Their “Pretty Woman” Moment
(I need a new dress for my high school graduation ceremony. My mother will pay for it, but since she does not have much free time, it is decided that my older sister and I will go to our favourite fancy clothing store, look through their collection, put a reservation on our favourite dresses, and return the next day with our mother. I am 18, and my sister is 20. When we reach the store shortly after opening on a weekday, we enter the floor that has what we are looking for, only to find it completely empty of other customers or employees. There are, however, signs everywhere stating that you are not allowed to try on dresses without an employee present, so we go and search for one. On the far end of the floor, we find two women in their 50s behind some registers.)
Sister: “Hi, we are looking for a graduation dress!”
Employee: *stops talking to her colleague, looking rather annoyed* “Sure, come with me.”
(She leads us back out onto the floor. While walking, my sister tells her what we have in mind:)
Sister: “We need a graduation dress for my sister. The ceremony is at [date], and since it will be warm, we need something that has a fabric that is not too heavy. We thought about something with [sleeve style], maybe combined with [skirt style].”
(While my sister is in the middle of describing what we are looking for, the woman stops in the middle if the floor, next to one of the signs, and points to a connecting room.)
Employee: “Cocktail dresses are over there.” *walks away*
Me: “But wait!”
Sister: “Well, we tried! Come on. Let’s check out these dresses.”
(We spend the next hour in the room trying on dresses. The woman does not check on us or offer to help even once. With our two favourite dresses, we return to the registers. The woman is again chatting with her coworker and throws us a nasty look when she sees us. When we ask her to reserve the dresses for us, she complies but throws a look at her coworker that clearly says, “Who are those annoying brats trying to fool?” At home, we tell our mother about the woman’s behaviour. It’s clear to us that she did not deem us worthy of her time, thinking we would not buy anything. Since we are young adults looking for a dress for a specific occasion only a few weeks away, with clear ideas what we are looking for, we do not understand where she would get that idea from. When the three of us return the next day, the same woman is at the register again. We point her out to our mother.)
Mom: “Hello. My daughters reserved some dresses. I would like to see them.”
(The woman recognizes us, but quickly covers her shocked expression with a big smile.)
Woman: “But of course! Your lovely daughters were here yesterday! We looked at so many dresses, and they picked out some really nice ones!”
(She brings the dresses and keeps blabbering to my mother about us and the dresses, acting as if she had been helping us the whole time yesterday. She actually turns out to be really helpful when my mother wants to see some other dresses, finding one that was exactly what we have been looking for and looks perfect on me. We did not find it the day before because it was in a completely different room! My mother buys the dress, but does not leave a tip as would be usual in a store like this. The woman’s face drops when she sees that. Later, in the car:)
Mom: “Well, can you believe this woman? Does she think you do not talk to me? I would have given her a big tip for her help, but not when she treated you that way yesterday!”
(I hope that woman learned her lesson: even if you do not think someone is going to buy something, do the job you’re getting paid for!)
