as small as a world and as large as alone, I realize thin privilege exists, but it seems like...

6:35am June 1, 2015

catistrophicable-deactivated201 asked: I realize thin privilege exists, but it seems like a lot of posts here are about clothes. Doesn't it just make economic sense to only carry small amounts of plus sized lines? Can we expect businesses to lose money in an attempt to not discriminate? And if so why? Really not trying to be a troll, just genuinely curious.

mistressnonny:

banal-adventures:

thisisthinprivilege:

killerzebras:

blubonnet:

thisisthinprivilege:

blackfemalescientist:

thisisthinprivilege:

There is a fucking enormous untapped market here. “Plus size” starts at size 14 in the US, which is the average size of women in the US. Does that sound like they’d be losing money? Do you really think that so many fat people complaining about not being able to find clothes means that there’s somehow no money to be made? Specialist plus-size stores are able to charge 2-3x as much as similar straight size clothes; does that sound like there’s no money to be made?
Look, we’ve answered this many, many, MANY times. Go search the archives. FFS.
-MG
Modcloth looked at their sales and told their designers that the clothes offered In plus sizes were the most profitable hoping that more designers would expand their size ranges so they could all make more money. Most didn’t because they didn’t want to be associated with with plus sized clothing. It’s not about profitability.

Thank you, excellent example.

I always had the problem of not being able to find clothes in my size b/c they were already bought because THERE IS A LOT OF DEMAND for larger sized clothing. I hated shopping in high school 3:

I worked at Coldwater Creek for a while and despite being a plus size store, we only ever got 1-2 pieces in the largest size for each item. They always sold immediately and were never replaced, no matter how often people came in looking for them. Does that sound like economic sense to you? Does it really?

Sounds like they don’t want larger women spending a lot of time in their store. Not good for their ambience or something? Old Navy certainly doesn’t want fat women spending time in their stores, and Target shoves fat women into the corner five racks between maternity and the changing rooms, literally at the back wall as far from the front windows as possible.
-ATL

The worst aspect of the “keep fat women out of our stores” phenomenon is when plus sizes (or the upper ranges of plus size) aren’t even stocked in-store. Wet Seal does this - there’ll be a little sign in the front window that tells you that plus sizes are available online. Subtext, of course: if you’re fat, don’t even come in the store. Fat women are pretty much always segregated into a smaller, out-of-the-way section in-store, if not outright told to wait outside.

There are some stores that are discriminatory in their practices. I’m in fat & body acceptance circles. I’ve heard of people being told in a goddamn interview that their resume was excellent, and that they would have gotten the job, but the boss didn’t want anybody over a certain size representing the company, because it would “give the wrong idea.” There have been stores where the CEO has said they don’t want people over a certain size to even go in the company’s stores, even if they’re buying for a friend, because it “looks bad.” I have friends who have been hastily shuffled out of the store by clerks, saying “We don’t have anything in your size here”, even when they sell jewelry and accessories that have nothing to do with size – they just don’t want a fat person in their store.
Since size is not a protected class, they can get away with this. It happens more than you’d think.