Toxic environment, insincere and pushy management, little opportunity to advance in the company
I have been purchasing from aritizia for ages before I even applied for this job. I have heard that the associates were sales oriented, and I have also experienced a few unpleasant incidents where these so-called "Style Advisors" won't even offer help or greet you unless they see customers holding/trying on a lot of items.
Either way I was still thrilled when I got the opportunity to work for my favourite fashion brand. And I soon realized that my concerns and unpleasant experiences were true and right-which is very disappointing.
The most enjoyable aspects of this job are the discounts and music. I can understand the good reviews that are coming from stock associates (backroom storage, mark down teams, inventory related work, etc). However, the environment on the sales floor is very toxic, girls constantly gossip about each other, get angry/jealous when others get sales. Managers in store get annoyed when you ask them questions, and take very little time/patience to explain. New sales associates are isolated and hard to make sales because there are other girls who have been there for ages. These experienced girls will give you cold looks and also get super annoyed when you ask them questions-just like the managers. After a while, you would get somewhat insecure/nervous to even ask them any question because you know you would get a cold feedback that is not helpful in any way.
Some of the talent managers in this company are also very insincere. Them call to "check"
Prosdiscounts, good music
Constoxic and gossipy environment, very insincere/ignorant management team, pushy sales tactics, very little room to grow in the company
Genuinely a great company but hate the environment
Good:
Management
- Management are extremely helpful and encouraging for you to be the best
- Values inclusivity as they will always make you feel included and respected
- Employee reviews are given which allows you to grow and feel appreciated because you are recognized for your hard work
- Accommodating to your schedule, mental health needs and goals working at Aritzia
- If committed, I’ve seen people move up fast into management
- Good discount
- Opportunity to work corporate
- Bonuses when working busy seasons
- Christmas gifts
Bad:
Training
- Went in with practically zero training… The girls working look down on you if you don’t know what you’re doing but you are not given any instructions at all. All they do in your first day is talk about company values and that is it. Unless you work full-time, you will struggle succeeding because it’s difficult to understand where and how things work
Pressure
- Extremely pushy with getting your sales and ensuring you receive a client’s email or phone number and then get talked to if you don’t meet their unrealistic goal
- Due to the competition with one another, it was difficult making friends as no one had interest to getting to know you
- Always worked in the food industry so this part is biased but it is hard to be authentic with clients because of the wide selection of clothing, it can be hard to be passionate about certain products
Structure
- Employees are competed against one another causing stress and a l
If you are given a job offer, look over the contract. They will most likely state on your contract that they can and will fire you without cause. I have seen this exercised. It is the most despicable treatment of a person to fire them without any reasoning.
Make sure you know your rights going into this job. Even if you submit a 2 week notice, they will still find a way to impact you negatively financially.
This company only cares about profit. Not your mental health, not your life/work balance, not your goals within the company, not the workplace safety, not their environmental impact, not indigenous communities, and not the LGBTQ+ community. A lot of the things they do is just for show. They would much rather increase productivity for profit, than ensure safety is being considered.
Despite what they tell you (they will tell you a lot of promises), they do not care about you. I highly advise you do not work here. Your skills are better applied elsewhere.
Yes, Aritzia is growing in numbers and profits, however, this only benefits the upper management. I have worked at the Distribution Centre, Support Officer (Vancouver), and Stores. In all areas I have seen the same thing - Employees being exploited until they are either forced to quit, or are fired. The ones who do move up generally lack people skills and are privileged.
Don't believe me? How else would I benefit for posting this. I am sharing my experience so you don't have to endure the pain I had to, or my friends/
ProsGood gym
ConsLong hours, barely any breaks, inconsistent shifts, false promises from management, lack of care for their employees
As an Aritzia Senior Sales Associate, I am required to ensure the best customer service for all my clients. All clients are given my full attention by: greeting, determining needs, choosing the right outfits for their required events, and building lasting relationships.
I am to keep a minimum of $550 sales per hour, while keeping a consistent flow of customer service and maintaining my section of products. Also, checking that all core products (any item that accounts for 80% of our sales) is consistently stocked on the floor with full size ranges.
I work with a diverse group of individuals, with different employment and selling backgrounds, which allows us to work as a team to reach our stores and personal sales goals.
My management is very supportive and takes all employees needs into consideration, making the environment very positive and rewarding to work on. Management really incorporates a hard- working, positive, and truthful ethic. The culture is instilled into all employees with care.
The hardest part of my job is consistently staying on top of maintaining, selling, and communication through all roles in the store on a busy day. Weather effects our sales greatly, since we are a boutique styled store, this makes sales a challenge.
The most enjoyable part of the job is being able to help a client find the right pair of jeans or dress for a meaningful and monumental moment in their life. The pictures that they take on those days are forever remembered and
Very intense vibe. Most of the time it's a pretty high traffic store. I worked sales and cash. Sales people are usually designated a couple of sections to clean throughout the shift. Sales expectations are pretty strict. You approach the customers and take their items to "fits", and by doing so you claim the sale. You need to ensure they are taken care of every step of the sale, on the floor find them garments, get sizes while in fits, etc. You are expected to take their items to the cash desk folded for the cashier.
As for cash it's can be very high paced. There is a system of three people in the busiest times (such as xmas). One person preps the garment removing tags, scanning folding etc. The next processes the transaction and the last person wraps and packages the garment. It's extremely efficient. Cash people are responsible for cleaning garbage, keeping track of held items, stocking bags, and taking calls.
The employees are expected to have good style and be well kept.
You are taught a lot about merchandising as the store is constantly changing. I learned how to handle high quality garments and sell them. It can get rather competitive on the sales floor so there is that to look out for if that's not your cup of tea.
All in all the shifts went by quickly, the management is very organized. At the beginning of your shift they prep everyone on hourly sales and promotional deals. They are really aware of everything that's going on.
I worked here as a Seasonal Concierge Advisor. I wouldn't recommend it.
This was the most stressful job I have ever had. I often found myself crying because I couldn't take the work load. Phones and e-mails are okay. But live chat is horrid. You have to chat with 3 different customers at a time, and ensure your notes (after each chat) do not take longer than 3-5 minutes. It's literally impossible. The timeframes they give you to finish a task are insanely unreasonable. And the micro-managing! You constantly have managers messaging you, pressuring you to finish your task/customer interaction quicker.
Managers/channel leads literally do not help at all. They NEVER want to take a call when a customer asks for a manager. They don't want to do the hard part of being a manager! One of my co-workers asked a manager to take a call because an upset customer was asking for a manager. The manager literally outright said "No, I am not taking the call". So shameful! They have built a culture where managers leave you to handle all customer escalations, and they barely provide any support!!
Don't even get me started on "quality assessments". You are throughly criticized on your work and the criticisms are incredibly unreasonable. The quality managers are just looking for anything negative to say.
Also, prepare to be criticized by all senior Concierge Advisors. They will literally take any opportunity to criticize anything you do, and it is so annoying.
This job isn't worth the stress.
Toxic Work Environment with Unqualified Management
Easy to move up if you're willing to overwork yourself and sacrifice your personal life. Favour is given to those who can work the extra hours and be treated poorly with a smile on their face OR to their top selling SSA's (some expect not to work as hard because they "contribute" the most). Seasonal workers are expected to do the grunt work because "that's their job" and product team deals with the most degrading and random tasks all masked into their job description as "retail environment and retail support". They ask you to "speak candidly" however, the second you express discomfort for someone (especially in management) or try to have open conversation, there's a huge chance you'll get branded as problematic.
My biggest thing is that the the price point is so high for the quality that they produce and sustainability? They make one sweater in at least 25 colours that are hit OR miss. They could have just stuck to at least 3 colours that they know they'll sell but of course, they have the money to mass produce like that. One year they made TNA graphic shirts with all the names of the people on TNA design team that no one bought in store. It's fast fashion but for some reason Aritzia has done a good job at positioning themselves as "luxury", don't be fooled. There are some gems, don't get me wrong, but if you work there long enough you start to realize that it's not that great of a company.
Extremely stressful workplace with negatively competitive coworkers
I've worked at Aritzia on two separate occasions at two separate boutiques. Both experiences were horrible and extremely stressful. The first time I worked there, I went home crying most nights. The girls that work there are extremely competitive but not in a constructive way. People are constantly trying to steal others' sales through dishonest means, and managers push you to force yourself onto a customer instead of connecting with the customer organically. You feel constantly pressured to nab a customer because if you don't, someone else will get the sale. The high competition makes it hard for customers to feel appreciated as a person rather than a sale to be grabbed at. SA's come off as disingenuous and this is a fatal flaw in Aritzia's image.
Unfortunately, the only thing I enjoyed about this job was the decent pay (18 an hour but they make you negotiate), and the employee discount. The worst part of the job was your coworkers who are clique-y and unhelpful at best. They also track how much you sell per hour (you must sell atleast $300 p/hour) and then use it to pit people against each other. Turnover rate is also insane because people can't stand this job for long. The only people that have stayed are the long term catty SA's who have overseas clients who order hundreds of one item and then sell it overseas, allowing the SA to make a big big sale.
The day starts off once timed in, you have a daily morning operations, which includes restocking, lighting walk through, shipping out customer transfers to various stores across Canada, making sure security tags are emptied from the cash desk area, setting up work stations for incoming products, scanning boxes as it arrives, unpacking, scurity tagging, hanging/folding, steaming and running our items to the floor, back stocking items in the back room, ensuring the back stocking is organized for fellow coworkers to locate. Quick meetings with managers during yesterdays performance, durning the days performance, and improving how we can do better in the work place.
I've gained alot of experience through this company and how it works, it's a very high volume store, learing from other coworkers and gaining knowledge and sharing knowledge with each other.
Management team are always helpful, skilled and caring, always on track with daily routines. Giving feedback to employees to improve performance.
Hardest part of the job isn't really what's hard, it's about learning better ways to do your job in a timely fashion and being safe, in what we're doing.
Co-workers are very friendly, fun to be around, and always socializing and it's a good way to meet new people.
Prosfun, socializing, fast paced, entertaining
Conssome long hours, working at night for markdowns, not enough hours
Toxic Environment Pitting Women Against One Another
Truth be told, you will either thrive in this environment or you will find it debilitating. The business model of this company is structured on women competing with other women, that is how they grew from the very beginning and that is how they continue to grow. This is coming from the perspective of a sales associate, the worst position you could have. You will only thrive if you are able to sell a lot, your sales are tracked hourly. The schedule is built on a hierarchy model where those with the highest sales get the most hours. However it is also reflective on how this company sees you, your value is based on that Sales Per Hour target. New girls are coddled, they have a pretty high retention rate. Girls at the top of the scheduled are valued because they can sell. Everyone else in between is treated like trash. Not to mention if the company wants you gone, rather than terminating you, they go through the process of force quitting you by driving you to the point where you feel there is no other choice but to quit.
There is no room for transition if you are a Sales Associate, it's hard to find people to sell, so once you're in that position there is no chance you can move to another role. If you ask to move, they will always make up an excuse, something along the lines of you needing to be an 8/10 in your role.
It's not worth the discount.
I was with the team from the beginning when this location first opened. This is the first store in Las Vegas and corporate pushed that this was gonna be a great and booming new market, but they were wrong. Aritzia is located in the Forum Shops at Caesars, and this may be the reason why. The foot traffic in this mall is very minimal compared to other major malls in the area. Every day, the style advisors are being pushed on crazy new targets and quotas that the Senior Stylists, who were relocated for the opening of our store, are taking all up.
The way Aritzia works for a style advisor is having a minimum of $300 an hour of sales. The store then tracks each stylists' sales by a leaderboard on the computer. At first, this target seemed very manageable hence the pricing of the clothing, but it ended up being an extra stress and worry thrown upon all stylists. On top of that, the only stylists who make commission are the ones who hold the senior title. So if you're just a regular stylist, you're fighting for these sales just to get scheduled more hours each week and that's it.
Upon hire, all non-management were promised our regular pay + bonus based off of the sales each season. Once all said employees started, we were then told that we do not get any sort of bonus whatsoever.
Since opening, it has been rare for the store to meet and exceed sales targets. Each week it seems that we are having visits from someone new who works at corporate. And each week management changes sales
Micro-managed, must love doing the same thing daily
I interviewed for merchandising mgmt, and was told they filled the position internally but that there would be another opening soon (expansion, I believe, as this was a newer store). I was told I could start as a Style Advisor while simultaneously learning the merchandising mgmt role.
That was my first red flag and lie. You have to sell a certain amount every hour - and when you reach a certain amount hourly for so many months, you can choose to be promoted to Senior Style Advisor, which allows you to start making commissions. I worked with someone who had been a SA for almost a decade, and she said it wasn't worth it to be an SSA because they somehow cap you - not sure entirely how it works.
Daily - selling the same clothes to the same type of people was mind-numbing, and I actually cried from boredom one day and went home. Your floor managers will check in with you at a micro-managed level asking you about your 'clients' on the floor. You need to know at least three facts from each of your Clients on the floor and should have five Clients at all times - obvi, this breeds a dog-eat-dog world between SA's.
Pro's - there are dedicated jobs for the dressing room, running clothes, merchandising, cash wrap etc, which are all in support of the store, allowing you to be on the floor grabbing clients and checking on them in the fitting room. Felt VERY supported that way.
Overall, if you can turn your brain off and sell the same clothes all day, this is for you. Don't ask for any
ProsThere are dedicated jobs for each 'department'. Cash wrap, dressing room, runners, etc.
Questions and answers about Aritzia
How often do you get a raise at Aritzia?
Asked Dec 7, 2022
Rarely
Answered Sep 10, 2023
1-2x/ yr
Answered Jun 19, 2023
What benefits does Aritzia offer?
Asked Nov 9, 2022
Just bonus
Answered Jun 12, 2023
Health insurance, Dental
Answered Apr 19, 2023
What is the promotion process like at Aritzia?
Asked Dec 20, 2022
slim to none
Answered May 5, 2023
Extremely difficult
Answered May 2, 2023
How is feedback from management delivered at Aritzia?
Asked Mar 7, 2023
Toxic environment
Answered Aug 9, 2023
Aritzia was life changing for me! Invaluable experience
Answered Aug 9, 2023
What is a typical day like for you at the company?
