Dead end mall

I was getting Starbucks at my local mall. And when I say my mall, I have been going to this mall since I was a teenager. It became my second home when I had to get out of the house and none of my friends were around. I have kind of a love/hate relationship with malls. On one hand I find them to be an urban and suburban blight, on the other hand, this mall allowed me an escape for a few hours at a time.

Today this mall offers me little except for the occasional Starbucks and my credit union is next door.  The mall opens at 10 but Starbucks and Gloria Jean coffee opens for commuters before that. I got to traverse the mall with no pedestrian traffic thinking this might be a good place to walk during hot or cold days. The mall is mostly small chic clothing stores such as Banana Republic, White House, Black Market (stupidest name for a store ever), Bebe, Charlotte Russe, Guess, Forever 21, H&M. If you see one suburban mall you should know all the stores. Despite the fact these stores sell overpriced crap, this mall is one of the most successful malls in the country and that disturbs me considering that the neighborhoods around it are all working class, median income people.

Oh yeah about almost none of the stores carry plus sizes. At last count out of the 33 stores in the mall that carry clothes for woman, only 4 carry plus sizes and of those 4, only one carries a variety of selections. For example Hot Topic which owns Torrid has plus sized t-shirts but nothing else. So what does that leave us in the mall? Not the food court because fat people aren't supposed to eat.<

I often hear comments that the reason stores don't carry plus sizes is that fat people never buy clothing but a small study shows that might not be the point. In this study a random sampling of people of difference sizes went to stores in a Houston mall. Casually dressed fat people were discriminated more than the others, even well dressed fat people. Fat people who held a diet drink and talked about how they exercised were treated better than fat people who held an ice cream drink, talked about not dieting and being unable to do exercise. Average size shoppers who carried different drinks did not suffer discrimination.

So if you walked in a store that didn't have your size and if they did they had terrible selection and limited sizes (And if you are over a size 26, don't even bother looking) and they treat you like dirt,would you shop there?  I wouldn't. There is a reason I am now only shopping regularly at two stores, Re/Dress which is unique to New York and Marshals because I can shop with anonymity. Department stores no longer carry the selection and style I need. In fact many have gone downhill since I published my book. While Fashion bug, the Avenue and Lane Bryant carry style, sizes and selection, I find their quality of clothes substandard and in the case of Avenue and Lane Bryant overpriced.

So what does a fat person get? Lack of quality, quantity and selection or nothing at all. So my fat sisters and brothers. What do we do? First things first, if you like a store's style, but they don't have your size. Let them know. Let them know that until they carry your size in the store (Not the Old Navy BS that has plus sizes online but not in their stores) you will never shop there for anything and you will encourage other friends to not shop there as well. If you do find a store you like that has what you need, patronize it as much as possible. I go to Re/Dress as much as I can despite the long trip and I go to Marshals despite the long lines. Don't give any money to a store that won't give you respect!