A WPTV Channel 5 report out of West Palm Beach, Fla., claims a local woman is planning a discrimination suit against a nail salon. Barbara Phillips told News Channel 5 an employee refused her service, saying, “Your weight, your weight! You can’t fit in the chair! You’re too big.” At 300 pounds, she told the reporter that she has fit in similar pedicure chairs at other salons. She is filing a discrimination suit because she claims to have been humiliated by the salon employee.

A quick perusal of several major pedicure throne manufacturer websites shows that many of the units have a maximum weight capacity of anywhere from 250-350 pounds. So maybe the salon had one of the chairs that doesn’t hold as much weight. But the salon employee certainly went about it the wrong way. We ran a story (“Big Clients, Small Changes,” December 2005) a few years ago about this exact subject. How would you have handled the same situation? If your spa chair does have a weight limit, do you offer an alternative for larger clients? Let us know below in Feedback.

— Hannah