Sexist And Ageist Sports Shop!

[ganesh]

Ok, I'm in my fifties, but still do a bit of sport and just went into Sports Direct to look for an exercise top.
1) Had to ask for the women's section which was tucked away in a corner on the bottom floor, a huge shop with the whole of the ground floor dedicated to men'ssportswear, mens trainers, and equipment.
2) Eventually founda few rails of womens top and chose 4to try on. Oh sorry, had to get some guy with attitude to unlock a changing room. Then told me I could only try on 3 items, so had to leave one outside and get dressed again just to try the 4th on.
3) Tried to purchase one and had to find someone to pay and another guy looked at me as if to say What The Funicular are you doing in here, took my money without comment,
Shall never return. I am now the miserable old woman they obviously assumed i was!!!

[237SJ]

I think Spors Direct and those sort of shops cater for people who wear sports gear as a fashion rather than for sport. They cater to the (male) 21 year old, training wearing hoodie and the staff are of the same ilk. I wouldn`t care what they think but M&S and other shops have decent fitness wear for women.

[237SJ]

*trainer*

[ummmm]

After slating M&S a few weeks back I went in last week (OH needed a wee) and was pleasantly surprised and bought a few things.

[Lie-in King]

Letter of complaint to head office with full details. You might get a voucher as recompense which you then take to the shop & explain how you got the voucher - I'll bet you're treated correctly the 2nd time around :-)

[ganesh]

I got the impression that they were probably wondering why I wasn't in M&S lol.
I don't think I should be forced into looking in certain shops though, and even if it is a more 'fashion' shop than 'sports' one, I object to discrimination. I actually found quite a nice Nike top for £5.

[Robinia]

Tell them how disappointed you were. You can contact them about a particular store using the drop down menu

http://www.sportsdirect.com/customerservices/contactus/contactform

[Mamyalynne]

Lack of staff training is usually the cause,having worked in retail the key is to treat every customer as royalty.


They should be careful too - these days you never know who may be a secret shopper in your store.

[ganesh]

Good idea-Lie-in King, might do that, I have bought trainers online from them so I am one of their customers already. Might get them into trouble as well-haha, but the shop itself is very geared to Men, which I found quite surprising. There is even more stuff for kids than women!

[237SJ]

Maybe they have a terrible manager who doesn`t have any leadership skills so the staff morale is low. I don`t think they are the only shop that is ageist though - Abercrombie and Hollister are as well.

[ganesh]

O yes Robinia, there is one relating to their stores-might just take the time to comment.

[EcclesCake]

I went into one of these high street sports shops looking for a new pair of running shoes.

I asked the assistant to recommend an anti-pronation shoe. They picked a shoe off the display and told me that this was a popular style, when asked if it was an anti-pronation shoe I was told 'no, it is Nike'.

They are the sporting equivalent of PC World.

[ganesh]

I lot of 'young' clothes shops are obviously geared to young people and fair enough. But they shouldn't show any 'attitude' to older buyers. I have been known to look around New Look and H&M etc without any problems.

[Lie-in King]

Lol @ Eccles! :-))

[Mosaic]

You are gorgeous (I know as you are like me)
You went in probably the worst shopping environment available.
It won't be there in 5 years.
I bet you live in your own home. The young men who eventuakly served you live with mum.
Who's laughing now?

[Elina]

Hi Ganesh, you must follow up with feedback!!

[-Talbot-]

From your OP the only thing wrong is the staff taking your money without comment.

[ganesh]

Yes Talbot, it is the 'attitude' of the staff I am criticising and the very 'blokey' emphasis of the shop. They couldn't care less about my potential purchase and I had to chase them in order to try things on, which they didn't seem to want to do (forgot to say it was so dark in the changing room I just went with something that fit rather than seeing how it looked!) Perhaps they thought I was so old I didn't want to see-lol. I don't understand what you mean by 'the only thing they did wrong'. Most shops welcome customers don't they?

[jd_1984]

Sports Direct keep costs down by paying minimum wage and the service reflects this. The staff always look fed up and de-motivated (and about 17 years old). Its all about low prices and high margins, with no emphasis on customer service. They have return custom probably because of the prices. A like for like comparison to other high street sports shops, on say footwear, would show SD as 5-15% cheaper depending on the brand.
As for the argument about sexism, I agree, the womens dept is (in our local store) a bit tucked away. But, when found is relatively substantial.

[Garador]

Not only SportsDirect that this sort af attitude abounds, many of these type of outlets fail to teach their staff that they are in a service industry, and if they treat their customers similarly to the one mentioned, they will continue to lose business.

[ganesh]

Agreed jd, there are restaurants that pay minimum wage, but the waiters are still expected to pay attention to their customers and it is no excuse. It is incredibly cheap and its 'warehouse' style of environment shows that, but apart from the little sportswear sections in our department store it is the only sports shop in town and I wanted a sports top, but I will look elsewhere in future.