Carrying Sizes for Real Women? You Don’t Say!
Ever since I bought two pairs of panties and two tank tops from Victoria’s Secret I have been bombarded with summer sale emails. Emails in which the subject cheerily reminds me that it’s summer and that in the summer, the women who shop the sexy lingerie store must go out and buy several swimsuits that look as if they are made up of nothing but string and three strips of small fabric. Of course by the looks of these swimsuits that I am greeted with like a punch in the face as soon as I open the email, they weren’t exactly thinking function here. I have been receiving these emails every single day for the past three months. Three months! You would think they would catch on that no, I’m not particularly interested in the three strips of light weight fabric held together by string that they are trying to sell me, but then I remember–I am a number. I am a figure that goes into their sale reports. I am a random name @ random email provider like so many other women that were sent a catalog, said “ooh, cute!” and then bought two pairs of panties and two tank tops online and now forever must suffer while their unsubscribe page politely tells me that I will be removed; apparently that means I will be removed when they damn well feel like it.
I suppose that it could be viewed as a somewhat positive thing that Victoria’s Secret likes me so much that they refuse to stop sending me their daily and sometimes twice-daily emails because I recently received another email from them. This one was not of the “Buy this swimsuit or die!” nature as they shoved their airbrushed, eating disorder-inducing model down my throat, but was about their brand new revelation that they seem to be very excited about since I received this email three times.
Apparently Victoria’s Secret thought it would be a great idea to widen their range of bra sizes, as their sizes have sucked tremendously many, many times.
So you would think this is a victory and all ‘hooray’ for Victoria’s Secret. I, however, knowing better, looked into it a bit more since their new sizes would mean that I could actually shop for bras through them because sometimes, yes, they have a lot of sexy stuff that I would love to be carried in a size that could fit approximately two small honeydew melons in.
Victoria’s Secret is now carrying their new, full coverage bras (new? what? *looks around*) Over 20 bras, the majority being plain, boring, one color types up to a size 40DD. Now let us turn our attention to the advertisement for these bras once more.
In what universe does this model wear a size 40DD bra? She doesn’t look to have scary implants and her stomach does not look to be the stomach of a normal woman who wears a bigger size bra cup than a B. So while Victoria’s Secret now claims they offer a wider range of sizes, although they should really put a disclaimer that says ‘for online purchases only’ because they do not carry a bra over a cup size of a C in their store–I know, I’ve made that mistake before; they simply refuse to show the public a normal sized woman. Nice ab indent, model of supposed 40DD bra; really. Psh.
This whole marketing scheme has me a little confused, to be honest. Why is it such big news that Victoria’s Secret has finally realized not all women come in sizes 0-2? What made them realize it now, rather than before? Why do they have the audacity to market themselves as the place to shop for sexy lingerie yet refuse to cater to all women?
Like I said before, I’ve made the mistake of trying to shop in one of their stores. I walked in, had a stick of a woman approach me and ask me what I was looking for. I replied with I was just looking, thanked her and moved on to peruse through the displays and racks of items. I came across something that I thought was nice and went back to the same woman who had approached me when I had walked in, asked her if they carried what I had in my hand in any other sizes because I didn’t see the size that I needed on display. She looked at me rather smugly and said ‘I think you will have better luck shopping online rather than in the store for the sizes you’re looking for.’ I felt like I had been punched in the gut, fell to the floor and had a gaggle of size 0 women crowding around me throwing Twinkies at me. It was a very Carrie-like scenario of what I had going through my head in just the few seconds I stood there, utterly dumbfounded. I gave her an ‘oh no you didn’t’ look, handed her the item I was carrying and walked out.
I’m not saying that Victoria’s Secret is the only company who markets this way, but they are one of the most popular and their marketing tactics are rather disgusting. I will not be shopping there anymore, I know that much and probably shouldn’t have when I made my purchase a few months ago; but then again, I thought it was going to be that one time and I would have my pretty new stuff and that would be the end of it. I didn’t anticipate on being on the email list that refuses to unsubscribe people.
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I’ve never been into a Victoria Secret store until I went to Blogher in SF and found myself buying a bra.
I LOVE IT! It’s the best damn bra I’ve ever had and they were super nice to me.
I’m 180 and wear a 40D;)
Sorry about your experience though. And that picture?…UGH…………
I’ve never been into a Victoria Secret store until I went to Blogher in SF and found myself buying a bra.
I LOVE IT! It’s the best damn bra I’ve ever had and they were super nice to me.
I’m 180 and wear a 40D;)
Sorry about your experience though. And that picture?…UGH…………
The model looks ridiculously contorted. She looks like she is in pain. I agree with you about VS. I personally refuse to buy from anyplace that says my body is unacceptable. If it is so unacceptable then they don’t need my money now do they?
Why are the extended sizes only in the online store? Do they not want women with a little meat on their bones to be seen coming out of one of their mall stores?
I have a love hate relationship with Victoria’s Secret myself. You want to know what her secret is? She’s a slut who has never eaten a french fry or piece of pizza in her life!
And I always delete those damn e-mails! Plus, to top it off, they eliminated my favorite style of underwear!
I can definitely sympathize with their frequent eliminations of underwear. It seems that every single time I find a style that I love and feel great, they’re gone the next time I want to buy more. They need to start doing surveys or something or putting together reports of how many of a certain style/brand of underwear sell and then keep the good ones around. I’ve had several styles be discontinued while they keep saying “Well we have all new stuff to put out.” And that the “new stuff” doesn’t come close to being as good of an item they previously had.
I’ve shopped there once. I can’t go inside anymore. The window ads are way too much. And I just wanted to say, I RSS’d this place a long time ago and I’m finally starting to check it out and, well, awesome. And you go. There are seriously tons of other places to get sexy lingerie, at least online. Although I guess if I were looking for that I would probably go to a goth store or something hehe.
Ooh, all the way up to double-D, eh?
Is there no-where that considers E and F a worthwhile size to sell? If I’ve ever seen them, it’s been attatched to a 40-48 – because if your boobs are that OMGhuge, your ribcage must be, too. Know of anywhere that sells 32E?
Well, to be fair, I don't think they were trying to say that this model is a 40DD. They were saying that they carry up to a 40DD – which means that smaller women (e.g. the model) are also included. And I know they carry above a C in the store, I've seen a lot of DDs. And it took me a lot to say that, because I have my own non-feminist reasons for hating VS with a passion.
But the way they treated you in the store is ridiculous. Sorry about that.
Oh, and TamerTerra, Nordstrom carries that size, as do some Dillards. But honestly, the best luck I've had is buying online. Figleaves.com is my favorite. Coming from a girl with a cup letter even bigger, stupider, and harder to find
If it is so unacceptable then they don't need my money now do they?
sorry to say but i dont have any idea about Victoria Secret store.
am a random name @ random email provider like so many other women that were sent a catalog, said “ooh, cute!” and then bought two pairs of panties and two tank tops online and now forever must suffer while their unsubscribe page politely tells me that I will be removed; apparently that means I will be removed when they damn well feel like it.
I know this is an old post but I'd just like to point out that we smaller women have sizing issues at Victoria's Secret too. They don't just exclude larger-framed people with (naturally) larger busts, they also exclude smaller-framed people with (naturally) smaller busts. I also have to shop online much of the time because stores don't carry small band/small cup bras. Apparently they only want to cater to me if I go out and buy myself some bigger boobs. Try searching the kind of stuff they stock in 32 or AA. It's just as bad
I agree with what you said. But that's how they do it, it makes the product looks better. If we think carefully, we'll know that some of the ads doesn't really make sense.
I live in Malaysia and I never once seen a woman with that size, so I understand how you think. But that is how they advertise bra. And so far, I've never been bothered by the advertising.
Victoria's Secret has brilliant marketing. Their suits are cheap and fall apart, but they are still able to sell them.
Victoria secrete have lost the plot, when they first started it was all about the customer, now we are just numbers, i have stopped purchasing from them because they are just too annoying to work with. I found these places in Australia that deliver world wide that have all good brands and are decently priced:
http://www.instylelingerie.com.au
http://www.thebrashop.com.au
Victoria secrete have lost the plot, when they first started it was all about the customer, now we are just numbers, i have stopped purchasing from them because they are just too annoying to work with. I found these places in Australia that deliver world wide that have all good brands and are decently priced:
http://www.instylelingerie.com.au
http://www.thebrashop.com.au
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Affiliate Marketing On The Internet
Affiliate Marketing is a performance based sales technique used by companies to expand their reach into the internet at low costs. This commission based program allows affiliate marketers to place ads on their websites or other advertising efforts such as email distribution in exchange for payment of a small commission when a sale results.
http://www.onlineuniversalwork.com
To SalamiGrinder: Ummm.using sites like Hot Air for reference sources is not a good idea. On Afghanistan, Scott supports Obamas ramp-up of operations, Coakley doesnt. During the debate in question, the sequence went: