Abercrombie & Fitch Archives - I Hate Working In Retail

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Your Favorite Retailers Are Selling You Used Underwear

John Sciulli/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

When visiting the clearance rack at your favorite retailers, there are some things that you are willing to bargain with yourself about: a missing button can easily be replaced; a smudge of makeup on the collar can be done away with a Tide stick; a hole underneath the arm can be sewn. But used underwear is most likely not an item you are willing to bargain on, no matter how astronomical the discount might be. However, the TODAY show comes as the bearer of bad news, releasing its report that major retailers are reselling presumably used underwear and bathing suits, and the worst part is that you might be completely unaware if it has been on the bums of another lone stranger.

The rather gross news comes via a second installation of Jeff Rossen’s investigative series, Rossen Reports. In 2010, the Rossen Reports team went undercover wearing hidden cameras and visiting some of our most coveted stores for lingerie purchases, such as Victoria’s Secret, Nordstrom, Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, The Gap and Marshalls–all of which were recorded putting used underwear back on their shelves. Now, four years later, the team has gone undercover again to reveal a fragment of improvement (Macy’s, Bloomingdales, The Gap and Nordstrom marked items as damaged or put them in a back room). However, other stores, perhaps those most known for specifically selling lingerie or having extremely low prices on designer lingerie, are still at fault for this dirty act.

When Rossen Reports informed retailers of its evidence in 2010, each responded stating that they would “re-educate” its employees.

However, Victoria’s Secret, Marshalls and Wal-Mart might want to develop a new curriculum that is simple and plain: do not resell used undergarments. AT ALL. Rossen’s 2014 investigation found that employees at these retailers were blatantly retagging returned underwear and placing them back on the racks and shelves before the day’s end. And suddenly, we might have just received a fragment of a clue to our down-there mysteries.

As in 2010, each retailer in the 2014 report released a statement referencing its old, dirty ways. Victoria’s Secret, Marshalls and Wal-Mart stated that they put their customers first and will basically “re-educate” once more. As for looking out for your own behind, Rossen suggests washing all underwear after purchasing and asking an employee to retrieve undergarments on display from the back to ensure its coming immediately out of its packaging onto your bum.

Sourced from bustle.com

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The Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Workers

1. Guessing your clothes size instead of saying you don’t know

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

There is nothing wrong with not being sure of what size you are in shirts, dresses and any other number of clothes. The human body is always changing. We as fashion stylists and human beings understand this. What we don’t understand is why you would have us grab seven different sizes of jeans when we are the ones who will have to put them all back at the end of the day. Not cute.

2. Bad hygeine

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

One time a gentlemen with horrible dandruff asked to try on several hats. I could not refuse him. We had to damage every single one out. Also, bathing and wearing deodorant is essential in any situation, especially if you are trying on clothes you may not purchase. No one should have to smell your naked B.O. from the fitting room halfway across the store. It is not fair to the employees or your fellow customers.

3. Making a mess of things for no apparent reason

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

Remember every shirt you just “want to see” must be refolded by another employee, whose manager has to check them out at the end of the night. It’s fine if you take things off the racks or take a sweater off the table, just please put it back.

Adding to that – Ruining a whole stack of folds

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

Folding clothes is the most time consuming task in keeping the floor up to corporate standards. The edges of every pair of folded shirts and pants need to be exactly even. If you know you can’t fold clothes well, instead of ruining a whole stack of to find your size, feel free to ask an associate for assistance. That’s what they are there for and they would be more than happy to help you. They would also appreciate that you asked.

4. Trying to haggle. Everything.

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

You’re broke. We get it. We most likely are too, depending on which store we work at. But we can’t change the price for you. In rare cases, a manager might be able to. But the bottom line is, if you can’t afford it, ask us for an alternative. If we don’t have it, we can probably direct you to another brand that does.

5. Staying too long after the store closes

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

We have friends, lovers, children, siblings, errands, plans and LIVES. It is understandable if you need an extra ten minutes after we close to make your final decisions and get to the register. But when you’re pushing it longer, that’s just inconsiderate. Especially if you know we can’t and wont ask you to leave. Unlike Nicki.

6. Not believing us

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

If we don’t have your size in that shoe, we don’t have it. Why would we lie? We want you to have the shoe too (especially if we are working on commission). Yes we can check other stores for you, we we might have it online. But please don’t ask another associate to go look for you. If anything, just ask a manager if you don’t believe us.

7. Hearing what you want to hear instead of what was actually said to you

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

I would never tell you an item that is marked 15% off is actually 50% off. Hunny, don’t even try causing a scene. I won’t fall for it, my boss won’t fall for it and the other customers watching you probably won’t even fall for it. Getting that worked up isn’t a good look on you. Just don’t.
Also, a sign that says “SALE – up to 70% off!” means exactly that – UP TO. Not every item will be discounted that high or discounted at all.

8. Trying to make us join you in putting yourself down

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

No one looks like a super model. No one looks like Tyson Beckford and Naomi Campbell in the magazines. Even the real Tyson Beckford and Naomi Campbell don’t look like the Tyson and Naomi in the magazines. We are all beautiful in our own unique ways. There is nothing wrong with you. Please, don’t ask us to laugh along with you about your looks. Read Beyonce’s lips, hotness.

9. Trying on half the store and taking slim to nothing

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

We are thrilled that you love our line of clothes and you look great in them! But if you are going to try on more than ten items, please take at least a couple home with you. After all, we will have to put all the clothes away you decided against.

10. Lying

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

Yes, when you put several items on hold and promise us you will “come back for them in a hour,” we know just as well as you do that you won’t be back on 5th Avenue until Earth’s next celestial cycle. And you will probably still want that same handbag from four seasons ago. But we put your things on hold anyway. Just be real with us, it won’t hurt our feelings.

11. Thinking “Hi!” means “Give me your money and leave”

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

We get paid to greet you. Believe me, we don’t want to do it either. But we are expected to greet any customer the first time we see them. Don’t think that means we are trying to push clothes in your hand and money out of your Chanel handbag. And please, don’t shoo us away when we greet you by waving your hand and saying “I’m just looking.” That’s just sassy with a side of rude.

12. Insisting to try something on a mannequin and then not buying it

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

Dressing mannequins is an acquired art, a very difficult one. It can take several minutes, if not close to a half hour to put clothes on/pull them off a mannequin,especially if they are wearing skinny jeans. A lot of care goes into it and those stiff parts do not move. We understand if the last pair of something in your size is on the mannequin but if we pull it off, please take it home with you.

Let’s hear it

12 Things That Will Enrage Fashion Retail Personnel

Sourced from Buzzfeed.com

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23 Confessions Of A Former Abercrombie And Fitch Employee

a&f

Before we get down to the polo shirts and rampant shoplifting, I should clarify a few things about my employment with A&F. I worked for the company for about a six-month period, over the years 2007-2008 (when I was 18-19). There is a high possibility that many things have changed since my departure, but given the nature of its CEO’s statements over the past year, my instinct is that most things are the same (if not worse). While I don’t excuse some of the behavior engaged in by the employees, I can only put it in context by saying that Abercrombie and Fitch was a soul-draining, inhuman work environment, and one of the few companies whose hypothetical bankruptcy would not upset me in the slightest.

1. While some Abercrombie locations are equipped with spritzers of Fierce (the brand’s signature cologne) built into the walls, many locations aren’t, and the employees are required to walk around at hour intervals and liberally spray every product and surface with the stuff. I happened to be in a location that got the best of both worlds, as we both had the spritzers and were encouraged to go on spray-runs throughout the day, lest everyone’s nostrils not be assaulted with the odor within a five-store radius.

2. The 90s-Eurodance-meets-gay-bar soundtrack consists of about 15 songs, and is looped mercilessly throughout the day. The tracks that were played when I worked there — including the remixes of “Gold” by Spandau Ballet, “Helpless When She Smiles” by Backstreet Boys, and “We Break The Dawn” by Michelle Williams, for the connoisseurs — are forever engraved on the surface of my brain.

3. Because A&F corporate consists of mostly goblins and lesser demons, they forced store managers to intentionally craft the schedule so as to keep people at the upper edges of part-time and therefore not eligible for health care. Yay!

4. Most of the store managers and a lot of the employees, at least at my location, held one or multiple degrees. And while there was still a certain amount of caché to the Abercrombie brand at that time, and people like my shift manager — who had a Master’s degree — chose to go there, they were still being paid near-minimum wage and had no access to health benefits.

5. Employees — referred to hilariously as ‘models’ — were sorted by appearance into various parts of the store. The thinner and more conventionally good-looking you were, the closer you were to the front. Ethnic minorities and overweight people most of the time went to work in the stock room, along with anyone who wasn’t tall or facially symmetrical enough to fold t-shirts.

6. I was one of the employees that was “scouted” while walking around my school’s campus, which essentially consists of a good-looking male manager coming up to you with a clipboard, telling you that you were pretty enough to work for Abercrombie, and that you should join the team.

7. Showing a good amount of skin on women was openly encouraged, in a way that would have constituted sexual harassment in nearly any other work environment.

8. We were frequently subjected to terrible internal corporate videos about why shoplifting is bad, and how to both prevent it in customers and discourage it amongst the staff.

9. Shoplifting customers were the norm. Many customers would come in with little machines to take off the security tags, and would flagrantly steal nearly everything they brought into the dressing room with them. Given that several managers had knives pulled on them when they attempted to chase down a thief, we generally responded to a smattering of security tags hidden behind a display with a resigned sigh. It was not something we were going to fight for.

10. Shoplifting was also a way of life for the employees. Between the terrible wages, the uncompensated overtime, and the lack of access to health care, most employees made their real income by stealing items and re-selling them on eBay. Some stole for personal use, usually the younger employees who were just there as a student job and therefore didn’t need the money as badly, but everyone stole.

11. We were all required to address every customer with “Hey, how’s it goin,” despite that being a completely ridiculous and inappropriate thing to say to a customer, especially the little old ladies who came in looking for button-downs for their grandsons.

12. Corporate shoppers frequently came in to nail us to the cross if we didn’t say the catchphrase when they walked in the door.

13. We were encouraged to pay more attention to more attractive customers, and to propose more revealing clothes to thinner people. One manager even told me, as his biceps strained the sleeves of his moose-emblazoned t shirt, that wearing Abercrombie was “a privilege, and not a right.” Ok, bro.

14. There was a rolling admission of ‘store models’ who were hot enough to become ‘model models,’ and we were constantly informed that the models on the billboards and shopping bags were actually just regular store employees, like us. The general understanding was that you went to upstate New York to some Terry Richardson-esque photo shoot for a week or so and then returned to your job folding sweaters. But we were never clear.

15. We were frequently told that offering help was “not our brand,” and that people need to come to us if they want to find something or ask a question.

16. I cannot recall a single time in which an employee actually went to the stock room, looked for something in earnest, and returned to the store floor with an actual answer.

17. It was something of a sport amongst the floor managers and employees to make fun of overweight and obese shoppers who came in looking for clothes, as we generally didn’t carry above a size 12 in most items, and were encouraged not to apologize for this.

18. Most of the non-English speaking workers in the stock room were on staff for a rolling schedule and would work upwards of 12 hours a day.

19. Technically we were given breaks, but were always encouraged by our shift managers to stay as close to the store as possible and not take more than 15 minutes to eat our lunch. If there was a heavy rush during normal lunch hours, we simply would not be given a break that day.

20. Because of the terrible lighting in the stores, customers would often purchase things with stains, tears, or other signs of damage on them, only to bring them right back when they got out into a decent amount of lighting. The goal was to refuse their return under the pretext that they had caused the stain themselves.

21. At least at our location, the (already negligible) employee discount did not extend to Hollister or the (now defunct) Ruehl, despite all being part of the same company.

22. Any employee who gained a significant amount of weight was fired, with little explanation. Not that you would have needed any, given that the overall environment regarding body image was not unlike the Ben Stiller character’s Globo Gym from the movie Dodgeball.

23. Very few employees lasted more than six months, given how awful the overall attitude of the workplace was. Several of us even quit in spectacular ways, ranging from walking away from the register during a holiday rush, to simply never coming in and never again answering your phone. Most people timed their departure against all of the clothes they were looking forward to stealing, and several ended up staying into the next season just to get a hold of a certain jacket or pair of jeans. Once they got their stuff, though, they were all gone. Bless the souls who are still slogging it out, and may the rampant theft be ever in your favor.

Sourced from thethoughtcatalog.com

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