American Apparel Reviews

Former Employee – worked at American Apparel

Pros – Nice discounts
Laid back environment
Great clothes
Chill managers (if you're lucky) My best friend has a great manager at her store but my other friend has a manager that's a little less...friendly.

Cons – None that I can think of.

Current Employee – been working at American Apparel full-time for more than a year

Pros – Coworkers are very friendly and supportive. Have a lot of good relationships with them. Clothing discount is amazing. Great way to get retail experience.

Cons – Only management. Basically like high school politics. Favoritism and lack of any respect. Wasn't compensated enough for the amount of work I did. Lack of training.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop treating your employees with disrespect.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Apparel part-time

Pros – My co-workers, free clothes, 50% off everything in the store, and laid back.

Cons – Upper management, the customers, and lack of respect from corporate to the actual sales team. Also don't be surprised when corporate decides to institute some bogus policy.

Advice to Senior Management – Be more professional, and stop treating your employees like crap.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Apparel part-time for less than a year

Pros – The co-workers. love themmm.
Basically the only thing i look forward to before going to work

Cons – Everything else!
I hated my hours, the dress code, and pay is minimal for the work expected, ridiculous sales expectations

Advice to Senior Management – more incentives, more organized management, reachable goals

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at American Apparel

Pros – Learn to be a better salesperson
Work on your communication skills

Cons – They only chose a few to teach them how to become a cashier

Current Employee – been working at American Apparel part-time for more than a year

Pros – Flexible hours, friendly work environment, good discount and great with getting days off if you request in a timely fashion. Your coworkers are friendly and young, so this is a great part-time job for college students who need flexibility in their schedules to go to school and go to work.

Cons – Hours are long (sometimes up to midnight or later, depending on how fast you close the store if you are closing) and calling out of a shift is difficult in times of emergencies. The pay is pretty low compared to some other retailers and getting hours may be difficult if you need the money.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at American Apparel part-time for more than a year

Pros – Let me preface by saying how amazing AA's discount is. That was honestly the staple keeping me there. I couldn't imagine life without that discount... and my location started us off at $9/hr, and it wasn't difficult to receive a raise. The hours were very flexible and as long as you kept the store neat and clean, greeted customers at the door and flipped over those stupid nail polishes every night, you were golden.

Cons – Oh God, where do I begin... First off, the hiring process (as most of you already know by now) is probably the closest thing to illegal there is, unless it is illegal which it could be. It's extremely hard to get a job at AA without knowing someone who works there. We got random walk-in applicants all the time, and I would say we actually interviewed about 1 out of 50 of those applicants. If you're oh-so lucky enough to know someone that works at AA, you pretty much got the job. As long as you look the part and haven't stolen from the store before, you're good. They will go ahead and take a picture of you-- a head shot and a full body shot. They send it to corporate to be approved, and that determines whether you get hired or not. It's stupid. Another pretty shitty thing about this company is that they are TOO gracious with promotions, etc. At one point, an 18 year old was the district merchandiser for half of Florida, and that is just ridiculous. There are no real standards, and anyone could go and become manager if they REALLY wanted to. Everything was always so unorganized, and so much stupid petty drama. It honestly made me hate the company and everything it stood for... except the discount. All in all, it's good for the money and discount. That's about it. No matter how much you thought you loved AA, you will hate it after working there.

Advice to Senior Management – Seriously, stop giving such young people high positions in the company. That's why you are in so much debt, that's why there's internal theft, and that's why friendships>professional life at your stores. Extremely unprofessional work setting. Start hiring uglier people who know what the hell they're doing instead of decent looking hipsters who can't even think for themselves.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Apparel part-time for more than a year

Pros – Great discount, and lots of free clothes. As a merchandiser I have little direction and am allowed a lot of creativity. Fun people to work with and cool clothes.

Cons – Only got a .50 raise in one year. Company doesn't provide vacation or sick time, even after years of working there. No room to grow unless you want to to move to CA.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Apparel full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Good ethics. Sweatshop Free clothes.

Cons – Don't pay to industry standards, particularly upper management.

Advice to Senior Management – Pay employees a living wage based on location. Why is a manager living in Omaha (where rent is presumably inexpensive) getting paid the same as a manager in NYC (where rent is expensive)? NYC makes up most of the company's profits and its employees should be compensated as such.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at American Apparel part-time

Pros – Great discount on apparel, people are generally nice and fun not a terrible work environment

Cons – I've seen them judge people immediately when in the hiring process - the more attractive people are on the floor and less attractive, generally heavier employees go in the backstock. I understand that they need people to sell the clothes in the way that models too, but it is disheartening in 2013 to still face these discriminations