We’ve lived in this city of about 84,000 for almost 14 years. When we first moved here I could find clothing for petite women, although it did take some searching. After about the first five years, there was a sudden change in the retailers’s offerings. Almost overnight, the petite departments were either eliminated or cut down drastically. All size 5 and 5-1/2 shoes were eliminated. I was upset and bewildered as to why this sudden change, especially since we have a very large population of both Hispanic and Asian people (the women primarily being of small stature).

It was a well-known fact that people drove to two other nearby cities to shop. It was so bad, it became a local joke that nobody shopped here. The city finally formed a committee to promote local commerce. Their campaigns went on and on, with not much changing in people’s shopping habits. Finally, a few years ago, I wrote to the woman that was in charge of this campaign. I explained to her why I shop out of town (absolutely nothing in this city fits me anymore!!). I listed examples of my frustration in attempting to shop locally:

• The department stores here start the Petite Department at size 6. The same department stores in neighboring cities start their Petite Department in size 2.
• There was now only one store in this entire city that I could purchase shoes at. And there was hardly anything to choose from (rarely a dress shoe for the office).
  
• Our mall was filled with stores catering exclusively to larger size clothing or young teens clothing.
  
• I had other petite women strike up conversations with me in the mall and ask if I knew where to find smaller size clothing.

The head of the committee contacted me and thanked me for my letter. She passed the letter along to local store managers, as she said she thought it was valuable information for the retailers. A few of the store managers also contacted me. But I was disappointed again when they told me they simply did not carry smaller sizes, and did not plan to carry smaller sizes in the future. Why? Because “studies show that those sizes don’t sell very well”, or “we don’t have room in our store to carry those sizes”.

A year and a half went by, with people still shopping out of town. A private developer built a new shopping center here and it has now been filled with some great clothing stores. None that cater exclusively to petite women, but some of these stores carry a large variety of sizes, including small and x-small (0, 2, 4). Those stores are constantly filled with petite shoppers (and I’m one of them shopping my heart out!). I can now find clothing and shoes that actually fit me.

The local paper printed sales figures for the new stores that have moved in. They quoted the retailers as “being astonished” at the sales volume generated. The stores with the highest sales are those womens clothing stores that carry a variety of sizes, some of them selling 150% above their expected sales volume.

What’s sad is that most of the department stores are still carrying the same sizes they always did, and have not attempted to bring back or expand their petite departments. The old mall’s retailers are losing big sales dollars to the new stores that carry sizes for every woman. The only retailer that has realized this is Eddie Bauer, who has now brought back their size 2 into the store.

I still can’t figure out where those size “studies” came from, and why the department stores ignore requests for smaller sizes – especially in an area where there is a concentration of smaller women. I think it shows just how badly retailers are out of touch with consumers.

-Anna, 5'1"