store manager

retail assistant manager

assistant de gestion

assistant manager

assistant store manager

Call It Spring

Lack of Upper Management Support:
Regional and district management were consistently rude, judgmental, and unhelpful. Communication was a nightmare—major decisions impacting the store were made without informing or consulting managers. Schedules were changed with less than 24 hours’ notice, and no one bothered to communicate these changes. It felt like store-level employees were an afterthought.

Unrealistic Expectations:
The workload was absurd. We were expected to hit unrealistic sales targets, juggle operations, manage team morale, and handle inventory with minimal staffing. To make it worse, the company pressured us into selling shoe care products with deceptive claims, essentially lying to customers just to keep our jobs. The stress and ethical compromises were unbearable.

Training and Resources:
There was absolutely no structure for training or operations—no SOPs, no training videos, no handbook. Everything was chaotic, and new employees were thrown in without proper guidance. When I asked for help, I was dismissed with rude responses like, "ask the group chat," instead of being given a straightforward answer. Basic tools and resources to succeed were outdated or nonexistent, making the job far harder than it needed to be.

False Eco-Friendly Claims:
The company touts itself as being eco-friendly, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve never seen so much waste—trash, cardboard, and unnecessary paper everywhere. The shoes themselves are cheaply made from plastic materials, and with the volume sold, it’s obvious they’ll end up in landfills in no time. The "eco-friendly" claims are nothing more than a marketing gimmick to appeal to conscious consumers.

Toxic Work Environment:
The workplace culture was toxic and entirely numbers-driven. There was zero care for employee well-being or development. Feedback was dismissed, concerns ignored, and hours were cut as a punishment rather than as a logical adjustment. It was a demoralizing environment with no sense of support or teamwork.

Compensation vs. Responsibility:
For the amount of stress and responsibility the job required, the pay was laughable—one of the lowest I’ve had in years. On top of that, career advancement opportunities were nearly nonexistent. Dedicated employees were regularly passed over in favor of external hires, which only added to the sense of frustration.

Conclusion:
Call It Spring is a masterclass in how not to treat employees. From the lack of support and deceptive practices to the toxic culture and false sustainability claims, this company fails on every level. Unless drastic changes are made in leadership, training, and values, I cannot recommend working here to anyone who values their time, ethics, or mental health.


Quite a long review but I recommend you read through it so you don't go through what we had to endure. 

My time at Call It Spring was great but short lived. The job posting and the interview did not indicate the position was Seasonal but apparently it was without our knowledge. Many others got hired on at the same time I did back in October. 

The environment was nice, the people around me were fun to be around and work was honestly quite enjoyable. The only thing that wasn't great was no commission. You were required to exceed your daily sales quota but got nothing in return for achieving the task. 

And last but most importantly, the communication is terrible. I repeat, terrible. After the holiday season ended, our manager just simply told all of us in our group chat "The hours are quite tight for January, so there will not be lots of hours to go around." That's fair. But what that truly meant is "you're all fired." Many employees tried reaching out to our "leader" and asked her "Are we still working here?... Are we going to get any hours?" And we all got absolutely no response whatsoever. What 6 or 7 of us employees did notice was that the manager was only giving hours to her group of friends that she regularly hanged out with outside of work. 

That was very childish, immature, and the manager displays no qualities of being a leader at all. If we were hired on as Seasonal, then let us know. If we were all losing our jobs after January, let us know. Many other employees suffered as they waited to get hours and weren't sure if they still worked there. As for me, it was a struggle to pay some bills as I wasn't sure either and received no response. 

The way I found out I was fired was by logging in to receive my T4 slips and seeing "Terminated" under our names.

Because of that, I do not recommend this place to anyone. 

Thanks for taking the time to read through, I hope all of you never endure what we went through.

On a typical day, when I open the store, I first analyze the look of the merchandise ensuring that the store has been well maintained by the co-workers who closed the store the previous evening. I open the tills and ensure all money is accounted for. 

During the morning, I review and analyze daily, months, and seasonal sales. If we've met budget and study areas of improvement. I review each co-workers performance and their area of improvement. 

When my co-workers arrive at the store, I coach them in. When I coach in a co-worker, I review the current day's goal; store goal, their sale goal, areas in which we need to improved, and tasks that need to be completed.  

The hardest part of my job is leaving when my shift is done. I always have a tendency to stay a little longer than I need to, there's always something that needs to get done, or I'm in the middle of a task and I easily lose track of time. When you're really busy, motivated and having fun it's easy for time to go by. 

The most enjoyable part of my job, there would be two parts. The first part is having the opportunity to work for my manager and with my co-workers, not only are they hard workers but in some ways I look up to all of them. My manager is a very hard worker and dedicates everything to the store which is very admiring and encourages me to work harder than I already do. She illustrates the success that follows a hard working individual. The second enjoyable part of my job is the interaction with our customers, every customer is different and helping them find their perfect shoe has a different story. Whether it's for casual wear, a gift, or finding that shoe to finish the outfit for an event. When a customer leaves the store with the shoe they've been looking for, knowing that I've been able to help them and seeing them leave with a smile on their face is rewarding.


After working for many years at this company, I have come to realize that my loyalty has been to my team, not the organization itself. The company is fortunate to have an incredible staff—particularly hardworking and dedicated women—who go above and beyond every day. However, despite their efforts, the company has repeatedly failed to uphold labor laws and internal policies.

Employee well-being is not a priority. Availability requests are disregarded, showing a complete lack of respect for work-life balance. District managers (DMs) make promises that rarely come to fruition, and even the most dedicated employees receive only minimal recognition for their contributions. No matter how hard someone works to grow within the company, their efforts are not truly valued.

Those unfamiliar with labor laws are especially vulnerable to being taken advantage of. Schedules can be changed with as little as four hours’ notice, leaving employees scrambling to adjust. Even more concerning is the treatment of minors—many have been subjected to 12-hour shifts without being properly consulted or given a choice.

The management structure is both unethical and ineffective, with many managers more focused on securing the approval of district leadership than fostering a positive work environment. As a result, the workplace culture has become toxic. Employees, regardless of tenure, are treated as dispensable, shuffled around to fit the company’s needs without consideration for their personal circumstances.


In my experience, workplace toxicity seemed deeply embedded in the management culture at Call It Spring. I found the district manager's approach intimidating and unfair at times, and I did not feel supported in my professional growth. There was also little sense of job security, and I felt that certain workplace communications involving employees contributed to an environment of uncertainty and diminished trust.

If you're considering working here, I'd encourage you to ask detailed questions during the interview process and carefully review your payroll, employment rights, and work contract. Do not rely solely on verbal explanations of policies or expectations. Keep your own records and documentation of communications with management whenever possible.

I left with the impression that store managers were also under significant pressure, which appeared to negatively affect the overall work environment and professionalism. My experience was extremely stressful, and I would not recommend this workplace to others.

If you are looking for a company with good values, decent wages, and mediocre upper management then this is the place for you. 
Call It Spring is a banner under the Aldo Group Inc. They are incredibly successful and well-known for their fashion-forward, trendy and practical footwear. Call It Spring is a fantastic place to begin a career in Retail. I am currently an Assistant Store Manager in a smaller store. 


We focus a lot on 'event footwear' more so than everyday wear, however we do have a selection of everyday footwear.

As ASM in a smaller store, I work basically as a glorified sales associate. When my manager is out or on days off, I am in charge of the stores Goals and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), all operations, as well as directing a staff of 5-6 people. On top of this, I also have personal sales goals and KPI targets to hit that are much higher than the rest of the team. This means that I have to push extra hard to make sure that my Store Manager & District Sales Manager are happy. 

The only downside to this job is the fact that there is not much opportunity for growth when it comes to their more remote locations in Canada not only growth in terms of title/responsibility but wage-wise as well.

Call it Spring was my home for many years and while I do still love to shop there and see my work family from time to time it pains me to think about the way things ended.


Work for Call it Spring if you want a fun, upbeat, fast paced environment full of amazing people to work with.

Do NOT work for this company if you cannot meet selling standards per hour, or if you don't agree with having a management position given away due to age, experience, and have your salary cut, benefits cut, and everything taken away from you because you did not meet their selling standards.

do NOT work for this company if you have 2+ years of management experience. You'll only be told that you're so young and it was too much pressure for you. Or that you maybe didn't have enough experience for this job ONLY for them to give your position away to an associate you helped hire, to be given to someone who has absolutely NO retail experience, is two years younger in age than you are, and you have taught them what you know.

 do NOT work for this company if you have given them years of your time, only to have them treat you like trash and throw you out the door like your time, service, commitment, and love for the company was nothing to them.

AMAZING team, great people, but like every company they focus on numbers and numbers only.

My manager was gossipy. Always talking trash behind other employees backs. When I was being trained she would tell me that she never had someone take as long as I did to understand the computer programming.  Basically, was nasty and made me feel stupid. I fought hard for the job however, and became a key employee because the district manager was considering giving me assistant manager. Everything was great until it came up in conversation that keyholder a we're not supposed to make commission... After I had brought to her attention that I had been making commission right from my hire.. (At this point had been working for about 3-4 months) was told I had to pay back 1,200 dollars. I have children, and at the time was paying for a wedding. I stated I didn't feel I had to pay it back as it was their mistake, they then proceeded to basically accuse me of stealing and "embezzlement" at a meeting in the middle of the mall.. Me crying.. Everyone staring... I was devastated. It was, to this day, one of the worst experiences of my life. I quit that day, handed my key and told them to keep my last pay for their "stolen money". I called the labour board and told my story.. A few weeks later received an apology from the district manager and my last pay back.. It's sad that a job I loved so much had to end the way it did.

Ive worked in all positions at the company, no one there cares about there employee, management or corporate. They do not care about the mental health of employee and often make jokes about those who are struggling by management, with ridiculous expectations and no tools to complete the tasks expected. They want you to be top sellers and will get mad if you dont sell despite the stores not being busy. Toxic management at some locations, who rather then giving you pointers to improve will just talk negatively about you behind your back and be rude and abrasive to you. Often hire friends of people who are held to significantly lower expectation then everyone else and are treated much better. Management sits in the back room and does nothing leaving part-timers on the floor to be responsible for themselves. They pay the bare-minimum, despite how much they expect employees to do. If you are looking for a job that will make you miserable, see you as a machine, and destroy you as a person this is the place to work. If not, dont even bother applying its not worth it. 

PS, if you are sick or try to take time off management will make you feel horrible about it or try to make you work, regardless of how sick you are.

I was hired as a manager in training and was to complete 8 weeks of training programs held by other store managers. my first 5 weeks were spent selling and doing small tasks so I requested a transfer to another location to learn more management duties.
I finished 3 more weeks of training and that did include management training. 
however, at the end of my training program the district manager felt I did not fit in with the company and I was let go. I did not receive any coaching or training from the district manager and I was completely unaware that my performance was "not up to par".  the district manager did not check in on my training while I was in the program to see how I was doing and to hold training managers accountable.
the group of management that I was in direct contact with  did not make me feel like they wanted to see me succeed. they were too worried about what they were wearing.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Store manager 17 salaries reported	$50,078 per year
Retail assistant manager 27 salaries reported	$18.14 per hour
Assistant de gestion 15 salaries reported	$20.37 per hour
Assistant manager 15 salaries reported	$20.55 per hour
Assistant store manager 5 salaries reported	$19.68 per hour

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