The mystery of the untried knickers

I noticed something the other day and I am at a loss to explain the phenomena now that I have noted it.

We carry a modest selection of lingerie. The current crop is all neatly packaged up in little cartons and boxes which tend to make it quite convenient for us to arrange on a fixture. Words cannot express how much we like it as merchants when we're provided something that looks nice and also takes up a minimum of volume on the sales floor. In the past, we have also carried some lingerie that had to be displayed on the hanger.

It is that distinction where things have tended toward the perplexing.

We were constantly bombarded with inquiries about trying on various apparel when it was on the hanger. With the cartons, rarely if ever do we get asked if it can be tried on.

One might suggest at first that maybe it's just as simple as people don't feel as much need to get their grubby hands on items in a box as they are when it's much more exposed. Unfortunately, people tend to devote a lot of time and effort into poking a questing finger inside the goody box. Sadly, that pretty much explains every sexual problem and the motivation for a lot of relationships. That however, is a tangent for another day. In this case, it seems the lingerie falls outside the normal trends.

A second theory would be that people seeing something is labeled as "One Size Fits Most" or "Queen" have gained enough information from that to preclude the desire to see if they do in fact fall into the category of "most." Again, it fails to hold up to critical examination. I have sold many bits of intimate apparel with the ominous "O/S" tag. People asked to try them on just as often as the more usual small/medium/large labeled garments.

Perhaps the answer may lie in the combination of the two factors, except both are quite common in selling hosiery. To my knowledge, I don't believe any store allows patrons to try hose on; however that does not mean we do not get requests to do just that. Therefore, if someone wants to give a pair of thigh-high fishnets a test strut, why would they pause to blink before making the same request for items that are a bit more usual for investigating the fit? It doesn't add up.

Shoppers are predictable; they conform to general modes of behavior and thought. So far, this falls outside that scope. It's bloody weird.