sales associate

retail assistant manager

store manager

assistant manager

associate manager

Torrid

Torrid used to be a great place to work before they became their own LLC. I have never worked for a company who seemingly doesn’t want to have brick and mortar stores be successful before. 
The Bad- 
-Work Life Balance: All managers in the stores are hourly. Which is great if you end up getting over time. But they keep piling on tasks, reports meetings, without ever getting additional payroll. You will not have a moment to actually take the 15 minute paid break the company tells you to take. You’re told to “get creative with your lunch break” to fit in more tasking through your day. They have you push a 9 hour work day into a 7 hour work day. You get no hours to do sfs/bopis. You have to ask to get them and they will not give you a thing if it’s under 100 orders. 
Vacation/Pto- Good luck trying to use it. Turn over rates are so high, that you won’t have the staff to cover. District managers won’t cover stores if you have call outs on pto and will ask you to come back from vacation or will rescind the approval right before you leave. However they have no problems talking about taking time off to be with family and getting their holidays off.  If you or your staff show up late more than 5 minutes after your shift starts you get written up. It doesn’t matter if you’re a top seller, have been working open to close for a few days straight, or are coming in 15 minutes late as a payroll controllable. It doesn’t matter if the week before you worked another location, gave up your time off, if your 5 minutes late your getting written up.
Communication- the company has way too many places to have communication given to you. They expect everyone to take 15 minutes-20 minutes to read all the emails, tasks, zip line messages, chat messages, lp boards before every shift. They’re constantly changing LP standards, visual standards, operations almost every 2 months. They expect people working 10 hours a week to memorize all of these changes when they barely have a chance to memorize the store. They expect managers to be able to memorize everything after it was said once, in an email sentence two months ago. It’s too much.
Micromanaging- We do a nightly recap email, a weekly recap email, a weekly conference call, have a separate zoom meeting where we walk around the store in addition to a bi weekly store visit. If upper management needs this kind of control, they’re out of touch with the business and aren’t leaders who listen. All of this is done with no additional payroll given. 
Visuals- change bi weekly. Resets aren’t resets when the entire color pallet in the entire store has to be flipped. Resets don’t have additional payroll given. Floorsets are given too few hours and require the take down of entire walls of fixturing that’s have broken, doesn’t fit correctly and is literally balancing on fixtures. Mannequins are broken, parts don’t come off and are embarrassingly in need of being replaced. 
Shipment- comes 5 days a week. It can be 2 boxes to 25. Their expectations for processing is unreal. Seldom will additional hours be given. 
Gaslighting- when you talk to upper management about work load, time off, staffing issues, etc., you’re not met with solutions or help. You’re met with being isolated for speaking out, and told how your feelings aren’t valid because the job itself black and white on paper isn’t that hard. 
Store Closings- It seems like as leases are coming up, torrid is just closing stores. 
Online Price Matching- you get in trouble if you online price match to our website too often. The prices online aren’t different by a $1 or $2. Normally it’s like $15+ per item. We are literally competing against ourselves. 


The Good- 
Work life balance- generally don’t work over 45. 
Customers- are kind, and are grateful for your help and know torrid is bad to work for because they notice the turn over. So they are really understanding when you’re working short staffed. 


It's a good first job if you're just starting out. Most stores are on the smaller side so if you're not a people person it's not overwhelming.

The training needs work when it comes to associates. It's literally a four-hour shift (most shifts are three to four hours unless someone calls in or you're really needed) that you spend an hour of filling out paperwork. If you can, have a sales associate show you the ropes and give you the nitty-gritty of it all. You'll learn fastest by doing it, so try to do as much as you can when another associate is there to help.

Schedules are flexible and team experience will vary. With my particular store, I had a manager that played some favoritism, and a store manager who needs to speak up when something is wrong so it can be improved or corrected. They tend to talk behind your back, only one associate and one manager (a keyholder) stayed out of all the mess and were blunt enough to let me know the issue before I got fired. (I quit anyways a month after because the store manager should speak up and take suggestions.) 

The discounts are great, 40% off is wonderful. The downside is customers. Torrid has some of the most spoiled, self-righteous, and lazy customers I've ever seen. I spend half of my time explaining things to disgruntled customers and cleaning out fitting rooms they've left a mess.

This is not a company you can move up in when the position is already filled. You're either a sales associate, a keyholder, an assistant manager, or the store manager. No shift lead etc. Hours suck, it's EXTREMELY part-time. 5 to 10 hours per week starting at $8.00/hr with small raises each year. Your sales affect your hours (you don't get commission) and whoever sells the most gets scheduled the most. Managers will get their hours regardless but make sure no one steals your sales. You'll want your hours. And you will have a credit card goal every day. That's honestly the most frustrating thing besides their turnover rate. Selling credit cards.

If you have people that like to call out, make yourself someone they know they can call to come in. Whoever calls out is responsible for finding a replacement (they need to have a call-out schedule implemented), and calling the store to relay that information. Most of my hours came from picking up shifts. I'd clock about 14 hours a week by doing that.

TLDR;

Overall this a good first-time job. You learn to deal with people and coworkers while having very few slow days where you're doing nothing. Things can be sort of repetitive (sell, tidy up, shipment, packages, repeat) but if you can print your reviews from customers and your sales every quarter, it can look on a resume. There is no uniform, but as long as you're cute and on-trend you're (more than likely) fine. If you love fashion, you'll have fun!

I did not enjoy working there. I don't want to bash them in any way but I dreaded going to work when I was scheduled. The main reason that I disliked working at Torrid was because I was only scheduled 2 days a week for 3 hours. 3 days if I was lucky. That is 9 hours a week. I eventually realized that 9 hours was not worth it. I also really disliked the store manager but knew that I couldn't disrespect her so I just kept everything to myself until the only thing I could do was quit. I will admit I learned a lot from torrid about retail and customer service. I got a lot more confident when talking to customers and became a pro at selling clothes. I was up and down with my sales though. Some times were harder to sell than others. My co-workers were great for the most part. However, quite a few of them quit before I did for the exact same reason I did. Every complaint always goes back to the manager. And I guess I wasn't the only one. I think the hardest part of the job would be having to respect someone that never respected me. Its a place of work where everyone has to respect and get along with each other but the manager didn't seem to feel like it was expected of her with a lot of her employees. I noticed that the employees that brought in the most sales were the ones she favorited the most. A lot of employees got the short end of the stick most of the time. The most enjoyable part of the job would have to be the people I met and some people I worked with. I loved working with a few of the girls because I got along with them so well and felt comfortable around them, which in all honesty, feeling comfortable around people is relatively easy for me to do but the store manager made it so difficult. As for the customers, I loved working with customers that came in to shop often. I was only working there for a month but after a few visits, I knew what kind of clothes they would like and we were able to connect on a friendship level instead of a costumer and employee basis. Its a plus sized store so I was able to connect with them on that as well. The customers made it a lot easier to handle. Especially young girls looking for outfits that they wouldn't normally wear. They needed to get out of their comfort zone and I was able to help them through it and make them feel comfortable. Ive been there so working at a store like that really helped me grow!

I began as a sales associate. I initially intended to just work part time while in college, but I quickly fell in love with the company and what they stand for.
A typical day as a sales associate involved doing assigned tasks such as straightening sales displays and cleaning when needed. Taking care of customers involved greeting them, assessing their needs, getting them what they wanted while trying to interest them in other items and our store card. I would then ring up their purchases quickly. The most challenging part of that was meeting sales and credit application quotas.
After two years I was promoted to a key holder position. In this position, I was expected to accomplish the same duties as a sales associate while supervising sales associates and setting tasks for them to accomplish. I would open the store most days. That included setting sales goals for the day, taking deposits to the bank, and keeping accurate records of the bank deposits and previous days' sales. Opening on Sundays involved sending a store status email to our District Manager. The most challenging parts of he key holder position was ensuring that all of the morning's tasks were completed before the afternoon associates arrived.
My personal experience also involved me being alone in the store from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. This made it more challenging to complete tasks in a timely manner especially when there were many customers in the store. There was also a challenging situation with the other employees at my location. Number of sales and credit applications determined who received the most hours, so the competition was quite intense. Several of my fellow employees and my general manager were notorious for taking other people's sales. One of those women was later made a manager. She was verbally abusive, but she consistently had the highest sales so most complaints were dismissed by our general manager.
The only two reasons I stayed as long as I did were the employee discount and helping customers. It was a plus size store for young women. Many of the customers would come in feeling self-conscious. It was such a joy to be able to find them an outfit that made them feel beautiful and confident.

I loved shopping for Torrid and decided to apply/work for them. When I started out, the company seemed great to work for, even though the pay was absolute trash at $8/hr - for a high-end store, you'd think they'd compensate their employees more, especially with the level of rudeness that comes from customers. COVID caused a lot of locations to shut down, and my location was one of them. When we reopened, my property was under new management and it started becoming miserable working there. The managers aren't friendly and aren't personable at all. They don't care about your success, but more of what you can do for them aka making them money/getting people to sign up for torrid credit cards. It started to feel like they only cared about the money instead of us learning and enjoying the work we do. 

I was also annoyed with Torrid, as there was no type of hazard pay provided when we reopened, even though we're working in a small store with guests who can barely maintain 6ft of distance and we're having to maintain COVID-specific cleanliness standards on top of that. I'm literally coming to work for a job that isn't taking care of their employees - all they care about is the money they make it seems like. 

The goals my property was set to achieve were ridiculous and we could barely meet them, if at all. Because the pay is low and you literally get maybe one or two shifts that are 4 hours long a week, many of the employees have second or third jobs and management gets angry/annoyed at limited availability - I'm sorry that we want to contribute to the company (mostly so we can get the discount at this point), but if you're not going to pay us even a living wage then I'm sorry, but you're not getting open availability! Getting the discount is THE only reason I kept this job at all. 

The CEO seems super friendly and like she "cares about her employees," but they don't have us as their main interest, they don't take care of us...they're focused on money. The only good part besides working for this company is the Torrid foundation, if the proceeds do actually go to that fully. 

Overall, I did enjoy my time with Torrid. I stayed at my store for 5+ years and by the time I left I was store manager. I worked in a high volume, high traffic, high inventory store.

The good:
Working with customers and my team were the most fulfilling parts of my job and why I stayed for as long as I did. I liked the customer-focused philosophy the company wanted us to utilize in our customer service approach and built many relationships with wonderful people who came in to shop.
My first 4 years with my store were great. While not without challenges, it felt like we had the ability and resources to build a strong team that functioned even with only 3 managers at times.

The bad:
Unfortunately, by the time I left, the company had made several decisions that felt counter-productive to what the expectations for store teams were. The regular cutting of payroll hours, lack of pay/benefits, and difficulty for upward mobility made it hard to motivate the team at times. On top of that, as I was leaving the focus on driving sales, numbers, and credit cards was increasing intensely, while also being expected to complete our (numerous) operational tasks in order to get product out for the customers.
I found the worst of it to be the lack of support for those in the Key Holder position. Out of all store positions, my KHs were the least fairly compensated and received no benefits of any kind to even marginally make up for it. They were expected to function at a similar level to store manager, yet had little to incentive to actually do so. Upward mobility for this role is also difficult due to the lack of an Assistant Manager position in most stores now, and low turnover at the SM level.

While I ultimately loved my time with Torrid, the stress and overwhelm due to lack of resources and support over my last year and a half made it an unsustainable career for me. I might consider going back one day as a very part time sales associate, mostly for the discount and because I love the team dynamic, but it is not necessarily something I would recommend as a full-time job.

It’s a sales position that pays minimum wage for sales reps and only slightly more for keyholders which they say is just like the assistant store manager and store manager which for the most part is true because you do a lot of the same tasks and have a lot of the same responsibilities but despite all that keyholders only make slightly more than minimum wage while the assist store manger and the store manager make a good deal more. 
The best part of the job is working somewhere that you know you’ll never be judged based on your weight, gender, or anything like that. You’ll also be able to feel like you’re truly helping some people especially when people who have never been to Torrid or ever heard of it come in and feel seen and heard and not judged. My favorite experiences working at Torrid were when people would end up crying from joy of shopping somewhere that felt inclusive and welcoming no matter who you are. The hours aren’t horrible unless you’re working the closing shift. They have a policy of not being allowed to tell people the store is closing or kick people out after closing time no matter how long they end up staying. Which sometimes means you’re there hours after closing. 
One of the most annoying things they boost about is the store discount. Yes, employees get a 50% off discount but to get that discount you no longer get to use your personal loyalty account or any of the perks that comes with that nor can you combine the employee discount with any of the other deals or sales. If the sale that is running is better than 50% off you get that but they do not combine. Also if you get caught using your personal loyalty you can get fired even though the majority of time you can save more money using the loyalty program than with the employee discount especially when you wait for good sales and shop online and take advantage of the different savings opportunities. 

At Torrid “we're committed to cultivating a welcoming, inclusive and diverse culture driven by focusing on open dialogue, empowerment, work-life balance, individual development and growth and reward. We believe inclusion of diverse backgrounds and perspectives is fundamental to our success as a billion-dollar company.”
My experience with this company over the years has been quite the opposite of positive. Despite dedicating myself to this organization, I have consistently encountered slander and emotional abuse. The company claims to uphold an open-door policy, but in reality, they fail to follow through on this commitment. Instead, they protect their high-ranking executives and dismiss genuine concerns with superficial responses. Leaders within the company frequently make empty promises that stretch on for years without fulfillment. Despite boasting about their billion-dollar status, they balk at compensating employees above a mid-tier salary, refusing to provide a livable wage. However, amidst these challenges, I have found solace in the camaraderie among my colleagues. The employees I work with are truly exceptional individuals, fostering a supportive and cohesive team environment. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the higher-ups, who often behave deceitfully. Overall, while the company boasts impressive financial achievements and a talented workforce at the operational level, its management's failure to address systemic issues and mistreatment of employees remain significant concerns.

The company is disorganized: promos are random, making it impossible to schedule accordingly. 
They portray a female empowerment culture but they actually exploit their mostly female employees by paying low wages, and put us in danger by encouraging managers to close alone to save payroll. They say they encourage a work-life balance but they don’t, especially when we are so understaffed that vacations are being denied.
A typical day involves answering a bunch of emails, manually tracking things that can be pulled by reports but they want to bring awareness to managers and sales associates alike (how many bras are sold, how many credit cards are opened, how many web orders we complete and the total purchase amount of the web order, hourly sales, how many transactions each employee has, how many new loyalty accounts we open), 5 boxes of shipment per hour while stoping to help customers shop (and track all of the above), fill same day pickup orders, fill orders to be shipped from the store, and sign/promo changes at least 2 times a week. Also, complete store sets anywhere from every two weeks to once a month, during business hours. Recruit, recruit, recruit! 
The opening manager is alone for the first 4 hours of her shift, and there are only 2 employees for closing (yes, you read that correctly, a total of 3 people working on any given day).
All upper level management (HQ, regionals,) are grossly out of touch with the reality of the store environments. They send  messages like “Oops! We missed some mark downs, a new report is ready, just pull IBC!” (IBC means in between customers)…Sent on a Saturday during the holidays.
 Shipment is inconsistent. 
The hardest part of the job is prioritizing because everything is a priority.
The most enjoyable part of the job is that one customer who genuinely appreciates the efforts we make to make her feel good, and these customers are rare.

When I first started working here I was so excited to work at my favorite place and to help other bigger girls like me. Unfortunately that ended up not being the case. There was A LOT of drama. I wasn’t involved in any of it but even the district manager had to come several times to “solve” the issues. The managers always pointed there fingers at everyone else constantly started drama and were EXTREMELY disorganized. My shifts were cancelled all the time I was called in for other employees all the time. Even a few times they canceled my shift 20 mins before it started. The store was always a mess and very dirty. Manager would give us several pages of work to do every day with only 2 people when we needed 10.  A big issue I had was I don’t like drama and because I didn’t join in their “clique” they were very passive aggressive towards me. I would do all the dirty jobs no one wanted with a smile on my face and always did it with no problems. I usually did a lot in the back or dressing rooms. Because of that I couldn’t make sales and eventually they took my hours away and I had none for a month. I asked multiple times if I did anything wrong and why I didn’t have any hours. The managers always said they didn’t have enough hours to give however everyone had hours but me and they were hiring people. If you don’t like me or I’m doing something wrong at least have the balls to answer me when I ask and tell me instead of wasting my time for a month while I could have been looking somewhere else to work. I’ve had 4 jobs total in the last 8 years. This was the worst job and I HIGHLY recommend not working here. They pride themselves on their morals but they don’t even respect them. Many of the employees would make fun of the customers after they left or say horrible things bout them. Basically don’t work here unless you like petty drama, bad pay and lots of unnecessary work that you won’t be able to finish.

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Sales associate 14 salaries reported	$13.41 per hour
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