Once upon a time in a rainy kingdom far, far away on Ye West Coast, I was a Godiva girl. No, not the riding-a-horse-naked-through-town kind (can you imagine the chafing?) but the chocolate-pimping kind. My day job was as a professor but due to my directional dyslexia I ran a stop sign and totaled my car thus necessitating a night job. I didn't want anything that required brain power and it also needed to be temporary because I was only sticking it out until I got my car fixed.
I considered it divine intervention when I saw the help wanted sign on a jaunt through the mall. A short interview with the manager (Do you like chocolate? Can you work nights? Can you smile for three hours while a woman tries to decide between a champagne truffle and a raspberry star while her toddler licks the entire display case from top to bottom?) and by that evening I was wearing a black apron with gold lettering and a name tag that said Sharon - the closest they could get to Charlotte without actually having to make me a name tag.
My first night was awesome. They paid me to sample every single chocolate Godiva makes. At the time I believe it was over 60 items. The down side is that you have to do it all at once so I ended up just taking one tiny bite of each $26.50/lb confection and then - yes - throwing the rest away. The rest of the night wasn't as exciting but other than doling out a few little gold boxes and learning how to tie the signature Godiva bow - which has come in handy many a Christmas let me tell you - all I had to do was chat with the other night salesperson.
Like any minimum wage job, there was a revolving cast of characters so entertaining that I should probably write a book just about them, but it occurred to me after the second week straight of listening to Odes to Eminem that one thing would make this job totally perfect: my best friend Tasha.
Tasha had an infectious laugh, a rapier wit and, best of all, the ability to make fun of someone in such a nice way that they totally ended up laughing right along with her. And she needed a job. Perfect! I told my manager, a woman who still wore a black velvet mock turtleneck and quoted Reality Bites despite it being well into the new millennium, and she agreed to interview Tash. Seeing as Tasha was smart, cute, funny and hygienic, I figured we'd be snacking on samples and playing Spot the Tranny by the next evening.
So I was dumbfounded when Tasha told me she didn't get the job. I knew my manager was desperate for night-shift workers. I knew there was no way Tasha had blown the interview. So what happened?
I didn't want to believe her when she told me the reason, calmly, as if it hadn't bothered her at all. You see, Tasha was fat. Not gargantuan but definitely well into the plus sizes. I was incredulous. Surely they wouldn't say "
Sorry, you can't work here you're too fat." I mean, wouldn't the mere utterance of that phrase cause lawyers to descend on our fake foliage like a pack of locusts? She explained to me that my manager just said the job had been filled but that she was sure the real reason was her weight.
Never one to hold my tongue, and let's be honest, not caring about the job anyhow, I confronted my manager at my next shift.
Me: So who'd you hire for the night shift?
Turtleneck Girl: Oh, I haven't found anyone yet.
Me: What about Tasha?
TG: Oh, you know, she wasn't right for here.
Me: Why not?
TG: I just don't think she'd fit in.
Me: How would she not fit in?
TG: Well... I don't think the aprons would fit her. (Hello! Aprons have got to be the most one-size-fits-all item of clothing ever invented!) And this is a pretty small store and sometimes there's a lot of people jammed in here.
Me: You think she wouldn't fit in the store?!
TG: Plus, we've got this whole company image to adhere to and you know....
Other Worker Guy: (leaning in and whispering) Look sweetie, people don't want to buy chocolate from a fat girl. They want to have the illusion that they can eat the chocolate and still look like us. If there's a fat girl behind the counter reality smacks them right in the face. You can
kiss your sales good-bye.My manager went back to fixing the register tape and the other worker went back to stacking little gold boxes and I lost my innocence.
I should have quit on the spot, on principle. But I didn't. I got my car fixed and quit a few months later and Tasha and I never spoke of the incident again. But to this day, every time I pass a Godiva store I peek in, looking for overweight salespeople. I've never seen one yet.
I'm curious: does it matter to you if the person selling you pricey chocolate (or clothing or any other luxury item) is overweight? Have you ever noticed a preponderance of skinny people in retail? Have you ever experienced discrimination based on your looks?
Comments (20)
I've never though to look, but I will next time I look around. I know in many general department stores size isn't too much of an issue. Though I have yet to see an overweight salesperson in Abercrombie&Fitch or Hollister. It's sad, and probably should be illegal, but from a business stand-point (and playing Devil's Advocate a bit) I can see their reasoning, though it is discriminatory.
no, it wouldn't matter what the salesperson looks like as long as they didn't lick, spit, or snot (or put any other wierd thing) in my food. I have never seen an overweight salesperson in any store I have been in. I never thought about it until you brought it up.
I'VE SEEN OVERWEIGHT PEOPLE WORKING AT THE GODIVA NEAR ME.
Maybe it's just where I live?
But man, that man was GIGANTIC.
I still bought chocolate and a cold hot chocolate :D
@TheScaleDiaries@xanga - to work at hollister or a&f the uniform is to wear hollister. therefore bigger people cant work there. which in my opinion is kinda stupid.
the first example i thought of was the slew of skinny greeters at abercrombie & fitch. i notice there are overweight salespeople in stores geared towards older women, but not so much in the "trendy" young range.
Skinny people are only preffered among people who are mainly white and on the better end of the economy. I have met a lot of people that preffer someone who's, not necissarily fat but, got a little meat on her bones. Weather it's to do with being skinny or not seeing people that are visually pleasing does help a sale go along more smoothly.
And, yes, I have been discriminated against based on my looks. In my town people preffer someone who's just a little on the heavier side, which is not me at all. And there's also the fact I'm a white girl living in a town where the majority is the nation's minorities.
I would rather buy chocolate from a fatty, because then I wouldn't feel like a fatty buying chocolate. But that's only because I'm an insecure mammoth woman.
Skinny people seem to be often preferred in retail, especially food service.
@emmaleaaa@xanga - Haha. Nice.
It really doesn't matter to me. If I want some chocolate, I'm going to buy some chocolate. Who cares? Some people can be just plain out ridiculous.
90% of the time the employees i see working mcdonalds in my town are pretty overweight. they're just like any other person, but the image stays in my mind and i know what they're eating. i don't get hamburgers and fries.
oh and i've noticed that the popular ice cream parlor in town only hires very pretty, very thin young women. but that might be for various reasons. still unfair though.
Hm.. I think that it was probably just that specific Godiva that was being discriminatory because two of my friends work there and they are "chubby" (but not obese or anything). I think your manager was probably just an ass.. But I do believe that managers do often discriminate the way you look.. Maybe instead of judging Tasha on her professionalism/reliability/work ethics, your manager believed that the main criteria for her hiring standards was being thin.
I work at one of the most popular bakeries in my city and three of the full time/main workers are really large. Hence, I really think it depends.. But what your manager did was really wrong, and I'm glad you asked her about it. She should be fired.
I don't think about who I'm buying chocolate from, I just want the chocolate.
That sense of discrimination is awful though. :/
Hey, I love chocolates.But there one more controversial than that.Have you heard about the controversial grilling station?Grilling and barbecuing is an institution of American cuisine, and a particular model of charcoal grill is starting to cause quite a stir, called the Big Green Egg. The Big Green Egg is a large shell with vertically stacked grill grates and plenty of internal space, and it doubles as a smoker, in case standard steak or burger fare is just no good and you want slow cooked brisket or ribs. A person can grill ten steaks at once, or bake bread – it might be worth some fast cash to get one. Users swear by the Big Green Egg grill, and it might be worth a payday loan to add it to your grilling arsenal.
yep, def see overweight people in godiva. who pays that much for chocolate anyway?
I don't care at all what the sales assistant or cashier looks like when I am buying a product. When I go to a store to buy a product, I only care about the quality and price of the product, not what size the employees are.
If I found out that a particular store was as discriminatory as the Godiva that you worked at, I would never ever shop there. Their sizism would hurt their sales, at least as far as I'm concerned; the employees' size wouldn't hurt their sales, at least if I were the customer.
I have worked at a bakery-cafe for years, and the other employees there have come in all different sizes. No one's size has affected sales to my knowledge. I've also seen people of all different sizes in various retail jobs.
It may be sad, but your manager was right. I, and many other weight conscious consumers, would be discouraged from buying chocolate if the salesperson was overweight. It would be a big reminder of why I really shouldn't be buying chocolate in the first place. If the salesperson were thin though, that probably wouldn't cross my mind.
This is so funny! A friend sent me this link because I work part-time at a Godiva store and am pretty thin. I am a distance runner, a fairly healthy eater, and have spent the past few months studying for my personal training certification. The job all but fell in my lap as I've been planning for other things and needing a bit of an income. Â I really enjoy it- people are usually happy who are buying chocolate. I like that there's a lot of moving around in the job and there's obviously not very much stress that can be found in a job like this.Â
I promise I get asked "how do you work here and stay so thin?" about three times a shift. The truth is, after working there about two weeks, you don't smell the chocolate. No one who works with me is ravenous and often, we throw away chocolate because no one who works there wants it. Every night at close, we have to throw out unsold chocolate covered strawberries and almost all are given to other people if not trashed. Do I still eat chocolate? Sure, but just not that much. Reading that the Chocolixirs (popular frozen drinks) have over 700 calories would make them discouraging to most people.Â
At my store, I am the smallest one. Everyone else who works there is what would be considered "average." Our ex-assistant manager was overweight, but I am fairly certain no other bigger people have been hired, based on the sheer fact that none have worked (time/abilities wise!) Â The old assistant was very conscious of her weight in general, so I don't know if it affected her sales abilities, or not.Â
Though I think it MIGHT be a selling point to have a salesperson who is thin selling you chocolate, other than the wealthy housewife type who doesn't look like she eats enough to sustain herself, people mostly come in knowing what they want when they're buying something for themselves.Â
And, by the way? The chocolate is $44.00/lb now!
I knew i never liked godiva.
Unfortunately this happened to a friend of mine at our local Bon Ton. We both went in for a job on the same day back when we were in highschool, she called me but not her. When my friend called to check to see if all the positions were filled she said they had been. When I went in for the interview their were more people filling out applications. I was confused but understood when she told me I would "be perfect for the job because I showed the adolescent like figure that every woman wants". I was recovering from an eating disorder at the time. I turned down the job and went to CVS instead. It's only the Bon Ton in my town that I never see overweight workers. I don't really pay attention to the other ones I've been to.
Honestly? I don't think the weight of the person selling the chocolate would affect my purchases in any way....Chocolate sells itself :]