It really sucks to be fat.
Well, duh. I know. But besides the most obvious reasons, when you're fat you have to shop at places like Lane Bryant and pay outrageous prices for clothes.
Now, it IS possible to buy cheap fat clothes, but you end up with elastic waistbands and southwestern themed shirts. When you're 32 and want to look your age, these kinds of stores gets ruled out VERY quickly.
Which pretty much leaves Lane Bryant and their outrageously priced clothing. Like, $40 for a t-shirt. Allrighty, whatever. It has puffed sleeves and a pleated scoop neck, so I can see it being more expensive than the regular t-shirts. But twice the price? It's made from the same flimsy material for heaven's sake!
Oh, I'll hang my head in shame and admit that I have a few of those fancy t-shirts hanging in my closet. I want to look somewhat decent in this body of mine, so I've been known to fork over the big bucks on occasion. But as of this weekend, they won't be getting any more of MY money, even if it means I start looking like a retiree from Arizona.
Because on Saturday, the lovely ladies at Lane Bryant wouldn't let my daughter use their restroom.
I hate when stores won't let kids pee in their private bathrooms.
I was standing near the registers when Gabi said that she had to pee right then or she was going to go in her "underwears", loud enough for the women working the registers to hear (I know you heard!).
I turned and asked if she could use their bathroom, and they denied us access. When I pushed and said it was for my FOUR YEAR OLD daughter and that we'd used it before, they again said sorry, but NO.
I stood there incredulous for a moment before dumping my armfull of clothes (at least 10 of those $40 shirts and a bunch of pants) on the counter.
Luckily Gabi made it on the super long walk to Starbucks. Bless her little bladder full of pee for not emptying before we got there. Then we stayed and had a mommy daughter tea party while all those clothes sat on the counter, unbought, waiting to get put away.
Little kids should definitely be an exception to the No Public Peeing rule. Especially if I'm dropping a huge wad of money at your store.
No more Lane Bryant for me.
Thank goodness for Macy's. They have GREAT fat clothes that become more than affordable during sales. Looks like I'm going to have to start paying attention to the flyers that come in my mail before dumping it all in the recycling.
Good for you for not going back into Lane Bryant! And Macy's has lots of public restrooms!
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable. I would be complaining LOUDLY.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, do they get joy from denying a child's basic needs???
I like Macy's too. Their shoe sections sucks me in!
-Andrea
You truly need to write a letter.
ReplyDeleteThat happened to us at a Hollywood Video and my son ended up peeing his pants trying to hold it on the car trip home.
So I wrote a letter to the manager and got a huge appology plus a month's worth of free rentals. :-)
Well, then, they can kiss my (loved by tha huzband) over-sized white beeehind.
ReplyDeleteI second the motion: let the higher-ups know you had to leave their store without buying all of the clothes you had spent so much time selecting to find a restroom for the child who stood by so patiently while you shopped. Jerkweeds!
That is horrible! Good for you on leaving all those clothes behind- that is just rude of them.
ReplyDeleteARE YOU FLIPPIN KIDDING ME??? That is horrible!!! Who in their right mind could deny a child access to a bathroom?
ReplyDeleteGood for you for refusing to spend your money there again.
You know, you aren't the first person who has told this type of story before. I swear...what is the deal with the private bathroom protection thing. No wonder the economy suck. People...let the children pee and we will all thrive!!
ReplyDeleteI don't shop at Lane Bryant anyway but that story makes me want to take the Bean in there the next time we're at the mall and let him pee on the cash register.
ReplyDeleteHe peed in my refrigerator this weekend, and laughed as he did it, so I'm pretty sure he'd be up for it.
I'm so glad she didn't have an accident, poor girl!
ReplyDeleteThat is SO lame that they wouldn't let her use it...
Score one to Starbucks!
You are so awesome for standing up to LB. I would have probably slipped back in there after all the work and hassle of finding new clothes.
ReplyDeletePoor Gabi (but I sort of wish she would have peed on the floor)~
Atta girl! It's not a matter of "store policy." It's that teeny tiny bit of control the store clerks can wield. Too bad they didn't put common courtesy first!
ReplyDeleteI was halfway through reading your post and thinking to myself "She should have just left whatever clothes she was about to buy on the counter for them to see what their stubborn attitude cost them." But then reading further down I see you did just that...good job!!
ReplyDeleteGood for you! Poor Gabi! I hate rude people, ugh. I stopped shopping at lane bryant when the skinny girl working there tried to give me diet tips. And they are WAY overpriced. Macey's is WAY better and sometimes JC Penney has some good stuff and way good sales too!
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should write their corporate office a letter. Just a "matter of fact I think you need to know this and I'm not shopping in your store again" note. It's possible that somebody there might have a little one and understand exactly what you mean and change some policies.
ReplyDeleteOoooohhh that angers me so much to hear about stores like this. I would have done exactly what you did - put down the clothes and walk out of the store - and never go back. I'm all about the principle...
ReplyDeleteSeriously? You can't let a 4 year old go potty on your pretty toilet? Ridiculous!
I would write a letter! Word of Blog goes a loooonnnnggg way!
ReplyDeleteOh, that is completely ridiculous. How rude and unkind of them - your little girl needed to go? What's the big damn deal?
ReplyDeleteThis makes me angry - I second the posters above re: writing a letter. You would think that a store whose clientele is made up of so many moms would cater to them a bit.
That is horrible! I can't believe they wouldn't let you use the bathroom even hearing her say how bad she had to go! I've only shopped there a few times but my budget pretty much leaves me with Walmart or Target (usually Walmart for my size). And after hearing this I'm kinda unlikely to shop at Lane Bryant again anyway.
ReplyDeleteThey were lucky it wasn't my boy there - he'd have whipped it out and peed right there. Aren't us girls so much more civilised!
ReplyDeleteThis makes me so mad! I'm so glad you left and I, too, think you should write a letter.
ReplyDeleteThis summer, I was visiting my mother, who is 84 and very frail and in a wheelchair. She had to go (and she gives me about as much notice as a toddler; it's always urgent) and we were stuck in traffic. I stopped at a gas station, spent 10 min getting her out of the car and into her wheelchair, and then they wouldn't let us use the restroom! I crossed a very busy street to one that was being remodeled and the very nice woman there let me use theirs, even though it was obviously not intended for customers. I was so mad at those first people.
What was their issue at LB? What idiots!
I like Macy's better anyway. They have good sales and you can get great deals, and the quality is good too in my experience.
You know I have never had anyone refuse one of my CHILDREN before. I mean COME ON!! Totally write a letter, or call and speak to a manager and make sure they know you will no longer be a customer! Especially in today's market, they need all the business they can get! Grrr!
ReplyDeleteSome people are just terrible!
ReplyDeleteWe were out with my first daughter at Neuhaus chocolate, a potty she used before, and asked if she could use it. First the acne covered teen said they had none. I said I had used before and then the other acne teen girl said the public was not allowed to use it. I pleaded and nothing---sooooo Miley peed right there and said loudly from the back of the store "You might want to get a mop because my toddler, the one you wouldn't let use your bathroom just peed on the floor" And then walked out saying to a couple walking in, "careful there's pee all over the floor in there" And the best part--they had to clean it up.
Wonder if they let little kids use the potty now?!
I can not believe that happened. I will second and third those comments telling you to write a letter to their headquarters. It's hard for us moms with little ones who need to go to the bathroom. We never know until the last minute that they have to go. I am glad that my love, Starbucks, came through for ya!
ReplyDeletethat is SO ridic. seriously.
ReplyDeleteonce andy had to pee at the bank and the nearest place to pee was the grocery store half a mile down the road... which meant piling back in the carseat and out again and walking through the store. i opened the doors of the car and had him stand between them and told him to pee on the ground. hahaha! i'll never forget that! it was like ha, in your FACE bank!
No. They. Didn't! OMG, I would be fuming. And I think I too would write a big long nasty letter to them. The nerve! I was in a shoe store, that very obviously didn't have public bathrooms, when Eddie told me he had to go pee-pee. (while potty training, so there was less control with holding.) Panicked, I asked the clerk to use the restroom. They hesitated before I told them it was for my potty training toddler. They let us go back there. Phew. I don't know what I would have done. Good for you for dumping the clothes there. The nerve of people!
ReplyDeleteGood heavens! What a jerk!
ReplyDeleteOn a more positive note...one of my girlfriends recommends a store called "Torrid" (www.torrid.com) for cute "plus size" clothes.
Their styles are kind of young (even by my 24-year-old gf's standard's...), but...it's a place to start. She said they had one of these in her mall. (She found it after she got fed up in the Lane Bryant store one day.)
amen sister.
ReplyDeleteseriously no pee rule for a four year old?? clearly the dummy at the counter doesn't have children!!
No way! I would write or e-mail a formal complaint. And I am so happy you didn't buy their clothes! I wouldn't either. Guess they would rather miss out on making money than letting a four year old use their restroom!
ReplyDeleteHa! Your rock! I would have done exactly the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that so many supermarkets now have restrooms they let you use - it's amazing that Lane Bryant wouldn't let your daughter use theirs. You did the right thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have to laugh with the mom in the comments whose daughter ended up peeing in another store - it certainly showed the clerks what the consequences of saying "no" was!
I'm shocked, totally. This hasn't happened to me yet, anywhere, but I would definitely be writing a letter if I were you. A child who has to pee is urgent - that is so rude I'm just steaming mad for you. I would lose it if someone wouldn't let me take my kid to pee in the restroom. You should have pulled a Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman and told them you were going to take all your money somewhere else and they would be losing out big time!
ReplyDeleteGrrr. Lane Bryant gives me the heebie-jeebies anyway. It smells funky in there. Now I know why--all the kids who are peeing in the corners because they're not allowed to use the bathroom.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't gotten the "stay behind the velvet ropes" treatment yet for Jarrah's bathroom needs, but I'm not looking forward to it...
Aww... the poor little thing. I hate when places pull that crap. It is just wrong. It is one thing to tell an adult no but a kid. The clerk probably doesn't have kids so she was probably clueless because any mom would say yes in an instant.
ReplyDeleteI like that you left them with a stack of clothes on their counter. Hopefully they didn't make their sales that day just for that.
Do you have a Fashion Bug near you? Their clothes are much more stylish and better priced. The only problem I have, is they don't sell talls, so in the winter when I can't buy capri's, I have to shop for pants at Lane Bryant. I think I would of let my daughter peed in their store and they would of had to clean it up :)
ReplyDeleteThat's terrible! Good for you for not buying the clothes you had worked so hard to pick out.
ReplyDeleteYou should write the corporate offices a letter just so that others don't have to suffer the same way that Gabi did.
Hold on a minute...gotta pick my jaw up off the floor. I'm glad your daughter was such a little trooper and made it to the bathroom in time. Poor little girl!!
ReplyDeleteI'm with the others. Write a letter!
As I've gotten older I have been trying to stay in clothing that is age appropriate..... was always a very slim gal but have put on weight with menopause... ack... anyway, what I am finding in trying to buy larger clothing that is also age appropriate is that everything has flowers or embroidery. Why do retailers and clothing makers think that just because we are over 50 that everything needs to have cute pink flowers and embroidery on it?? GAWD... so ugly. And, as a grandmother I would have pitched a loud verbal fit so that every customer there could hear and then walked around the counter and placed all the clothes that I was no longer going to buy directly into the arms of the girl that told me no on the bathroom question... Then I would have gone and gotten Richard Gere (just like in Pretty Woman) and brought him in and told her that she had made a big mistake... hahaha
ReplyDeleteGood for you! And I will tell EVERYONE I know your experience. A dear friend of mine was ordering a crazy expensive baptismal bonnet at a high-faluting baby boutique in town when her eldest (freshly potty trained and three) made a similar declaration...the proprietors of a BABY MERCHANDISE store refused. Ridiculous. Thankfully, he proceeded to pee on their shiny wood floor. My friend was never so pleased to see an "accident." ;)
ReplyDeleteGod works in mysterious ways; and what goes around, comes around. Hell hath no fury like a shopping mama blogger (with an impressive readership) scorned.
Happy P.O.W! Great post!
Who denies a toddler from using the bathroom!? That's terrible!! I think there should be a law about allowing children under 8 and pregnant women using bathrooms. Grrr...I'm so glad your daughter could hold it!
ReplyDeleteGood for you for taking a stand!
ReplyDeleteAnd those women must not have kids and if they do someday, I hope their kids have tiny bladders. Is that mean?
I've been there! Horrible shopkeepers! That's why you gotta love the gap and old navy for putting loos right there in their shops, right?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, good for you taking a stand.
How can you not let a child use the bathroom??? Call the management!!!!! That's outrageous.
ReplyDeleteWow! You were more civilized than I would have been...those clothes would have been all over the store by the time I was done. Management usually will bend over backward to please you if they know you've been wronged. Call or write them asap.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame you a bit. It's hard to believe that they would do that to a child, much less to the child of a customer buying armloads of clothes from them!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where you live, but if you have a Dillard's, they have good sales on their larger sizes... have found Ralph Lauren and other top brands for a fraction of the price. Ralph has a larger size line called Lauren, as I recall. Also, I've had success with Stein Mart. I lost weight (then I found it again or it found me), so I can sympathize. :-)
Happy Shopping!
Sheila