This is either the best thing ever, or the worst

Many malls around the country may soon be installing full body scanners. No, not to counter terrorism, but to give customers an accurate measure of what sizes they should be wearing in each individual store.


smartplanet.com

On the one hand, it would be nice to not to have to wrestle with different sizes in the dressing room when I go shopping; although some stores, like Express, are all over the place with sizing, it may not do much good there. On the other, it could be disappointing to get a different size measurement than what you usually go for, or typically wear.

Another factor, which may be good or bad depending on how one looks at it, is that it could prove once and for all the existence of “vanity sizing,” which is stores sizing down to make customers feel better about themselves, and what I’ll call “depression sizing”, I think some stores, like H&M and Express, intentionally size up. For example, I can wear a six from the Gap group (Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic), but when I go to H&M, I have trouble getting a ten on me (it’s depressing).