Shopping: A Brief Rant

The new Skopje City Mall opened at the beginning of October, and after waiting for a month until the frenzy would have calmed down a bit, I finally went there today. The main attraction -- for me, that is -- was that Zara had opened a shop there; up till now there was only Mango in Macedonia but no Zara.
The mall is... well ok, I suppose -- I'm not a huge fan of malls, but it's new and shiny and clean.
Being the old show-off I am, I searched the Zara homepage for piccies of the two items I bought.
This is the shirt:
( Shirt )

And this is the skirt:
( Skirt )

Riddle me this, though:
Why does the model presenting the skirt have to assume a pose that makes her look as if she'd been dragged in front of the camera out of the workhouse? The shirt and ankle boots somehow enhance the impression, but, seriously? The way she's holding her right foot indicates insecurity.
The same goes for the shirt photo -- right shoulder drawn up, as if to protect herself.
So not attractive.
And frankly, if this toothpick mannequin doesn't look her best in those jeans, who on earth will???

Then I went to the Nike shop, because I needed more pants. Found them, went to pay for them.
Maybe -- I'm willing to concede that much -- my adverse reaction is also a generation issue, but if the credit card doesn't appear to work (it's neither maxed out nor invalid), you don't start whispering ominously with your fellow shop assistant, but you tell the customer that something's not working. If the customer interrupts your ominous whispering with a polite question, you don't tell them, point blank, "Your card is invalid". I asked her, still polite but a little sharply, to kindly have a look at the expiry date, which is 05/13. Anyway, the problem persisted, and they were being so glumly unhelpfu that I just turned my back and left. Will buy pants in Vienna.
Seriously, though, if you're employed in retail, whether you like it or not, you have to show a modicum of politeness and manners. The lack thereof is by no means a Macedonian phenomenon; I've had the same many times in Vienna, and I've seen everything from surprise to apologies to counterattack when I dared utter polite criticism.