When Megan Naramore Harris took her daughter, Lexi, shopping for formal dresses at a Wichita, Kansas mall she was expecting to have a great mother-daughter bonding day. What she wasn’t expecting was for a sales associate to body shame her daughter and to end up on Facebook turning it into a lesson on acceptance.
While shopping at Dillard’s in the Towne East Mall, Megan spotted a dress that wasn’t quite her daughter’s style but she wanted to see Lexi try it on. When Lexi came out of the change room Megan was in the middle of gushing over her beautiful daughter when a sales woman came over began telling Lexi that if she wants to wear that dress she has to wear Spanx. Megan stepped up and tried to tell the sales woman that there was no need for them but she persisted. Teenage Lexi could do nothing but stand there listening to a woman tell her that her body isn’t good enough and Megan could only hope Lexi would listen to her words, confirming her daughter’s beauty, over those of this stranger.
While some people pointed out that it may have just been a misguided attempt to upsell, on the sales person’s part, Megan was quick to respond.
the entire conversation was I had with the sales lady, I will NOT repeat, but I can ASSURE you it was not a basic up sale. I have been in sales before and know the difference between a pushy sales person trying to make a sale and someone who has gone beyond the point of being rude.
Dillard’s has responded but only hidden well within the comments of various posts on their Facebook page.
At Dillard’s, our mission is to help people feel good about themselves by enhancing the natural beauty found in all of us. We train our sales associates with the goal of creating a completely positive experience with each visit. It is certainly never our intent to offend our customers. We have reached out to this customer and her daughter, and we appreciate the outreach of so many of our followers and customers to bring this issue to our attention.
Megan says she does not want to see this woman lose her job. What the sales woman, and others, need to learn from this incident is to start uplifting other women, especially our younger generation of girls, instead of shaming them for perceived imperfections.
