I take the clothes back to where I got them, on the rack, in the same way (unless they folded the shirt in a special way, then I try my best).
Oh yeah. I are 26 and dude.
I learned store-style folding techniques during my employment at L.L. Bean. People are just short of amazed when they see me do it, as though I were performing magic. They obviously need to get out more.
I worked at Aeropostale for a Christmas season. Obviously, nothing that was folded there sank through my thick skull.
Eventually, I’ll fire up the Internet video on how to and smash the technique into the squishy part of my skull.
Fold and hang up neatly. I never leave anything in the dressing room. Replace items or hand to attendant.
Female, 36.
Hang up or fold as close as possible to the way I found it (I’m not an expert folder, by any means) and return the item whence it came. It wouldn’t occur to me to leave the items for someone else to put away.
53, female and chief-putter-awayer.
Christ, yes. I treat other people’s property as well as or often better than I treat my own. Plus, the sales ladies are not my personal maids, and I don’t leave messes around public places for other people to pick up.
Plus, having worked in retail and knowing how many people will walk around a store leaving unwanted items where ever they happen to set them down on a shelf because they’re too lazy to put stuff back where it belongs… well, it drives me a bit mad. People are such lazy slobs when they’re anonymous.
I’m 25. I hang stuff back up on hangers and return things either to the attendant or back to the shelf. I learned this from my mom, or grandmother, or whichever adult happened to be taking me shopping, I suppose.
If it was on a hanger, and I can figure out how to get it back on the hanger, then it goes back on the hanger.
Otherwise (I can’t rehang it, or it came in folded), I’ll try to fold it and leave it on the bench/chair thingy.
I usually leave things in the dressing room - but if I’m going right back to or by the rack it came from, I’ll put whatever back on the rack.
I’m not sure I’ve noticed a “return rack” in the places I usually shop.
30s. I’m not sure where it came from.
Yep, if there’s no one around, I put the hangers back on and leave them on the counter. I’ve worked retail and having people “put them back” themselves often isn’t much of a favor since half the time they need to be fixed afterwards anyway. It’s easier to grab them off the counter and put them away than discover them amiss on the racks.
I hang everything back up nicely or give it to the attendant. My only exception is bras. I sort of sling them on the hanger and hand them to an employee with my regrets. For some reason, I can’t ever hang bras back up that look anywhere normal.
I’m 38.
I will put things back on the hanger, hand them to the attendant, or hang them on the rack by the door.
I don’t put them back where I got them. Not to be snarky, but that’s the job of the staff.
If it was on a hangar, it goes back on a hangar. If it was folded, I try to fold it. What I do with it then depends on the store…
If I’m some place nice, like Nordstrom, where the sales girl is helping me and all that, I just leave what I’m not buying in the dressing room. I know that is what they expect. If I’m at some place, less nice, like Old Navy, I take everything with me and put it on the counter where the attendant is.
I fold and hang. If there’s rack in the changing room, that’s where I put it. I sometimes return things to the floor, but that’s usually if I know I’m going back there to get a different size to try on, or if there’s no rack to put it on. I don’t know where I learned that, but my grandmother was a seamstress in NY’s garment district, and she would never throw clothes on the floor and leave them there–someone just like her made that!
When I was in college, I worked summers in a sporting goods store. They had tables full of t-shirts that people would pull out, look at, and apparently ball up to throw onto the pile in a huge mess. I spent many hours folding shirts. I always re-fold shirts when I look at them on the sales floor.
I put things back the way they were and put them back where I got them from, since there’s seldom an attendant around. If I can’t remember where I got them from, I leave them on the rack near the fitting room. Why do I do this? There are three reasons. First, my mother would like to think she taught me how to act like a civilized human being. Second, I also used to work in a department store and I’ve cleaned out my share of dressing rooms. Third, I’ve gotten to a size where there aren’t as many items out on a rack which are my size. If I don’t like something, it would be nice for someone else who’s my size to be able to find it. Oh yes, I’m 42.
At the department store I worked at, there were worse things than cleaning up clothes, by the way. Several times, someone used one of the fitting rooms as bathrooms! This, by the way, was the best department store in Pittsburgh, one which is now owned by Macy’s. I don’t know if they ever caught who did it, but I’m glad it didn’t happen when I was working in those departments. Why on earth would someone do such a thing?
I worked seasonally in (what I believe is) the same department store as Siege. I didn’t have to clean up adult bathroom messes, but I remember finding dirty diapers left on the changeroom floor.
Normally the store didn’t have dedicated fitting room attendants. However, things got so out of hand at back-to-school time in the juniors’ department that I had the pleasure of sitting in the tiny room for 8hrs passing out numbers. This served two purposes - theft deterrence and cleanliness. The previous summer when they had no one checking that clothes that went in with people came out with people they had piles of Levis knee deep on the floor. It was unreal.
I put stuff back on the hangars but in such a fashion that they can be easily removed. I used to try to put pants back like they were before but I could never get it right. I figure that since the salespeople will have to rehang the pants no matter which way I arrange them, I might as well make it easier for them. When I’m done with all of the clothes I’ve tried on, I take them out of the dressing room and put them on a communal rack, if there is one. If not, I leave them in the dressing room or find someone to take them.
I’m 18.
Prolly Outing Day for the local Home for The Mentally Impaired. OMG.
Okay…I don’t always understand the department store fold. If it’s a tricky one, I just fold neatly and put it back and let the shelf-facers deal with the perfection of the fold. But I’d never do a crumple-n-stash. That’s just obnoxious.
I do it out of habit, because my Grandma taught me to fold clothes (and she worked at Woolworth’s for a number of years) and I find for some reason it fits better in my drawers than my Mom’s way (fold in half, vertically, then horzontally).
How they get those exact creases is a result of a table. You lay the shirt out on the table, which has hinges so the table itself folds up taking the shirt with it and creating those so-perfect creases. How I learned is pretty simple, and most stores fold this way.
Grab the shirt from the shoulders.
Hold in front of you, ‘snap’ it to straighten any wrinkles.
Flip the arms behind.
Set bottom half of shirt on table, fold the top back to lay flat on the top. (Depending on the store, there might be another fold in there so it’s smaller).
Set on the table/pile.
Or to really impress you can just refold it this way.
Both ways leave it so you can see the neckline and top of the design (if there is one).
I too spent many hours folding shirts. I worked at a deep discount store for awhile, mostly in clothing (and purses, sometimes shoes). It gets to be rote after a bit. I can sympathize with the stuff found in dressing rooms though… there was a few times where I found someone’s dirty underwear (they’d taken a ‘fresh’ pair from one of the bins and changed in the dressing room). Thankfully I missed the people using the dressing room as a washroom times.
Same here.
Age: 39
Gender: F
Status: ditto
Why:double ditto
This is why I don’t put the clothes back on the racks, either.
The dress I bought on Monday: it’s a wrap-around dress and was arrayed kind of oddly on the hanger – the sash was wrapped and tied so that the size hrmrhrmrhm dress looked like a size 2 and wouldn’t get everywhere. I hadn’t the foggiest notion how to tie it back the way it went, so if I had not bought it I would have put it on the hanger and left it in the changing room (just because they had no rack).
Folded shirts – same deal. I don’t have the little plastic thing they use to refold, so I fold the stuff as neatly as I can. If there’s a counter to leave it on, I’ll leave it there. If not, it’s folded neatly on the bench in my dressing room. If there was no bench in the dressing room I’d take it up to the front counter, I guess, because there’s nothing more annoying than finding the shirts all out of order and folded every which way.
The $2.49 shirt I bought from Target yesterday (I needed something I could mess up) I tried on with several other garments. I kept the shirt and handed the other clothes back to the attendant.
So yeah. If there’s a rack or an attendant, they get whatever I didn’t use. If not, the clothes stay hanging in the dressing room (and I’ll probably go and try on other stuff) or I take 'em up to the front.