The Rant – The sad Zara girl

The Zara logo is sad too, you know?

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Following the huge amounts of attention this post gets, I feel I need to clarify a few points.

This post was originally written for, and inspired by, customers’ experience mostly in Spain, more specifically, southern Spain. The version that appears in a publication for the region, can be seen here. It was written from the point of view of the customer, to entertain customers, and make them think about, why, in general, customer service in Spain is so poor. 

Personally, I have worked in fashion. I’ve had the horrid staff room with no heating in minus zero degrees in winter. I have been physically assaulted by customers that got angry because I didn’t let them return a dress that was stained and smelling of cigarettes. I developed a back injury from lifting boxes full of stock, up and down very unsafe stairs. I’ve been insulted, I’ve been threatened. I have seen with my own eyes the disgusting things some human beings do in changing rooms.

Now as a customer, and a ridiculously polite one, I have been, on most occasions, treated with a lot of arrogance by Zara staff, but – and I cannot stress this enough – mostly in Spain. It’s happened to friends of mine, family members, acquaintances, co-workers. I didn’t make this up. This is why this article was written in the first place, and also, after reading – as it’s stated in the article – reviews that can be found on newspapers and online magazines. However, I do know, and respect that, in Spain, there are wonderful Zara girls, who work their ass off, with a smile, even when customers behave like demanding little monsters.

Also, the intention was not to offend Zara workers all over the globe. The intention was not to offend anyone that is working stupidly long hours, with salaries that will never pay the rent, and working conditions that are disgusting. I’m pretty sure Zara is not the best place to work at. And I’m also sure the circumstances are VERY different for someone in Australia, in Colombia, Thailand, Korea etc. This is NOT reflected in this post. 

It is a scientifically proven fact that the girls working in Zara are always miserable. You walk up to the till, patiently wait your turn, finally reaching the sales assistant. You greet her with a smile and a hello, and she doesn’t even look you in the eye.

She folds your clothes to neat perfection, with a halo of sadness reminiscent of the unhappy housewife, re-living her misery every day, as she folds the laundry, her husband ignoring her scoring mistress after mistress.

She takes your credit card and scrutinises it closely, asking you to introduce your PIN number with a lifeless voice, returning it to you with no “thank you”. The Zara girl doesn’t know that word. She hands the bag of purchases to you, then looking into thin air, calls the next customer.

Have you ever experienced this sort of, sad, impersonal customer service at the Inditex brand? I have seen it happening in London, in Brussels, Antwerp and now I’m experiencing the full-on “I’m too miserable to even acknowledge your presence” attitude in their Spanish stores. Mary Portas went to the Oxford Street flagship store in London and compared the service to that of Burger King, even calling it “snooty”.

Why are they so sad? is the pay that bad? Are the working conditions so horrid? Why do they hate customers? Because, the truth is, they hate us all.

Maybe it’s the uniforms they have to wear: jacket, top and trousers, ugly shoes, all in black. Day in, day out. Maybe they see us happy customers smiling away with our colourful purchases. Their resentment must be at a mighty high after this Summer of vibrant colour blocking.

Maybe they are told not to smile? They might have been warned about Anna Wintour not including smiles in the upcoming September issue of Vogue, and we all know how good Zara is at replicating the latest trends.

I wonder whether they have motivational posters in the storage rooms, as in “make a customer feel as insignificant as an amoeba and get a 10% discount”.

We may never know the real reason. All we can be sure of, is that the girls in Zara are sad. Very, very sad.

Note: I have worked in retail, in some miserable conditions. I have worked in pubs, with minimum wage and drunks as customers. Still, I believe a smile goes a long way. I’m seriously curious about the lack of customer care in Zara, if anyone knows anything about their working conditions, please enlighten us. Until then I can only look at this misery with a pinch of salt 😉