The other day, I trekked from my barre class at the King/University area to the Eaton Centre.  Whenever I’m at that mall, I make my usual stops, which often includes J. Crew.  After the December holiday season, I noticed that the store started carrying a small selection of petite sizes.  Good news for a short girl like me.  Well, sort of.  The selection was definitely minuscule compared to competitors like Banana Republic and Ann Taylor, but at least it was there, and thus, no need to shop online.  I was glad, though I noticed there was very little promotion, if at all.

Tweets to J.Crew (they only replied once and it was a bit generic as one can see)

Fast forward last week, after barre class.  I walked in, hoping to see if a pair of pants I was eying online was available.  I then noticed that the section was not where it was.  I asked a salesperson if it had moved elsewhere, as sections often do.  After a minute or two (she had to ask a colleague), she told me that it was now online only.  This has happened before – back in 2001 or so, before J.Crew made its way north of the border, some stores carried petite sizes.  By 2003, it disappeared from brick and mortar spots.  It has happened once again.

That (lack of) promotion issue was key.  When Banana Republic launched petite sizes at the Eaton Centre location back in 2003 (or so), there was a sign at the door with the words “petites now available.”  I did not see that at J.Crew.  Why?  Are we THAT much of an afterthought for them?  And to have such a boring in-store selection (compared to other brands, even Ann Taylor (not bringing up Talbots since the mid-30s-and-younger woman doesn’t seem to be their target demographic)).  No wonder people weren’t making purchases.  They could just do it online.  More colour, too.  And if the petite section was meant to be a pop-up, then they could have at least had more variety.  The whole point of a pop-up is to get a sample of what’s available in other locations (whether online or brick and mortar stores).

I shared my thoughts with J.Crew (actually, @jcrew_helps) via Twitter as soon as I walked out of the store and received a fairly generic reply within hours.  It said “So sorry for any disappointment here. Certainly sharing your thoughts with the team.”  Yeah.  Right.

I suppose I should be glad they did not eliminate petite sizes all together.  BCBG used to sell petites at certain department stores, but I no longer see that.  I just think they needed to do a better job letting their clients know that petites existed AND offer a small selection, yet more variety.  It didn’t have to reflect everything they had online.  Ann Taylor and LOFT certainly do not do that.  However, they really had to do something which sparked interest from petite shoppers. There are a lot of us out there – more than people often think.  Not that a #petitematters hashtag would really even help.  Oh well, online shopping it is.  I guess I don’t mind waiting.  I did that before.  It WAS nice to be able to try things on, though.