
LMAO! I know your pain. Macy's has been on my bad list for a while. Don't you just love the deer in headlights expression some associates give you? It's a cross between panic and scorn. Like we've pissed them off by coming into 'their' domain.
I can't believe I wasted my one free afternoon in that place. |
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said this on 05 May 2010 11:49:26 PM CDT
After that experience I completely stopped going there to buy shoes, it was just ridiculous. I wanted to scream 'do ya'll mofos work here or what?' but I didn't want to add any bad reputations to black women so I just left LOL. The only spot I go into and expect to get half way decent service is Nordstrom, I went there not too long ago to buy some of those Cookie Johnson jeans and me and that chick had a good time, I came back to buy another pair from her.
Oh that is bad about your free afternoon, who needs that? |
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said this on 07 May 2010 8:09:01 PM CDT
James prefers me to shop online as I or we can get in trouble because unlike Tracy my patience abandons me when we are shopping in any store.
When our daughters first moved into our home we had to furnish a complete wardrobe from the inside out and that was very very very painful. I believe Macy's and Dress Barn switch their employees, I absolutely refuse to believe there are so many rude people in customer service. Online shopping is my best friend. |
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said this on 06 May 2010 6:30:48 PM CDT
Tracy don't feel so bad I have never been or heard of Dress Barn. Take the bad service as a sign that uou did not belong in that store.
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