January 2023 by Evan M.
Jan. 2023, and most of Friendship Heights is a retail ghost town. Walking past GAP, on impulse went in looking for a nice heavyweight pique knit polo shirt. The store was totally empty, no customers, just one clerk in the far back folding things and passive-aggressively trying not to make eye contact. Asked her if they had men's polo shirts in stock. She led me to a stack of T shirts, not polo shirts. I repeated, and she took me to another stack of shirts, finally polo shirts, , then she tried to hurry away. I checked the price tag, FIFTY dollars. I asked, "What makes this shirt worth that much money?" She was super passive aggressive, super apathetic, super unfriendly. "I don't know, corporate sets the price, we are not on commission". Um....the customer signs your paycheck. Without me, you don't have a roof over your head or food on your table, but you're treating me like an annoyance rather than a welcome guest? Why not answer, "That's a great question, I don't know. Let's go ask the manager together..... please follow me, sir"? I've worked plenty of retail jobs, and was even a retail manager of a clothing store, many years ago. Besides being able to try it on, how is this any better than just ordering a shirt to be delivered from Amazon? The polo shirts were flimsy, thin, cheap feeling. Look, I hate the type of clerk who snidely says, "Can I help you?" in a pushy manner. I get that maybe the girl was trained not to b e that way, but:What is should be is, "Hello, welcome. I'm susan. If you need anything, please let me know" then walk away." Rather than hiding out at the back of the store pretending you didn't see me walk in.What she should have been trained to answer: "Well, these shirts are made in the United States instead of being made with child labor in sweat shops overseas. The cotton is pre shrunk, long staple, and grown in a sustainable manner. Part of the cost is our retail expenses, and I am paid a living wage to work here. The thread used to sew in the content label is not cheap scratchy plastic, it's soft cotton. The buttons are cross stitched so they won't come off. The tail of the shirt is long so it won't come untucked when you bend over. The collar is taped fully, not just cosmetically. The shirt has a sewn-on front pocket, and the placket is reinforced. All the seams are double stitched. This shirt isn't just fashionable, it's an investment, a great value for the price." There was a sign by the shirts that I didn't look at carefully, announcing a "sale". I got the feeling they were pulling the slimy stunt of jacking up to a fake high price, then announcing a fake discount.I am not looking for perfection, and I am not looking for the lowest possible price. I am looking for VALUE. I don't care if the shirts are stacked with pretentious geometric precision in the store. I don't care if the color is currently fashionable. I don't care about logos. I care about IS IT WORTH what I pay because of tangible benefits, such as being durable and functional? This company is in huge financial trouble. I went next door immediately following this, to Banana Republic, owned by GAP. That store was also vacant, I was the only customer. The men's polo shirts there were equally flimsy, with the only noticable distinction being some d bag logo embroidered on. I've always despised logos. I'm supposed pay you extra money for the privelege of walking around as an unpaid advertisement for your brand? What kind of insecure shallow loser cares about a logo rather than genuine tangible quality? The virtually identical shirts at Banana Republic were forty dollars, not fifty. How do you explain that?I remember when Banana Republic was strictly a mail order catalog with unique and exciting items, each described in deep detail, explaining what made them better and what made them worth the price.Yeah, I get that this was Bethesda, full of overpaid prete
