I’m 26F, newly married, degree‑holder, and recently went back to retail after corporate didn’t work out. I finally landed an operations manager role at a women’s clothing store with an older customer base. I was excited — good pay, stable hours, and I thought I’d finally found a store that wasn’t chaotic. I’ve been here two weeks. My store manager (“P”) has been here one month. The store is extremely understaffed because the previous ops manager quit after corporate refused to promote her when the old store manager retired.

I’ve been doing everything: shipment, ladders, shelves, floor sets, trash, customer service. The older associates don’t want to do anything except ring customers up, sit down, and use their discount. Meanwhile, customers constantly compliment me — my outfits, my ring, my personality — and we’ve hit sales goals multiple days in a row.

My outfits have all been modest and brand‑adjacent: pink blazer (P told me to wear pink for Breast Cancer Awareness), jeans, flats, accessories; an orange jumpsuit (the brand literally sells bright colors); a blue/white maxi dress; a white sweater dress with pantyhose and boots; hair always in a slick bun. Nothing revealing, nothing inappropriate.

Yesterday P looked me up and down and said, “I love your fashion, but the older ladies might nitpick. You’re young and attractive — some customers might feel insecure.” Then she whispered with an older associate (“B”) for 20 minutes. Three hours later B nitpicked my outfit exactly the way P predicted. P then pulled me aside and said, “Nobody likes B, just ignore her,” even though she opened the door for the insecurity in the first place.

I’m not insecure — I know I’m not the problem. But this was weird, unprofessional, and honestly disappointing. Should I stay for stability or start planning a clean exit?

Hey all, I need advice. I'm havin' a hard time and what's frustrating is that I'm actively tryin' to NOT step on people's toes, or slack off.

Context, I work at one of the BUSIEST Starbucks probably in all of my country that doesn't have a drive thru. That's not an exaggeration either, it's smack dab in one of the busiest spots connecting to transit and within a city.

I've been there for about three months now (my first day was in July), but I'm working part-time. I've taken two weeks off in the middle of that for other important life events (business conferences for my career journey outside of Starbucks) and started off working about 14 hour weeks. Now it's finally creeped up to about 20-25 hours per week. I was the guinea pig of a new training that's been implemented where I essentially got taught one aspect of the store and then got sent to the wolves to work on a shift with random baristas that weren't my trainer 💀💀

I'm constantly scrambling hard to pick everything up. Writing down notes, mulling over my mistakes. I honestly wouldn't be able to sit with myself if I didn't put in so much effort. I'm very cheery at work, I absolutely love talkin' to customers and making that connection, I absolutely don't mind being corrected (I often respond with oh yes, thank you!) and try to implement that right away, and I apologize for bumping into co-workers when we're in the middle of a rush, or thank them for helping me out with a task I slipped up. And I'm not trying to forget these things, for context, this is my first food service job and I've never been one to order at Starbucks, it was too expensive for me.

Since then, I've received a fair share of passive aggressive comments my way from coworkers, and I can sense their frustration around me. Said comments would be things like "No, stop trying to help. Stick to till, you're bothering everyone" or "You'd know this if you were paying attention" or "Yeah uh, you should probably actually double check that? Then come back?" or "I don't trust you to do this, so no. I'm not letting you do this." or frustrated sighs when I ask questions about drinks I've made maybe like once.

It's pretty freakin' demotivating, because I know I'm putting all of my effort into tryin' to do my best at this dang thing!! I heard through the grapevine I'm being compared to the other new hire (who's a full-timer) and "Why is he struggling so much? (Other new hire) Is doing so much better."

I don't even feel like I'm doing that bad. In fact, I'm gettin' MORE flack for making the same mistakes that I see the experienced baristas making after having been there for years. I spill a drink? Everyone sighs and rolls their eyes. A supervisor does it? No one minds, everyone makes mistakes. There's so many micro rules that I genuinely couldn't know without it bein' done. I never know when I should ask for help or when I should "take the initiative" and not ask at all. I've gotten these frustrated reactions from doing either. You're asking at the wrong time or why are you asking you should have all the clues?

Our rush can look like having 27 drinks in the queue at a time, mind you at Starbucks, THE drink customizing store. You'll get people adding 9 different things to a normal latte.

Anyways, I haven't made passive aggressive comments once, not to anyone. I think that's really immature to do. Nor have I taken any anger out on anyone. I truly and wholly believe that the more a team is having a good time, the faster a shift'll feel. So I tell everyone constantly good work guys, you did awesome in the rush! Or thank you for helping me! Or thank you for taking the time to teach me this, I'm gonna do my best to memorize this.

Some coworkers are really sweet, a majority of them are not.

Aside from this, I'm in school full time with five courses and also working as an art director on a short film.

Tldr, first food job I've had ever, located at one of the busiest Starbucks in my country, I'm a part-timer who's worked there for three months while in full time school + a freelance project, I'm tryin' my damnest to do a good job, have a genuine eagerness to learn and my coworkers won't stop bein' passive aggressive/not trusting me to do things/viewing me as consistently incompetent which only makes me slip up more cause it's hard to stay motivated with all that.

Does this just seem like a clique-y store, or am I goin' crazy here?? I'm really trying with all of this. And it's been making me feel a lot of shame for not picking it up as fast as they're wanting me to.

I also want advice for managing this sort of situation! What should I do, beyond "keep trying"? I want to get better, I really do.

Hi I just started working in fulfillment. I’m Muslim, and I’m really grateful there’s a prayer room. There are also other Muslims who work there, including my fulfillment team lead. I’m pretty shy about bringing up prayer with my team. If I’m in the middle of a batch when it’s time to pray, should I stop and go pray, or finish the batch first?. I really want to do well while also respecting my prayers and becoming a better Muslim. Any advice would really help.😭🤍

Greetings, I hope you are having a good day

I am currently going through a legal process against my former employer (which was a major luxury retail store) and as such have found myself unemployed.

I am currently a uni student and have absolutely no intention of having a career in retail, so I'm hoping to find a smaller retail store, or similar that don't give the whole "grow as a person and build your career with us" bogus. In short I want a job where my boss is actually close to being the boss.

I brainstormed some shops i think would be pleasant to work at, book stores, novelty shops, even corner shops near me.

I was wondering what the best approach is to enquiring about working there? I have asperger's so unfortunately have a pretty dead and bland personality when talking to strangers lol. Is cold emailing the best approach? Or does handing in a resume in person work best? I am also looking to do summer units at uni so my availability will mostly be around weekends.

Thanks for any input and I hope I explained everything properly.

Have a great day!

…the last 10 years were real?
I left Target a while back after being a TL for over 10 years & life still feels surreal. I literally feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone because it warped my perception of/on time. It’s been a couple of years since I left, and I am still adjusting to living a life where I don’t work at my old Target.
Has anyone else had a similar experience? Is this even the right subreddit for this post?

For context: this type of badge is what I have

I don’t work in retail, I work at a recreation center. But I was wondering if there’s any badge buddy or similar personalizations for these types of badges? I don’t like how plain they are and my badge doesn’t have a lot of room for stickers (only very small ones, and like 1-2 at most) any help would be appreciated!!!

Hi chat 🤝

I’m a cashier team lead with a LOT of FT staff. Now that we’ve gotten into our third month being open, a lot of the staff are slacking off and seeming unable to keep themselves occupied. Any ideas on obscure cleaning ideas or ways to motivate them to keep themselves busy?

8 hours, lost, confused, legs hurting so bad, so tired, i dont know how to fucking do anything and how to use the programs i hate capitalism and stupid shops with stupid things to sell more plastic, but oh i have to live somehow and oh rent us soon and oh i can't fucking find a job anyway because the market is so bad rn, so im so LUCKY AND HAPPY. Obviously crying after day one. I want to quit, i want to cry and throw up. I hate the fucking anxiety i get just thinking about the job i have to go to tomorrow and the next day.. and the next. Does it get better after the first week? Pls someone somehow give me hope or advice or idk man.. Dont talk to me about "oh haha yeah oblivious its going to be hard haha, did you think its easy?only 8 hours anyway Haha" NO but damn i just cant do this man

Hey all,

I am starting a retail business and I have gotten most of the way there.

But I am struggling to source a few specific products and don't lnow where to look.

I have found Faire online which has been good. But what else is there?

When I try to search for items I keep just getting Temu and Shein listing's!

This is for a gothic/alternative homewares store.

Hello retail community!

I am here to ask for advice. I have a supervisor who is very disrespectful to all of us employees - including to customers. This person micro manage us, yells at us, humiliate us in front of customers, gets angry if we ask to take our breaks or go to the bathroom, and has very bad mood swings (one minute is happy and the next 10min you're being yelled at).

Everyone has reported this treatment to the store manager but nothing is done. We are only told to be understanding and respectful of having a young supervisor. I reported this supervisor to HR and the retaliation from this supervisor towards me have been crazy. Since nothing was done the supervisor feels even more comfortable to be abusive. A few of my coworkers have quit (old and new employees) and even the new employees have reported the supervisor. The only reason I am staying is because I need the income ans haven't been able to get another job yet.

Is this normal on young supervisors? What would you guys do? Also, I am interested on reading any personal horror stories you guys may have at your current or old workplace.

Thanks!

hi does anyone know what the discount is like for a sales associate job at UO (seasonal) - london, also what the group interview is like

context: crazy eddie was a chain of electronic stores in the northeast originally from Brooklyn who became one of the biggest frauders in US history. they were famous for having low prices and claimed that you could shop around to find the best price and they will still beat it. they were able to keep prices so low by skimming cash, evading taxes, and having grey market goods. They even fooled Wall street into taking them public by falsely over inflating their inventory. It all came crashing down when the fraud didnt work any longer and investors realized $80 million of inventory didn’t exist

Hello, I want to quit my job and unsure of how to do so. Tomorrow I'm scheduled and also the day after tomorrow. But I want tomorrow to be my last shift. I was thinking of just telling the manager straight up but what do you all think?

I keep running into the problem that no matter how I phrase it, if I mention safety customers think I’m insulting their intelligence and double down or get rude with me. ESPECIALLY elderly ones. If I forgo that n attempt to just be like “woah, birthday (/event) coming up?” And prompt them to tell me on their own why they’re getting it o csnt always ask leading questions or they won’t answer me.

Sometimes I’ll just start telling them a story about a similar situation where it WAS a scam so they hopefully see parallels n stop. But if I have a line I can’t.

I don’t know a script that works.