What Goes With This...

one of my customers asked me as they were holding up a pair of cotton and spandex blend pair of BLACK pants. After I looked at her quizzically and she back at me the conversation went as follows:

Me: Do you mean was there a specific piece to match it?
Her: I guess so.
Me: No, there wasn't. What kind of a thing are you looking for?
Her: Something to go with these. (holds pants out to me)
I am thinking...actually screaming to self...THEY ARE F'ING BLACK PANTS...ANYTHING WILL GO...and instead of voicing that opinion asked...
Me: What are you looking for? A sweater?
Her: I don't know...
Me: A jacket?
Her: I don't know...
Me: Casual?
Her: I don't know...

We're starting to see a pattern here...and as we begin our tour of the store and look at every piece with black print in it or a black that didn't match the particular black of the pant, it became clear that she wanted sale merchandise only and only wanted to spend no more than $70...well and good and that was a good thing to know. We found her a jacket that was on sale that looked great on her...showed her how to put a belt on top of the jacket and I could tell by the way she looked at herself in the mirror, she was happy and felt cool and pretty. Mission accomplished.

...but why does it have to be so hard? If she only wanted sale (which is what I look for) why couldn't she say that off the bat? Did she think that I would not be helpful or nice to her if she told me that? Maybe that was her thought process...and that kind of makes me sad.

Part Deux of Strange Little Monkeys in Chicoland...and this one was Flying because she had been at the Rusty Bucket with her girlfriend. I admire and applaud and miss and lust for girlfriend time and lunch/dinner and shopping is the best girlfriend time ever. (Connie and I blew off Sunday excerpts at OCTA for Girl's Day at Easton) I am believing though that when the sales person can smell your alcohol content two feet across the counter...you may want to rethink your shopping expedition. We found this person what she wanted after a little confusion at my interpretation of what she was looking for and that was all well and good. Her friend pipes up as the woman is checking out that she has a coupon that she can use....we could look it up.

We have changed our coupon policy so that you can only use your own and not look up someone else's because of "Privacy Issues" (i.e. the company finally figured out that people were abusing the system...NO DUH!) I explain that I am sorry but we can't do that any longer blahblahblah...and then the following conversation ensues...

Her to Friend: I know Verna Gibson who was the President of The Limited...
Friend: Who?
Her: Verna Gibson...she was the President of the Limited and now is on the Board of Directors for Chico's. I know her. I was her Financial Planner...God, the Chico stock sucks...I would have thought it would be doing better now that Verna Gibson (who I know) is on the Board of Directors...

I do believe that I heard the name Verna Gibson at least ten more times and fuck it, I took the stupid $20 off for the friend's coupon. I didn't tell her that I did it and she will probably never even realize.

I hate it that women can come into our store and stomp their feet and know that we will buckle because God forbid our District Manager gets a complaint call. That is anathema in Chicoland.

I don't like being bullied and that's what she was doing to me.

I hope she feels like crap in the morning.