Does Beauty Sell?

How interesting! Check out this little article on a study that was done about how a salesperson's looks can affect the female customer's desire to shop.

I have certainly experienced days when I feel kinda gross and don't feel confident enough to interact with salespeople comfortably. I'm sure MANY women have such healthy self images that they never experience this phenomenon. But I know that many women do.

But we shouldn't! Ever! Biological or not, we need to appreciate ourselves enough to not feel that we're in competition with other women. Rather, we should feel a sense of comradeship, especially in such sacred places as fitting rooms for f***sake!

It's possible that the postulation that this is a biological response is correct. But I'm inclined to think that we are so competitive with other women because we've been brought up in a culture that demands that women strive for a specific brand of physical perfection in order to be desirable to men. The pressure placed on the average women to engage in this is overwhelming and totally destructive to our feelings of self worth.

The question at the end of the article is: What should companies choose to do?

The real question is: What should we do? How can we change this dynamic? How can we change (or immunize ourselves from) the culture that promotes this dynamic?