H&M — Local services in New York

I walked in and started looking around. Then an employee asked me if I needed any help, and if I was looking for anything in particular, I said no just looking. After I had about 3 things in my hand she walks over and asks me if I want to get a fitting room started, I said sure. I try on the items. Afterwards I walk out and she approaches me again asking how it went. I said good just took the dress, the other items are in the fitting room. Now the dress I got I liked it so much I wanted to check if it came in another color so I could get both. So I proceed to walk towards the area I found it in, and the employee approaches me again saying oh are you going to take another look around, I respond yes. Then she says okay let me keep this dress up front by the register and I felt I had no choice but to hand over the dress. Then I asked her if it came in a different color, she checked and it did but unfortunately they didn’t have my size in the store. I proceeded to pay for the dress and leave. I can’t believe she asked me to hand over the dress and it left a sour taste of a shopping experience because it felt like she thought I was going to walk out with the dress before paying for it. Will not return. H&M please train your staff to not hover over customers, the whole time I felt like I was being interrogated. I enjoy walking into a store and wandering around unbothered. If I need help I...

One star for decent selection. However, the customer experience was abysmal.

I was browsing H&M and noticed a number of unmasked tourists in line for the waiting room. I had found a button down shirt that I wanted to try on, so instead of potentially exposing myself to delta, I tried the shirt on like a jacket in a quiet corner of the store. A sales associate tells me rudely from behind, “The dressing rooms are downstairs.” I answer, “I know, I’m just trying this on.” She replied, “You have to go to the dressing room.”

I had literally put this button-down on like a jacket — I hadn’t taken off any of my own clothes, there weren’t any other customers around me, and I wasn’t disturbing anyone. In the past, both pre-covid and post-covid times, I was encouraged by store associates to try items on outside the dressing room to reduce lines. That this store wouldn’t extend the same courtesy was ludicrous. If it hadn’t been COVID times, the request would’ve been weird and off-putting. That cases are on the rise coupled with crowded dressing rooms made it down-right outrageous. Clearly the store cares more about decorum than its customers’ safety and comfort. I politely re-buttoned the shirt and put it back on the rack where I found it. You...

Hang up your clothes, or else.

We stopped in at the Church Street H&M near the World Trade Center around 5 pm on New Year's Day. The H&M fitting room attendant was yelling down the aisles of the fitting room, telling every customer to hang up their own clothes. One customer returned her clothes to the attendant not on hangers and all hell broke loose. The H&M employee yelled at her, saying she was "creating more work" for her. The customer left as we all hid inside of our dressing rooms and listened to the H&M employee scream obscenities about the woman. At one point she said, "Ooooo I HATE white people!" and then said she was going to "catch her outside" and ran off. We figured it was safe to exit (after hanging up ALL of our clothes of course) and saw her racing through the store. I've never seen anything like it. I've visited several H&M stores, but wow - NYC H&M must have some different customer service rules for...