It was my worst shopping experience in years, while this was supposed to be one of the most important things in my life: finding my wedding dress. I went to the David's Bridal store in Bakersfield, CA, after work. I walked in and stood there for 2 minutes until someone approached me. The employee was not friendly or helpful at all. Without any greeting, she had an attitude like “what are you doing here?” She barely talked to me although I tried to express my need in a friendly manner. She threw me a catalog, asked me to fill out a form, and had another girl help me. That girl was more friendly with a smile one her face, but she was impatient to listen to my description of dresses that I would consider. She only heard the first criteria and ignored the rest. Of course, she could not be very helpful to find me “the dress.” She found me 3 dresses that were very similar, while I’d like more variety to choose. She took me and the 3 dresses to the fitting room, asked me to try on, and said she would come back and check on me soon. The dresses did not fit and took me a while to try on each of them. There was not any mirror in the fitting room so I had to walk out of the room to see what it’s like in the mirror. I spent 20 minutes trying on, coming in and out of the fitting room, but she was never back. During that time, I really needed help, but where was my help? When the dresses didn’t fit, I really didn’t feel comfortable walking all over the store to find that girl with my bra showing. I was extremely frustrated w/ their service so I finally changed and left. When I left the store, no one even approached and asked me how I was doing or if I found anything I liked. Since I entered the fitting room, the girl or any other kind of help just seemed to disappear, and I was left alone. For the whole time, I felt like I was not welcome there. How did that happen? I kept wondering after I got home. I have been very disturbed. The employees seemed pretty friendly and helpful to other customers. They only had an attitude to ME, so it must be something about me, not their general personality or service. Was it because I didn’t make an appointment and just walked in? I don’t think that it could justify their bad service and attitude. They could have had told me that they were occupied by scheduled customers at that time, explained to me professionally, and helped me schedule an appointment, as any decent business would handle it. There was no need to give an attitude. If that wasn’t the reason, what is? Because I went there alone? Why would it be an issue as long as I have money to spend? I dressed better than many customers at the store, so I’m sure that they treated me like that not because they thought I could not afford their stuff. I understand big women sometimes are discriminated, but I am a size 4 so it is not a problem. Plus, people who know me always say that I am the kind of customer that every business (especially fashion) would love to have. Then the only thing I could think of was my ethnicity. I am Asian, and I was the only Asian at the store. I am not sure how much experience they had in serving Asians. Anyway, racism, which is the last thing I’d like to believe, was the only believable guess I could come up with after ruling out many other possibilities. I will never recommend this store to any of my friends, and I will make sure that my experience is known by people. (By the way, I wanted to file a complaint to David’s Bridal’s head quarter because I assumed a successful business like them must care about this kind of issue and would try to improve it. However, my attempt was unsuccessful.)