Why I don’t participate in the blogger craze behind NSale

Top:  Shein // Pants:  Shein // Bag:  AliExpress (old) // Shoes:  Smith and Angie

Ok, I did post about it last year because I followed the crowd since EVERY blogger was doing it.  Looking back, I wish I didn’t.  Ever since I started this blog I said that I wouldn’t post about it and I caved, all just to get a few clicks.  Yes, I’m going to be honest, I only did it for clicks since Nordstrom affiliate links have high commission.  Nordstrom makes me cringe, and I avoid it at all costs.  The reason I’m telling y’all this is because I want to be completely honest.

I.HATE.NORDSTROM.

Yes, I said it.  Sorry ladies and gents but I do.  I absolutely despise Nordstrom.  You see, I have my reasoning, both as a former employee and as a shopper.  No, I’m not necessarily a disgruntled ex employee, but I don’t think anyone really knows about insider scoops.  There are certain departments at Nordstrom where as an employee you can make money moves as Cardi B would say.  However, this isn’t the case for the entire company.  I wanted to break it down a bit so that you can understand why I don’t really like Nordstrom and why ever since I went back on my true self, I avoid Nordstrom links at all costs, no matter how high the commission is.

Super Catty

Ok, now I understand that when you’re in a group where it’s mostly women it’s bound to be catty especially in retail.  However, the amount of gossip and back stabbing was definitely eye opening to me.  It was worse than Mean  Girls.  I would see girls be “besties” and then just an hour later I would overhear conversations.  No, I wasn’t eavesdropping, but if someone is complaining (quite loudly) and saying “this bitch (insert name here) bla bla bla.” It’s kind of hard to avoid hearing the conversation.  I would usually try to sneak out so that no one would even know I heard because I didn’t want to be part of any drama.  That’s why when I was there I didn’t trust anyone.  I would be cordial and nice, but never trusted anyone with any type of information.  Even the managers were catty with their employees.  Throwing each other under the bus was an every second occurrence there.

Different Commissions

Each department has a different commission.  The departments who were more of a “seasonal” or specialty department (for example dresses) they had higher commissions.  Whereas the everyday clothing had a lower commission but definitely higher foot traffic.  There were girls who were making more in a day in those every day clothing sections than I was in a week in dresses.  The worst part was that if someone returned something, you got docked that day out of your numbers, so there were days where I would come in to work and somehow was already $2,000 negative.  You had an hourly pay which was minimum wage so if say your minimum wage was higher than your commission for that pay period you would get the minimum wage instead.  It sucked, especially because I had just moved back from Texas, was struggling to pay student loans from my Bachelor’s and Master’s, and the closest Nordstrom was 45 minutes away with no traffic.

Unhealthy Competition

I’m all for competition.  I think competition is healthy because it keeps you striving to be better.  It keeps you on your toes and it makes you want to reach higher goals.  However, the competitive environment at Nordstrom was disgusting.  As I said earlier, throwing one another under the bus was normal.  Stealing clients was also normal.  The one day I spent 2 hours helping a woman to pick out the perfect dresses and once she was ready to be rung up another customer had asked me for help.  When she went to the counter (mind you this was an extremely big purchase) the cashier had asked who helped her and I heard her say my name.  Well guess what?  The girl rang her up under her numbers anyway.  You cannot even believe the steam that was coming out of my ears.  I had to actually walk away for a minute and collect myself so that I wouldn’t flip out on her.  This was normal in this environment.

No Return Policy

While this no return policy is amazing for shoppers, shop lifters who like to return “bought” items, or just the scum of the earth, it sucks for employees.  When you return something, whatever employee’s name is on that receipt, that commission gets taken out of what they have already earned.  So even though an employee might’ve helped and rung up 10 people that day, one person with a huge return came in and ruined their commission for that day.  I really think that if Nordstrom isn’t going to have a return policy, they need to not have it affect their employees that much.  Or have the return be half of the percent of their regular commission.  It was sooooo easy for people to shoplift too.  I also had one person come to return something that had clearly been worn (it was drenched in body soil and the smell made me actually get physically sick).  The tag was attached (however you can buy a tag gun anywhere) and when I rang it up it was from many years prior to that day.  Nordstrom actually allowed this return.

“Sales”

Y’all know that a lot of the stuff at Nordstrom can be found at other places for way cheaper right?  Have you ever shopped at an outlet or even gone to other department stores?  Maybe it’s because I like to bargain shop so I’ll look around for the best deal but this anniversary sale is such BS.  Yea, you might get a good deal on a tshirt that’s normally $55 but now it’s $25, but at the end of the day, you can get that same white tshirt elsewhere for under $10.

My opinion of Nordstrom was tarnished as soon as I walked in that door and worked for them.  I know that I should always give a second chance, but after my experience there, I just can’t bring myself to look at them any differently.  I did have some fun times there and I did learn a lot, but it was truly cancelled out by all the bad.  When I first started there I heard of how so many people achieved so many great things with the company and I personally wanted to be a Stylist, but they wouldn’t take me since I wasn’t able to make it with my numbers in the dresses department.  I asked if they could move me to a department where I know I would succeed in and they declined that request.  Since this experience I can count on one hand how many times I stepped foot into Nordstrom and I cringed every time along with it not being by choice.

**Please note, I received these pants as a review, however all opinions are my own.

xoxo Monica

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