I came across this article on The Huffington Post about Australian retailers who are charging fees to use their fitting rooms. Actually, I heard about it on the radio and Googled it. Whatever.
You should pay me to try this on!
Anyway, apparently these stores are fed up with potential customers who try on their clothes, but then don’t buy them. In other words, some people–you know who you are–try on the clothes or shoes at the Mall to see whether they fit and/or whether they make your butt look big but then you go home and order them online for less money.
The Sydney Morning Herald writes that thanks to a 4.8 percent drop in clothing and footwear sales, retailers there have come up with a series of new tactics to encourage customers to buy off the rack and not online (for a presumably lower price)…including a fitting room fee, which is then refunded upon purchase.
And according to News.com.au, that fee could be as much as $50, the amount some ski shops are charging to try on boots.
So in an effort to curb this practice of frivolous and frugal fashion fitting, the stores have decided to piss their customers off even further.
Granted, the “fee” will be refunded if you actually buy the item.
But what if you truly don’t like how you look after you put it on? Not only do you look like a fool in that sweater (worse yet, you look like a shooting gallery with those ducks going across the front,) but now you’re out $20 because you don’t want to actually buy it. Why don’t they just cut you with the price tag and pour salt into the wound?
Does the fitting room fee apply only if you use the fitting room? I’m not shy, and if it means saving up to 50 bucks, I hope you look the other way. If not, could you hand me those boxers over there? What are you looking at anyway? Haven’t you ever heard of shrinkage?! The air conditioning is on in here!
What’s next? An admission fee to the Mall?
theeyelife 
I guess it’s kind of like ATM fees. Originally, ATMs provided cost savings because they reduced the number of bank clerks a bank employed.
Now banks charge customers for the convenience of getting their own money 24 hours per day from ATMs. Usually after a certain number of free withdrawals.
So for trying on clothes, maybe the Australian retailers should allow the first six items free? After that, there’s a “restocking” fee or something
Seriously if retailers want to build customer loyalty to shopping in stores as opposed to going online, assessing fees for trying on clothes is certainly NOT the way to approach this.
I speak with the authority of a marketing professor, as well as the common sense of a consumer who’s odd-sized and never knows what will fit or look good on her until she tries it on.