I’m just a regular guy in his 40s. I’m not trendy in any way. But I also am reasonably kempt (certainly not unkempt).
There’s a particular brand of shampoo I like, and it’s available at a place near my house that is a spa. You can get your hair cut and other treatments there. It has never occurred to me to inquire into their services, though.
Whenever I walk in, the service people up front all give me that look that says, “We don’t have public restrooms.” I walk over to the racks of products. I can’t imagine how they get the timing right, but JUST as I grab the bottle I want, an employee will ask, “Can I help you find something?” And what I can hear in the voice is, “…some place else?”
I suppose anyone reading this might think it’s ME with the attitude, but it isn’t, I swear. I always walk in with a smile, get what I need, and then hurry my ass out. They always have about five(!) people up front taking care of customer service, and each one just can’t seem to get rid of me fast enough. Yeah, I realize I’m not one of the Beautiful People®, but, hey, my skin isn’t getting any younger, and maybe I’d like to try a little spa treatment. But not that that place.
My last gripe is the credit card receipt. It always has a line for a tip. I realize this is a convenience for someone who got a spa treatment, but can’t they turn that line off and on?
I used to work in a spa. It’s not you. One thing that might work is going straight up to the counter when you come in, rather than to the product shelf (they’re paranoid about people stealing that stuff because the boss hassles them 4000 times a day about not letting that happen). Even though you know exactly what you want and where it is, just go up and ask the girl for the product by name. She’ll get it for you, ring you up, and you’ll probably get a big fake smile instead of the stink eye.
There are places to “go get something” (stores, bike shops, etc.) and places to "go hang out (bars, coffee shops, etc.). Often the (young) people who are required as employees to be at either type of place fail to see the distinction, and don’t realize that in the case of the former, all they want are customers with money to keep the inventory fluid; while in some cases in the latter, the wrong type of customer will drive away the desirable ones.
As a wrong type of customer, I’ve found the internet and the USPS to be wonderfully accepting of my loathsome repulsiveness.
As a full-service customer I have experienced the same thing at several local spas. It seems that overweight women are not meant to need massage or other treatments.
In one place the hostess instructed me to undress and handed me an obviously too-small robe, then walked away giggling. Fortunately the cleaning lady was close by, snorted in disgust and brought me a proper robe.
When I spoke to the manager (to tell her how wonderful her cleaning lady had treated me) I never got past the first half of the story. When I told her about the too-small robe she just huffed, and halfsmiled while giving me one of those “significant” up-and-down looks judgemental people do.
I feel certain the scathing internet reviews I gave them will have some effect. Every now and then something like this comes up to remind me and I go update them to keep them near the top of the column.
Other places were just sort of rude or lackadaisical. They are really hoping for the obvious retail make-up spendy types, not the exhausted single Mom with sore shoulders. :: sigh ::
I haven’t worked at a spa, but I have worked at a hoity-toity stationery shop. At that shop, the owner (who was always working there) was looking for people who were Somebody; if you weren’t spending huge amounts of money there on a regular basis, or referred by somebody who was, you were a customer non grata. We’d take your money, but it would have been gawky 16 year old me taking it and messing up the cash register while doing so.
Probably the same thing going on at the spa. Plus, you know, you’re male. Automatic wtf-is-HE-doing-here-OMG.
I’ve had the same thing. Someone gave me a gift certificate to Kimberly’s here. They were cold and just this side of rude and it certainly didn’t make me wanna come back.
Go on, enjoy your beautiful people, and don’t get our money.
I get this as a hippie chick even at Ulta. Y’know, the Walgreens-minus-toilet-paper cosmetic store.
Look, biotches…just because I’m not wearing makeup at this moment doesn’t mean I *never *wear makeup. And in fact, I wear the expensive Bare Minerals makeup, 'cause it doesn’t look like your whore makeup AND I wear sparkles and bindis and theatrical makeup at my hippie festivals, so fuck y’all, I’ll take my makeup budget online.
And you *really *don’t want to know what it’s like being an overweight massage therapist trying to get a *job *at one of those snooty spas. It’s the primary reason I went to nursing school after massage school.
Some spas/salons have an image they are trying to market. If you are young, thin, beautiful, and fashionable they want you telling all your friends where you go. If you don’t fit their target they’d rather not have you as a client, even just to come in and buy product and leave quickly.
A woman I work with was told point-blank to find a new salon, because she did not fit their image.
If looks could kill, I would be on trial for the mass murder in the Virginia Highlands Aveda.
It was a very “Julia Roberts in the first shopping trip in Pretty Woman” moment for me. I looked for my product and when I couldn’t find it I bothered the poor people that worked there by asking where it was. I was told they had no idea what it was and that it probably wasn’t really Aveda. I finally got out of one of them that it had been discontinued. When I started with “Oh that’s too bad, I really lik…” I got the mid-sentence turnaround.
I just gave a “Whatever!” and stormed out.
I will say that the Aveda in Hoover, AL has one of the nicest staffs I’ve ever come across though.
It’s not just you. I’m a normal-looking female and have had all kinds of troubles in all kinds of places for various reasons that boiled down to ‘You’re not who we want as a customer’.
What I don’t get is how this would even possibly work. Pretty people don’t just hang out with themselves. Nearly every pretty person I’ve ever met hangs out with at least someone who does not fit their niche. And the exceptions are all people who will make your life hell if you aren’t perfect.
It just seems like this sort of thing is asking for trouble.
I get that at almost any place that caters mainly to women. My wife’s hair place, if I go inside when I pick her up. Its like they think I’m going to pee on the floor. My last visit, ever, to Victoria’s Secret they intercepted me 5 times with “can I help you” before I reached the back of the small store. I’m pretty sure they are required to bug people but it feels to me like white blood cells attacking an infection and I’m the infection.
That’s a shame that this happens anywhere, but I’m surprised by it happening at Ulta. I wouldn’t be surprised by it happening at a salon or a makeup store in the Galleria or some fancy area, but like you said, Ulta really is Walgreens with just cosmetics.
I’ve gone to the Ulta near my apartment several times and they’ve always been nice to me. And I’m never wearing makeup or look fancy when I go in, and am never made to feel awkward about it. The only thing that would dissuade me from going in is that there’s often a long line. And I usually end up buying more than I intended.
I must say, I never get even the remotest feel of this from Sephora’s. Even though they have lots of tiny, petite girls, they are super nice and eager to help you, even people like me that need some help (brown skin, and so many makeup instructions are for WHITE SKIN).
Anaamika, this is going off on a tangent, but your story reminded me of something I had to deal with one year in my Sunday School class.
We were doing a little play I’d written, for Daniel in the Lion’s Den. Two boys were playing lions, and I’d worked up a mane out of thick brown yarn. Then I had to make their faces up like cats. One boy was a very pale blond, and the other was a very dark brown. It was challenging to the makeup impaired person that I am, to get more or less the same face pattern.
