Maddie Suffers Through Awkward Dressing Room Experience

Have you ever felt pressured to buy an article of clothing? I have, and it’s my own fault. My dressing room experience over the weekend was an awkward one, and I’m hoping I’m not the only one who has experienced this.

I haven’t shopped for clothes in a long time because I’m the type of person who has to try them on before buying. Now that most dressing rooms are open in Rhode Island, I took that as a sign to go on a shopping spree over the weekend. I went to one of my favorite athletic stores, grabbed a few things, and headed to the dressing room to check them out.

As I fanned out the new candidates on the rack in my stall, I realized that this was the first dressing room I had been in since pre-pandemic. I got excited thinking about buying new clothes for the first time in ages, and I rushed to put on the first shirt.

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I rushed a little too quickly. As I looked in the full-length mirror, I noticed my deodorant had managed to get all over the sides of the black shirt. I was mortified. I began furiously rubbing at it to try and get it off. When that didn’t work, I licked my finger, and right before I tried to rub it out one more time, I realized that was pretty unsanitary to do. I gingerly took off the top, hung it back up, and came to the conclusion that there was only one option here.

I had to buy the shirt.

I have never worked in retail, so I don’t know if this is a common thing that employees see. Should I have just given the shirt back or would you have done the same thing as me?