Saturday 30 January 2010

Excuse me - You Smell

I read recently that a Tesco store in Cardiff, Wales has banned shoppers from wearing jim-jams in the aisles. Because of the increasing number of slobs people who couldn't be bothered to get out of their PJs, the management was forced to post a notice stating: ‘To avoid causing embarrassment to others we ask that our customers are appropriately dressed when visiting our store (footwear must be worn at all times and no nightwear is permitted).’

And I for one say "Hallelujah!" It's one thing putting a big coat on over your sleep wear to drop the kids off at school but for heaven's sake - go home and change after that. Decent, law-abiding citizens don't want to be standing next to someone at the checkout who is wearing clothes that they've slept in. They're smelly. It's bad enough that my man-child thinks it's ok to wander round in the underwear he kept on for bed, but I do insists he showers and changes before setting a foot outside.

And I don't want to hear the argument that some pyjamas look like sweat pants or lounge wear. Well, do you wander round in stinky sweats after you've worked out? I hope not. They might look like lounge wear but they smell like something completely different when they've been slept and sweated in.

We're not asking anyone to get "dolled up" here either. But my message to all tesco-shopping, pyjama slobs out there is:

Give yourself the gift of dignity and put some proper clothes on!

22 comments:

  1. Around here for a while it became a "thing" with the teenagers that you were cool if you went to tescos in your pjs! It was plain WEIRD! I'm glad the stores have taken notice!

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  2. Absolutely! Now message to self - for Heck's sake go heavy on the perfume after work out before picking up the boys...!!!

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  3. Good God. I have never seen anyone in jamas in our local supermarket yet but having said that it is so damned hard to tell with some clothes these days....

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  4. Totally agree that people shouldn't go to Tesco's in their pjs (something I never saw in Nappy Valley's Waitrose, naturally). However - I don't really see how Tesco can enforce this rule. How can they prove that people actually slept in them and haven't just got terrible dress sense? You can't bar people from shoppping because of bad fashion....Tesco's income would be halved if that were the case!

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  5. I saw this article in the paper and thought " what is the world coming to?" . The women involved were so indignant as well! Don't they have any sense of shame? What a lowering of standards; good on Tesco!

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  6. I cannot for the life of me think why ANYONE should want to parade round the supermarkets in night attire.I suppose though it is better than going around nude!

    Nuts in May

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  7. To me, if you wear PJs out into the real world it is a clear signal that you have given up on life.

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  8. That story made me laugh so much. At the risk of appearing snobby, I think it spoke volumes about the type of customer at that branch. Waitrose would never need to put up a sign saying that ;) I have been to the pub in my pyjamas a few times, but that was just after I'd got into them for the evening and husband suggested going to the local pub for last orders. I put trousers and a jumper over the top. That was in my twenties, it wouldn't happen now. And these days going to the pub requires booking a babysitter two weeks in advance...

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  9. I have been known to pop to Morrisons on a milk emergency, with jeans and a jumper pulled on over my nightie, and I've done the school run like that many times. But not so the other customers could see the nightie!

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  10. I have quite happily gone into my local Sainsbury's (2 blocks from my flat) in my plaid flannel pajama pants. I don't see what the problem is. And if I'm out of coffee on a Saturday morning, I'll do it again. Although it's not unusual to find that my American habits upset the local British sensibilities.

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  11. I think everybody is getting quite upset about a non-issue. Really people, is it all that important? And what about people who shop who've just worked out or who have been hard at work all day? Really, I think everybody is being too touchy.

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  12. Nappy Valley Girl: "...Tesco's income would be halved if that were the case!..." Too funny, but true. Imagine if Wal-Mart instituted a dress code ;)

    I think, if someone wants to wear their PJ's to Tesco, McDonald's, their office, go for it! They will just have to put up with the sniggering behind their backs, the openly disapproving looks and me taking photos of them so I can put it on my website. If they can ignore all of that, then a sign isn't going to stop them.

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  13. yeah!!!!!and HWY do some men think it;s ok to go around the supermarket in warm (hot for england) weather topless...it makes me cringe, good bod or no! but sweaty bods that arent of my making arent nice!! YUK

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  14. Quite agree, going anywhere in your jammies is plain skanky.

    Mind you I have to put up with people in their swimwear in the supermarkets in summer - now that is not a pretty sight!

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  15. Definitely agree. The woman interviewed in Cardiff said that she'd only popped in to buy cigarettes and would have dressed up for a big shop and, anyway, she always made herself 'tidy. If slippers and pyjamas is 'tidy', 'what's dressed up'? Knickers and socks too?

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  16. Husband wears just a t-shirt to bed and wanders around the house like this...doesn't leave much to the imagination but I've never seen him leave the house like that - yet. It's the Finnish influence he tells me...

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  17. I'm just trying to imagine the Italian mummy and pensioner contingent if I had turned up at school in jimjams.

    Smelling salts would have been required.

    If I went to the supermarket in them I think queuing would be quicker as everybody went into "avoid the nutter" mode and escaped from my chosen checkout.

    Must be a cultural thing, I sure as heck don't remember anybody in jarmas before left but I have started seeing references on the telly and in books/mags etc.

    Toto, we're not in the 80s anymore.

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  18. For me, it's not so much the attire but the fact that they're walking around in clothes that they've slept in - probably for more than one night! Eeuuww!
    In Chicago in the summer (when it's quite hot) I often see signs in shops requiring shoes and shorts be worn. Good job too when you see some of the specimens coming off the beach!

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  19. Also referencing your last post -they did an analysis once on parenting triplets and discovered it took more hours in the day to look after 3 than there actually were hours in the day. I'm coming to the conclusion that if you actually looked at the sh*t I have to complete on a daily basis, that time management-wise completing it all without forgetting something or not having time for something is impossible.

    Perhaps that's why people wear PJs in Tescos. Perhaps they've just forgotten item number 112 on their daily to do list - put on clothes!

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  20. Pyjamas MAY be the outfit of choice in Moscow, but who can tell under those floor-length fur coats?

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  21. And to the guy who was standing a tiny bit too close to me at Waitrose today: Don't come so close as if you want a hug - especially not if you smell like you had a bottle of gin for breakfast!!

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  22. I can't imagine a time when I would want to go out in my pj's (or at least that they weren't covered up with other clothes).I do wonder about the store that put up the sign...just how many people do they get doing that? Had it really become such a big problem, surely the odd pj wearer isn't that offensive...

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