Author's warning: I am exhausted. This is both long and incoherent. :P
I do not work, nor have I ever worked, for a cosmetic company but I have worked at various aspects of customer service in my life and I understand that there are creepy/gross/weird things about any part of the industry. As a cosmetic consumer however, and a(n) (aforementioned) germaphobe, I must admit that I have a hard time dealing with some of the stuff I see whenever I enter MAC or Sephora or approach a major cosmetics counter in a department store. The employees at these establishments have my unending sympathy.
People are downright disgusting.
Today I had the opportunity to attend a MAC/Estee Lauder warehouse sale. Those of you on Specktra (or MUA) are probably familiar with these sales; major events designed to clear out product at reduced cost. All in all, it was an interesting experience. Weirdly efficient in its own right, it herded dutiful sheeple (myself included) through roped lines toward tables of products for testing, each with their own reference number. (For those of you unfamiliar with this process, it's almost like a scaled down version of IKEA; you find the product that you want on display, you write down the reference number, then you take it to another queue where an employee carts it from a collection of boxes. Very efficient for someone who hates shopping, like myself.)
Ah, but here is where it gets gross.
I do not understand why, in such a scenario, (in any scenario, for that matter), it is appropriate for someone to pick up a lipstick tester from a table and smear it across their mouth. Or a dripping lip gloss wand. I mean, what possesses someone to do that? Have they not thought about the hundreds of people who have likely done this before they got to it? Even if it didn't reach their mouth, it's surely reached their hands. Do these people also go around licking the floor?
While many of the actual products for sale are kept separate from the testers, there was one section of the warehouse that functioned sort of like a rummage sale. Here you could grab anything you wanted from these highly efficient bins and have them thrown together in one bag. Among the products available here was a mascara (I think DKNY but I'll admit I wasn't paying attention too closely.) These mascaras were in closed tubes, but sold unboxed and were easily available for anyone who wished to test them.
And of course, people did.
Now, I understand the rationable behind wanting to try a product out before you buy it, but I cannot fathom how $3 is too much to pay for the privilege of trying mascara and preventing the possible spread of eye infections. Why would someone try a mascara only to toss it back in the bin available to everyone else? In what world is this appropriate?
. . . . .
At Sephora recently I saw an older woman grabbing tester eyeliners off the display and lining her waterline. I've seen customers at MAC grab lipsticks, lipglosses, eyeliners - you name it - and apply them straight to their lips, eyes, face etc. without sanitizing anything. This is the type of behaviour (dare I say irrational and somewhat dangerous behaviour) that I'd expect from teenagers, but it rarely stops there.
I know that many people often become like kids in a candy store when they enter these establishments, but for Pete's sake - think of your health.
What are your thoughts on the cleanliness of cosmetic retailers (customers, retail establishments etc.)?
-mKat
