In all of the stores that we visited, we were able to make a quick observation that the employees were almost all male, with the exception of 4 female employees that we saw throughout our trips. Two of these female employees were working as Cashiers, while the other 2 we found in the shoe department.
Treatment by Male Employees...
Simply stated; we were ignored. In all of the stores it took the male employees at least 5 minutes to even acknowledge that we were in the store. Even then, these acknowledgements were usually nothing more than a smile or a hello. The only time we got serious attention from male employees was when we tried out excersize equipment. A male employee quickly approached us in one store and gave us instructions on how to properly use the equipment, rather than asking us if we needed help. After he told us how to use it, he quickly left...offering us no real help but leaving us with a feeling that we had no idea what we were doing.
The rest of the male employees failed to even ask us if we needed help, even when we tried to look clueless in some of the departments. All we got from these male employees, as well as male shoppers, were wierd looks when we were in the fishing, hunting or outdoor recreation sections and a couple turned backs.
Funny, though, because it wasn't hard for us to find men helping other men in these areas. In the fishing section in particular, there were 2 men being helped in one store, while the 4 of us just walked aimlessly, watching employees pass us without even stopping
Treatment by Female Employees...
Our interaction with the very few female employees was very different. We didn't
make any purchases, so we never had the chance to interact with the 2
women who were working as cashiers. However, the other 2 women that we
came across were working