Bad news, chicas: It appears that some retaile stores are now charging customers up to $25just to try on items. These stores are apparently doing this in efforts to discourage "showrooming," which is when customers browse stores and then try to find the product at a cheaper price online via smart phone. Imagine having to pay $25 just to try on a pair of shoes you might not wind up buying afterwards? Okay now I'm upset!
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Retailers are getting pretty fed up with the whole "showrooming" phenomenon. They feel like customers are ultimately wasting their staffers' time trying on items they plan on purchasing online anyway, especially because a lot of the sales associates in these businesses work on commission. The fees seem to be ranging anywhere from $5 to even $25. But according to WWD, none of these stores actually want to go on the record with this. Of course they don't! The goal is for them to make some kind of money from customers, even if it doesn't result in a purchase.
I don't know about you, but I would NOT step into a store that's going to charge me for shopping. The whole idea of shopping is to browse around, see what you want, and look for an item that's going to meet your wants and your budget. There's a reason why stores include fitting rooms. Why in the world would I want to pay a fee to try on a piece of clothing I might absolutely hate?
Rumors of the trend started to surface after people discovered that a Vera Wang store in Shanghai was charging women what would be equivalent to $500 just to try on their wedding dresses. Apparently the fee would be deducted if the customer actually purchased the dress. But for the record, most stores don't actually deduct their fee even if you do make a purchase. This is crazy unfair!
I get why retailers are doing this, but no one wants to feel like they're being charged just to shop. And if anything, this is just going to discourage women from shopping in actual stores. Before you know it, we'll all just resort to online shopping to avoid the pesky try-on fees. So in the long-run this really doesn't benefit anyone. Hopefully retailers pick up on that, and quickly do away with this ridiculous policy!
Image via Thinkstock
