This One Goes Out To Tasha


Once upon a time in a rainy kingdom far, far away on Ye West Coast, I was a Godiva girl. No, not the riding-a-horse-naked-through-town kind (can you imagine the chafing?) but the chocolate-pimping kind. My day job was as a professor but due to my directional dyslexia I ran a stop sign and totaled my car thus necessitating a night job. I didn’t want anything that required brain power and it also needed to be temporary because I was only sticking it out until I got my car fixed.

I considered it divine intervention when I saw the help wanted sign on a jaunt through the mall. A short interview with the manager (Do you like chocolate? Can you work nights? Can you smile for three hours while a woman tries to decide between a champagne truffle and a raspberry star while her toddler licks the entire display case from top to bottom?) and by that evening I was wearing a black apron with gold lettering and a name tag that said Sharon – the closest they could get to Charlotte without actually having to make me a name tag.

My first night was awesome. They paid me to sample every single chocolate Godiva makes. At the time I believe it was over 60 items. The down side is that you have to do it all at once so I ended up just taking one tiny bite of each $26.50/lb confection and then – yes – throwing the rest away. The rest of the night wasn’t as exciting but other than doling out a few little gold boxes and learning how to tie the signature Godiva bow – which has come in handy many a Christmas let me tell you – all I had to do was chat with the other night salesperson.

Like any minimum wage job, there was a revolving cast of characters so entertaining that I should probably write a book just about them, but it occurred to me after the second week straight of listening to Odes to Eminem that one thing would make this job totally perfect: my best friend Tasha.

Tasha had an infectious laugh, a rapier wit and, best of all, the ability to make fun of someone in such a nice way that they totally ended up laughing right along with her. And she needed a job. Perfect! I told my manager, a woman who still wore a black velvet mock turtleneck and quoted Reality Bites despite it being well into the new millennium, and she agreed to interview Tash. Seeing as Tasha was smart, cute, funny and hygienic, I figured we’d be snacking on samples and playing Spot the Tranny by the next evening.

So I was dumbfounded when Tasha told me she didn’t get the job. I knew my manager was desperate for night-shift workers. I knew there was no way Tasha had blown the interview. So what happened?

I didn’t want to believe her when she told me the reason, calmly, as if it hadn’t bothered her at all. You see, Tasha was fat. Not gargantuan but definitely well into the plus sizes. I was incredulous. Surely they wouldn’t say “Sorry, you can’t work here you’re too fat.” I mean, wouldn’t the mere utterance of that phrase cause lawyers to descend on our fake foliage like a pack of locusts? She explained to me that my manager just said the job had been filled but that she was sure the real reason was her weight.

Never one to hold my tongue, and let’s be honest, not caring about the job anyhow, I confronted my manager at my next shift.

Me: So who’d you hire for the night shift?

Turtleneck Girl: Oh, I haven’t found anyone yet.

Me: What about Tasha?

TG: Oh, you know, she wasn’t right for here.

Me: Why not?

TG: I just don’t think she’d fit in.

Me: How would she not fit in?

TG: Well… I don’t think the aprons would fit her. (Hello! Aprons have got to be the most one-size-fits-all item of clothing ever invented!) And this is a pretty small store and sometimes there’s a lot of people jammed in here.

Me: You think she wouldn’t fit in the store?!

TG: Plus, we’ve got this whole company image to adhere to and you know….

Other Worker Guy: (leaning in and whispering) Look sweetie, people don’t want to buy chocolate from a fat girl. They want to have the illusion that they can eat the chocolate and still look like us. If there’s a fat girl behind the counter reality smacks them right in the face. You can kiss your sales good-bye.

My manager went back to fixing the register tape and the other worker went back to stacking little gold boxes and I lost my innocence.

I should have quit on the spot, on principle. But I didn’t. I got my car fixed and quit a few months later and Tasha and I never spoke of the incident again. But to this day, every time I pass a Godiva store I peek in, looking for overweight salespeople. I’ve never seen one yet.

26 Comments

  1. It’s funny, in a sad way, that they’ve figured out that they sell more chocolate if skinny people are doing the selling.

    I won’t buy godiva chocolates on principle now (although I never bought them in the past, so it isn’t really a sacrifice).

  2. seriously, allie, Im with you.
    that blows my mind and yet it so SHOULD NOT.
    it’s the luxury branding thing as well methinks.
    the hollywood “we eat Godiva all day and look like this” (cut to hand sweeping across jutting collarbone)

    *eyeroll*

    M.

  3. Crabby McSlacker

    The sad thing is that it’s probably true that it would cost them sales. Because people are so f*cking stupid that they think candy can magically have no calories if a thin person sells it to them.

    It’s a screwed up world we live in. Like allie, I’m boycotting godiva, which is no hardship because my candy of choice is Sees (which is mostly sold by matronly women who have no trouble filling out their aprons.)

  4. I must say, it’s awful, but I’m not surprised. Companies always want to push their product and the best ways is in the “do this and you’ll look like us!” kind of way.

    In a similar vein, my best friend applied for a job at a high end clothing place. She’s beautiful, tall, skinny, gets approached by modeling companies all the time. But she’s dumb as a box of bricks. She got the job over less pretty, better qualified people, because she had the “look” to better sell the merchandise.

  5. I’m surprised that you guys aren’t more surprised! It was a real shocker to me. I had never thought about weight discrimination before.

    Crabby – yay Sees! I don’t buy at Godiva anymore either, not that I buy 30$/lb chocolates any where these days:)

    Gena – I think I’ve met your friend, many times over;)

  6. determinedtobefit

    I am a bit surprised at this but then again I’ve never been in a Godiva store before. I could see the discrimination at a high-end clothing store or maybe even a restaurant, but not a candy shop. Must be the luxury aspect that MizFit mentioned. I thought I heard about this sort of thing on one of the Food Networks too? Something about how they don’t want “fat” chefs on TV showing us how to cook fatty food.

  7. totally f***ed up, but i’m not surprised either.

    i was a fat kid & teenager, and one of my frst jobs was at Carvel ice cream. I was actually encouraged to eat the products (for all to see) to show how enjoyable they were. Now that I think about it, most of us that worked there were overweight. It was like Carvel ice cream = fat & happy so enjoy!

  8. Hmmm- Maybe I need to change my screen name to “Seesgirl” -ROFL
    Although, I don’t buy Godiva anyway.

    May I humbly submit to you, Charlotte, that you where not aware because you’ve never been the “Fat girl”, 🙁 whereas you clued right in to the disordered eating newscaster on the Fox network! I wouldn’t have picked up on that. Our society favors one type of eating disorder over the other!!

  9. That’s terrible! What with all of our supposed “progress”, one would hope that there would be a DECREASE in discrimination. Apparently not. Is society in general that afraid of reality?

  10. Oh, that makes me mad! It’s crazy that people are so effing stupid, as Crabby says, to think that they can eat whatever the skinny person is selling all day and still look thin – helloooo, do we really think Giada DeLaurentis (Food Network chef, she of ample cleavage and tiny waist) actually eats the fatty food she cooks? As in, more than a forkful or two??
    Sheesh. I think people ARE afraid of reality – or more likely, they’d just rather live in fantasy world, where hollywood moms lose all their baby weight in two months by “playing with the kids”. Uh huh, sure.
    Weight discrimination IS the reality – Leslie had a great post on it: http://theweightinggame.ivillage.com/dietfitness/2008/03/how_sitting_next_to_a_fat_pers_1.html

  11. Godivagirl – I wondered what you were going to have to say about this post! I think you are right about my ignorance. Especially at that time in my life, I was SOOO focused on how “fat” I was and losing weight that it made me very self centered. I think I was not a very good friend and I still feel badly about that.

  12. I have to say that I also fit into the “turned-off, but not surprised” category. Any luxury item is selling a lifestyle image more than the product itself, food included, unfortunately.

    But I think it can swing too far in the other direction, as in “never trust a skinny cook”.

    And as far as Food Network and fatty cooks, I think the only reason Emeril gets to be puffy on TV is because he’s the boss. Pork fat doesn’t ALWAYS rule (sometimes, though!).

  13. I love Godiva chocolate, but I’ll think of it differently now.

  14. Have fun in Chicago, Garrett’s Popcorn, YUM!

  15. Stephanie Quilao

    Having worked in the marketing/advertising/PR world most of my early life, I have to say that this story is no shocker to me. During a phase when I wanted to focus on PR, I was told that I’d have to “look the part” which means thin, pretty, and perky. Do you ever see overweight PR people? Uh, almost never. It’s no coincidence that people with body image issues go into the field of marketing/advertising/PR. It’s all about packaging and image. It’s a really sad reality.

    I left that field more because I realized being in that environment constantly was only making me and keeping me sick because the messages fed my body obsessions and insecurities. I’m so much happier now doing something on my terms 😉

  16. honestly, i probably wouldnt have said anything either, which is a trait i dont like about myself.

    did she know that is why they didnt hire her?

    i dont really know anyone that makes a daily trip to godiva- you either need to go there or you dont, and the people behind the counter arent going to make a difference. i could be wrong, and this is hardly the point.

    im just suprised they admitted it. thats ridiculous.

  17. (Actually, Giada DOES eat what she cooks, but small portions of it. She says she eats pasta every day, just as a side dish and not a main course.)

    But, yeah, people want to believe in the fantasy of eating 6 pounds of chocolate with no consequences. And our culture has a great fear of fat; we tend to think of fat people as weak, lazy, and immoral. And, we’re always being told that if we drive the right car, drink the right beer, and wear the right clothes, we’ll get the hot guy/gal.

  18. My Ice Cream Diary

    I hereby boycott Godiva (but that was too easy because I don’t like chocolate).

    Sadly it is true. On the bright side, that realization is what got my husband to get in shape and loose his very unhealthy weight. When he went to orientation for getting his MBA he came home a changed man. He said, “I’ve always been a big guy, but I was THE biggest guy in that room, and not just the biggest, I was the biggest by far.” After he lost the weight I asked him about that day and he said, “I knew I would be applying for the same jobs as these people and that my body would hinder me. I had to be able to compete in all aspects.”

    I’m sad it is like that, but I’m so grateful that I have a healthy husband because of it.

    And I’m still laughing at the all-too perfect thought of my child licking the display case as I try to make up my mind. =)

  19. I never thought of weight discrimination in a chocolate store. I never paid attention to the Godiva folks’ size, but I haven’t been to a Godiva shop in a looong time! (I really don’t care for it that much.)

    That’s a shame, because I believe that store would have sold more chocolates due to your friends’ sunny, friendly personality. Well, it’s their loss.

  20. And it’s interesting that what’s defined as healthful is based on tehe dominant culture North American prototype to which I subscribed until years ago when I, the skinny fat individual, went for a run with a friend who was built similarly to Tasha and she was able to maintain a seven minute mile for an hour while I trailed. We can change the perceptions though I wonder if its effect will occur in this generation.

  21. I’ve always been fat.

    I’ve never gotten a job as a waitress or in retail, despite applying for them.

    In fact, the first time it dawned on me that I was going to be relegated to the kitchens in restaurants because of how I looked, I was 15. I’d been working in the basement prep kitchen of a bar and grill for 6 months, and a new girl (14 but skinny and beautiful) was hired to replace my coworker. Within two weeks she was also hostessing on Saturday nights – earning tips.

    First introduction to the whole “pretty people make more money” thing. *sigh*

  22. Oh, wow. That’s pretty crazy. Good for you for taking a stand!

  23. What the heck kind of person calls themselves a Mormon and hasn’t met Mitt Romney or Napoleon Dynamite?? Shame on you;)

  24. I feel the oppostie – if I saw a chubbier girl behind the counter, I would feel more comfortable buying my chocolatey deliciousness wehreas if it’s a skinny woman I might feel like, “Does she even know what these tatse like?” It’s like the old adage – never trust a skinny chef. Then again, I try to pride myself on being nonjudgemental so I should actually just be buying my chocolate form anyone, no mater what they look like.
    I’m eating Raisinettes right now.

  25. “Is society in general that afraid of reality?”

    Without question. We’re all supposed to be “aspirational”, you see.

    “Gena – I think I’ve met your friend, many times over;)”

    Hee. I believe these are pretty much opposite sides of the same issue.

    So, not surprised. Pretty much what Godivagirl said. Except that you can also be both the “fat girl” — especially as that seems to be shrinking (witness the current ANTM winner, who is a “plus size” model at a size, I believe, 8) — and anorexic (although, apparently, not according to the DSM-V, because of the BMI-underweight requirement).

    I will not, however, share how I know all that at this time, as I believe it would bore reprehensibly.

    “whereas you clued right in to the disordered eating newscaster on the Fox network!”

    It wasn’t MeMe (Me!) Roth, was it? What have I missed?

  26. littlem – no it wasn’t meme:) I was referring to when I was on the Fox morning show. The host was emaciated, which was ironic since we (the guests) were supposed to be the ones with eating disorders.