Matalan — Local services in Newport

Some good clothes bargains..ahence the one star.

But the staff.... absolutely horrible and discriminatory.

I have been there twice before on visiting Newport and have felt the staff have been borderline rude and off-hand.

I was there again on the 17th of August, on lining up at the till (there was a bit of a queue). I saw one of the floor staff (maybe a manager?) keep looking at me and then whisper to another staff. After a couple of minutes, she went behind the tills and whispered in the ear of one of the till staff. She then went to the microphone and asked all customers to wear masks.

I wasn't wearing a mask (I was made exempt 6 months ago). Another customer ahead and her companion weren't wearing masks and they didn't don their masks. About 5 minutes later, the same staff went and repeated the announcement and a minute later, she repeated the announcement again.

When I got to the till (as it happens the same till the previous unmasked couple used), the staff making the announcement came and whispered into the ear of the checkout staff lady at the till I was at. The check out staff then stood for a few minutes away from the till just looking at me. She eventually very reluctantly came forward scowling and picked the clothes with just her index finger and thumb to scan... holding her arms outstretched in front of her (like she really didn't want to touch the clothes). After scanning two clothes, she said 'you aren't wearing a mask..step back'. I was already stood back from the till. I stepped further back. I had my kids by my side. I could no longer reach the till at this point. When she finished scanning all the clothes, she would not touch the clothes anymore and said, 'you aren't wearing a mask, hope you have a bag'. And turned her back on me. Throughout the transaction, the lady had a scowl on her face. She didn't treat the previous unmasked couple the same way. She was smiling and chatting away with them. I felt humiliated. They have no idea of my medical history.

They did not have anyone at their door stating/encouraging/enforcing customers coming in to wear masks.

I had spent the previous two days shopping in Newport. In other shops, very very few shop staff and even customers were wearing masks. In some shops, no masked staff at all.

The 'Face cocerings: guidance for public' for Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿. Clearly states, There are some circumstances where people may not be able to wear a face covering. Please be mindful and respectful of such circumstances, noting that some people may be less able to wear face coverings and the reasons for this may not be visible to others.

Unfortunately, I am one of those people.

On the way, out of the shop, my kids started asking me why was that lady rude to you? Why didn't she like you? Why was she angry to you? Mummy, what did you do to that lady?

I was taken aback at the behavior of both of these ladies. I don't know why I didn't speak up... Why I did not call out the unprofessional behavior of herself and the 'Manger ?' Why did I not call out her discriminatory behaviour? I am already dealing with some health changes and feel embarrassed when I get stares for not wearing a face mask. I rarely go out to public places except for work because of that. Was it embarrassment?

I have never felt so humiliated. It was made so obvious to everyone (customers and staff) around that they were talking about me and were antagonistic towards me.

I had to write this here, hopefully it helps someone.

I will not be going back to this Matalan (Newport) whenever I visit Wales again. Their staff are unprofessional and discriminatory. Their treatment of me could have been extremely detrimental to someone in a more...

Went to pick up a suit for my partner; as we know his size thought it would be rather straight forward; guess again. We had no expectation of sizes being in order but to top that they were all on the wrong hangers and a significant amount had only the price on the tag so the only way to check the size of most of the jackets was to open them and check the label inside. There are hundreds of them there. As I'm in a wheelchair I was really struggling to check a lot of them. My partner asked a staff member if they had his size and explained that we were having difficulties, they just responded "yeah there's a few of that size out there. Don't know where though." Forty minutes and scores of jackets checked later, after my partner had to get a stool to stand on to check the top rail (couldn't check from a glance as hangers were all wrong) as staff were disinterested in helping, we left, defeated due to the store closing. Should you be planning on buying a suit here and be anything other than a 44R or 42L, plan to spend a minimum of an hour trawling for one, or...

I visited last Saturday and returned a skirt. I was told that because there had been a 50% off sale I could only get £2.25 refunded onto a refund card for the skirt and not the full £4.50 despite me having a receipt as proof. I tried to post a picture of my receipts, but it wouldn't let me. I've phoned Matalan customer services and had no response so I am now taking this to trading standards as they are breaking the law. I wish I had kept the skirt now. It might only be £2.25 but imagine all the money they are raking in by ripping people off. Besides some of the clothes in this warehouse have been there for years and are marked and faded in colour. Some of the knitwear has gone bobbly and has holes in. They should donate some of it to a homeless shelter and domestic...