DAMMAM: Most young Saudi women are hesitant to work at women-only clothes shops at a time when many of their counterparts can be seen in security staff and supervisor uniforms at commercial complexes where men are also allowed to shop.
Most lingerie shops are staffed by men, largely foreigners. Even after some women activists launched a campaign to boycott such shops a few months ago, only a small number of Saudi women came forward to work as sales staff at these outlets.
There are young Saudi women working as security staff and supervisors at almost all the commercial complexes opened in the recent past. Wearing uniforms, they watch the shoppers coming in and going out of showrooms and sell not only women's garments but also that of men and children.
They can also be seen at shops selling household appliances, utensils, toys and other products where customers are both men and women. This new trend is widely noticeable at a time when young Saudi women are not visible at women-only garment shops, especially lingerie outlets, as if there is a law banning women from working at such shops.
On the other hand, there are some women who have been working in the sales sections of some traditional shops across the Kingdom. The strange thing is that even Saudi men are reluctant to work at these shops. About 98 percent of Saudi employees hired at these shops left the outlets after spending only a few days there, Al-Riyadh Arabic daily reported.
Mahran Hamad, manager of a famous international brand lingerie firm in Alkhobar, said that his company had employed Saudi sales staff in the beginning.
"But all of them left the firm after a few days. They were not willing to work at sales counters, especially at lingerie shops. Therefore, we had no other option but to hire foreigners to work as sales staff," he said.
According to Hamad, his company has been encountering this problem ever since launching its first shop in the Kingdom. "Many Saudi salesmen either withdrew or refused to work after taking up jobs at the many showrooms. This is a recurrent problem that we have encountered after opening branches in the Kingdom," he said adding that the company's experience might set the precedent for other garment firms.
He noted that Saudi women are not coming forward to take up sales jobs at lingerie shops, even though these jobs are very limited in number.
"The remaining Saudi staffers at our company are working at general administration and distribution departments or at warehouses. Women largely turn up to work in sales sections in other Gulf countries, especially in the UAE and Bahrain," said Hamad, who began his career as a salesman. He added that almost all the sales staff at the shops are men, whereas the majority of their customers are women.
Hamad noted that salesmen face the same awkward situation as women customers at most lingerie shops.
"They may not have knowledge of some new brands or types of lingerie that customers want. Women customers are also hesitant to ask about the actual sizes and types they need. Most often both salesmen and women customers are too shy to go into details, and hence they keep mum," he said, adding that salesmen should be replaced with saleswomen at least at lingerie shops. Hamad noted that young Saudi women are working as security guards at one of the showrooms at the commercial market where he works.
Muhammad Al-Sayyid, a sales official of another international brand that employed a number of Saudis, said that women shoppers prefer saleswomen to men. He said some women shoppers leave the shop when they see Saudi salesmen in the lingerie section. Al-Sayyid also noted that there are several women working as security guards at shops where men are also allowed to shop at the commercial market.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Al-Hamdan, former director of the Labor Office in Dammam, said there is a government directive to employ saleswomen at women-only garment shops, especially lingerie shops. He said that the experiment to employ saleswomen at women-only shops has not been successful. "To make it a success, women should be provided with proper training before being employed at such shops. Then, there should be a strict directive to employ only trained women in the shops," he said.
Fahd Nasir, a young Saudi man who quit his job as a salesman at a lingerie shop, said it was impossible for him to respond to the queries made by women shoppers. "The working environment was quite unsuitable for men like me, and therefore I quit the job after working only a single day," he said.
On his part, Fahd Al Nafeei, a specialist in human resources, said that the law should be applicable to all. "There should not be any difference from place to place and job to job. If women can work as sales staff at traditional shops, what prevents them from being employed at women-only garment shops at major commercial markets?
Umm Abdullah, who has been working as a saleswoman at Dammam's traditional market since its opening 28 years ago, says that she obtained a license to run a sales outlet at the market. "I face no difficulties in selling products to both men and women customers," she said, while favoring the call to restrict sales jobs at women's clothes shops to women.
© Arab News 2011
