Stephanie:

I've grown increasingly frustrated with retail job at Old Navy... It's not a hard job (physically), and I do get to work inside with heat and air conditioning. I get a decent discount on clothes, and the people I work with are generally great. It is a retail job, but I think Old Navy is in the top tier of retail places to work, depending on who you ask. 

The problem with my job spans farther than just Old Navy. It's an ideological problem. A philosophical and an ethical problem. Something that encompasses retail, business and maybe capitalism, as a whole. 

So what's the problem?

Well, I don't have a label for it. I'm not sure what exactly I aim to attack or even poke judgement at, but I know it's not right. 

So, I sell clothes for a living. "Sell" being the operative word. I unpack them from the shipping dock, set them out in their designated spots, fold those tables hundreds of times, help customers even after destroying my tables, fit them to their sizes, and check them out. All the while I'm supposed to be friendly and always "selling." 

As I said, "sell" is the operative word. Because, I don't want to "sell" clothes for Old Navy. Or anyone. At least not for most companies. 

Why?

Everything's made in Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Guatemala... The list goes on. The clothes are cheap, and the labors even cheaper. I am frequently urged to sell items by managers that make a fixed amount. They have no personal attachment to the clothes or the company, but I'm constantly asked to sell clothes and Old Navy Cards to people that don't want them. 

Additionally, and most importantly, I'm selling throwaway products that aren't meant to last a lifetime, or even more than a season. They are meant for today's style and won't be relevant in the next 10 years. We push ONC's to customers that typically don't want them, can't afford them, and DON'T need them, all to keep people coming back and to make a sale. 

Which brings me back to the cheapness. 

Companies all over have brand credit cards, apps, emails... All kinds of things to keep the customer in the loop and spending. On a product that's not meant to last, made by slave labor, sold by minimum wage workers and retail managers that never see the effect of that sale because corporate offices everywhere are increasingly money hungry, and don't invest that money back where it counts. 

Frankly, I'm sick of companies blindly pushing products for the money and not for the sustainability or usefulness of it. In the last year alone I've seen the same styles come out over and over, only to be replaced with a more expensive price tag and a cheaper quality.