Mirror mirror on the wall... Wall? What wall? Where??
I admit, the images are misleading and this post has nothing to do with Snow White, Julia Roberts or any fairytale (successfully executed for the big screen or otherwise...) it has to do with a different kind of evil altogether... On a little shopping trip recently I encountered a problem, that i find everytime i go shopping and i must say it drives me more than a little crazy. I found in some of the outlets, and generally the cheaper highstreet brands, that the mirrors were enjoying a game of hide and seek with me and just about every other customer... I worked in retail for a very long time and it continually baffles me how some shops can get their mirror placement so so wrong!
In one such shop i was perusing leisurely through the accessories section and a selection of beautiful scarves caught my eye, 3 different ones to be precise, so i grabbed one and went to try it on by the mirror, but wait, there was no mirror, not one in the whole accessory section of the shop! I mean, i’m sorry but am i the only person who likes to see what a handbag looks like on their shoulder or in their hand, what a hat would look like on, or a necklace or a scarf??? I think not! When i did finally locate a mirror i found i had to walk halfway across the shop and sandwich myself between a rail of clothes and a queue for the till to try on my scarf. Now you can call this a bit dramatic on my part but the inconvenient, uncomfortable and frankly claustrophobic nature of trying my scarf on under those close conditions built up a small ball of stress in me and i left the shop with out buying a thing, i didn’t even go to get the other two scarves to try them on.
That wasn’t the only time i found myself walking through a shop chanting in my head, “Oh mirror, mirror, come out, come out where ever you are...”. In other shops i found myself spending more time looking for a mirror than actually shopping. I have come across mirrors in the most inconvenient places, mirrors in homewares when there are none in the womenswear sections on the same floor. I thought mirrors were placed on shop floors to enhance and aid our overall shopping experience not so that we could spend most of our time snooping around corners playing who can find a mirror first with our shopping companions. How many of you have heard the gleeful and relieved call of a girl in a shop to her friend, mother, boyfriend when she has found a mirror, “over here” or “I’ve found one”, it comes with almost a sense of achievement or in my case impatience. Perhaps such outlets could provide a map at the entrance of the shop pointing out the mirrors to save us the 10 minute walk in all directions to find one?
The other thing that drives me demented is when you do find a mirror and its completely obscured by a clothes rail or a bargain basket or a basket full of shopping baskets or even in some cases an accessory stand! (I promise to Instagram the next offending mirror @zeerailed). Why, oh why merchandisers, managers, shop fitters would you allow this to be possible? Common sense must prevail, a mirror is provided so that a customer can see their reflection with what ever item of your merchandise they choose, if theres some big honk of shop equipment in front of that mirror then your customer cant see themselves and the mirror becomes obsolete, not to mention that it just looks untidy. So, for those of you who echo my sentiment of pure frustration, or those of you in a position to rectify these sources of frustration (after all one bad apple can ruin the whole basket) , i leave you today with this poem in the style of Shakespeare...
Reflection, reflection wherefore art thou reflection?
Behind bargain baskets and last chance to buy rails,
Or, hidden in corners, behind shop floor displays,
And I’ll no longer be a customer.
And now for the comments...
