Making Out With the Manager

So I needed a cocktail dress for my niece’s Bat-Mitzvah Saturday night soiree. My first thought was “Oh, that’s easy…I have tons of dresses.” A classic case of pulling all of my dresses for the occasion out and realizing that they weren’t cuttin’ it for me.

Knowing full well that there were some major sales going on in the department stores, I put on my tennis shoes and easy clothes to get on and off in the dressing room. Digging through the racks I pulled a few dresses. By the time I had waited in line for the dressing room, (25 minutes to be exact) I liked 1 out of 4. A Jessica McClintock; classic cute, short, strapless with a little splash of glitter. The color wasn’t the best, but I went up to pay anyway. Of course this one didn’t have price tag, so I approached the counter and asked for a price. When she came back and said “It’s $228.00,” I stepped out of line and started back from square one.

I went to one of the many sale racks on the dress floor and the rack looked like it had been hit by a tornado. I carefully went through, dress by dress, starting at the largest size going all the way to the smallest. I ended up with three more possibilities. The one I really liked was a fresh yellow and white Betsey Johnson Evening that honestly looked like it had been run over by a truck.

Missing beads, threads hanging, surface dirt and of course; no tag.

I found the manager and asked him with my shiny white grin, “Hey darlin’, I was wondering if I could ask you a question…. this dress is screaming for some TLC. I am willing to get it altered and dry cleaned….is it possible for you to find out the price for me, doll? I would really appreciate it!” With a smile he turned on his heel and said he’d be right back.

So he comes back and tells me that this dress has actually been “damaged out” and shouldn’t have been on the floor in the first place. In his next breath he tells me since it is damaged without the proper tag, he needed to find a SKU for it. He turned again and said he’d be right back with his cologne lingering in the air. He comes back and says to me, “Okay Holly, I have the SKU. I am going to give you a great price on this.” And with a wink he vanished again. He comes back with the final result:

Drum Roll please……..

Hot Manager: “This dress is from last season. It normally retails for $398.00. I am giving you this dress for $138.00. Because it is damaged, I am going to give you 10% off of that price. Because it is “Friends and Family Day today, you get an additional 25% off”.

Me: “Ka-freakin’ ching!”

I am – The Dress Recycler.