No one here is saying 200 lbs is a ridiculously low weight, but as you are quoting, we are saying it’s a ridiculously low weight LIMIT. . . because it is. Not due to our fat clouding our eyes, but because most normal shit has a weight limit much higher than 200 lbs. Hell, the flimsy ass, cheap office chair I’m sitting in (like, bottom of the barrel cheap at the office store cheap)? I just checked and it has a 300 lb limit. When I was reading this thread at one of our other office, I checked the significantly fancier office chairs there and they had a 450 lb limit.
Remember: this isn’t just slowly lowering weight on the chair. If you flop your skinny ass (and I mean that as a compliment) in a chair at full speed, your 120 lb frame could create pressure on the chair much greater than your actual body weight. If the chair has a 200 lb maximum, by not sitting gently like a lady in it, even you could potentially break it. That’s why we’re saying that’s a ridiculously low weight limit. Nobody is arguing that 200 lbs is thin.
Thinking it over – I suppose in THIS case, it was an accident, and thus the customer wasn’t responsible. I guess I might be biased from years of working customer service and dealing with people who misuse equipment (NOT because they’re overweight!) and break it. So if it’s an accident – then yeah, don’t charge her.
I still believe in the “you break it, you buy it,” rule – if people are letting their kids jump on said chairs, or whatever, and said chair breaks, THEN the customer should be held responsible.*
I do, however believe that charging specifically overweight customers more is insane and just plain discrimination. Again – raise the prices over all.
*Waits for the whole, "you’re just changing your mind because everyone disagrees! Hehehehe
Actually, my understanding is that the woman charged the $5 did not break the chair–she was being charged the $5 because “fat people break chairs.” Did I read that wrong?
Assuming the woman could fit her butt in the chair, trying to charge her a surcharge is absurd and I doubt that the chair would collapse even if 10 300 lb women in a row sat in it.
I do notice that the manager appears to have a Korean name and almost all of the Korean women I’ve met have been really, really tiny - I go to a Korean owned/operated spa and the gals that work there are wee. I imagine that to a very small person 200 lbs sounds like a big number, although it’s really not in a north american context.
I suppose I’m curious if the women in question actually weighed 200 lbs, or if she was much larger and the manger just picked a number she thought sounded big. I guess if a really large person forced themselves into the chair it could damage it; although I’ve sat in that exact type of chair many times and the person would have to be REALLY large.
Would a tall person who is not fat but weighs over the limit get the charge. Would a fat person who is short be okay?Who decides? Weigh in every customer ? How about charging by the pound because a 195 pounder in harder on the equipment than 170 pounder. If it is about the equipment that would be only right.
In theory, that would be the fairest way to handle it. That’s what the DMV does. My motorcycle pays less then my car which pays less then a pickup truck which pays less then a truck… The heavier the vehicle, the more they’ll tear up the road. It’s only fair that the bigger vehicles should be paying more.
You’re talking about an Asian person running this joint. They’re the tiniest people there are. Of course they look at the average person here in Georgia and think everyone is huge.
You cannot stay in business while bringing peoples’ weight into question. It just isn’t going to happen. Welcome to the U.S.
If you’re so worried about your chairs, get some sturdier ones, or add a bit to the cost of your services. NUTS!
Actually, that’s kind of a good point about the Asian thing–I believe** Even Sven **said in some other thread that it was well known in China that 87lbs is the perfect weight for a woman to be. In the States, anyone suggesting that there is a perfect weight for all women, much less 87 fucking pounds, would be quickly told what an idiot he/she was. Weight is probably a touchier subject here than in other areas, and maybe the owner didn’t fully realize how offensive her actions were.
And it’s my “right” to point out that your opinion on the wisdom of a business practice when you have no familiarity with that business carries as much weight as the average electron.
If it makes you feel any better, I’m actually a financial advisor for a salon. Because I think the owner is a total sweetheart, I’ve also helped her with her web marketing, general advertising, hiring, buying, general day to day questions she has, etc. So, while I’m not Cat Whisperer, I probably do know a little bit about how a salon is run.
And I’ll tell you, Rand, the biggest point you simply must advertise in the salon business is that your customers can walk in and be comfortable, because there are no judgments. Women go to salons to get Brazilian waxes (part of which is getting the hair on your ass crack waxed), their facial hair waxed, get massages all over their bodies of different sizes with different oddities, get the disgusting callouses scrapped off their feet, and all kinds of other potentially embarrassing things. It’s the job of the salon provider to show that person that there is nothing freakish about their issue-- and I’m sure any beauty professional or even massage therapist would back me up on that.
Surely, the salon owner in question is welcome to institute whatever policy she wants for her customers. That doesn’t mean such a policy will see any long term success, particularly in a business so dependent on the comfort of its clients.
Exactly. I might be grossed out by that…thing… you have on your leg, but I’ll save my gagging and “OMG! You should have seen…” tales for the breakroom.
And it’s my right to point out that your opinion of my opinion carries even less weight! I could do this all day! (Not really. I have to go mow the lawn at some point.)
You know, this might be a good time for this - someone said a while ago that I didn’t like you, and I forgot to address it at that point - I actually do like you. You help keep things interesting around here.
Look, I’m probably not being that clear here (assuning I am ever all that clear). I don’t think there’s anything wrong with discussing the merits of a decision someone makes about how to run their business.
What makes me get all :dubious: and :rolleyes: is when a poster comes charging in with statements such as “well obviously the salon owner is doing something completely stupid and will go out of business within the quarter.” The salon owner operates her business every day and has actual money on the line. And the article we read may not have described the exact policy accurately. So, none of us here (not even diosa) have the ability to make such certain pronouncements about the wisdom of the decision.
And maybe in some extremely homogenous countries, it’s possible to say “a woman should weigh this much, or in this range” because just about all the women have the same bone structure and height. However, in the US, you have women like my little sister, who is 4’9" and has teeny tiny bird bones, and then you have women like my doctor’s sister, who is well over 6’6" (my doctor is over 7"), and who has a heavy bone structure and a wide build. She’s in tip top physical shape, but she’d have to have both of her legs and one arm amputated before she could weigh as little as 87 pounds. In fact, I’m not sure that even in those circumstances she could get down to that weight.
Americans come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, and one size does NOT fit all.
Hehehehe
