More Incentives and Benefits

Last year in a defeatist act I took my dress pants to Men's Wearhouse and ask them to adjust the waist size about 2 inches bigger. I had to pay $15 for that. A couple of months ago, feeling triumphant after my experimental diet I marched back to the same store and asked them if they could adjust the waist down. The lady who received it said "Oh so you've lost some weight?" to which I answered trying hard to suppress my grin "Ahhh, just a few pounds."I asked them how much would it be? I was more willing to pay for it this time. What the lady told me was that there was no charge for such an adjustment. Did she just said that upward waist adjustments are penalized, while downward adjustments rewarded? What is going on?

It would seem more intuitive that alterations by the same store you bought the item from be offered free so they can reel you back in the store and sell you something while in there. But they choose to offer the freebie to those with shrinking waists. Since Men's Wearhouse is motivated by profit I would guess that they figured they'll get more bang for their money by offering the freebie to the diet fool. Is it like those women who just got their boob jobs and are rushing to the department stores to buy body hugging tops?

I wonder about this as I made my way out towards the door. As I was getting my receipt, a man just entered the store carrying two suits and in a voice that we can all hear announced "I need alterations for these suits I lost 40 lbs over the last few months."