In a recent viral video with 1.9 million views as of Sunday, a disgruntled customer and TikToker expressed frustration over the chaotic state of an Aeropostale store. They likened the scene to the wreckage after a hurricane and asserted that there was no way a 45-year-old woman could be the manager.
User ILuv (@ILoveClothesAndCoffee) was blown away by the mess at their local retailer and immediately questioned the nature of management. Regardless of who was in charge, the chaotic scene shown in the TikTok sparked a flurry of comments that spoke to the frustrations inherent to retail work. In the clip, mountains of disorganized clothes were shown on top of large bins and the display tables were in complete disarray. “I know a 45 year old woman is NOT the manager of this Aeropostale,” the creator wrote in the text overlay.
One commenter, who earned their stripes on the sales floor stated, “Working retail isn’t for the weak you can have the store being spotless and those last minute shoppers just tear up the store within seconds.”
Another viewer lamented the length of time it takes to organize the displays versus the speed at which they can fall into disarray.
“I work in retail and it’s so real that i will make a perfect table and a customer 2 secs later will rip through it and not even get thier size,” they wrote.
A third noted the disconnect between the corporate office and their employees, asserting, “People in corporate who design the planograms with tables clearly never physically worked in a store before.”
@iloveclothesandcoffee looks like a hurricane hit this location. #aeropostlehaul #aeropostle #disorganized #scary #manager #older #young #teen #clothes ♬ Hurricane – Bridgit Mendler
The scene the TikToker revealed was startling for many viewers, not just for the mess in the video, but for the state of the retail industry at large. It has long been held that retail work is hard, but today, retail work is arguably harder than ever, with workers quitting at record rates.
In the video, the assumption that there is no way a 45-year-old woman could be running the store is because surely, an adult wouldn’t permit the displays to fall into such disarray. But the reality is that managing a retail store is a challenging task at any age.
As one commenter put it, “My 31 year old manager worked for our store since she was 19, ran it so well that they worked her to her literal death she couldn’t stop helping.”
Aeropostale went bankrupt in the mid-2010s and made a recovery a handful of years later.
The Daily Dot has reached out to ILoveClothesandCoffee via TikTok comment and Aeropostale via email.
