. "0"^^ . "4"^^ . "Staff mistakenly believe it is okay to body shame their customers to try and trick them into buying clothes that could never fit them. They also seem to think they're psychic.\n\nSizing only goes up to 12. My girlfriend is a 14 at the smallest. I can sort of respect that this is kind of a standard and an individual business can't really be blamed for an issue with retail in general. What I can't respect is having the staff body shame my girlfriend and try to convice her that she should try and \"stretch into\" a size she knows from years of experience she has less than no chance of fitting into. \n\nToday we walked into this store, and my girlfriend walked up to a sales asociate. She confidently and susinctly asked the employee \"do you carry size 14?\" A simple question which merits nothing more than a simple 'yes' or 'no.' What she received instead was a suggestion that she try on a 12, the sales asociate insisting that the undersized garment was stretchy enough to fit her. To which my girlfriend responds that she knows she doesn't fit a 12 and starts to walk out of the store. As we leave the sales associates yell after us insisting she try on the pair of skin tight athletic shorts that experience has told my girlfriend will always show a quarter of her butt in a size 12. She will not shop anywhere that doesn't go at least up to a size 14. She knows her own body and what sizes can fit it from her years of experience buying clothes for her it. Why would a sales associate who has taken a glance at her for no more than 30 seconds have the nerve to pressure her into trying on something that she insists won't fit?\n\nAs we walked away from Titika, we realized how horrible what just happened was. Not all women are as confident about their size as my girlfiend is, and as a teen even she had felt pressure from stores to fit into clothes that didn't fit right, were uncomfortable, and wore in much too quickly because they did not fit. Teenagers, especially girls who don't fit the typical 0-12 sizing in most \"normal\" stores can be easily swayed by such body negative attitudes and convinced to buy clothes that don't fit them. Adults with body confidence problems can fall victim to this too. It appalled me that a sales associate would do something like that to somebody just to make a desperate commission from somebody to whom the company selling the clothes has already decided not to sell, hence not stocking clothes in their size.\n\nI actually returned to the store about 30 seconds later when I realized how wrong the sales associate had been. Unfortunately, the sales associate continously cut me off while I tried desperately to explain why we had been offended by what she had said, insisting that she \"knew her product\" and holding steadfast in her hilariously misguided view that my girlfriend could somehow fit into a garment that is at least one if not possibly 2 sizes too small for her. I insisted to the sales associate that she was continually cutting me off and that I had yet to get out what I was trying to say (the afformentioned comments about teenagers and adults who could be swayed by her body shaming). She insisted that I had in fact gotten my point across. Her coworker stepped in to take her side. I had yet to say what I had to say. I couldn't get to it through constantly being cut off and the sales associate ranting about how she \"knows her product.\" How they could insist they had heard me out while I explicitly asked them to stop inturrupting me and let me finish is baffling to me. It was like taking to a brick wall that thought it was psychic. I had no other choice but to leave the store in anger, having been completely ignored.\n\nWhile I don't believe the average person wishing to shop at Titika on Queen West would encounter these problems, I'm sure that the horrible attitude of the staff would manifest in other ways. I cannot reccomend shopping elsewhere enough if you care about good customer service or businesses who hire individuals that actually care about helping the customer or listening to their grievances."^^ . "1"^^ . "6"^^ . . "2016-06-04T00:00:00"^^ . .