Does Macy’s Use Skinny Mirrors?
There is no evidence that Macy’s uses skinny mirrors to distort your appearance. However, there are other techniques and tools they use in dressing rooms to tempt you with the outfit you are trying out. Skinny mirrors are becoming a concern nowadays because they make people look slightly thinner and taller to make them think their tried outfit suits them and boost sales. However, this strategy is facing backlash from customers. Macy’s is a large brand, and the negative publicity from lying and influencing customer decisions in this way can hurt their reputation badly. Therefore, it is unlikely that Macy’s uses skinny mirrors in their dressing rooms.
How Skinny Mirrors Work and their Identification?
Skinny Mirrors were introduced around 2013 by the California-based company The Skinny Mirror. They are designed with a slightly curved surface to make the viewer’s reflection look slightly taller and around 5-10 pounds lighter. It stays believable enough for the viewer not to notice, but the subtle change can make you feel better about the outfit you are trying out and increase sales by up to 18%, The Skinny Mirror claims. The designer claims that the mirror was supposed to help people feel better about themselves. However, it has been facing backlash from people who believe one should be happy with their original body image and that the mirror makes them feel they are not good enough or that beauty is in being slimmer. Nevertheless, The Skinny Mirror company has failed, but retailers might still be using their versions of it.
You can identify a skinny mirror by looking at it from the side: it should have a curved surface. Alternatively, mirrors tilted backward can also make you look tall and thin. The Skinny Mirror’s skinny mirrors should have the word “skinny” in the bottom right-hand corner. The logo would be smaller than your pinky finger.
Other tactics used by retailers in dressing rooms
Naturally, if you like what you see in the fitting room mirror, you are more likely to buy it. Many customers do not return items they buy if they do not like their reflection back at home, so a cleverly designed fitting room boosts sales. Retailers use lighting, spacing, mirror placements, ambiance, accessories, technology, et cetera to make the outfit seem better suited and more tempting.
In an article posted on Sachs, writer Leslie Brown describes Macy’s easy-to-use interactive mirror at its Herald Square store, which allowed the customer to switch the lighting between “evening,” “office,” and “outdoors” to experience the outfit in different situations. The mirror is no longer there, but the customer’s positive experience shows how mirrors can encourage people to buy more. However, this way is more ethical than using skinny mirrors that lie.
Macy’s Magic Mirrors
In 2010, Macy’s fitting room in New York launched a “Magic Mirror” with a 72-inch display that lets you see yourself on the screen in Macy’s outfits of your choice without having to change into them. You insert your contact information, choose an outfit and size, see yourself in it, and forward the image to friends. This solves the problem of unfaithful reflections because the picture is computer-generated and is another method that is much better than unfaithful skinny mirrors.
An example of skinny mirrors gone wrong
A blog post on Savvy discusses the way customers noticed the skinny mirrors in the Devon Anthropologie store, found it “upsetting” with its body-image implications, and even returned items. They lost confidence in the store’s mirrors, and the negative publicity from unhappy customers’ comments is still present on this blog. The store ended up having to change the mirrors. Macy’s cannot afford to risk such negative publicity because it would drive away its loyalists.
Conclusion
To conclude, Macy’s is a large store chain that does not seem to use skinny mirrors, which are becoming increasingly unpopular because if anyone had noticed these mirrors, there would have been outrage. However, it uses several other techniques and innovative technologies to enhance its fitting room experience and boost sales. These methods are ethical and attract buyers with their innovativeness and interactiveness.
Q: What happened to The Skinny Mirror at and after Shark Tank?
A: Skinny mirrors were pitched in Shark Tank Season 7, Episode 5. The company did not get an offer from the Sharks. They continued with the business and sold mirrors mainly for personal use, but retailers also started giving them orders. The Skinny Mirror faced backlash because of the implications of fat-shaming people. However, the company is now out of business.
Q: Why do I look worse in some fitting rooms?
A: Just as the right lighting can make the outfit seem more appealing, harsh overhead lighting falling parallel to your body and too many mirrors all around can cause unflattering shadows and effects that make you think you look worse. People even have breakdowns because of this.
Q: Are there other ways of making your reflection seem different?
A: Tilting the mirror slightly backward can make you look taller and thinner. At places like gyms, however, the mirror is tilted slightly towards you to make your upper body seem bigger and stronger while your lower body seems thinner. Skinny mirrors have curved surfaces, whereas these are flat but tilted.
