Management Buzz 05/04 Welcoming overweight customers, employing international students and more

Weighty Matters

If your employees subtly shun overweight customers, they'renot only behaving reprehensibly--they might also be costing you aloyal group.

Myrna Marofsky, president of ProGroup Inc., adiversity consulting firm in Minneapolis, has observed retailsalespeople treat overweight customers coldly, even when they wereshopping for items unrelated to their size, such as cosmetics.Cultural assumptions about overweight people-that they're lazyand don't make much money-can translate into the idea that theydon't have money to spend. Salespeople often "don'tsee them as desired customers," says Marofsky.