Go Shop Somewhere Else.

 

I have worked retail for over 20 years. I know there are those customers that you are not going be able to please no matter what you do. The saying," the customer is always right" is not true. Even then, I would not knowingly go out of my way to insult a customer. A clothing store in Australia feels otherwise. The clothing chain GASP has decided to defend an employee who insulted a customer.

A young lady went there recently to look at bridesmaid dresses. When it became obvious that she wasn't going to buy anything the clerk told her, "Have fun shopping at Supre... I knew you were a joke the minute you walked in." Supre is an Australian clothing store known to carry larger size clothing. Of course, the young lady was outraged and wrote a letter to GASP. Imagine her surprise when she received a response to her letter basically telling her not to come back. You can read the full article here, which also contains both her letter and the companies response.

GASP seems to be unrepentant. In fact, they are reveling in the publicity and seem to think that they have done a great thing. They claim that sales are up tremendously. In one sense, that doesn't surprise me, but I believe it will turn out to be a very short-term success for them. I think more people will be outraged then will support them and that will turn into their down fall. There have been several customers that I would have to love to have told off, but that kind of behavior does not solve anything. That would have been reaching down to their level and I refuse to stoop that low. Another day, I will do a post on the theme the customer is not always right. Regardless of how I have felt in the past I would never have insulted a customer the way that that they did. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.