If you’ve ever stepped foot into a modern-day mall, chances are you’ll find yourself walking past a Victoria’s Secret or Pink. These stores consist of pumping music, flowery smells and lots and lots of lingerie.
However, in recent years and with the importance of body positivity in fashion making its way through the ranks, sales for this franchise have plummeted, and although the company is attempting to make a comeback, we have to wonder if this is the end of the road for them.
As an old employee, I am happy to announce that I will be going over several insane things I have witnessed during my time working at Victoria’s Secret. I am sure all my fellow retail workers understand the overwhelming confusion and hilarity that comes with having a sales job. Most of it still feels like a fever dream to me.
One day while working at the front of the store, I witnessed a young girl walk in. She stopped by a display filled with leggings, stared at them, projectile vomited everywhere and then just walked out. I have never seen so much vomit in my life, it looked like a war zone. We had to throw out the damaged leggings (about $1,000 of damage) and I was the lucky one who got to spend two hours cleaning up the store.
Another time we had a woman ask for a dressing room. While someone went to unlock it for her, she looked rather unwell. When someone went to clean out the dressing room after she left, they found that she had gone to the bathroom in the middle of the dressing room floor.
I cannot count how much merchandise we’ve had stolen from us over the brief period I worked there. We are not allowed to confront customers in any way if we see or suspect them of stealing, so there would be times when teams of people would come in with garbage bags, take anything within grabbing distance and just run out. They didn’t care about sizing since they just sold them for profit on eBay or other selling sites.
If I could write every endeavor I experienced while working at the store, I would probably fill up three notebooks. If you take anything away from this, it’s to be kind to retail and food service employees. They have to put up with much more than you think.
