I am a snob, and I know it. Sometimes I'm even OK with it. This snobbishness is manifested mostly in my association in Gap Inc. I love Banana Republic way more than I should. I worked there for my entire senior year of high school and the summer before I moved to college. When I moved to Logan, a bohunk town in northern Utah that doesn't even have a Target (it does have a Wal-Mart, though), to go to Utah State University, I made a downward transfer to work at Old Navy.
Perhaps I should explain the Gap Inc. Hierarchy. Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy are all owned by the same company (hopefully you are intelligent enough to figure out that this company is the aforementioned Gap Inc.). Employees at Banana Republic are generally clothes whores (sorry mom) who are slightly persnickety and elitist and like fashion. They think they, and the clothes they sell, are better than the employees and clothes at both Gap and Old Navy. Gap is for the trendy person, who still likes clothes but is not willing to spend a lot of money on them. Gap employees look up to and resent Banana employees for thinking they are better than the rest. They also recognize that they are better than Old Navy. Old Navy employees are more frugal and love a good deal, even if it means they are buying lesser quality. They resent both Banana and Gap because of their superiority complexes.
I never really believed in the Gap Inc. Hierarchy until I started working at Old Navy. Sure, when I first let my BR coworkers know I would be making the transfer when I moved to college they made snide comments, the least of which was, "Can't you at least work at the Gap?" I would just brush them off or tell them that I Old Navy would be a good choice for my college lifestyle (I wouldn't have to change into business-casual clothes before work, the clothes are more appropriate for being in college, I would get to keep my pay rate, it is very close to campus, etc). When school started and I started working, I tried to have a good attitude. Really, I tried.
I somehow managed to impress all the managers but none of my fellow employees. The managers said I have good customer service, the employees said I need to focus on recovery. The managers said I am good at recovering, the employees said I take too long, am a perfectionist, and need to worry about recovery "quantity, not quality." The managers even asked me to teach standards classes (that is, how to fold, hang, replenish merchandise, and generally keep the store clean and presentable) to pretty much the entire staff. That's right. People who had been at that Old Navy, even gone through the Leadership Development Program, had to learn the proper way to fold from me, the girl who had been there for 5 weeks.
After I taught the classes, we, that is to say the managers and I, hoped that the store would be much neater and more uniform. This did not happen. For some reason, the employees reverted back to the way they had always folded. Here is my gripe with Old Navy: why the heck don't they train their employees in the first place?! This problem could be avoided if each employee was taught the proper way to fold from the beginning. Not only were they never trained on folding, they weren't trained on customer service on the sale's floor or in the fitting room or how to sell the Old Navy Card. Ask any Old Navy employee the benefits of an ONC and they will only be able to tell you how much you save on that day's purchase and the 5% back in rewards to Gap Inc. It's an outrage.
The final straw for me was last week. I was informed that on Saturday, January 24, we were supposed to wear Yoga clothes to work for a Yoga Event. (Heaven only knows what a Yoga Event is.) I don't care whether you call them yoga clothes, work out clothes, jammies, or space pants, the "yoga clothes" we were supposed to wear are sweats. Period. Sweats, dear reader, should not be worn to work, unless your place of employ is a gym.
Luckily, I did not have to work that day. If I had, you can bet I would have showed up in a skirt just to stick it to them.