Years ago I worked at Abercrombie. I know, don’t judge. I was a manger at one of the more successful stores in the company, we were in a very high end mall called King of Prussia, just outside of Philadelphia. As is the case in any retail store you get people, in this case, mostly parents of spoiled rich kids, who wanted something we didn’t have in stock and would insult the managers as if we had any control as to what was delivered to the store.

During Christmas time one year there was a very popular denim jacket that had been pretty difficult to find after Thanksgiving. This was about a week before Christmas, so we had been telling people much to their dismay that the jacket was sold out. I was used to the insults about how much of an idiot I was at this point. But this lady took the cake. Towards the end of the night, one of our reps, came over to my, and she looked terrified. I said whats up, and she said, this lady is being really rude, and can you help her. So I walk over to the ladies section. This lady is standing on our table, looking at a mannequin with the jacket on it. I ask her if I can help her and if she could get down. She says I want this jacket it is my daughters size and you are going to sell it to me. I say politely that we don’t sell clothes off the mannequins as is the policy of the company. She doesn’t take that well. So I say, “Here’s the thing. In order to get that jacket on the mannequin, first we cover it in hair spray to make sure its rigid. Then we use pins all over the place to keep its structure in place, and lastly, we typically pull and stretch the garment to look as good as it does on the mannequin. I’ll be happy to sell this to you. But its far from your daughters size anymore. Would you like me to take it off?” She looked at me, and shook her head and walked out of the store. PS All of the above is true, at least for Abercrombie mannequins, so when you see something on display, there’s a reason why we aren’t selling them to you.