I find online higher-end clothes shopping much easier than in-person for the same reason - when the purveyor of goods can't actually see you, you get to avoid experiences like this. Oddly, some of the worst culprits in my experience have been the 'curated' kind of expensive vintage stores - to their credit most of the sales associates at Selfridges and Liberty were always lovely when I started actually going in even if I was obviously on a high street budget and not a high end one, but smaller shops that brand themselves 'boutique' aren't always a pleasant experience.
on the flip side, the 'breathing down the customer's neck' school of customer service seems to be alive and kicking on the subcontinent too given the number of times I've been tailed around my regular supermarket by staff, so can't put it down to racial profiling in these instances, just extremely intrusive customer service culture. There's nothing for it except to woman up and politely say something to the effect of 'please stop following me', in either place :/
I find online higher-end clothes shopping much easier than in-person for the same reason - when the purveyor of goods can't actually see you, you get to avoid experiences like this. Oddly, some of the worst culprits in my experience have been the 'curated' kind of expensive vintage stores - to their credit most of the sales associates at Selfridges and Liberty were always lovely when I started actually going in even if I was obviously on a high street budget and not a high end one, but smaller shops that brand themselves 'boutique' aren't always a pleasant experience.
on the flip side, the 'breathing down the customer's neck' school of customer service seems to be alive and kicking on the subcontinent too given the number of times I've been tailed around my regular supermarket by staff, so can't put it down to racial profiling in these instances, just extremely intrusive customer service culture. There's nothing for it except to woman up and politely say something to the effect of 'please stop following me', in either place :/