Monday, October 20, 2008

Fashion Peeves

When I used to work retail in the US of Hey, the merchandising rule was that if we only had one piece left of a particular item, we weren’t allowed to put it on display. Whatup stores in Kuwait??

Zara is the #1 culprit: They put one piece in a store window and every time you (or the other elf million customers) ask if you can buy it, they say, “No. Sorry, Madame, but it is our last piece.” Yeah, well no shit. I want to BUY it. Do I care if it is your last piece? If it has a price tag on it, sell me the damn thing! Right now, it is a particular black bag in the window of their store in the Avenues. Zara manager (kind of scoffing), “Yes, we have had 4 other customers insist on buying it also.” Well no duuuuuuuh!!!! Someone should go home with it! What is it – a frickin CONTEST???

Zara also has my peeve in terms of sizes. Who the F does their buying???? When in doubt, buy mediums. That’s all they always have! Medium. I have spoken to several Zara managers about this. Me: Why don’t you buy more large and extra large? Them: Because they sell out first. Me: That defies logic. If they sell out first, wouldn’t you want to stock more of them than of medium?

By the by, Zara ALWAYS has the same stock answer when getting rid of irate customers, “Come back on Monday or Tuesday. We will have another shipment….” BULL HOOEY!

Like lots of other encounters, I leave feeling frustrated and pissed off. So I ask – do I trouble myself for the better good or just to piss myself off? Does anyone listen?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

hahaha..tht was way too funny...but in reality its not funny when they say it at your face really...Yeah sadly even this happens only in Kuwait ...You're searchin like hell thru a store and finally when u see somethin tht u really like and wanna buy desperately ..the sales guy tells..but sorry sir we just dont have ur size or its our of stock..God damnit...i just feel like sockin tht guy !!!

NBQ said...

Oh yeah! That's why I gave up buying from Zara a long time ago & just browse when i'm passing by without checking the size! I got so frustrated that they didn't seem to have size 38/42 of pants that I really wanted to get; I just thought that was intentional or something!
I guess i'll just have to cut my ste size down as I do have a gym membership (lool; my wife gave up hope of that ever happening as i've been saying that for the past 6 years; only time my waste size shrunk was when I got cancer 3 years ago. lost ~25kg. Gained
it all back after chemo from all the steroids lol. Hmmm. nonetheless, I better hit the gym soon as my cholesterol's a bit up mostly due to chocolate bar & other chocholate ice-cream consumption in Australia this past summer; I hope they don't open a Gelatismo in Q8; my wife & I went crazy on their ice-cream.. over 16 flavours or so of chocolate, including chilli choc!!)

Anonymous said...

I've found that a lot of stores in Kuwait have this problem. It's like they don't know the market, which is simply bad business.

Anonymous said...

Funny about Zara...I have exactly the same issues! However, beat this...went into Nine West the other day to look for shoes. Found one I liked, and it was in my size (a size 10, yes I am a big foot!). Tried that one on and asked for the other one of the pair. Response - "sorry Madam, we only have that one shoe for display"...and not the other half of the pair. Whats with that!!??

Anonymous said...

@ bigfoot- thats a common problem with Nine west..they always have only " the last piece" happened to me more than a couple of times! but i was lucky in all the cases with me taking the last piece home!:)

P.S has anyone tried to get a body massage from Strands?? wanna try it but not sure how good it is...does anyone knw of any other good massage parlours here..something within salmiya/city...has to be a clean with clean environment as well as a clean certified masseuse. I desperately need one! any ideas DG?

Anonymous said...

Don't give up on Zara. They are a Spanish run company that does not use sweatshop labour to make their clothing. I don't like to shop Zara here in Kuwait for the reasons you state but I hit their store up when I am in Italy. The retail staff there bend over backwards for you and would never tell you that you cannot purchase the last item of anything. They have taken items out of the window for me. Maybe if we start emailing the home company, we can get them to talk to their people here. A little retail training or a class for them might help....

Desert Girl said...

It is November 16th now. The black bag is STILL in the window at Zara, Avenues!