The company does not give its employees the resources they need to be successful - Store Manager Body Central Employee Review

I came in as a brand new Store Manager and was appalled at the state of the store. They had at least 20 large boxes of damages from over the last 3 years, as well as at least a years worth of clearance taking up all of the Z-bars in the back, not to mention 13 additional large boxes of clearance that was supposed to have been recalled, but was not. Most of the store's merchandise had not been marked down to the correct prices either, which explains why they had so much clearance backstocked- they weren't marking things down! The store was also literally falling apart, and the company would not send a maintenance tech to fix the problems. Doors were falling off of the cabinets in the front, 4 out of the 7 drawers were broken, one had the cover falling off with nails sticking out of it. The staff only had 2 out of their 4 sets of keys so the locks also had to be changed. Instead of sending a locksmith, the company mailed me a bag of lock columns and new keys with no directions. I had to have my boyfriend read me off directions from a youtube video to change the locks myself. The place was absolutely filthy- dead bugs under the gondolas, wads of dust bunnies in the corners, and gum EVERYWHERE- stuck to hardware, in the carpet, almost permanently part of the floor. There was absolutely no organization to the backroom at all. They were storing their signs and window clings on pants hangers so they were all torn and had holes in them, not to mention there were hundreds of signs that had not been thrown away. The hardware was not separated, so everybody wasted a massive amount of time just looking for the supplies they needed to complete their tasks. The management team before me had been cutting girls they didn't like from the schedule without telling them- I had to call someone to come in on their days off at least 4 out of my first 7 days. My "trainer", a manager from a store in a city nearby supported those decisions. She came in for 3 days, told me everything that was wrong with the merchandising, talked about how bad the girls were and how they hadn't been doing their jobs, but never actually trained me on anything. I was actually a special case, in that somebody came to the store to show me how to do some things, but the company gives zero training hours to new hires. I was lucky to get the 3 days. The staff had no idea what they were doing, in part because the company does not have any sort of training program, just a couple of 2 minute videos explaining how to sell things (for brand new sales associates). I kept asking if they had a manual or a merchandising book, but they don't have any of that either. You will literally never hit your sales target. The target for my store was planned up at least 20% to the sales last year. Completely unrealistic. The store I worked at was the poorest performing store in the district, with the next highest store nearly doubling our volume. The girls at the store were so poorly trained that all they would do is hang out behind the cashwrap all day. They had no idea how to do basic merchandising and cleaning tasks, like dust mopping, keeping things in size order, and I had no time to retrain them, because the company gives you major projects to complete every single day. They also receive shipment every single day, and want it out within 24 hours. The floorsets had little to no direction. The company sent us a floorset packet 3 days beforehand, with no styles numbers or specifics on what exactly should go where. You just have to guess by the picture. The company also routinely sends necessary stock and materials for the projects after the projects have already begun, or sometimes the day after. It was impossible to prep anything beforehand due to the lack of things like pants hangers, which also cannot be ordered with supplies. The other store managers and the girls at the store were very gossipy and two-faced, which is never something I am willing to deal with in any part of my life. People say it happens everywhere, but it definitely wasn't a problem at my last store. Everybody should be able to be courteous and respectful at work, even if you don't get along. Basically, I do not believe the store I inherited is salvageable. The problems there are systemic. I was often told "you can only do so much, just do what you can get done," and to "not be such a perfectionist." I was not aware that wanting to do things correctly so that I would not have to go back and fix problems later would be discouraged. The attitude they tried to impart to me was the attitude that got the store into the position it is in the first place.