So how do you want the place organized? Pants separated by size, so each rack may have Carhartt, Dickies and Wrangler all mish-mashed together? I’d quickly get irritated with a store that did that if I’m after a pair of 38/32 black single-knee Carhartt because I know what fits me in that brand and I had to wade through all the other brands and styles on the same rack that may have the same size number, but in reality fit differently.
Merchandise separated by garment type, the way they routinely were in pretty much all department/clothing stores up to about 20-25 years ago.
I don’t care if different brands each have their own racks/shelves in the pants department, but I shouldn’t have to go from the Carhartt pants through the Carhartt shirts, Carhartt jackets and Carhartt underwear to get to the Wrangler pants.
Because if I’m looking for a pair of pants, and I don’t find anything in the Carhartt pants selection that I like, a pair of Wrangler pants or Dickies pants is likely to be closer to what I want than a Carhartt shirt is.
People still primarily want to shop by garment type, but stores have been making that much more difficult because they’re trying to make us shop by brand instead. Stop it, stores.
Macy’s is the worst with this.
This change has occurred in Australia also. The department stores were losing out to the boutiques, so they figured they had to turn their departments into a group of mini-boutiques.
It started with clothing but I went to buy a piece of kitchenware a few weeks ago and now it’s infested there also. I ask a sales assistant where they keep their Widgets preferably in green and the answer is “Oh I think MuMu might have something like that, they’re over there and umm… Hey Sally do Mollybagoo do a Widget in green? Or was that last season? Anyway, they’re over there and I think Motchykoo do something in a sort of lime green, they’re at the other end of the floor.”
I just left.
What I wanted to say was “I could not give a flying rat’s fuck what word the (probably) two actual distributors of widgets have chosen to put on their products - all of which probably come out of the same factory in China anyway - this ‘season’. Just give me an Og-damned shelf with all your frickin’ widgets on, so I can choose one.”
At least when I was last there, M&S in the UK - and maybe also John Lewis although it’s years since I went there - don’t do this crap. Which is why it’s actually easier for me to use a computer in Australia to buy something from a shop 15,000km away than it is to buy something from a shop that I can walk to in 20 minutes.
There’s a huge difference between say Levi’s 511 and Wrangler Dad Jeans and Tony Hawk skate pants. Or whatever. I sure as hell want to be able to find a brand and style and then find my size from there. I don’t shop at any fancy stores or these stadium-sizes places where you have to walk multiple football fields to cover the pants section. Most places I shop have like a jeans section maybe taking up 500 square feet with shelves and racks sorted by brand and style. Don’t like Levi’s? Hey, pivot and turn 3 feet and here’s the Lee. Want pleated Dockers for some inexplicable reason? Turn around the corner.
I guess I understand the point- as mentioned Macy’s seems to be a big offender, and some other similar stores. Maybe I just stick to stores that mostly do the “garment type” thing. I thought the OP was saying it was better just to throw ever brand and style of pants onto a “Size 34” shelf or something.
And yeah, add another vote to buying online, though even when you find something that works sometimes the sizing is not consistent.
I’m fine with (say) all jeans being in one area, but sorted by brand/style size within the jeans area. It’s when the department store is sorted into a Brand X boutique which has some jeans. and a Brand Y boutique which has some jeans, and so on, that I walk out.
Pretty much every department store that pretends to be higher-class than Sears does this, so you have to either know that you want Club Room or Perry Ellis and not Izod or Saville Row, or you take a leisurely stroll around the place, hoping to find what you want in one of a dozen mini stores.
The term for this in the biz is VMI, Vendor Managed Inventory. In many cases, especially with short shelf life (baked goods) or high turnover items (soft drinks) the vendor is doing it to maintain their brand/image. If a store is spotty in its replenishment practices, customers will sometimes select alternative products if the favorite is not there. With perishables, they dont want the stores dragging product out past its good shelf life. People buying 3 day old french bread start thinking its the brand, thus select others.
in the case of department/warehouse stores, though, I doubt that the store has separate representatives from Izod and Levi’s and all the other manufacturers coming in to manage all their separate single-brand “boutiquettes”. It’s the store’s own staff who handle the inventory from all the different manufacturers. So the finger of blame is still pointed squarely at the store in those cases.
You may have better luck at stores where they DO display clothes by type and size rather than brand. Somebody already mentioned Burlington Coat Factory. You may also want to try TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Saks off 5th Ave, Nordstrom Rack, Ross, etc.