In connection with a project for school, some friends and I went to the most upscale mall in Spokane dressed as street people, to see if we’d be acknowledged in the nice stores. 
Certainly we were not given the respect we were later when we went back shopping in our regular clothes; however, the most disturbing aspect of the experience for me was how creepy I felt about acting like that. Because, of course, my body language and character of interaction had to change in order for me to become a bag lady.
The humor in this outfit is the knit hat: The knit hat I actually bought new at Banana Republic last year. BR was actually one of the stores I went into dressed like this. To make it look worn, because it hasn’t been, I lint-brushed it backwards! lol
In discussing this project with one of our classes, the group concluded that many of us are denied the service needed to accomplish the purchases we are planning to make – even if we have the money.
My advice to those who can’t get waited on is two-fold:
- Carry a prop. A bag from an expensive store in the same mall, filled with tissue, works really well.
- If that fails, shop online.
My advice to retailers: Customer service can overcome nearly every customer objection. The only one I think it really can’t overcome is not having what the customer wants. If you want to compete with online shopping and come out on top, you need to make the shopping experience pleasant!
The winner of the (imaginary) customer service award for this experiment was Macy’s.
Is that you????!!!! I”ve been striving to dress more like that since I got mugged
and my purse stolen, a block from my house. I find I’m constantly thrown into an
identity crisis of sorts. Did anyone try another leg of the experiment: wear those
same exact clothes but stride into the stores looking confident and feeling enviably
fashion forward ? I think that posture in the photo says, I don’t belong here. What if the posture said, My Mercedes is double-parked?
and also, I guess – part 4: go in dressed well but with bag lady body language.
Ha ha! The hero kept telling me I looked “too clean, too put together. everything matches.” Body language is huge, isn’t it? Maybe you could keep a giant Value Village bag in your purse and pull it out and put your purse into it when you need to be “discreet”.
Since I started going to school and carrying a back pack with everything in it, I have my wallet type stuff in the “purse” picture back here: https://betweenmypeers.com/2008/03/24/what-ill-wear-on-the-plane/. I took the strap off and put my belt through it and it rides securely on my hip. The only thing with that is I guess I better give up on trying to get a longer coat, because that would be stupid-looking. lol
Anyway, to answer your question: I am not certain if the two older ladies changed their normal posture or not. I tried to make as big a contrast as possible. Certainly there is alot more that could be studied! 🙂
Aside from the bag you look like a middle class woman in a mall. My hunch is that your teeth, nails and skin would give you away, too. Salespersons here say they look at the shoes and bag to assess whether the person is a likely customer- that is, can buy the goods in the store.
Oddly, I’ve had sales people (on a few rare occasions) insinuate the goods are out of reach for me, to evoke and “I’ll show you ” buying response.
Hi Rebecca – this reminds me of a high school project a friend’s son did a few years ago. The assignment was to go somewhere and behave “outside of accepted social norms.” He dressed head-to-toe in black leather, put on a ski mask, went into Walmart and asked customer service where he could find a crowbar. Oddly, and this is more than a little terrifying, they sold him a crowbar and nobody seemed to register any alarm.
Wow! I wonder if he was creeped out by doing that. I sure hope he got an A!
Happy December, Mel! 🙂