Continuing the Old Navy Plus Line saga

[skinful]

I'm a newish member (hi all!), and having been inspired by nakedfotolady's letter a few entries down, I sent in an email of my own. The reply was prompt, but about what I expected; it looks as though it was taken directly out of some customer service phrase book.

Comments

[damedini]

A cop-out indeed. We could always pull a "Pretty Woman": walk into the store, ask to speak to the manager and explain that we were in the mall to spend x amount on clothes - too bad they don't have what we want.
perhaps also come back with out load of shopping bags filled elsewhere.

[asteroidbelt]

too bad in the grand scheme of things the store manager really has no pull in regards to what the stores carry.

[damedini]

True, they have no pull in the merchandising. But they do interact directly with the merchandisers and area managers. If all three stores in {big city} have six women come in in a month to display that there's a market, it may just sink in.

My experience is more with owning a small chain (my father, not me), but I remember hippies coming into his jean store with measuring tapes in the 60s to make sure the bells were big enough. He then made a point of having big bellbottoms on the jeans. When the companies came by with the samples he had his own measuring tape out.

As I say, he owned a /small/ chain, but stores exist to sell product and make money. Show them a palpable profit vector and they will respond.

[asteroidbelt]

i think on a small level confronting them on store level is good. but i've worked for different huge retailers and they don't give a shit what stores have to give in regards to customer feedback. all they look at is sales.
but i can't even go and buy anything in the stores since they never brought the plus line to canada!

[roisnoir]

I think I might be one of the lucky ones who gets to keep the plus-sized section in the ON near work. (No serious clearance deals there last night (well, a nice belt for $3.97, but it's probably two seasons old.))

But if they lost the plus section, I was planning on putting on my nicest matching undwear set, and jiggling around the store, informing them that I needed something to wear, and why can they no longer provide?

[heatherglenn]

Dude...that would be AWESOME!!!

Lol...can you imagine if there were enough women as brave as you nationwide - so we could protest in this huge coordinated effort? That would be GREAT! "Until you reinstate the plus sizes in stores - there will be plus-sized women in their underwear in EVERY store!"

Too bad I'm such a chicken.

[amye]

HAHAHAHAh! oh my god, that's it! a group of near-naked, fat women wandering confusedly around the former-plus-section, asking where the clothing went?

man, i can see it now.

[roisnoir]

Cheap, vaugely stylish clothing that fits*.
Not everyone can order online, or wants to.

*sizewise, anyhow. Actual fit.. well... they make stretchy things. :P

We've got few enough options for current-styled clothing, and fewer still that are reasonably inexpensive. (I don't think that $30 for jeans is exactly *cheap*, but it's better than $90 I paid for the pair previous.)

Why let it go without a fight?

[nakedfotolady]

why wouldn't or shouldn't we be?

[nakedfotolady]

that is literally the exact same letter i got...word for word. i am thinking of writing back and saying, i'm fat, not stupid, and you missed the point of my email. assholes.

[heatherglenn]

I got it, too...and that's pretty much what I did.

[saucepot]

I've heard that customer service departments place a lot more stock in a mailed-in paper letter than a phone call or email. Just a thought. Maybe if enough people write actual letters, they'd take notice?

[skinful]

I've been thinking about that! I never planned to turn this into any sort of project, but I'd love to get a bunch of women to send hand written letters out en masse (maybe the members of this comm?), if only to see what kind of reaction it would cause. All my good friends are big girls, but just the four or five of us doesn't pack too much of a punch.

[saucepot]

I'd send one. There's some statistic I've heard - companies view one concrete mailed letter as the voice of (x number) consumers. Fill in the blank re: x number, but the number's less for a phone call or email.

[nakedfotolady]

yeah...i'd do it...hell i saved my letter, so i could just print it out and mail it in.