A frugal life is an easy life!

The whole purpose of having a scale for clothing and shoes is to make things easier for shops/stores and customers to select goods to purchase.
When I buy a 16 inch collared shirt, wether it be from Burtons or Asda, the collar should be 16 inches.
If I purchase a pair of trousers, a 32 inch waist should be the same as a 32 inch in a different design or from a different company.
The simple fact is, what used to be common practice and scale, is no longer the case. It's costing customers time and money they simply don't have, forcing them to return goods, where had the simple sizing clothing scale been adhered to, they would be satisfied customers who would return to buy again.

Two 16 inch collared plain white shirts bought from two retailers, should be standard in size you would think;
Shirt one (A - in this example) purchased from Asda
Shirt two (B - in this example) purchased from Burtons

Collar size - A is tight and can only just fasten the top button, B is comfortable and can be fastened easily.
Sleeve length - The sleeves on A, are more than an inch shorter than the sleeves on B
Shirt length - The body length on B is clearly longer than the body of A

Next example is trousers or jeans;
How is it that I can buy a pair of jeans and a pair of trousers from Asda and the 32 inch waist size is totally different?
The jeans (for lifting heavy things) I need to wear a belt or they are baggy and they fall down, the trousers (pants) I can only just fasten using the button on the pants. Both are 32 inch waist.

The size scale is there to help customers, is should be adhered to!
How many miles have customers travelled to return YOUR goods that are not upto sizes? Each mile is extra carbon emissions, it takes YOUR customers extra time and turns this customer against shopping with you in the future.
It will often cost YOUR customers more money - car parking fees, etc.
The more synical amongst us would suggest that by the frequency that clothing has to be returned and the constant stream of credit notes given out instead of cash or card refunds, it was as if clothing retailers were using this as a way to entice people back into their stores?

Next up... Shoes.

"They are a wide fitting" - "We have our own size scale" - "They are a narrow fitting" are just three of the excuses I have been given, for bad products and poor service on returning shoes.

The shoe size scale is there for all customers to avoid confusion and be able to pick a product with ease based on the size of their own feet.
It is not and should not be used as a vehicle for increasing prices via the back door.
Never was this more apparent than when buying  shoes for sprog2.

Being classed as a toddler, buying clothes and shoes are hit and miss at best, but when a shoe company (we were told) mislead on shoe sizes to obtain a higher price, official action needs to be taken.
Being measured as a size 2, the sproglette was in the cheaper range of sizes, so a basic pair of shoes was picked up and tried on. They fitted so they were purchased.
On inspecting clark's shoes however, were a different story.
At the same shop, we picked up a pair of clarks shoes in a size 2, hopeless, sprog2 couldn't get them on her feet, strange I thought, so I asked the assistant for some help.
The £10 pair of toddler shoes in the correct size wouldn't fit?
"This is because sizes are different in the clark's range!" Said the assistant.
Different sizes? Why and how is this the case?
Surely a size 2 is a size 2? What other size could sprog2's feet be?
"In a clark's shoe, they would be a clark's size 4!"

Puzzled me this did at first, until that is, I spotted the price...

The £10 for shoes the store was advertising, only applied up to size 2, the clarks shoes were size 4 and were more than double the price.
I launched into the staff at the checkout, told them in no uncertain terms, making sure all the other customers nearby heard me, that the store was clearly ripping people off.
Size 2 feet should require size 2 shoes, international scale that it was. A shoe manufacturer should not be making it up as it goes along for financial gain at the expense of the customer!

And finally..... The humble bra!

I can sympathise a great deal with the plight of women. The sheer volume of marketing thrown at you every single day is horrific. Good quality and value for money is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Your world consists of being marketed at about anything and everything, from the latest thing to exaggerated problems and buying any given company's solution for it.
This marketing pushes up prices so when you girls finally do select something from the sea of claims and counter claims, until you try the product, you still cannot be sure it will 100% do, what its marketing campaign advertising says it will do and all the testing doesn't come cheap!

The average bra is a fine example of the complete bull you ladies are fed by shops, stores and marketing.
I think even the non breasted amongst us would agree that being measured up properly for a bra is the best place to start when buying one.
You are measured up by a "professional" who is really just a sales person for a shop/store, then flogged one from their range.
Upon buying two with the wife recently, we left the store with all the right sizes and a couple of their products. All was well.
Until that is, we happened to come across another store that offered measuring and "professional fitting" - throw in a couple of catchy designs and the wife took the bait.

In we went, oblivious (regardless of gender), to the con trick that is buying a bra.
Instantly a shop assistant approached and advised that a measuring be done. Despite informing them that one had just been done, it was insisted upon, as "not all makes of bra are the same sizes, they can vary and a bad fitting bra is no good to any girl!"
To my surprise, after ages standing awkwardly around an underwear store trying not to look at the stock and innocent at the same time, out came the wife with a completely different measurement size and was directed towards the collection/range she liked.
We ended up purchasing another two bras, different in size to the first two!

If bra manufacturers and shops/stores selling bras don't stick to the basic scale of bra sizes and technique of measuring, how the hell is the customer supposed to work out what's correct and what isn't and select a bra to wear?
Or is the confusion created deliberately to sell more product?
What use is a scale if no company sticks to it?
Where is the customer protection?

We haven't mentioned the sheer lack of quality in clothing and shoe sales out in consumer world. The expensive ranges trading on name alone, whilst quality is cut back on.
Transparently thin clothing imported and sold for big profits under an expensive brand name which trades on its reputation of quality is for another post.
If the UK has a scale for clothing and shoe sizes, then all industry companies, wether manufacturing the goods or selling them, should be forced to stick to it.