An ex-worker at The Copper Closet claims the boutique sells Shein products at a markup—but that’s not even the worst of it.
Taylor Freda (@thetaylorfreda) posted a lengthy video sharing the alleged details of her time working at The Copper Closet. Her post was a stitch with another video from Ally Viccaro (@avic1217), who also claimed the store was selling Shein clothing as its own.
“In college, I worked at a restaurant, and we shared a dumpster with a pretty big boutique here in Jacksonville. And the dumpster was constantly filled with thousands of Shein bags,” Viccaro says. She received 2.1 million views on her post.
Freda’s post added more credence to Viccaro’s claims.
“Let’s just say this place is called the ‘Schopper Shloset,’” Freda says before adding, “I used to work there back in 2018.” Freda says she used to work at the boutique as a photographer and ran its entire e-commerce website.
She starts her list by saying, “The owner was literally one of the worst people I have ever met in my entire life,” and then gives some examples of their behavior.
“The only [employees] they fired were Black people,” Freda alleges.
The ex-Copper Closet worker also says the owner would sing along to loud rap music and repeat the N-word, and when a co-worker approached them about it, they disregarded the complaint.
Freda says the company went through two graphic designers in the span of a few months and that both of them quit, citing the toxic work environment.
@thetaylorfreda stitch with @Avic1217 oh yeah alll the cheap clothes marked up crazy amounts. Not just from shein but other places too 🙃🙃 #jacksonvilleboutique #stjohnstowncenter #nevershophere ♬ original sound – Taylor Freda
Freda’s video received 928,000 views and almost 600 comments.
Amber, a content strategist who allegedly worked at The Copper Closet at the same time as Freda, wrote, “So I may or may not have been the marketing manager mentioned in the video. And I may or may not be able to confirm all of this.”
“Can confirm i also interned for this same location and it was unpaid with the promise of ‘signed credit hours’ and never received those so i worked for three month completely free,” another viewer claimed about their experience working at the boutique.
“OMG YES I worked a couple of stores down and we used that same dumpster! They sold it for 5x the price and once I saw those bags I returned everything,” someone else added.
“I worked there for a year and half last year and the STORIES I could tell you about the owner,” another viewer chimed in.
The Daily Dot reached out to Freda and Viccaro via Instagram direct message and to The Copper Closet via an online contact form for more information.
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