The Creepiest Store at the Mall

I hit the after-Christmas sale at Dress Barn to find a nice dress for New Year's Eve. I found several possibilities on the clearance rack, and a saleswoman was nice enough to set me up with a dressing room. She asked my name and wrote it on a slate on the dressing room door. That's actually a convenient service for a customer who sends some items to her dressing room while continuing to browse the racks.

Once in the dressing room, however, the saleswoman kept asking me "How's it going in there?" I told her fine; I had tried on the first dress, decided it wasn't flattering and was putting on the second. "Do you want a second opinion?" she asked. "No, thank you." (I really don't need a 20-something saleswoman to tell me that a dress doesn't flatter my 40-something figure).

She kept asking if I needed help with a zipper, or if she could see the dress on me. I would have wondered about this particular saleswoman if not for the fact that another employee was hanging around the vicinity with nothing to do (it was a slow evening at the store), and so this was clearly standard operating procedure at Dress Barn.

Once my selection was made, I was asked if I needed a shawl or sweater, or any foundation garments, or jewelry, or hosiery. I assured the staff that I just needed the dress. I realize that they have an incentive to sell additional accessories wherever possible, and they are trained to ask customers this each and every time. But I still found it annoying, after I already said I just wanted the dress, to have to listen to the rest of the list of potential additional purchases.

All in all, although I like the inventory at Dress Barn, and the prices are better than similar garments at J.C. Penney, I much prefer the experience at Penney's, where I am never harrassed in the dressing room, and the cashier trusts that, if I wanted jewelry or foundation garments, I would have selected them for myself.