(Editorial Note: A draft of this article was being worked on prior to the shooting which occurred at a Wal-Mart shopping center in Chesapeake, VA on 11/23/2022. While a few of the topics in this post reference the risks & hazards with working in customer-facing environments, it should be noted that this event is not directly noted in the commentary below. Our hearts go out to the victims and families affected by this tragedy.)

The Holiday season usually brings with it a combination of emotions from consumers and retail professionals alike; from an eagerness & excitement coming from the anticipation of grabbing that once-in-a-lifetime deal on that one thing that will most likely inhabit closet space 364 days out of the year...to the impending dread of unpredictable crowds to which even the most seasoned of retail staff can have trouble navigating through. Add to that market & economic conditions, influence from social trends and movements, and the continued evolution of ways that customers interact with brands, and the result is a hot mess of all these things that get amplified at the end of the year.

Even outside the holiday season, there has been a lot going on in the retail industry over the majority of the 21st century to date...e-commerce has either forced traditional brick-and-mortar stores out of business entirely or has drastically changed how a given retail organization conducts business. Some fashion brands have shifted ownership multiple times in an effort to emerge from bankruptcy, the landscape of malls and shopping centers across the country have populated a fraction of the space they once held, and of those brands and department stores still in business, a reliance of supplemental products and services like store-branded credit cards, and partnerships with other organizations, fashion-related or otherwise, have become a staple of business bottom-lines.

An unfortunate circumstance of this volatility is the downstream effect it has on the thousands of retail employees across the country. Store closures and organizational restructures have forced layoffs onto numerous people working in customer facing jobs. The competition for marginal-at-best sales and profits at store-levels have created unhealthy, and in some cases dangerous work environments for store staff, and rushed onboarding of new & inexperienced store-level management has a significant potential to set a bad tone for the success of a storefront...these examples are a few of the many hardships retail employees, from first-ever-job associates to those with decades of front-line experience encounter from day to day.

While there's no way we can speak to every fashion-related blog out there, it seems that a lot of content puts focus on the consumerist aspects of fashion and retail. This is definitely not a criticism...we just feel that though an allure to the merchandise itself is enough to attract an audience, if were doing our jobs correctly we want to use a fashion platform like this to advocate for the front-line workers in this volatile and fickle industry.

As our content grows, the list below will provide a sampling of planned content:

• What are retail organizations doing to attract customers?
• Are retail organizations advocating for their front-line employees? If so, then how?
• How are retail organizations keeping their doors open?
  • Is whatever they are doing successful?
  • If not, what made them fail?
• How are retail organizations balancing e-commerce business with brick-and-mortar business?
• Is there any consistency across the industry in the relationship between front-line staff and store-level management?
  • Which organizations are, as a benchmark, above standards in employee morale, and what are they doing differently from other organizations?

Additionally, while our intent is not to serve as a news or other reporting source we will focus some content on current events and trends in the retail industry.

To again echo our commitment to be a voice for front-line retail workers, the only thing left to say is that we hope to speak for this group as we are a part of the group. Over the years we have seen a lot, from the dawn of e-commerce to the onset of COVID, and the fundamental changes all of it has brought. Though our interests in fashion and style will be a centerpiece for our publication, we aim to differentiate ourselves by setting space aside to discuss and provide commentary on the issues this industry faces.

As we continue to build out our content, please feel free to interact and message us on topics you might like to see in the future. Given the retail industry is a cornerstone for economies across the world, there's no way we'll be aware of all the noteworthy events at any point in time.

Thanks for taking the time to read through our introduction, we hope to be a source of information for you in the future!