I’m With Charlie

Saturday, February 10, 2024

I laughed at his mom’s capture of Charlie while she tried on Intimates.

The Store’s customers make it fun to be a part-time worker. Charlie’s person is the sort of pleasant customer who eases my “afterward job” of picking up and putting away. At the bottom line, fun wins everybody over.

Working in Intimates has taught me that “women and bras” are a phenomenon more interesting than I could have imagined. Many women out shopping try on bras, not a few at a time, but dozens at once. Often they leave without purchasing or complain that nothing “works” for them.

Upon entering newly vacated dressing rooms, I often see masses of bras hanging randomly or tried on and dumped on the floor. Yesterday, my inner-self cheered kudos to Charlie’s mom for having picked up and neatly re-hung her try-ons. We working in Intimates must ensure that tried-on bras are correctly rehung (yes, there’s a formula) and then we search to relocate each among a baker’s dozens of bra racks.

So much bra trying-on makes me wonder if it’s a fetish among some women. Of course, there are good reasons, like post-surgery or weight changes, for trying on lots of bras. What strikes me as odd is the high number of customers who try on lots of bras all at once, surely outnumbering women who have genuine needs.

Reasons matter little as to why so many shoppers select bunches of bras, try them on, and then hang them loosely or toss them onto the floor. What’s real is the complex business of selling bras. Customers in Intimates clearly articulate their intense and common dislike for having to shop for and wear bras. Anyway, I knew this; we all know this.

Dear Friends: Psychological babble from an observer in Intimates. Diana