Hung Up

I went to a store today and purchased two dresses. Now neither were "big ticket items" but, collectively, I was dropping about $75-80 bucks. When I went to the cash register, I asked the clerk if she had two hangers I could take with me. It's my nice way of saying, "may I please have these two cheap plastic hangers upon which these dresses came?" Yes, I prefer in most cases my white plastic tubular hangers from Target or, for special items, a good wooden hanger, but a lot of times, I prefer the ones from the store. They're cheap, I figure they're built into my purchase price and they have the nifty notches on top for sleeveless numbers to keep them from slipping off. Now, if I'm buying a tank top for $2.99, no, I don't request the hanger. But if it's a nicer pair of pants or a dress, yes, I do.

So, in response to my question, the saleslady says, "no, hon...we don't give our hangers away." First of all, please don't call me "hon" (or "Val.") That was strike one but I remained focused on the task at hand. I said, "well, that's a shame. I'm spending a little money here in your store, I know for a fact these are a dime a dozen and I'd hate to buy two perfectly un-wrinkled dresses and then cram them into a little bag." She looked at me, looked at the dresses and then proceeded to replace the dresses on the hangers while she muttered -- yes, muttered -- "well, I'll just let you have them if it's going to upset you."

Battle won but not the war. Customer service, people!...it never goes out of fashion.