The Ultimate Prom and Bridal — Attraction in Peabody

This was not a good experience. Here are the details of my experience in shopping with my daughter for her prom dress.

Overall impression: the store is dated and a little tacky with leopard print stairs and a 90s vibe. The dresses are crammed together on racks in plastic bags. They’re packed in so tightly that it’s hard to see what you’re looking at.

Associate: I am not going to call out our associate by name, as I don’t want to be unkind, but she was not good. First off she asked my daughter what size she is and my daughter, who had never shopped for a prom dress before, told her her pants size to which she replied by looking her up and down and saying “I don’t think so. You’re bigger than that.” Like WOW. Luckily my daughter is pretty secure and laughed it off, but that is super inappropriate when talking to teen girls (or really anyone). Just explain the dresses run smaller so they size up. Next she asked what my daughter was looking for and my daughter explained the colors she liked (darker) and the style (fitted, leg slit, understated). We were rushed over to the rack and she started whipping through the dresses so quickly and pulling things out to say “this? This?” We could barely see the dresses and the colors were nothing like we wanted. Also the rushed process was RIDICULOUS. If we’re spending $400+, let us look. Finally we took the 2 dresses my daughter picked and the few the associate picked and went to the dressing room where we saw the sign saying we were limited to 45 minutes. Like really? So began the insane process of my daughter being hurried in and out of dresses and the high pressure with every one. After the initial few, the associate went completely off the rails and just grabbed anything. A girl who is looking for a dark red or green understated dress isn’t interested in a fire engine red sparkly dress or a bright blue sequined number. When my daughter came out in an absolutely insane sparkly green sequined dress from top to bottom, we knew it was time to go. We nicely told our associate we were going to get something else and she was like “okay.” and stormed off. So unprofessional.

Final thoughts: Brick and mortar shopping is on the way out, being replaced by online shopping. If you want to remain successful, think about why someone would visit in person. Provide a good experience. Let folks take their time. Let them browse the dresses. Modernize your space. If you’re going to help, let the customer take the lead and hear what they’re asking for. The other thing I’ll say is that I did not read reviews prior to visiting but did now. I am HORRIFIED by some of the responses this store leaves on reviews. In particular a group of young girls who were disappointed in their experience and the response was “you girls said you had visited several other stores and were planning to visit more”. Yup, that’s right…that’s how people shop. You cannot expect a teenage girl, who is making what might be the biggest purchase to date, to come in, get rushed through the process, get dresses that she doesn’t even like thrown at her, and expect her to make a decision in 45 minutes. This business comes across as very outdated and extremely out of touch with the shopping experience today’s consumer wants.

We left, had a much better (and classier) experience elsewhere. My daughter is thrilled and we will never...

We drove down to go to this store with my daughter, 2 of her friends and their mothers (6 total). Girls were so excited! First we got there, greeted by a couple of guys/girls just standing there and for whatever reason, they make you check in (including email so you HAVE to sign up for their newsletter). To speed think things up they provide QR codes so you can do on your phone instead of waiting for everyone to fill out this form. I went through it all on my phone only to get an error “this is forbidden” 2x! Then you walk into this store, on the left is a massive room packed to the gills with rows of bagged dresses, and on the right, is a small section of wedding dresses (about 1/4 of the space of prom dresses). It reminding me of Filene’s Basement in Boston when I went to get a prom dress years ago! It’s super overwhelming for someone who hasn’t done it before. Thankfully the dresses were at least separated by size, so we didn’t have to look through the entire store. Each kid had a “helper” who was there to help finding a dress and with the dressing room needs. It’s a fantastic idea, and ours was really nice at first. My only issue was with her dress choices, my daughter said up front, no shade of teal (little mermaid vibes) and preferably not red because that’s the color of her hair. Yet, she kept bringing in both of the colors. The racks of dresses had so many dresses all in individual bags, so you can’t even see the dresses without having to take them off the rack then shove them back in (reminded me of the inventory room on “Say Yes to the Dress”) The floor plan of this store is wrong on so many levels! Aside from the aisles of bagged dresses, they have sets of dressing rooms against the walls (like they’re an afterthought), each set has 1 large and 1 small room. So we had 2 girls sharing a room, taking turns trying on dresses (time consuming for sure). There is roughly 3 feet between the wall and the entrance of the dressing cubicles. There are racks of dresses on either side of the cubes. Not only is there no seating anywhere, there’s not even enough room for us 3 moms to stand in front so we can see our kids because the helpers and dresses took up about 2 feet. Plus, they only have a couple of mirrors outside the dressing rooms with good lighting but they were in the middle of the store where only a select few could use them. Then to top off this whole experience, we were apparently taking too much time, so the solution was to send MORE helpers to the already cluster f* to hurry us up. My daughter told me her helper started giving her an attitude when she didn’t like any of the dresses she’d tried on. I will say though, when I saw strings fraying around the zipper, they had someone look at it and found the eye loop was coming loose. So they replaced it before we left. All together not a good experience and I don’t recommend this place for...

I wish I could give this place negative thirteen stars for the 13 red flags I experienced.  I went shopping for a bright, happy colored prom dress with my family and my friend.  When we got there we had to wait awhile.  Red Flag 1.  However, a girl who came in with a pageant sash got a dressing room right away.  Red Flag 2. If you do not heed my warning to never come here at least order a sash from amazon to make your visit quicker.  At first I had a great saleswoman, but she had to leave.  I was then put with an older woman.  I tried on a dress, but I did not feel that confident.  I was told that I could take time "to fix what needs to be fixed by May" while looking at my body.  Red Flag 3.  After looking at it she told me that I just need "the right undergarments to squeeze my stomach in". Red Flag 4.  I clearly stated that I wanted something bright, tight, and an open back.  When I went to try on more dresses all the woman pulled for me was black.  Red Flag 5.  I told her that I did not want black, and she pulled a coral dress.  I tried it on, but it was not for me.  I had the audacity to not like something that only met one thing I wanted, and the saleswoman made that quite clear.  I then had a melt down in the dressing room because I felt horrible about my body.  I was comforted by being told "at least you're not a size 36.  Red Flag 6.  I was told that I could try on darker dresses and if I liked them I could get them in another color.  I tried on a black dress that was pretty.  The saleswoman told me it was pretty because "it covered my fat".  Red Flag 7.  To my surprise the dress did not come in any other color only black. Red Flag 8.  The saleswoman saw that I did not hate the dress, so she began to push me to buy it.  I politely said that this was a nice dress, but like I stated earlier I want a brighter color.  Instead of respecting my wants, I was told I could just put a "statement necklace on".  Red flag 9.  We continued to pull dresses, and my friend pulled a few that were more my taste from my size rack.  When she came back with them, the saleswoman said "those will never fit her; they only fit smaller girls like you".  Who says that to a girl who is actively displaying body issues?  Red Flag 10.  I was about ready to give up when the saleswoman told me that she would grab some dresses from the top secret special dresses in the back.  She came back with a dark dress, again I did not want a darker color.  It felt like she was not listening to me Red Flag 11.  We were getting ready to leave, and of course I could not leave feeling good.  I was told that I needed to be more open.  I tried on every style flowy, tight, dark, and bright.  Red Flag 12.  I should not have had this many red flags in a single shopping experience.  Red flag 13.  I went home crying, and saying I did not deserve to eat.  I ended up leaving with more body issues than I...