H&M — Local services in New York

This, my friends, is what you get when you outsource manufacturing to China, turn clothing sales into a vast bureaucracy, and give sales jobs to rude teenagers.

I came here to pick up a shirt quickly because I had sweated through another. H+M is one of the few places you can go to buy something without having to commit much to it. They also sell basics for those sudden, intense needs. (Convenience stores sell condoms; for their part H+M sells generic t-shirts).

They've got an atrocious layout. The men's shop is all the way on the third floor. They could have fit it into the second floor, since surely a good third of their customers are male. Their floors are packed with clothes, such that even the aisles are difficult to navigate. And they hide the escalators behind winding paths. In most stores they do this so the customer will view the items as they walk around. In this case it felt more like they had erected a barricade, daring you to advance to the next floor. They make it inordinately difficult to get to the men's section. It's all inexcusable for one of the world's largest H+Ms in one of the most expensive retail areas in the world. It's more or less their flagship and they don't know how to manage it.

The line was terribly long on the men's floor. It took at least a dozen minutes to get through. They only had three people checking us out, and there were a dozen people in the line. They also worked quite slow. Additionally, one customer made a fuss over a sale, yelling across the room, even leaving the checkout for around five minutes to pick out new items. Her total time in line was around ten minutes -- a waste for the rest of us. When someone does that, you put them on pause and check other people out. Of course, I bet the customer would have thrown a tantrum had the staff done that.

When I finally made it up, I told the salesperson clearly and simply that I needed to return a shirt and buy a new one. He understood my request. Oddly, inexplicably, maddeningly, he (apparently) didn't have the authorization to return it. So, without explaining himself, he left the counter and went to another part of the store. He was back there for at least five minutes. He came back, and told me I would need to keep waiting -- again without explaining himself. I told him I was in an extreme rush -- I'd already spent twenty minutes in this store to get a t-shirt. When I said this, the saleswoman to the side rolled then narrowed her eyes and shook her head quick noticeably. Wow! That's among the most rude (yet passive aggressive) attitude I've seen from someone who's getting paid to help people.

They both ought to be fired.

Another five or so minutes later, someone with authorization to process returns came out. He said he'd been in a conversation with his manager, which should come before helping the customer when you know you're the only one who can help.

Why they even have this store is beyond me. They charge very low prices which by definition limits the dollar amount of their profits. It's obscenely expensive retail space (something like $2500 per square foot). The only possible reason is that it's good publicity, but plastering a logo would do just as much. The terrible service here tarnishes the H+M brand, known already for bland,...

If you want your clothes-buying experience to be something between going to the DMV and going through airport security, this is the store you should check out. On October 28, a friend and I went to buy a pair of jeans. We thought this would be a simple thing to do, but oh boy were we mistaken.

Manning the dressing rooms that night were one man and his unfortunate trainee. The giant line for the dressing rooms afforded us substantial opportunity to hear his helpful employee-on-employee coaching to the younger girl: "You have to be aggressive. You have to make them respect you. Make sure they only come when they're called. If you let them in with more than seven items, you'll be fired. If you let them behind the counter you'll be fired." This little pep-talk led me to believe that our fitting experience would be...let's say...combative, and it turned out I was right. After trying on all three pairs of jeans, my friend decided on the one he wanted. At this time, the older fitting room attendant began yelling "SIR, SIR, stop" to me and my mystified friend...apparently they had to account for the exact number of items he had brought in.

On December 8 I decided to return to buy something myself. I thought maybe the fitting room attendant that night had just been an exception. Nope. This time was a repeat of fitting room attendants who think they are TSA agents. "SIR, SIR I need you to step back behind the metal pole," it was yelled at me as I waited my turn. "SIR please wait until you are called." Another shopper helpfully tried to return the items he didn't want to the cart for re-stocking, this earned him more harassment from the H&M employees: 'SIR, SIR you can't be back there SIR."

The harassing shopping experience here doesn't make up for...

Perks of this location - it's on Times Square! This is a great pit stop if you need to replace your tights or want to buy some sale jewelry. Another perk - they have a section for everyone. Men, women's (largest), kids, baby and maternity. The downsides: terribly long lines for both the fitting room and the register. I came here on a late Thursday night - it was about 10 pm and the tourist crowd had gone home. My mom saw a dress in the window that she liked and so I approached a woman in the section we saw the window display in ( it was a women's dress and we were in the women's section). We asked the employee if she knew where the dress was located (I described it to her and said the price). She flat out told me no. She didn't know where the dress was. No offer after that to help me look for the dress, see the dress in the window, or direct me to someone who did know. Just told me no and finished putting some hangers up. I walked away pretty disappointed. I know this store is huge and working here can't be easy. But we were genuinely let down that this employee didn't even try to pretend she could help us. Don't come here expecting anyone to help you - but for extremely affordable clothing, H&M is still a great...