Hangers

For the past few months, having been buying clothing for cold weather that was not a necessity in the tropics, I noticed that cashiers were taking the hangers out. I thought that this was some new real for the relevant companies to save money; it seems every time you turn around there's some way for companies to slash costs/increase profits. So, for months, I said nothing. I bought hangers at a few of the same stores that kept the hangers because... I needed hangers.

Today, while on an emergency lemonade run, I hit Walmart here in Beloit and saw some denim shirts I'd been looking for. Cheap. Good for working on the truck in cold weather; I don't feel guilty about grease on denim. So I picked up a few shirts and some lemonade and cruised over to the express checkout - 6 items. 3 shirts, 3 bottles of lemonade. Simple enough.

When my turn in line came the poor fellow behind the register started fumbling with the hangers and trying to fold the shirts neatly. It's not that I mind the folding so much (and I'd already given up the hangers), but this was clearly taking time and there was a line forming behind me. So I quipped, "Remember when they used to give you the hangers when you bought shirts?"

And the guy looks up at me and says, "Oh no, you can have the hangers. We just keep them because people told us that they didn't want them."

"Why wouldn't anyone want hangers? You can hang the very same shirts that you buy with those very same hangers and not have to buy more hangers."

Silence.

And the folks behind me looked on as wide-eyed as I was while the man gave me the hangers with the shirts. Looks like they didn't know either.

Now there are two possibilities here. The stores just don't give you the hangers unless you ask about them... or people insisted that the stores keep the hangers when they bought clothing. One is about saving money/making a better profit by companies, the other is about people worrying about cluttering the closets with as many hangers as they have clothes (!). To be fair, the latter could be affected by dry cleaner hangers piling up, but even so I'd think... the former is more likely.

Next time you go buy a shirt or something requiring a hanger, ask they why they are taking the hanger out. I'm curious.