The very same thing has happened to me the last three times I've come here: no one speaks to me. Third time is a charm, so I'm finally writing it up.
I was on this side of town yesterday to give a speech, so I thought I'd pop in for a pair of black heels to replace some that Chupie chewed up a while back. It was 1 pm, and there were 4-5 people that I could tell were employees. At this point, the employee to customer ratio was 1:1. I was dressed nicely including hair and makeup, having just come from a speech. When I get bad service I usually chalk it up to the fact that I don't always look like your standard Oklahoma beauty queen customer, but there was no excuse for that yesterday.
I passed by two employees, leaning on a pillar and talking bad about someone to each other. I was directly in front of them for about two minutes. The neither stopped their conversation nor asked me if I needed anything. After walking around for about 10 minutes, I literally stared down an older lady working there until she was forced - literally awkwardly forced to say hello. But that was it, not how are you doing or can I help you with anything. I've been treated poorly in places before, but this just felt brazen.
Finally, one of the women I always see working there, a middle-aged long-haired blonde lady was right in my path, walking toward me. She almost spoke to me, then thought better of it. She held my gaze but never could bring herself to speak to me. It was so incredibly awkward and weird. I had been thinking about going over to look at the clothes, but god forbid I need someone to let me into a dressing room. I passed the leaners again on my way out, leaning in a different spot this time. I wonder who signs their paycheck for what looks to be nothing but leaning, mean looks and talking bad about people? It's like if a shoe store were high school.
So I can't get anyone to speak to me at Shoe Gallery or Kokopelli. I can't imagine how the mall itself stays in business. I guess they're all doing fine because they certainly don't need my money. read more