My interaction with the Shape-Up lifestyle

This is basically a vent-post, so bare with me.

Let me explain to you the time I got chewed out for being a worker at Scoreboard Sports. One day a boy and his mom came in looking for cleats for soccer. The boy was approx 15 years old and his mom wore Shape-Ups. They are an unusually quiet mother and son. Very soft spoken and reserved. I started getting him some cleats that he wanted and he found a nice pair that he said, and I quote, “Feel Good.” After wearing them around for a hile, I rang them up and sent them on their way thinking nothing of it.

A few days later I got a call at work from this very same Shape-Up lady. She started chewing me out for selling her son cleats that are “too small and that hurt his feet.” She went on to say, “That it’s my responsibility as an employee to make sure that they fit right.” She said she would be in to exchange them and get the right size. Feeling a little flustered but not too bad, I went back to get the next size up for this young son of the Shape-Up mom. They came in and, avoiding the awkwardness, handed them the shoes and took the old par to the back. To my surprise he had worn them to a soccer practice, in the rain nonetheless. They were stained with grass and dirt and smelled not very pleasant. I told the woman that we could not take these back because he had already played in them. You could see her face heat up and her eyes start to water. Now this woman isn’t the kind of woman that talks things out. No, she is the kind of woman that cries and gets furious, like a weeping cry. But she and her son left the store.

To my surprise I got a call from her. She was furious! In between the sobs and high pitched shrieks, I heard her say that her son was also was crying. He just waited to get out of the store because he didn’t want to make a scene. She said that it’s my fault they didn’t fit because I didn’t check his toe to make sure it was at a good spot. What! How is that my responsibility? Your son said that they felt good! Who is this family?? Are they like the most unreasonable emotionly-based family ever? Mike, my boss, being the sweet guy he is exchanged the shoes for free. They left with tears in their eyes.

This is not only a portion of why this gets under my skin. The other is because what kind of world people like the Shape-Up lady makes; a world where it doesn’t matter how hard you work, but how hard you complain. If you whine and cry enough, you get what you want. No, that’s not how it should work. I so wish I could go back and be like “Look, Shape-Up lady, you need to shape up. Cry and whine all you want. You purchased these shoes. Your son wore them to a point where we cannot take them back, and that is that.” Then after telling her off, I would sell her some thin socks or blister preventing band-aids for her son.

Thus is my experience with the lifesyle of Shape-Ups.

The Gap