Had a mixed reaction to my shopping today; it was rather unusual in that I get very few "No"'s these days.
A few weeks ago, late one evening, I went into a lingerie (mostly bra) store in a nearby shopping mall. At the time they had happily let me try on bras in the fitting room, and gave professional advice on the fits. They had a good match for the fairly specific thing I was looking for. If the size 10 forms that I went in there wearing weren't enough evidence that I was serious, the fact that I walked out with a $100 bra should have erased any lingering doubt.
This afternoon, I went in again, wanting the other near-perfect model, but for the smaller (size 6) forms I had on. The SA remembered me and knew exactly which model I was referring to, and I could see that she knew I was serious and very likely to buy. But what she said was (approximately),
"[spoken firmly] The only problem is that there are women in the back {change-room}, so you will have to come back later this evening. I won't be here tonight, but you should come either first thing in the morning or late in the evening {when no women customers are around}. It's just that some of the women {customers} feel a bit funny about that sort of thing. I hope you don't mind?". I replied (politely and taking it easy), "Well, it could be a bit better"; the reply to which was, "{spoken firmly but with a tone indicating understanding of what had meant} Yes. Well, it is what it is."
After which we checked the shelves and found that they didn't have the size I need in stock; but they get more of that kind in often, and they offered to call me when they arrived.
In short, they don't mind selling to me, and will actively help me with the fitting, but if I want to try things on, that I need to go at a time that customers are sparse.
In the past a time or two I've found places that asked me politely to wait until all of the women are out of the change-rooms -- along the lines of "if you don't mind waiting, we'll get you in there as soon as the others are out." I've also been in lingerie stores that sent me in to try things in in rooms right next to ones being used by women (and even the women with small chindren didn't seem to mind that.) I've picked up dresses in small womens' clothing boutiques and taken them over and asked plainly to try them on and been sent right in, the whole thing witnessed by other customers who didn't bat an eye. But this is the first time I've essentially been told, "No try-ons except in off-off-peak hours."
Seperate and not quite equal... They weren't trying to be rude or trying to get rid of me; this is their store and this is the way they do business. On the other hand, they weren't apologizing for it either -- it was not said like, "We're sorry to say that some of our female customers find it uncomfortable to have men in the changeroom, so we ask this favour of you". And the staff was neither friendly nor unfriendly to me: they were lingerie professionals rather than people-skill professionals; and I could tell the time that they were helping me before that the quality of the help I received was in no way diminished because I was a male cross-dressing. But they also didn't have the TG customer-friendliness to say, "There's a few women back there now, but I bet there will be a lull in about 15 minutes; would you like to try back then?"
I probably will go back. In their own way, they are trying to provide the best environment they know of for the bulk of their customers. It's not personal, it's business.