The Fur Coat Advantage

Besides hitting up Forever XXI and the Auntie Ann's pretzel sample lady every time I go to the Garden State Mall, I always end up going into Nordstroms. Not because I shop there (have we all seen those price tags?!), but because the mall entrance within it just happens to be the unspoken drop-off/pick-up spot of half the teenagers who go there. I remember going shopping with my friends during middle school, all of us savoring the "-teen" portion of our new-found ages, reveling in the coolness that only kids who could go to the mall by themselves could possibly achieve. While waiting for our rides to come, we would loiter in the shoe department, admiring pairs of shoes that we would never be able to afford, especially after spending what little money our moms gave us at Sarku Japan.

Oops.

One thing that stayed consistent throughout my Nordstroms loitering days was the snootiness of the employees. Granted, I was loitering, but their belittling treatment of me and my friends stuck with me and inspired this blog post (if you can't tell, I hold a grudge like it's nobody's business). Whenever a person goes into a more high-end store, like Nordstroms, Sephora, or Lord and Taylor, the employees give them an immediate once-over; if the shopper looks like he or she can afford the products being sold, they scurry over to assist, ask them about their day, and perhaps entertain the accordion of wallet-sized photos, fished out of a Louis Vuitton satchel, all to make a big sale. However, if someone wearing sweats and flip flops walked into an expensive store ready to purchase the shelves of all their merchandise, the employees wouldn't give the person two minutes of their time; an all-encompassing eye roll would probably be their only acknowledgement. My friend once told me that her mom went into Nordstroms and unwittingly tested that stereotype, and it held true; her sweatsuit-look classified her as an "unworthy shopper," but when she returned a week later in a full face of makeup and a minx coat, salespeople bombarded her like paparazzi. In today's society, all it takes is wearing some sweatpants into Coach to make the employees, and perhaps other shoppers, think you're poor.

Girl, you are not fooling anyone with those booties, sweatpants =  low class! DUH.

The reverse effect is also prominent: if you don't look the part to shop at certain stores, you might get a little too much attention from staff there, who'll go far enough to assume that you'll shoplift since your outfit is clearly the best indicator of your ability to afford their merchandise. Ageism and racism come into play here often; in a stuck-up employee's mind, how could a teenager ever afford a $200 wristlet when they're dressed... comfortably? Even worse, there are prejudiced employees that will take skin color into account for judging the likelihood of someone to shoplift. this brings to mind that episode of That's So Raven in which Raven goes undercover to expose Chelsea's boss of being racist. She instructs Chelsea to keep a special eye on undercover-Raven, simply because she's black and assumes that he-who's-really-a-she is more likely to shoplift than all the other customers in the store.

Bottom line, what you wear, what you look like, and who you are should have nothing to do with how employees judge you. It's ridiculous to think that you can't go shopping without getting undeserved attitude from stores that you're patronizing. Next time you go to the mall, walk through Nordstroms or Sephora in baggy sweatpants, and count the disdainful looks or (negative) extra attention you get. If you had a nickel for every judgment passed against you, you'd probably be rich enough to clean the shelves of those high-end stores off, but after being so judged, I doubt you'll want to.