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News & ArtsTuesday, July 28, 2009
Books / Retail / Fashion Today in Retail
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 1:08 PM
Used Book Blog, which yesterday reported that Borders is forcing employees to sign no-blogging agreements, today prints a scathing letter posted by a new supervisor at a Florida Borders store. It begins:
Read MeThe past NO longer matters. It doesn’t matter who you are, how long you have worked here, or what your position is...
You should read the whole thing.
And Gawker says that American Apparel owner Dov Charney has asked his retail store managers to send group photos of American Apparel employees. He is considering firing employees who he considers too unattractive to work at AA stores.
Dov usually gets on the conference calls and talks to people, but one week, he went on a huge tirade and made stores that weren't doing well send in group photos. Why, you ask? He made store managers across the country take group photos of their employees so that he could personally judge people based on looks. He is tightening the AA 'aesthetic,' and anyone that he deems not good-looking enough to work there, is encouraged to be fired.
It is a depressing time to work retail.
2
It's always a depressing time to work in retail.
I'm positive the Stranger will still gladly accept American Apparels advertising money, though.
I'm positive the Stranger will still gladly accept American Apparels advertising money, though.
3
that Borders quote is so gloriously Orwellian, if I was there I would move all their 1984s to the non-fiction section with a copy of the memo.
4
Nobody's surprised by the AA story, Paul. It's always been hard for the less-than-hot to work (and really, shop) in a lot of retail fashion stores, especially ones that consider a specific body image as integral to their brand, like AA or Abercrombie and Fitch.
Just another chapter.
Just another chapter.
6
The problem with American Apparel isn't the physical attractiveness of the employees, it's that they're all twats.
7
Wow, and I used to think Borders was bad back when I worked for them in the mid-1990s. They are seriously fucked if they think shit like this is going to work long-term. People need jobs, but they also have their limits.
8
Wait a minute--hiring people to work low-skill service sector jobs based on how cute they are? Who ever heard of such a thing?!
9
Every AA employee I've encountered looks like they haven't showered in days and are skinny but not-at-all toned.
11
I used to work at A&F, where my glamorous job title was "Model." Unless you wanted to be stuck in the back, you had to apply as a "model" so that they could legally take your appearance into account in hiring and firing. I had my photo taken and sent to corporate twice in my 3 months. I quit because my coworkers' conversations consisted of "God, you're hot. I'm hot. Isn't it awesome to be hot? I want to go to the beach. I'm stoned."
12
Am I the only one who thinks that notice from the Borders manager isn't really all that bad (or newsworthy)? Yes, s/he could have been a little nicer about it, but basically it just says that times are tough and you need to do your job, or someone else will. I'm pretty sure that's what managers are supposed to do.
Full disclosure: I worked for Borders years ago for exactly two days. They paid something like six dollars an hour, and I expressed my astonishment to the manager at the interview that anyone could survive on that. She was sympathetic.
Full disclosure: I worked for Borders years ago for exactly two days. They paid something like six dollars an hour, and I expressed my astonishment to the manager at the interview that anyone could survive on that. She was sympathetic.
13
I suppose I shouldn't be amazed, but I still am that some asshats who are one step up from the bottom of a corporate machine really feel entitled to bully people around. Seriously, how much shit can you really give someone making $10 an hour? And yet they feel entitled to pile it on anyway.
Amazing.
Amazing.
14
@11: I have a friend who worked for A&F for a while. She got transferred from one store in the 'burbs to the flagship downtown and she bitched that it was no wonder that the flagship's sales were sucking -- the sales people were so ugly! She wondered how any of them got hired in the first place.
The rest of us all just kind of exchanged glances and then made fun of the fact she had to listen to the same CD of corporate-approved music all month.
The rest of us all just kind of exchanged glances and then made fun of the fact she had to listen to the same CD of corporate-approved music all month.
15
Retail used to not be so grim. I had a couple of aunts who worked in department stores for years, made a decent wage (for what it was), got a small commission on their sales, and a nice discount on merchandise.
My Aunts were not, by any remote stretch of the imagination, "hot", but they were presentable, and knew their stuff (one sold small appliances, the other one sold "foundation garmets") they bought home some bacon, and they both got a nice little pension upon retiring.
They learned about being salesladies, by the way, from a vocational program in High School. That was back in the day when we weren't pretending that everyone was suitable for college. These ladies weren't dumb, but necessity pretty much decreed that they weren't destined for higher education, and so they were given some career training.
It's only since we started the downward spiral of cheap crap and wal-martization of everything that retail has gotten to be the last refuge of the beautiful but brainless, and the newly graduated English major.
My Aunts were not, by any remote stretch of the imagination, "hot", but they were presentable, and knew their stuff (one sold small appliances, the other one sold "foundation garmets") they bought home some bacon, and they both got a nice little pension upon retiring.
They learned about being salesladies, by the way, from a vocational program in High School. That was back in the day when we weren't pretending that everyone was suitable for college. These ladies weren't dumb, but necessity pretty much decreed that they weren't destined for higher education, and so they were given some career training.
It's only since we started the downward spiral of cheap crap and wal-martization of everything that retail has gotten to be the last refuge of the beautiful but brainless, and the newly graduated English major.
17
@16, agreed. I hate zinging people on looks in large part because I like so much of the unconventional and offbeat in the wide world of human appearance and find the traditionally handsome/beautiful boring, but Dov Charney drew the bullseye on himself. The word that comes instantly to mind is "greaseball."
Mike Jeffries of Abercrombie & Fitch is a whole 'nother flavor of creepy...
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/01…
Mike Jeffries of Abercrombie & Fitch is a whole 'nother flavor of creepy...
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/01…
19
Note to the world – anonymous anything on the net is ALWAYS a good career move (how fucking dumb do you have to be peoples?). Sure I hate my boss and think he and his co. are both mega douchebags, but do I think it wise to say so in public using my name? Wake the fuck up already.
Future AA employees – might wanna think twice before getting that ultra rad face-neck tat
Boo hoo – like this wasn't the case already in the past…. Some newsflash.
Future AA employees – might wanna think twice before getting that ultra rad face-neck tat
Boo hoo – like this wasn't the case already in the past…. Some newsflash.
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