Sometimes we go shopping to feel good. It's great to renew our wardrobe and treat ourselves with new clothes. But have you really looked around? Depending on your budget you can have a very different experience.
If you shop on the high street, you will have loud music and bright lights to encourage you to spend, and those working around you need to listen to the same playlist rotating for endless hours and days. The music is sent by the head office only periodically. In this scenario, it's pretty much a case of you helping yourself as customer service tends to be quite poor.
Please bear in mind sales assistants don't really get paid much and sometimes need to wait until 3pm to have their lunch, not to mention the amount of stock always circulating around the shop. It's also good to remember that most brands on the hight street produce clothes in third world countries where workers are exploited so that our buyers can get their commissions in securing maximum profit for stakeholders.
The cheaper the clothes are, the worst it is and it's likely that after a few washes, you can no longer wear them. But within the high street, there are also the so-called premium brands, obviously more expensive and here the experience is different. Sales assistants may have to wait until 3pm for their lunch too, but earn commissions for what they sell and are pressured by managers to achieve their daily and weekly targets.
Here you may have a better customer service, they greet you as you come in, if their smile doesn't look genuine it's probably because they have been greeting customers at the door, bearing the cold coming in, for quite a while. Inside they support you when you need help but however nice they may look to you, in their mind, they're worried about their individual sales target for the day and commission at the end of the month.
Individual commissions can be really high in luxury retail so it fosters an aggressive competition amongst staff, who always try to get those who spend the most on their VIP list. These clients tend to be from oil rich countries in the Middle East, Russia and Asian, from countries where inequality is fierce. They can be extremely rude to those working in luxury but can buy a £5000 bag in the blink of an eye, which is much more that those serving them earn in a few months.
For the customer, the experience is much more pleasant, the music is not so loud and the light not too bright, everywhere feels beautiful and spacious, with nothing on the floor apart from sumptuous carpets. You are treated as a prince and have someone with a good knowledge of styling serving you. Sales consultants are brainwashed on a regular basis about how to sell more and how to communicate and engage with you.
It could be anything, from always show three items, to take no more than 5 minutes from the moment the sale is concluded for you to pay and leave the shop (this is not to give you any time to change your mind). You may be even offered coffee or even champagne, which is simply another selling technique.
The retail experience can be quite tailored to your own taste if you choose to engage with the personal shopping service. This echoes the celebrity lifestyle, where someone else is paid to shop for you. It can apply to people who have an incredibly busy career and simply do not have time to go around the shops, or just don't want to waste their limited free time doing it.
Whatever your budget, think again before mindlessly indulging in the so-called 'retail therapy'. Browse your wardrobe before leaving home, see how you can combine things in a different way or if you do have an occasion to wear that amazingly beautiful and expensive dress. It's like going food shopping, if you don't have a list, you may end up buying everything but forget what you actually need.