A PacSun in the deeply-religious town of Orem, Utah recently had a banner day in sales after one customer bought $600 in t-shirts.
That customer? Judy Cox, a concerned mother of an 18-year-old who passed by PacSun’s mall display and found herself repulsed by shirts bearing images of provocatively dressed women. She went inside the store—again, with 18-year-old son in tow—and asked the store’s manager to remove the display. The manager said she could only email the complaint to corporate. So Cox bought everything. From ABC 4:
Cox said, “As I was leaving the mall I had this thought coming to me that I can’t leave it, I can’t let it stay in the window for 3 or 4 days while someone makes a decision.”
So she did the only thing she knew to do, she bought every single explicit t-shirt in the store.
“I told her it didn’t matter what the cost was that I just wanted every single one, including the displays out of the store.”
In the ABC report, Cox seems to give no second-thoughts to the ramifications of her decision, or how it relates to the traditional upward flow of money in corporate structures. Her living room mimics a 15-year-old who just cashed a blank check. (And bought a castle, natch.)
Cox does say she plans on making the protest symbolic, returning the shirts at the end of the 60-day return period, hopefully leaving the son at home this time. Stores like PacSun have a legal right to refuse any return.
This should be fun!
[H/T: ABC]