The problems of a shopkeeper

I promised I would talk about the two recurring problems that we face in the store. The first is the customer who monopolizes your attention and the dressing room and then doesn’t buy anything. That is pretty bad. But it is not the worst. You know what the worst thing is?

The Gay Husband.

We seem to have a lot of girls who come in who are married to gay guys and they don’t even know it. Or they know it but they don’t want to acknowledge it. I don’t pay much attention to it because I don’t really care but the girls in the store know right away. I mean the tip off is that the guy is so opinionated and bitchy about the clothes. Since we have bigger sizes these mook’s are trashing their wives like Chris Brown before the Grammy’s. Verbally to be sure but still it sucks. “Well you would fit in that if you ate a few less bagels.” “You look like a grandmother in that dress.” “What’s the matter with you don’t you have a sense of style.”

Now most of the time when a guy comes in with his wife I will engage him in conversation to keep him from getting bored. Most guys don’t care that much about what the wife buys except for the price. The smart ones are happy if the wife is happy. Some of them bitch about the prices which is fine. They don’t have to buy it if they don’t want to. Times are tough and I understand that. I can usually find something to talk about. Sports, the movies, TV, the neighborhood, restaurants, or food. But if the guy is only interested in trashing his wife and making her feel like shit I can’t deal with that too well. I have to split so I don’t split the guys head open. One guy made his wife cry. So it can get real unpleasant. I let my wife handle it. She takes the girl into the dressing room and tells her to come back another time without her husband if she wants. We have much the same problem with abusive skinny moms and nasty skinny friends. They don’t want to be there and everything is negative. There is not much you can do then. You just have to let them live in their own life.

Anyway one of the gay husbands came in today with his wife. I was alone at the time so I just let them stew. She tried on a dress, he mocked her, her lip quivered and they left. Par for the course.

I wonder how Katie does it.

It must be easier when you are rich.