retail sales associate

retail assistant manager

seasonal retail sales associate

retail store manager

retail manager

Simply Southern

On the outside looking in, this job looks very enjoyable but it is so far from being that. The customers at this location are absolutely insufferable. They will argue about the sale, return policy, etc, despite the thousands of signs in the store. Since the store is so colorful, parents allow their children to run around and tear up folded shirts. You are expected to hold your coworkers hand when it comes to what needs to be done for the day.

 Management waits until the absolute last minute to create scheduling. Employees are often left on floor during busy times while others will be in the back doing who knows what. There are often times where management will be talking on the phone on the sales floor and on the computer looking "busy" while making other employees do all the work. During seasonal clothing change, the store will have 100s of boxes, and since the store is extremely understaffed, management will expect you to pick up extra hours to do shipment, and will not help with said extra shipment. You will get in trouble for one thing while management turns around and does the same thing. Upper-management will often make surprise visits, more than normal. They pick apart the store and expect you to fix it immediately. Everyone in this company just talks badly about one another and then expect us to have a "family environment".

I could go on and on about the work culture of this company.. This job is not worth the stress unless you are desperate for a job.

I have never worked for a company that was so poorly managed and executed.  Almost every single day, I was accused of doing something that I did not do.  It happened so frequently, that I was so sick and tired of having to defend myself against the toxic and immature people that I worked with.

Most of the associates that were under me, in terms of seniority, acted very juvenile and complained about every little thing.  If I tried to help them out, they claimed I was "meddling" or "butting in".  It was absolutely ridiculous.

I was always yelled at for going away from the registers to refold the t-shirt tables, when, MORE THAN HALF THE TIME, nobody was up there doing it, and so I felt as though it was my job to go and do it.  Because the people who were stationed there, never kept up with it.  It was an obligation to go do somebody else's job.

The most recent thing was that I was accused of arguing with a customer when I simply made a mistake at the registers and tried to rectify the situation the best way I knew how.  How I was taught to.  How was I treated?  Like dirt.

You would think that one of their best employees, who did their job, did it well, and got them their e-mail captures would be treated better than the dirt beneath their feet, but NOPE.

I always felt underappreciated, and overworked.  I shouldn't have to do somebody else's job.

Simply Southern is still a young company in many respects however the company has grown in size but not in structure. There is very little to no planning done and communicated to stores. They made many changes and instead of letting stores know, you would find out about those changes when you were doing something that they no longer wanted you to do. There is also poor training when it comes to management. My training was rushed and I was called out more times than I could count for not doing something that I was never trained or told to do. There is a lot of micromanaging that happens and things struggle to get done when every little decision needs to be ran through 3 different people, sometimes never even hearing back and finding out they aren’t reading your emails. In terms of continued training, there is none. You are being told what you do wrong but aren’t being coached on how to improve and are left feeling helpless. You are given many things to get done everyday that are impossible to accomplish some days with staff coverage and customers. Manager offered no support when asked for help. The owners are also very unprofessional in how they talk to managers and associates. 

Simply Southern is still a young company in many respects however the company has grown in size but not in structure. There is very little to no planning done and communicated to stores. They made many changes and instead of letting stores know, you would find out about those changes when you were doing something that they no longer wanted you to do. There is also poor training when it comes to management. My training was rushed and I was called out more times than I could count for not doing something that I was never trained or told to do. There is a lot of micromanaging that happens and things struggle to get done when every little decision needs to be ran through 3 different people, sometimes never even hearing back and finding out they aren’t reading your emails. In terms of continued training, there is none. You are being told what you do wrong but aren’t being coached on how to improve and are left feeling helpless. You are given many things to get done everyday that are impossible to accomplish some days with staff coverage and customers. Manager offered no support when asked for help. Overall working for this company was very taxing on my mental health and personal life.  

In the beginning it was a decent job. I has happy to come in and work but after a while people slowly started to leave. The store had a really hard time keeping workers, let alone Managers because of the amount of product coming in. It caused them to over stress. At one point we had around almost 300 boxes in the store and were having to bring the boxes out onto the floor. I was only a shift lead/keyholder at the time when my managers ended up leaving. We were then left with very little workers who were only part time. We had to have other workers from other stores to come on and help us at least find somewhere to unpack everything to get it off the sales floor. Not to mention we and a very small store. I loved my job and was willing to do what was needed but I was getting very tired to the point of my getting sick. I couldn't call out as I was the only key left. I would do over 100 hours in a two week period just to keep the store up and going. Staying open to close some days. I did want I needed to for the store but my health was more important. I didn't feel appreciated at all for the amount of work I put in. If it wasn't for that, I would have stayed and tried to become a manager to make that store better.

I have worked retail for many years and I have never had experience from this  company . Many nights and mornings I found myself always upset because how difficult it was to work here .They will constantly hound you for things you didn’t even do . 

The managers will police you for the smallest thing but they pick favorite employees who get to do anything they want . The way they let those certain favorites get to higher positions when they would never show up to work previously  .
 Some employees would take selfie’s on the clock while you are being yelled for the smallest things . Anything you work on the managers will keep telling you it’s wrong with no direction at all so it was hard to improve due to the constant micromanaging .

 I honestly had many micro aggressions ( called loud and aggressive) from management that made it very hard for me to work for this company . And was not apart of my personality at all . 

The pay is decent but you will be constantly hounded by management is not worth it . 


I have been in retail since 1998, and this is the first company that has made me feel valued and needed. The owners check in on a regular basis to see what you need and most of the time, your needs are going to be met, if they’re able. They encourage giving feedback and often take it to grow the company and boost employee morale. They truly want to make their employees feel like family. They’re interested in growing their employees with them, so opportunity for advancement is definitely available. They care about the employees not just as their employees, but as people, and that’s so rare to find these days. Scheduling can be pretty flexible to help provide a good work/life balance, and upper management is always available to help and support. I’m so glad that I got the chance to join this company!

What is the best part of working at the company?
Great pay, owners were really nice 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Too many to list!  
1. Way too much product , very small stores
2. Quality of product is poor, certainly has gone downhill in the 6 years I was there.  Focusing too much on quantity and not on quality.
3.  Management isn’t the best, didn’t handle things well at all, wouldn’t teach , but expected you to know, even marked me off in my review.  Never backed me up on anything 
4. A lot of work is put on you:  between cycle counts every week, surprise markdowns, anywhere between 100-200 boxes  showing up, and bad employee discount( based off your position at the store) Super stressful!
5.  You have to make sure to check your pay stubs, because they will not take out federal taxes.  Happened to me and several people I know 
6.  Toxic work environment, a lot of times dreaded going to work

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Super stressful and frustrating 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
You never knew what you were walking into on a typical day

The best part of the job was my coworkers. They were fun and we really worked well together and it made shifts a lot easier. Compared to other local stores in the area, the pay was decent, but it didn't feel that way when we were overworked because we were usually understaffed. The company was nice enough and rewarded us with lunches and free shirts sometimes, but management at this store was terrible and unprofessional on every imaginable level and the company failed us by not doing more to fix that. Due to management issues, we could never retain staff and morale was usually pretty low. There's only so much micromanaging, gossiping, false accusations, and gaslighting people can take from their superiors. It's unfortunate because the store has so much more potential and everyone loves the brand. Every company has its faults and Simply Southern isn't bad, but management is/was the number one problem and that problem seemed to be overlooked because the store is a top-performing store.

I went in loving my job and that was short live because it was made clear to me that I worked with a bunch of baby’s that got their feeling hurts when you told them they was doing wrong. Didn’t like it because they had to work and got called out on stuff they where doing wrong . AST manager was 18 and didn’t know how to run store it was just a big hang out for them. They don’t watch the customer at they were letting pales of shirts walk out the door because they were to busy hanging out and talking . The company video and Voice recorders everything you say a do. Good to who ever takes a manager job because your team will be a bunch of brats that still live at home will lie to your face and could care less if your in there trying to make changes that’s best for business or that your a grown person trying to make a living all they worry about it Their self and how much money they can make but don’t want to work the hrs.   

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Retail sales associate 103 salaries reported	$14.97 per hour
Retail assistant manager 4 salaries reported	$18.94 per hour
Seasonal retail sales associate 35 salaries reported	$13.82 per hour
Retail store manager 1 salary reported	$52,500 per year
Retail manager 13 salaries reported	$54,038 per year

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