Alright. I will say this. Working for this company as a brand rep (sales associate) in highschool would probably be a pretty good gig. You get paid next to nothing, but you would get great experience and meet lots of great people. Those are the only people I would recommend to this company.
I could not believe all the awful things that occurred within this company. They put up this Christian facade that's fooling only their customers. District level managers make promises they can't keep and end up with heart broken employees and they honestly couldn't care less. They will also pay you next to nothing for back breaking work. If you have any kind of family or social life, you can either kiss that or sleep goodbye. They set you up for failure every single day, and then are angry with you when you don't do it correctly. They would cut hours to the bare minimum and then expect management to work well over 55+ hours to make up for it. We were literally told that because of low hours, managers were going to have to stay longer days. Are you kidding me. We would get emails to do something (like counting every piece of sale merchandise you had) and were expected to do it within 30 minutes. My district manager was honestly so sweet and nice, but getting ahold of her was like trying to call the president of the United States. Emails and calls were never returned. Emergency situations were never seen to. It was ridiculous. Asking for a raise was like pulling teeth, it took us 5 months to get a raise for our employees who had been there for 1-2 years and still that raise was never negotiated, and it was only 25 more cents and hour. My employees were not happy, just insulted when that occurred. When I was promoted, I literally never negotiated or even so much as asked for a salary, they just told me what I was making. My offer letter was sent to me via email 4 months later. 4 months. I had been in the position for 4 months before I officially signed an offer letter. I was weird and very unprofessional.
Managers, you will literally be worked like a borrowed mule, with nothing to show for it. I travelled and worked at a new store and worked over 68 hours in a single week. How in any way does that leave time for work/life balance. When I applied at a new company, they were shocked and appalled at how little I was making and all the responsibilities I had. (They offered me twice as much to have the same title, and only work 40 hours a week, so obviously I took it but that's neither here nor there.) my old manager, who was one of the most amazing people I've ever met, was promised things that (we know now) were never going to happen, and I had to sit and watch her heart get broken time and again. It was upsetting and hurtful to everyone involved. Christian? Does that sound christian to you???? And don't even get me started on Aaron Walters. The only words to describe him are power thirsty, solely money driven and just an outward JERK.
A whole separate paragraph is needed for the product they sell. They buy from boutique whole sellers, (meaning you can find tons of their product in small boutiques across the U.S.) and the markup is UNREAL. I used to manage a boutique where I did some buying from the exact same wholesalers so I know what they were purchasing the items for. A 300% markup was quite the norm. The quality was awful and returns occurred so frequently that we couldn't even keep up with them all. It was horrible product at an outrageous price.
I would not recommend a management position to any poor soul. Please, for your own sake, go to a company that respects you. I've been here and trust me, it's not worth it. I feel like people discredit these reviews as disgruntled employees, but I left this company on a high note. And now that I work for a company that loves me and gives me what I need to succeed, I can see just how awful it really was. Read every review on this site, the ONLY positive ones are from brand reps or keyholders who only work directly under their manager (who are more often than not great people) and have no clue what happens with upper management. Do yourself, your friendships and your relationships a favor and stay away.
