There are many
different ways to promote clothes, such as hiring models to wear them in order
to capture customers’ eye ball. Although the outlook of sales clerks is not as
important as the models, the retailers still chose the sales clerks base on the
outlook because they see those clerks as “a walking billboard,” mentioned by
Marshal Cohen, a senior industry analyst with the NPD Group. I agree with Cohen’s
analysis since those “walking billboard” got my attention indeed.
As a teenage girl,
I admit that I loved the giant poster with pretty models that hangs all over
the shop, and that always capture my attention. A cloth will look better on a
person with beautiful outlook than the others. Although the cloth may not fit
me, at least I want to go inside of the store and try it and other clothes. If
the product doesn’t look good on the model, I won’t even waste my time to walk
in the store. The environment in the store would become one of the factors that
influence me to buy the cloth or not. It feels good when I walk into any
upscale boutique and see salespeople who look like they walked off the fashion
pages. For guys, attractive women could really be a reason for them to
purchase. Some of my male friends will enter a shop only because it has hot
girls as sales clerks. They love to hang out in a store that has many young and
beautiful girls. That gains the opportunity for them to find some clothes that
fit and buy them. Therefore, those retailers are smart and have the power to
hire the people they think could represent their brands.
There is an
example provide in the article “Going for the Look, but Risking Discrimination”
written by Steven Greenhouse. A high school senior from Orland Park, a Chicago suburb, named
Matthew Sheehey said, “If you see an attractive person working in the store
wearing Abercrombie clothes, it makes you want to wear it, too.” We can view
him as a representative of normal American teenager. Teenager is one of the
major markets of stores like Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, and Forever
21. Teenagers love to follow the latest fad and wish to become as hot as the
stars or the models. Advertisement plays a big role in teenager’s mind.
Teenagers would buy fashion magazines and keep updating themselves. At this
time, the poster would come into their mine and build up the image of the
store. If the model is not attractive enough, the will to shop at this store
will be overtaken by others. Some of the teenagers may not built up their own closing
style yet; when they see the attractive people working in the store wearing
even the normal clothes, they may just imitating those salespeople because they
want to be as attractive as those sales clerks.
Some people
consider hiring attractive people rather than others as discrimination. That's
not racism, that's capitalism. Larry Elder, a talk show host said, “this is
about a business deciding pursuant to its own best interests, rightly or
wrongly, that a particular kind of salesperson is more likely to generate more
dollars … It's all about the bottom line.” Business is as fierce as a war. For
sure the employers try to make as much profit as possible. Every retailer wants
to show customers their best image; therefore they would find the good looking
person to perform their products. Or else they would lose at the beginning.
Also, normal looking and people from other race do get hired by the retailer, but
just doing a different job. Cal
State student Carla Grubb
says she was increasingly uncomfortable in the Abercrombie store she worked in:
“When I did get scheduled, I would have to come in at closing time and wash the
front windows and vacuum and wipe off mannequins. While I was washing windows
and vacuuming and dusting, my coworkers, my white coworkers, were folding the
clothes, which I wanted to do, selling the clothes, which I wanted to do.” It
is not that Abercrombie does not hire other race people; they provide different
jobs for them. A store needs to have people for different position to keep it
work regularly. Furthermore, under both California
and federal law, it is legal to consider physical appearance when making
employment decisions. There is not thing wrong when retailers seek out workers
whose look they feel will sell clothes.
In conclusion, Marshal
Cohen’s analysis is correct, and it is totally understandable that retailers
only hire the most suitable people for their products. In today’s competitive society,
the retailers need to be stand out enough in order to capture the consumers’
attention. Hiring people that can best represent the brand is not illegal and discrimination.
