I used to be a keyholder at American Apparel. Ask me anything

Did you have orgies in the storage room?

>>10984527

Nah, I worked at a college town location, most girls were feminist prudes, the manager was a vapid cunt, but everyone else was a regular student. Our backstock coordinator was a doctoral student of some kind.

Are the hoodies worth buying or are they shit?

>>10984561

They're alright, carefully survey what you're buying though - our manager instructed us not to damage things out unless they were obviously unsellable. A lot of things came from the factory with defects. As with everything at our stores though, it's overpriced basics, my best advice is to take advantage of whatever promos are going on - usually a buy three get the third half off, it makes buying their shit a little more sensible.

do they have any heavyweight cotton tees / knits I feel like everything is paper thin

>>10984596

Yeah, look for the "Hammer/Box Hammer" tees, on the 'sheerness' scale:

1. Sheer / Summer Shirt
2. Polyblend
3. Fine Jersey
4. Polyblend
5. Power Washed
6. Hammer/Box Hammer

>>10984606
hey thanks man

>>10984606
>>10984610


#2 Polyblend - replace with Triblend, sorry. It's rayon, so it shrinks like nobody's business. Alway, ALWAYS upsize their cotton/rayon stuff, it'll shrink, you'll return it, the manager will tell you to fuck yourself, you'll call a higher-up, she'll bitch at the manager, the manager will blame a keyholder.

>>10984614
that sucks lol
but that's a testament to their [questionable] quality
Most of my shirts are cotton/rayon blends from Tracksmith and they get suuuuper heavy wear and haven't shrunk at all

Is it true they have a "no ugly people" policy in who they hire?

>>10984631
Every store that caters to hip people have that policy.

>>10984631

Yeah, every little rumor you've probably heard about American Apparel is probably true.

I had to send in face shots and a couple pics showing my fashion aesthetic as a prescreening for the manager to look at. If you want to put yourself through hell for abysmal pay and 50% off shoddily made clothes, you have to be tall, thin, no acne/pimples, (for grills) no makeup, etc.

The manager at my store was some washed up coke whore ex-model who gained 10 lbs. and was cut from her agency, so I'd like to think she was an expert at picking suitable candidates for employees. (I had 0 retail experience and was immediately hired as a keyholder - sort of a junior management position responsible for running the store when the manager wasn't around). I did everything a sales associate did, which is busywork at best (cleaning, straightening, greeting, etc.) AND had the added responsibilities as a manager, while the manager fucked around on the computer in the back room or stood behind the counter.

The cameras feed right to Asset Protection, and they're always watching for time thefting. People who stand behind the counter who aren't managers or in the manager's clique get accused and written up for time thefting all the time. I can go on. and on. and on;... It was a fucking stasi controlled gulag there.

>>10984622
I've always likened AA to the walmart of fashionable basics

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>>10984667
>I had to send in face shots and a couple pics showing my fashion aesthetic as a prescreening for the manager to look at.
> It was a fucking stasi controlled gulag there.

>>10984667
damn glad you changed jobs
in my company we take two one-hour breaks on the clock every day and get night/weekend differentials plus lots of overtime

Are the Regular fit 100 jeans absolute shit? Need a pair of beaters for summer.

>>10984522
How much did they pay you to hold keys?

>>10984667
>abysmal pay
How much did you get paid?

>>10984692

Let me rephrase; at first it seems like a quick and easy package; validation that you look better than average, 50% off trendy minimalistic clothes, work in a store 20-30 year old hipster sluts drool over... It seemed like an easy retail job with added perks. I thought the workers were just vapid, full of themselves, but then I found out our customers were actually the scum of the earth, and our management were a bunch of incompetent, emotionally unstable post-teens with absolutely no clue on how to manage a retail chain, and have no sense of responsibility. They hire keyholders to minimize the fallout on the upper management, thats why our turnover is so incredibly high - I started there with 6 other keyholders and sales associates - not ONE of the people I worked with my first month was there when I quit.

>>10984700
They're okay, don't expect quality - I own two pairs and the buttons fall out, the crotch wears quickly, and they feel paper thin after a couple months of constant wear. Still look fantastic compared to other cuts around though, just lacking in quality.

>>10984701
>>10984720
$10 an hour with $25 in-store credit bonuses every month allowance depending on how your store does. Assistant and store managers get $50. New hires get $200 bi-weekly allowance the first month only, and 75% off the remainder of the purchased item if you exceed the $200 allowance

Why did your shit company file for bankruptcy?

Maybe you guys should have focused less on your hipster pornography and more on making decent garments

>>10984747
not OP but it's filed for bankruptcy before

>>10984696

There was no overtime pay. We often got scheduled for 8 hour shifts, with one 30 minute break and two 10 minute breaks, but would almost always work close to 9, 9.5 hours. If we were $150 away from our daily goal or last year's earnings for that day, we had to stay open for an extra hour until we made goal, and then close the store which took around 30 minutes.

>>10984747
Because they're a shit company, and their former CEO is a perverted scumbag tool. It's been more PG-13 since the new CEO Paula Schneider was put in power. Dov Charney's and the former shareholders shares were made obsolete, and then they were ousted. Allegedly they're cutting back their non-selling styles and focusing more on creating more top sellers. We always ran out of popular items, and some sat there for months untouched.

>>10984757
yeah I managed to clock 120 hours in this last paycheck with only 7 shifts because of all of the breaks/long hours
seriously get the fuck into healthcare if you need money

What items do AA do well? What items come closest to being worth the overinflated prices?

>>10984764
I worked in healthcare! Orthotics & Prosthetics, Durable Medical Equipment, and Hospice - shit was the best, I got paid $12 an hour to review/verify client's insurance info and spent the rest of my time surfing my instagram/tumblr feed. I had more money than I knew what to do with.

>>10984780
nice
did your company get in trouble with medicaid/medicare or something? or did you just change when you finished school
I've met guys who worked with prosthetics and orthotics. they loved it

did you ever find cum/cumstains on the mirrors/clothes?

>>10984773

Hmmm... Well depends on your style, and if it fits, but the sweatshirts (not zipper, just classic sweats and heavy terries) are pretty good. All of the black clothing bleeds and fades out assuredly, so stick with lighter items like greys and blues. If you take the extra care to wash everything properly, they'll all last quite a long while fabric wise, but repeated wear tarnishes almost everything we have.

>>10984788
Nah, it was a full time gig an hour out of my way between home and school, and I just couldn't justify driving all the way out there on top of all the driving I had to do for my school commute. I was offered a chance to go back during the winter break and next summer, but I took that shitty American Apparel job...

>>10984798
Not that I could've identified immediately, but by far the nastiest, most disgusting task was auditing the underwear and body suits... The liners had scum marks from dirty cunts, and a lot of the girls would take the liners off completely... the smell of one from this black chick was unforgettable... A blind man would've thought he was smelling finely aged cheddar cheese...

>>10984816
>the smell of one from this black chick was unforgettable
>A blind man would've thought he was smelling finely aged cheddar cheese...

>>10984816
I would like to learn all of the different types of collars / braces
cuz orthopods throw out names and I have no idea what they're talking about

Live near an AA, its honestly like walking into a supreme. The chicks behind the counter feel so superior wearing acid wash boyfriend jeans and cropped t shirts.
I took my sister once for some sweater and she was mad everytime she asked a question the bitch kept rolling her eyes and answered it all condescending.

How does loss prevention work there? Mines only had women working and one dude in the stock room

>>10984874

I have to say at my location, the other employees act like bitches simply because of our average clientele. They were some of the rudest, most pretentious, condescending, entitled losers I've had the displeasure of serving. A lot of my coworkers were just college girls looking to get the discount like I was, but the job really does take it's toll on you. It'd be easier to want to be an overly productive employee if the management didn't treat you like scum. They have tactics of trying to get you to fuck up, or trying to catch you, and they're always watching/scrutinizing you.

Loss prevention training is non-existent for employees. They don't officially train us on how to stop shoplifting, but luckily I never had to deal with it directly. My manager told me to watch out for middleschool girls, because they like to steal. I've asked groups of noisy girls to leave the store a couple times because they were being disruptive.

>>1098464
That's odd because I've seen some ugly motherfuckers working at AA.

>>10984889
How so? Ive only done restaurant work so i dont understand the retail trap. I did seasonal at GAP but that was garbage anyway?

My jobs never want to catch anybody fuckin up, so u mean to say they intentionally set you up?

what city are you in? It's like night and day depending where you are. I don't mind working at AA, it helps that managers and district love me tho