Chicago man takes woman shopping at Alo. After picking her out a whole new wardrobe, he leaves her with a $1,300 total at checkout

The rules for relationships are becoming increasingly esoteric. It truly is the Wild West out here. Dinner dates, drink dates, shopping dates—there’s a different set of rules for every scenario.

Who opens the door for whom? What color should you wear on your first date? Who can you even trust in your apartment? It’s impossible to know which way to turn. Now, a new question emerges: What’s the protocol when you go shopping with your date?

One woman is going viral for presenting this very question—but in the form of a wild story. Here’s how it all went down.

‘Just the craziest thing that happened to me’

In a video first posted on Feb. 23 that has since accumulated over 15,000 views, Adrianna Dorota (@driibbi) shared a story of a date gone wrong. It all started when a guy Dorota had been seeing for a month asked if she wanted to go shopping with him.

“Like, [how] am I gonna say no?” Dorota says in the video. “I [expletive] love shopping. Mind you, I was prepared to spend my own money. I always spend my own money. Like, it’s not a problem.”

Dorota then shares how a guy had made fun of her for being an ardent Lululemon fan, egging her on to instead shop at a different premium athleisure store named Alo. He told her that Lululemon is “for little girls,” whereas Alo is “for grown women.”

Not a strong start, to be sure.

But Dorota did in fact accompany him to Alo, and her date immediately started “running” around the store, picking out clothing for Dorota to try on.

“So we get in the dressing room, and he has piles of clothes for me in there, OK?” Dorota says. “And in my mind, I’m like … is he just being really generous right now? Like, if that’s the case, absolutely, I will take a new wardrobe from Alo … it’s a very [expletive] expensive workout line, OK?”

A fun shopping date

Dorota and her date got really into it. Both appeared to be having a good time, and the stack of clothes was growing.

“I’m trying on things literally left and right,” Dorota recounts. “Like, he is literally dressing me up like I’m his little Barbie doll … Was I into it? Hell, yeah. I think it’s hot. This man is spoiling me today again.”

At this point, Dorota stresses she in no way went into the date expecting this guy to buy her clothes. But all of a sudden, he sure seemed like he was meaning to do so.

“I was not expecting it, so before all of you come in my comments hating on me, I was not expecting it,” Dorota says. “I was gonna buy myself something, OK? It is what it is. But at that moment, when he’s picking all the [expletive] for me, I’m expecting him to pay for it … He’s like, ‘No, you have to try this on. You have to try this on. You have to try this on.’ He’s making me try on … everything at Alo.”

This guy went on to even verbally affirm, “You’re getting that,” in regards to the massive stack of clothing he’s picked out for Dorota. At this point, Dorota is convinced he’s paying, so she doesn’t care. But then the other shoe dropped.

“We walk to the cash register and she’s trying to scan everything … and I’m like, OK, this is gonna be a pretty hefty price tag at the end of this, but whatever,” Dorota says. “As she’s about to give us her price,
he literally dips. He dips and goes to … the men’s section that he wasn’t at the whole time we were there.”

He disappears

As this guy conveniently disappeared, the cashier dropped the price bomb on Dorota. The final price tag? Roughly $1,300.

“I literally wanted to cry,” Dorota says. “Once again, I was not expecting anything, but if you’re picking out a whole [expletive] wardrobe for me, you’re paying for it. So you know what I did? I took it on the chin, I paid for it … I should have walked out, maybe. But … these girls that were working for like, the last two hours at Alo, trying to pick everything out for me, were probably gonna expect a hefty [expletive] commission check.”

The worst part? While those workers at least got paid for their labor, Dorota ended up hating all the outfits. And when she and her date went out to eat after their shopping date, “He didn’t say anything about it.” Unsurprisingly, about a month after that fiasco, their relationship ended.

“You know, he was a successful man,” Dorota remarks in disbelief. “He had his [expletive] together. I just found out that he’s a cheap a–. He’s a cheap a–.”

Even though their partnership ended, Dorota ended up getting one last juicy piece of intel on this guy—one that really does put a fitting button on her whole experience: She saw a picture of his ex.

“I saw a picture of her in the same Alo outfit that he picked out for me,” Dorota finishes. “Really?! Same color, same T-shirt, crop T-shirt with leggings and, you know, white sneakers … I don’t know if that was creepy or what his sitch was, don’t know, but that was just the craziest thing that happened to me,
to be honest.”

@driibbi I hope he sees this honestly. Don’t ask me why I never returned everything, I ask myself that everyday ?#storytime #fyp #shopping #alo #foryou ♬ original sound – ＡＰ???

Who pays on a shopping date, anyway?

While Dorota obviously encountered a pretty bad egg, there probably is some sort of protocol most shopping dates should follow. The internet, at least, seems to be able to agree on a few best practices. So who, in the end, is supposed to pay?

The short answer is: It depends. How old are both parties? If you’re both young, don’t make it about the money at all—each person pays for themselves, and no one breaks the bank. Who suggested the date? If they explicitly offered to pay, then that’s all taken care of. Is one partner notably wealthier than the other? Then it seems fair for the wealthier person to pay. Is there a one-sided occasion attached, like a birthday, or is it a mutually celebratory day, like Valentine’s Day? If the former, then one person making it a git makes sense. If the latter, it’s up to the couple.

While gendered expectations around finances and dating norms continue to cause endless discourse, there is no one-size-fits-all rule. Ultimately, it’s important to keep an open line of communication for all dates, not just shopping ones. Dorota’s date should have definitely been clear about not paying from the start. And social media users definitely advise against dumping lots of money into a person before they’ve committed to a real relationship. Be careful with your heart and wallet, and communicate, communicate, communicate!

The Mary Sue has reached out to Alo Yoga via email and Dorota via TikTok comment and direct message.

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