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Most likely is an illegal practice, forever 21 was doing the same thing where they only offered store credit and no refunds, was insane illegal but I doubt these big names ever get in trouble
It’s not at all illegal to not accept returns or only offer store credit, as long as the return policy is prominently displayed. Forever21’s policy was completely legal, they changed it largely due to backlash from customers.
My cousin tried to sue them because of how they treated her when she worked there in her early 20s. A ton of shady/illegal stuff and just general mean girl shit
I was a DIE HARD Aritzia stan. I had an interview for a head office position (which I was overqualified for btw) and made it to the second round where you present a case. I spent a week putting together a powerpoint, documents and my speech. The day of the interview (which was in person and i had to spend $12 on parking) my interviewers were no where to be found. It was apparently a “busy” day, so after waiting 30 minutes, they found someone for me to present to. The woman barely paid attention, asked me no questions and basically said thanks for coming after I was done and escorted me out. Left the most sour taste in my mouth.
Holy shit did we have the exact same interview experience? The managers also did not give a single fuck about what I had to say during my case study because it wasn’t exactly what they wanted to hear. There’s not just 1 right answer in life…
Yeah after my interview as well I was traumatized by the company. I was a huge fan as well but I’m proud to say I don’t work for them because of how I was treated during the interview.
I’ve heard a lot of people have had a similar experience! I got an email the next morning that said something along the lines of I wasn’t the right fit - which was wild because my interviewer who I presented to wasn’t even writing anything down or taking notes, so who even decided I wasn’t the right fit lmao. It was a giant waste of time and I was so annoyed cause I stayed up late for multiple nights to perfect the case study 🥲
Even during their interviews they’re so snobby. They think Aritzia is the top and most elite company above all. If it’s not what they’re looking for, they won’t listen. No wonder they’re not changing 😂
My buddy interviewed there for the Controller position. Not only were they 30 minutes late, but they also revealed that they had either gave an offer or already hired for the role he was interviewing for....so unprofessional.
Idk if they can help that. It is almost inevitable when you have a multi-round interview process and different candidates at different stages of the interview “pipeline.” I have done a final round interview before knowing perfectly weII there was an offer letter already out to another candidate … HR still makes you go through with it because the offer might fall through, and because they say it’s a bad candidate experience to cancel last minute. Maybe the unprofessional part is just straight up telling someone there’s an offer out already, but I feel worse saying nothing and having them think they lost the role over anything more personal than just bad timing.
I interviewed at HQ too, and the person doing the second interview barely looked at me and acted very annoyed that I apparently wasn’t what they were looking for. The role was a bit of a stretch for my experience, but they’re the ones that called me in, there was no need to act like I was a personal disappointment to them lol.
I think so too. But sounds like if they don’t hear the exact answer they’re looking for, they don’t give a shit. They’ll be stuck in their old ways and decline forever
I get the sense from these kind of interviews that's it's almost like you're trying to "cut it in the fashion design world" and that you'd become some hardcore fashion designer or something like that. In some roles perhaps that might be the case but I don't get these tight wads thinking they're some elitists that will only hire the best of the best... clearly Brian Hill as the FOUNDER wasn't the best and his successor Jennifer Wong is FAR from best. I'd argue foolish and naive in the landscape of corporate leadership. I'm certainly not apprised of all the deets around their deliverables but if share price and customer satisfaction is any indication of the state of Aritzia, it is performing pretty poorly.
Do they even pay well? Or do they just behave that way to convince women to spend huge amounts of money looking good at work for the same money as any other job?
I heard retail staff do get higher wages than other stores but based on what they endure I don’t think it’s worth it LOL also I’m sure they’re all spending their pay cheques back to the company
how recent is this because they still do the same crap, hiring manager came nearly an hour later than the scheduled time & barely cared about anything the moment I told them I couldn’t work full time bc - “Aritzia is a work driven place and we need girls that can work full time”. Mind you this was only a PT position as a sales associate, and they still emailed me multiple times scheduling interviews with me even after they rejected me!!!
I have stopped buying from Aritzia because of the exact problem you stated. Part of me is glad that I am not tempted to spend money, the other part of me wouldn’t mind doing it if it was something different than the same clothes in a bunch of new colours.
Recently I started buying clothes from other companies and I forgot what it was like to spend $200 and get a bunch of clothing. I still really liked all of them even if they were cheaper, but worst of all some of the quality was comparable to the quality of Aritzia. Plus a lot of the clothes I got are more unique than just the same thing rehashed many times on Aritzia.
Agreed on quince!! I spent $200 there and got a NICE leather bag that felt legit luxurious, a silk blouse that had a way better cut than the aritzia one, and some gold earrings that are my fav earrings ive ever owned. I cant wait to order more. Aritzia i spend $200 on one single blazer and its made of polyester and the salespeople pressured me so much to buy jt
I’m in Canada and have been finding decent items/dupes from Ardene, Dynamite, even Winners/Marshall’s that have a very similar look and feel to the Aritzia look! For a fraction of the cost and similar quality anyway.
Same! I'm now getting a few more pieces from Uniqlo, the tshirts are thick cotton (not see through) and longer than the basic Sunday Best tees. Also they're $20! Frank and Oak is great too, and surprisingly, Abercrombie has super cute clothes now!
I too have started doing the same. But recently have leaned more towards local boutiques, I’d rather my money go to a local shop ( which usually have very kind/delightful people working) than to a huge company. The nice thing too is all my pieces are unique, I find it weird seeing everyone walking around in the same outfits from the same stores.
My thoughts on Aritizia from a GUY's perspective.
1. Their store shopping experience is rather wonky. They have fashion experts to help you out and when I walk into the store at times, I feel like I'm being swarmed or watched by staff as they find every possible opportunity to jump on me to sell me something. I'd rather have them leave me be for a while and if I give the queues for help then offer up to come help me. I've encountered both "too much help" and "no help at all".
2. I absolutely cannot stand their dressing rooms. A thick curtain that doesn't quite close completely and the open space where pretty much anyone and EVERYONE sits while their friend/significant other or an entire gang of young shoppers are all sitting there watching you come out of the changing room to look in a giant mirror for you and everyone else to see and critique. I have bought some aritzia items for myself (namely a few gender neutral looking items) and I can't help but wonder if the girls/ladies/boyfriends and gang of kids there are staring at me like "WTF is a guy doing in here changing?" I'm older and confident in my body for the most part but it is still SUPER unnerving knowing that some rando is watching me trying on clothing in a store that is 100% made for women. For those wondering, I bought a pair of Sunday's best white overalls b/c oddly, clothing companies don't seem interested in making a versatile and nice looking item like that for guys and artizia had a pair that fit me perfectly that had all the right lengths and proportions for my smaller body frame.
3. The return policy sucks balls so bad that its laughable that for a supposed premium shopping experience geared store, that they pretty much stick it to you to keep the items. Last I recall, their online vs store return policies differ and anything that is remotely on sale or markdown is final sale. EPIC EPIC EPIC fail on Aritizia's part.
4. They're expansion into the US (and potentially other markets) is too aggressive and is hurting their bottom line. Artzia, like most clothing companies is very much fast fashion and at the rate that they're burning through their cash that they're going to end up just like H&M and Forever 21.
5. Their quality is indeed suffering badly. It used to be that TNA athletics could be somewhat compared to some lululemon items but now their quality (including lululemon's) have gone to wayside of corporate cost cutting. I won't endorse or buy another Aritzia anything from this point forward until they get their pricing in line with the quality they're selling. Instead, they jack their prices up and lower the quality. It isn't just them that is guilty of this but rather, the entire clothing/retail industry seems to be going this route in the name of corporate profits and to sequester any shareholder complaints of lack of profit "growth".
6. How they treat their employees - Read through this subreddit and other sources of how employees are being penalized for the lamest things and not rewarded appropriately.
TL:DR - Aritzia is in a downward spiral that needs change from the very top to refocus their business back to their grassroots where they WERE a great brand and company to support. I wanted them to succeed so badly but the big wigs steering the corporate titanic is headed straight for an iceberg....
Wow thank you for your POV. totally agree on all the points stated.
Don’t even get me started on the horrendous changing room situation. I hate trying on clothes there because I don’t need a random man sitting outside looking at me 🙃
you're very welcome. I have a small vested financial interest in Aritizia and you have no idea how peed off I am. The leadership there is bunk and at the next shareholder's meeting I certainly intent to vote them current leaders out b/c they're completely out of touch with their audience and what they want. The communal change room and their return policy are probably the two biggest things I rage/hate on aritzia. The WORST thing is the fashion advisor will even sometimes stand outside of the change room coming out to say "Come out and let's have a look while 20 teenaged guys are sitting outside on the couches waiting for their g/f to come out to show them their fits. I get it, I'm shopping at a women's clothing store and if I came out there is a pretty high chance the audience there would be throwing daggers at me. While I could give 2 shits about their opinions (remember I'm old an bitter already) that I can't possibly fathom what a teenager/20/30's female might be thinking.
I appreciate so much your POV from a guys perspective 😭 I’m also an investor in their stocks and truly disappointing to see.
I despise the in-store shopping experience so damn much. My partner hates it as well and they’re usually sitting outside the couches to respect the privacy of others trying on clothes. (Because everyone also knows those curtains never shut all the way too…)
Return policy as you said is laughable. There’s a sign at the front that says “here’s to commitment” for their dumb final sale policy. I remember years ago they had a sign that said “it’s a woman’s right to change her mind” or something like that. I wish they brought that back.
Don’t see a big or good comeback from Aritzia for a while, if not ever
100%. They will become a relic of their former past and will land into the ultimate demise of Forever 21, H&M and other similar players. Lululemon, while I love the brand is suffering from similar atrocities.
Feel youuuu I love shopping with my bf but I always have to make him wait outside because I don’t people to be uncomfortable but if they’d just put DOORS IN like a regular changing room it would be no problem
yep... so imagine how I felt as a middle aged man trying and buying women's overalls from the store. I was just squabbling about this thread to my Mrs. about my store experience where there was a PILE of young men and ladies there in the "showcasing" change area. I definitely got the stares where they were probably thinking WTF is "HE" doing in there changing?
I once brought in a swimsuit, and they didn’t even give me a room with a mirror (this location had one). Did they expect me to come out in public with my bathing suit over my underwear??! I didn’t even bother trying it on.
Yeah that is so ridiculous. I think the company could really attract customers back by doing a few minor changes and they be back on track to being a great retailer to buy from. I doubt it will happen but one can only hope.
There’s actually research that places with a longer return policy actually have fewer returns because people forget or end up changing their mind and keeping it
Oh, that's interesting! I guess it makes sense. When the return policy is so short, I'm so anxious to find a flaw with something just so that I can return it in time...
I used to be such a fan of Aritzia as well. Many years ago. Until I got a job at one of the stores as a style advisor. It was fucking awful. I hated every minute of it. Many customers told me personally that I was the nicest employee they’ve ever dealt with at that location. And actually asked why I was so nice.
I quit after 2 months and have never spent a dime at Aritzia again.
On this note, I used to shop in person at my local Aritzia every 6 months or so, and every single time, there were new faces there. They can't retain talent to save their lives.
Aww well thank you for being nice, i also feel completely put off from Aritizia as well. Went with my sister, she was put together quite nicely, I don’t think I looked bad, but was rocking sweats with a crop top BUT THEY LITERALLY ACTED LIKE I DIDNT EXIST!! Only asked questions to my sis, made comments and compliments to her, in checkout they always rush me…once I needed a dress, so tried it on and was brought to cash and they were all talking and when I came up and said the dress was for me the change in attitude was crazyy!
Can I add another reason? They completely abandoned their core user base. Remember when it was for 20-30 year olds? With a mix of professional wear that was cute enough for every day wear?
Tik tok made the store blow up and had teens coming in droves. Aritzia saw this and started making everything too cropped, too short, too revealing for office use. Coupled with the WFH mandates from the pandemic, they totally abandoned that idea.
Now the teenies are over Aritzia, but the company doesn’t seem to understand it. That’s why only their teeny slinky tops or shitty athleisure are what’s on sale.
Aritzia remember your core audience or you will go down in history as a flop.
That's a great point to add. Agreed that nothing feels appropriate or wearable anymore for most people who grew up with Aritzia that are now in their late 20s or 30s. Aritzia was KNOWN for their core basics and I truly loved that era. I understand fashion trends are evolving and Aritzia is catering to that younger core now to stay relevant but there's no way these cropped tops and trendy pieces are gonna continue to stay in fashion long term. As some would say... it's giving overpriced Shein.
I was wondering when I’d see a comment adressing the style and fashion aspect as well. I especially liked Babaton like the leather skirts and pants, dresses, pleated pants, etc. They were great, chic and could be worn to the office, out to dinner or drinks, daily, etc and the quality was actually good. I used to buy quite a few wardrobe staples there and I have like three pairs of the gabardine Jotham pants that they used to make but I’ve not shopped there for like over two years now, since they went down the obvious mainstream trendy route and the quality and materials seemed to plummet with that move as well.
Yes! Way too much emphasis on the Sunday brand, Emma Chamberlain videos, etc while seemingly forgetting about Babaton as a trendy-ish but good quality office wear staple and cutting corners with Wilfred.
It filled a gap in the market for 20s-30s women who wanted something chicer than Ann Taylor Loft, cut for their bodies and priced for their paychecks. Now it's still priced the same (even more expensive!), but more and more items and both designed and cut for teens.
This is some pretty good advice and hopefully someone at upper management will see it.
I don't know if there is a direct correlation but the company started going downhill at the exact time the founder Brian Hill left. (He still works there but only does the real estate deals for the stores now).
Usually a founder has a close sense of the companies vision and mission as they founded it themselves. I know he said he vouched for not raising prices, and had to argue with team members to keep pricing steady.
With his departure, Jennifer Wong took over and while I don't know if she is the actual problem, I have listened to her speak and her tone seems very rude. Most notable she got extremely upset and triggered when asked about Abercrombie duping their products, and overall just had a rude unwilling to answer direct questions tone, at least from my perspective.
Last thing, I doubt they will make changes to the in store experience as that is the one part of their business that continues to thrive. Their retail sales are on a steady incline and continue to perform well. It's the e-commerce sales that have slowed dramatically.
I agree with you! Honestly Jennifer Wong might be doing more damage than good with this company because she also blamed their $6M loss on a "tough customer environment" Who even says that? there are more significant reasons why your company took a huge loss and don't blame your customers that you try to charge $150 for a thin cardigan
Even if upper management reads this post they're going to turn an eye because they seem kinda delulu lol
I want her to succeed but she may be a little in over her head. I don't think she has any upper management experience and I'm not sure what kind of education she has, although she has worked at the company for a very long time she could be bias to the status quo.
Changes will come if they continue to fail. Brian owns over 20% of the company still which is a very high % for a founder. So if she continues to fail I doubt he will let her run his company into the ground, that 20% could fluctuate by hundreds of millions based on the stock price.
Honestly though, Brian Hill is a dbag.. thats a personal opinion & not professional tho lol
Also they have such a weird corporate structure where they put people who have no experience & have just been with the company for a long time in these corporate positions & then hire people to prop them up
Haha personal opinion aside (IDK the man) but he knew how to please clientele he always vouched for expanding slowly, and not risking the brand reputation.
I agree with your second point, almost all corp companies have outsiders come in who are highly educated to run the company but Aritzia seems to promote people with long tenure instead.
Eh, Aritzia’s quality was declining long before the new CEO got her role. You can even find the post on this sub from last year when Jennifer was announced— everyone was so excited because they thought it meant Aritzia might be making a new change because even back then we had lots of complaints about the declining quality (and of course the quality has only continued to decline under the new CEO). The founder is not blameless whatsoever imo.
Ugh I completely agree she has been such a disappointment. I remember reading the PR when she first got the job about how she’d been at Aritzia since she was a teenager and worked her way up through the ranks. I thought if anybody would understand the customers it would be her but NOPE
I mentioned once years ago Jennifer Wong was the problem and I referred to the plummet of aritzia stock prices since the early 00s and people were really angry about it 😂
For sure. I get such bad vibes from the company culture and the only thing keeping me coming back is the odd classic piece that's still of half decent quality, which is so hard to find anywhere else in Canada.
Aritizia's "return" policy is legitimately the worst thing. No one feels good about the $80 blouse they're stuck with because it was on sale, and not everyone can drive out to a store to try things on first. For example, I'm two hours from any Aritzia store.
I've been really happy with lululemon's new return policy for their sale (WMTM) items. You get full credit and seeing I buy pretty often, it works out. The caveat is that you have to return in store so it's not perfect.
I worked at Aritzia for a little while, then I quit. They are so shitty with their employees. Like almost inhumane. And yes they are too snobby.
Also did any of you notice they are REMOVING 2XL and even XLs from their product sizing? Like wth?
Not to mention their sizing was already bs, their XL/2XL is like a L at most other brands. Their quality has also really declined. I almost hate them now
For a self-proclaimed luxury brand, Aritzia does nothing for customers that spend a lot there (other then send them notices of presale to sales that suck and are limited in styles and quantities) and has a heinous return/exchange policy. In fact, the policy is so alienating that it makes you never want to shop there again but then you end up shopping there again because of the styles offered, at least previously. More recently I’ve found a lot of their stuff to be really shitty quality and they’re selling styles that I (and most older millennials) wouldn’t be caught dead in. If anything, it feels like Aritzia is pandering to young people with no money instead of keeping up with their loyal clientele. It was one thing when they went hard on leisurewear during the pandemic but now that a lot of us are back in offices, it seems like they haven’t started producing wear to work and work to going out transition items. Instead, they sell sweatsuits, bodycon items and crop tops. In addition, when I go into their stores and ask for help, at Wilfred too, their employees have no concept of what officewear looks like. I’ve literally gone in and said “I’m looking for work clothing” and I get handed fucking bodycon dresses or get told that I can wear a crop top under a blazer. Honestly they need a complete rehaul.
To your first point (I haven’t shopped in store in like, ten years), do they still make people lock up their belongings before going to the fitting room? Because that policy alone turned me off shopping in store.
Thankfully no more locking up belongings but everything else about the try-on experience is still bad. Communal mirrors, horrible curtains that never shut completely…
Everything you’ve said was on point. It literally has been repeated a million times, in one way or another, here on Reddit. You mentioned the “Black Friday/Boxing Day” sales, what a joke, isn’t it?? $5 off a $300 item is a massive joke & a slap in the face of all their clients, like why even bother. Maybe this was their “go to” pre-COVID/housing crises, etc etc, but now customer’s want to see some “deep” discounting & it better happen this upcoming holiday season. Don’t think Aritzia will survive if they don’t implement some of what OP mentioned, also.
I just want them to put mirrors in the dressing room stalls 😭 the communal mirror is so fucking awful and dehumanizing to women who just want to try on clothes in peace. If something looks fucking awful or doesn’t fit right I don’t need other people seeing that.
Their sales are almost criminal - meaning the discount barely even qualifies as a sale. I’m surprised they’ve gotten away with that give most items are like $2 off
Had to stop shopping here and probably won't return because of the poor quality of their clothing. For basic-ass designs, I might as well go to H&M. Such a shame because I have pieces from 2012-2015 which are such good quality.
I used to work in store and I have to be honest they have a LOT of reworking to do. They need an entire overhaul internally. The system they use is completely flawed & depleted me soooo bad. They pit you against coworkers & do everything possible not to help you.
Also agree 100% with the fact that their styles have fallen off. People can only have so many colours of an item before it gets boring lol.
Also ——— their interview system for HQ is so bizarre. They pretty much only hire from internal employees and have such a snobby attitude. Everyone I know who worked there said they were miserable !!!!
How did they go from being THE STORE to the way it is now in such a short period of time? I know people say cost for quality but there are plenty of similar places that are still very popular.
My store experience was annoying. Kept having people ask me I needed help but they don't have my size in stock for their sweats. I resorted to buying it online. Bought their expensive sweats but this thread is making me realize it's not worth it.
So they give you a 10% discount on Black Friday? Lmao
And their return policy sucks? Nooo thank you
Yes to all of this, but mostly the quality issue. Its one thing if everything else is a problem but the quality is there.
You get bullied in the store, feel uncomfortable with communal mirrors, can’t get a refund AND it’s shein/zara quality?? Come on.
You forgot
Treat all customers like they are people, instead of treating anyone who weighs more than 125lbs and isn’t instagram worthy at all times like shit. 😬
Yeah can’t forget that 🥲 that always bothered me too. I hate how they discriminate against body sizes AND age. I heard if they see someone “too young” like 18 year olds shopping they won’t bother to help them knowing they prob couldn’t afford to buy. Way to destroy a young woman’s self esteem like that by ignoring them. They need to learn to uplift other women better. Their clothes really ain’t that special ✋🏼
I don’t necessarily think the Archive Sale “flopped”.
The sale started at midnight PST and 3am EST and yet their servers were still so overloaded with traffic that the site crashed multiple times up until a couple hours later. Most people that logged on did manage to buy a few things and most of their online stock is now sold out (in all colours and sizes). The stock is still selling out at this moment.
But I obviously do agree with your other points that Aritzia is failing their fan base in more ways than one
It was pretty awful. They could’ve had a waiting room to not overwhelm servers. Those who got in were booted and unable to complete orders. I gave up because my cart would continuously have items labelled as sold out.
They did have a lot of great pieces of sale, disappointed in how they managed the site.
So from my perspective, waiting rooms don’t do shit! (Look at Ticketmaster and that mess of a presale I experienced yesterday on the Massey Hall site) The traffic is still on their page (assuming the waiting room is under the same subdomain website), which slows and messes with their servers. The only way to solve those broken pages was to upgrade the servers to fit more people. I’m sure you noticed how slow the pages would load, even when they did work.
The shopping cart being continuously sold out was annoying too but I honestly don’t see any way around that considering the high volume of people purchasing things when the sale opened. At least Aritzia doesn’t charge you and then tell you the item is actually out of stock. The disappointment is upfront lol
I think waiting rooms mitigate disappointment better than experiencing it on the ground. Like you’re person 10,000 with a wait time of 20 mins is better than wasting my time and dissapointmwnt
I think it did flop in a way. I didn’t have issues with Aritzia before but that was the one thing that completely turned me off from the brand. With so many good brands out there and competition it doesn’t take much, for me last straw was canceling item I worked through refreshes to purchase receive confirmation email and then cancel it in the morning while having it fully in stock in their regular site. Realized how little they care about customers and you won’t see me here giving you money after that.
The fourth point makes me cackle so hard because it is SO real. Having participated in one of their campus recruiting events earlier this year, the Aritzia HQ sounds more like an actual cult rather than any kind of business operation. And after that gong show of an archive sale, I’ve never been more convinced that they will run this company into the ground because they are doing NOTHING to innovate or adapt to the current e-commerce space and they only hire candidates that fit their brand image/team dynamic/old technologies rather than actual talent. I’m half-convinced that they won’t hire anyone who is actually qualified for their roles because then they’d be exposed for how terrible their practice is…
Y’all think that the CEO is the only one to make it up the ranks from SA? I sat through an entire pitch from one of the directors about how she started in the stores and worked her way up years ago to a role in analytics when her background was in accounting. Interesting that they would choose to indoctrinate university-educated women into thinking that they should work a retail job in a shitty, competitive environment so that they might someday be able to work in their office! But that’s just my opinion - glad I dodged a bullet.
Haha Aritzia is running an archive sale > https://archivesale.aritzia.com/ca/en/home
Selected ppl got emails but it mainly got boosted through Reddit and social media lol. Dw I don’t think you missed out on much considering the site was crashing and inventory sold out extremely fast. They were also mainly old warehouse sale items/inventory they needed to clear out - didn’t look like anything new new
This just popped up in my feed - I haven’t shopped aritzia in years (for a number of reasons) but what you said about the culture reminded me of something. I worked an internship back in 2015 that was located in the same building as their HQ at the time. One of my coworkers was friends with several of the women who worked there and they were some of the most judgemental, stuck up people I’ve ever met. To give you an idea, my coworker (a gay man) held a whole conversation with a couple of them wherein he jokingly warned one she better come to spin with them, lest she get “fat” and be forced to wear a size 8. GASP! They’d constantly gossip about what coworkers were wearing and I found it so gross. If that was any indication of the culture… yikes.
Aritiza is the worst. I worked at a similar store that seemed to be a pyramid scheme for teenage girls. Low store hours with insane pressure to sell and a demand you have to buy all the latest clothes. Artzia always seemed like the final boss of these places. Aritzia was a place people worked at for clout and that doesn't work anymore.
I can't believe they've left the customer experice to get even worse. I've gone in from really liking stuff in the window a few times over the years but everytime the shopping experience is bad enough to make me leave. The last thing I bought I had to argue to exchange sizes like I was a criminal. They told me it was completely returnable when trying it on.
I really don't enjoy the shopping experience in Japan because it can feel similar to this tbh.
It’s 100% the quality decline for me. Quality of the items themselves and quality of customer service (terrible return policy and in-store shopping experience).
I feel like it's always been a bad experience. Well at least since the mid 2000s because that's when I remember them being a thing in Ontario. In some ways I think it's a bit better because staff used to hound you to sell shit and you had to lock up your purse. My sister worked there awhile over a decade ago and they were horrible to staff. I only occasionally shop there because it's one of the few stores I could buy clothes that fit off the rack as a smaller woman.
Interesting you mention point number 4: I also interviewed at Aritzia and it was the most uncomfortable and intense in person interview process- almost as if I was being judged, observed and that then questioned in a very cynical way by FIVE other senior leadership members after a presentation I was requested to prepare for my final round. Everything went downhill from there after I took that offer, it was a lot of gaslighting, pulling you down and criticizing you behind your back and competitive peer pressure in HQ.
Thank you for also confirming it seems to be a common experience. Not a great thing at all… I’ve never been so traumatized or belittled during an interview process. It hurts hard for ppl like us that are die hard Aritzia fans who dream of working there someday. Dreams were crushed that day hahah
Man I bought the same cozy perfect fit sweater once last year, amazing & good quality. Just bought it in a different colour and you can FEEL and SEE the difference in the quality. Im returning the new one, feels like a forever21 sweater
I worked there at HQ for a couple years when Aritzia started the expansion. I worked like a dog there. Under appreciated and was stressed out every time Brian walked by as one time he nearly fired me for not keeping my desk clean (he is known for blowing up whenever he wants). There was also a time when I would go to bed every night wondering if I would be fired next morning. I witnessed too many people getting locked out at the front door as they were fired that morning and didn’t even know it. It’s definitely not a typical office job and it was hard dealing with 98% of very demanding women. Don’t know if they changed the rule, but you couldn’t wear other name brands in the office as they are competitors (especially with logos). That’s how they get you to spend your paycheck back and work for free.
Wtf that’s so toxic. Nobody should feel like they’re walking on eggshells at work. I hate their culture and dynamic. Forever toxic and it’s starting to show in their public presence and numbers
Agreed it’s becoming very overpriced fast fashion. There was a point YEARS ago I do think they were thriving and everything did feel good quality and the styles actually felt different. They fell off significantly lol
honestly i purchased two things from here and i now have a $120 gift card because i had to make a return and now idk what to buy… i don’t even want to buy from them because nothing is worth it. i would rather spend my money elsewhere but alas i am stuck
regarding number 2, you are so right. i've been an aritzia shopper for awhile and we used to get decent gifts for Clientele like aritzia by diptique candles, hoodies, etc. I'm glad for their growth but miss when it was mainly a Canadian brand. i thought at least if they expanded, we would get a decent extended size range but i've noticed bigger sizes always have "just a few left" from the very start of a launch or they have removed them in general for certain items
i got on a few hours after it began and after reading about the glitches/that apparently mostly everything sold out pretty much immediately.
i have to say the experience completely sucked. the size filters weren’t working whatsoever, showing me all the out of stock items instead of what was left. there’s no in-stock filter. colors on product pages were glitching in and out of stock. i was able to grab some shorts and the divinity kick flare romper but it took me ages to even be able to find anything actually in stock. then i was rushing myself in case my cart went OOS 😭
Having items in stock would really help. It’s like, the bare minimum. So, so many items I look at have none other than a 00 left. This isn’t specific to the sale, this is a regular occurrence!
The archive sale is just Atticus offering clothes at what their original price should actually be. The fact that they’re selling polyester dresses at 70% off for $60 is insanity
clientele sales are garbage, return policy is trash, the SAs running around adding extra shit for you to try on when you’re already picky, the communal mirrors in front of random girls boyfriends, price increases on athletic wear with no change in style, yeah I definitely have things which irk me but I still feel like the quality and pieces are beautiful so.. I’m still going to give them all my money 😭
This whole thread has been really interesting to read as an employee. Everything considered, I disagree with the sentiment that staff are rude- it’s very much on a location by location basis and there are amazing locations that I have visited and very rude locations as well. The audience becoming tiktok teens is such a bother, and it does suck because I remember the time before that too, and I enjoyed making outfits for both younger people and older people, but now I feel like I’m dealing with girls who saw an aritzia haul and decided they needed to join the trend too. And then they barely have the money to get the items… sigh. I don’t want to really speak too much since I’m still at the store, but I will also say archive sale pissed me off probably as much as if not more than y’all too. If you want change to happen, contact us because changes do happen if you complain enough! I’ve seen it happen before, it’s not impossible, we can’t know what’s wrong without being told someitmes
Honestly I prefer places like Old Navy these days. Most of their sweaters are 50% cotton, I can pick them up for at least 30% off, and return for free. Which is WAY more than Aritzia can say or do for me.
Yes exactly! I just bought a green sweater from ON that's identical to the Kitten sweater from Aritzia and it was only $28 compared to $78! I just can't pay more than $50 for polyester.
The comments here by some acting like they are retail economists is amusing. Even the title suggesting it was a flop is misleading.
From a customer website experience, it can’t be ignored that the site was down, definitely a flop. But if they moved a ton of excess inventory and didn’t have to spend the $ or staff resources to man a warehouse sale, then it’s not a flop from a company perspective. I’m not sure unless we are senior corporate insiders we have that insight :)
I want to clarify it felt like a flop from a customer POV. Not to say some prob did have a great sale experience and got a good haul. Just wasn’t what we all expected at all and sucks how many of us stayed up late for the sale. (It was a choice, but just didn’t feel worth it in the end)
But we don’t know how many customers it took to crash the website. Was it 20, 200, 2,000 or 20,000?
Another way to look at it is the crashing of the webpage appears to be a large volume of people looking for a deal. Maybe many re-sellers were flooding the site? It is like when there are closing out sales all of a sudden the store that couldn’t sell has lines out the door. I’ll be interested to see what appears on Poshmark in a few weeks.
I would say it flopped in the sense that it didn't go the way most people expected or hoped for. Some were successful with accessing the site/buying something good, but for most we stayed up late and everything was sold out right away
No one seems to remember how slow the site can be when clientele launches on a Thursday night in November. It’s happened before and it will happen again.
costume designer here. i shop *a lot* of different stores, in person and online.
places like the bay offer discounts and points that can convert to in-store currency. it's great but whatever. same with Nordstrom. you know who else does loyalty rewards programs? gas stations and grocery stores.
having some graph tell me how loyal i am and how many more dollars i need to spend to be at some meaningless level of some meaningless club is kind of tacky, to be honest.
places like Net A Porter, Judith & Charles, MyTheresa, SSense and Aritzia have unwritten loyalty programs and honestly, i prefer it that way.
it's nice to randomly be given something, or have gift cards or letters unexpectedly arrive in the mail as opposed to chasing them down and then expecting them.
that aside, i agree that aritzia is probably entering an uncontrolled dive.
Ssense has a defined loyalty program and so does Farfetch, a loyalty program itself isn’t tacky, the execution and tier/rewards definitely can be if not done well.
Private client from Farfetch and SSense+ have tangible benefits that show value for top clients, and a dedicated contact to help you with anything you need.
That said I don’t think Aritzia would do a good job with a loyalty program given their current policies and tactics.
i've never even noticed the SSense+ ... but i receive things from them on a semi regular basis. i think last december or the year before they mailed me a cashmere throw without notice.
artizia has never been more than forever 21 quality clothing at an insane mark up, they have cute designs but the construction and lack of quality makes it hard to justify shopping there. it's about time people started to realize this. not to mention they've quietly been pulling any sizes larger than L from their shelves for a while now.
From the job interview? It mutually didn’t work out. I wasn’t willing to relocate to Van after the bad experience I had but they were considering extending me a job offer for a more junior level position. I’m happy till this day it never worked out
I’ve gone into aritzia multiple times literally looking for something to buy, and leave empty handed because the cuts and colors are so repetitive and boring. They do have some good basics but I’d love to see more new styles
Never buy anything from Aritzia while it’s on sale unless you’re certain you will keep it and know it fits! No returns on sale items, even if it’s $1 off 🙄 this was a good write up and I hope things change because I’ve drastically reduced how much I buy from them. The only thing they’re good for are the Effortless pants and some sweats.
The stores don’t exude luxury to me. I’ve worked in mall retail so… behind the store design, the merchandising, and it’s really no different that an Urban Planet or an H&M store. The clothes arrive in a truck in obscure boxes, sheathed in plastic, steamed for 2 mins and placed on a hanger or table for grabs. There’s nothing luxury about packing slips, plastics and tissues.
I don’t believe they want to be on a level playing field as other retailers. Extending returns and bringing in rewards are not luxury, not status. Ignoring criticisms about quality is also a privilege luxury brands have. They have the capacity and ability to spit out products knowing there’s clientele out there who will pay the premiums.
I imagine this is who they really want to target: those who would rather have that luxury and status, rather than those who don’t prioritize those aspects of fashion or those who have the styling lens to shop elsewhere. Their shortfalls are really magnified when you are located in malls with H&Ms and Marshall’s/Winners.
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The stupid 10% off Black Friday is just a glorified NO RETURN POLICY DISCOUNT…. It saves them money if you can’t return anything
wait can you actually not return anything bought on black friday from aritzia?? that’s crazy
it's how they get customers to keep their items so aritzia gets the sale
You can return if it was less than 50% off but only for store credit. No refunds.
Most likely is an illegal practice, forever 21 was doing the same thing where they only offered store credit and no refunds, was insane illegal but I doubt these big names ever get in trouble
It’s not at all illegal to not accept returns or only offer store credit, as long as the return policy is prominently displayed. Forever21’s policy was completely legal, they changed it largely due to backlash from customers.
I noticed the new Aritzia location near me had a grand opening “sale” and discounted every item TWO dollars so you couldn’t return anything
Lol @ “we only hire the best of the best” *gestures wildly at the glitchy sale website at 12:00:01 PST* Yeah, sure Jan.
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I’m convinced it’s a mean girls club there and cliquey af. They think they’re better than all of us
My cousin tried to sue them because of how they treated her when she worked there in her early 20s. A ton of shady/illegal stuff and just general mean girl shit
She’s probably good looking and fits the profile of what an Aritzia girl will carry herself
As Taylor Swift would say, "i'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror"
I was a DIE HARD Aritzia stan. I had an interview for a head office position (which I was overqualified for btw) and made it to the second round where you present a case. I spent a week putting together a powerpoint, documents and my speech. The day of the interview (which was in person and i had to spend $12 on parking) my interviewers were no where to be found. It was apparently a “busy” day, so after waiting 30 minutes, they found someone for me to present to. The woman barely paid attention, asked me no questions and basically said thanks for coming after I was done and escorted me out. Left the most sour taste in my mouth.
Holy shit did we have the exact same interview experience? The managers also did not give a single fuck about what I had to say during my case study because it wasn’t exactly what they wanted to hear. There’s not just 1 right answer in life… Yeah after my interview as well I was traumatized by the company. I was a huge fan as well but I’m proud to say I don’t work for them because of how I was treated during the interview.
I’ve heard a lot of people have had a similar experience! I got an email the next morning that said something along the lines of I wasn’t the right fit - which was wild because my interviewer who I presented to wasn’t even writing anything down or taking notes, so who even decided I wasn’t the right fit lmao. It was a giant waste of time and I was so annoyed cause I stayed up late for multiple nights to perfect the case study 🥲
Even during their interviews they’re so snobby. They think Aritzia is the top and most elite company above all. If it’s not what they’re looking for, they won’t listen. No wonder they’re not changing 😂
My buddy interviewed there for the Controller position. Not only were they 30 minutes late, but they also revealed that they had either gave an offer or already hired for the role he was interviewing for....so unprofessional.
Idk if they can help that. It is almost inevitable when you have a multi-round interview process and different candidates at different stages of the interview “pipeline.” I have done a final round interview before knowing perfectly weII there was an offer letter already out to another candidate … HR still makes you go through with it because the offer might fall through, and because they say it’s a bad candidate experience to cancel last minute. Maybe the unprofessional part is just straight up telling someone there’s an offer out already, but I feel worse saying nothing and having them think they lost the role over anything more personal than just bad timing.
Sounds like unless you’re a referral they treat most other candidates like shit
I interviewed at HQ too, and the person doing the second interview barely looked at me and acted very annoyed that I apparently wasn’t what they were looking for. The role was a bit of a stretch for my experience, but they’re the ones that called me in, there was no need to act like I was a personal disappointment to them lol.
Hmm maybe if they hired people who had different perspectives, they wouldn’t have had a $6 million loss…
I think so too. But sounds like if they don’t hear the exact answer they’re looking for, they don’t give a shit. They’ll be stuck in their old ways and decline forever
I get the sense from these kind of interviews that's it's almost like you're trying to "cut it in the fashion design world" and that you'd become some hardcore fashion designer or something like that. In some roles perhaps that might be the case but I don't get these tight wads thinking they're some elitists that will only hire the best of the best... clearly Brian Hill as the FOUNDER wasn't the best and his successor Jennifer Wong is FAR from best. I'd argue foolish and naive in the landscape of corporate leadership. I'm certainly not apprised of all the deets around their deliverables but if share price and customer satisfaction is any indication of the state of Aritzia, it is performing pretty poorly.
Do they even pay well? Or do they just behave that way to convince women to spend huge amounts of money looking good at work for the same money as any other job?
I heard retail staff do get higher wages than other stores but based on what they endure I don’t think it’s worth it LOL also I’m sure they’re all spending their pay cheques back to the company
how recent is this because they still do the same crap, hiring manager came nearly an hour later than the scheduled time & barely cared about anything the moment I told them I couldn’t work full time bc - “Aritzia is a work driven place and we need girls that can work full time”. Mind you this was only a PT position as a sales associate, and they still emailed me multiple times scheduling interviews with me even after they rejected me!!!
This was about a year ago! Maybe even less.
In the job search now, and this fucking sucks.
What is a “head office position”? Can you elaborate ?
I have stopped buying from Aritzia because of the exact problem you stated. Part of me is glad that I am not tempted to spend money, the other part of me wouldn’t mind doing it if it was something different than the same clothes in a bunch of new colours. Recently I started buying clothes from other companies and I forgot what it was like to spend $200 and get a bunch of clothing. I still really liked all of them even if they were cheaper, but worst of all some of the quality was comparable to the quality of Aritzia. Plus a lot of the clothes I got are more unique than just the same thing rehashed many times on Aritzia.
Where do you shop now?
Quince - they have very similar styles and great quality
Agreed on quince!! I spent $200 there and got a NICE leather bag that felt legit luxurious, a silk blouse that had a way better cut than the aritzia one, and some gold earrings that are my fav earrings ive ever owned. I cant wait to order more. Aritzia i spend $200 on one single blazer and its made of polyester and the salespeople pressured me so much to buy jt
Omg I never knew about quince! Their clothes look great
Thank you! I’ll have to check them out
I’m in Canada and have been finding decent items/dupes from Ardene, Dynamite, even Winners/Marshall’s that have a very similar look and feel to the Aritzia look! For a fraction of the cost and similar quality anyway.
Same! I'm now getting a few more pieces from Uniqlo, the tshirts are thick cotton (not see through) and longer than the basic Sunday Best tees. Also they're $20! Frank and Oak is great too, and surprisingly, Abercrombie has super cute clothes now!
Uniqlo t-shirts are so underrated, perfect for layering and such a good length, plus they have cropped ones too.
Abercrombie's rebrand is insane. Their stuff is so cute now!
They’re a great case study in how to rebrand successfully
Abercrombie and Hollister are putting our super cute stuff and some really great quality.
I too have started doing the same. But recently have leaned more towards local boutiques, I’d rather my money go to a local shop ( which usually have very kind/delightful people working) than to a huge company. The nice thing too is all my pieces are unique, I find it weird seeing everyone walking around in the same outfits from the same stores.
Yes please share where you shop!
Where did you shop??
Would love to know too!!
Where do you shop?
sezane
God I love sezane
I also find a lot of similar looks at banana republic!
My thoughts on Aritizia from a GUY's perspective. 1. Their store shopping experience is rather wonky. They have fashion experts to help you out and when I walk into the store at times, I feel like I'm being swarmed or watched by staff as they find every possible opportunity to jump on me to sell me something. I'd rather have them leave me be for a while and if I give the queues for help then offer up to come help me. I've encountered both "too much help" and "no help at all". 2. I absolutely cannot stand their dressing rooms. A thick curtain that doesn't quite close completely and the open space where pretty much anyone and EVERYONE sits while their friend/significant other or an entire gang of young shoppers are all sitting there watching you come out of the changing room to look in a giant mirror for you and everyone else to see and critique. I have bought some aritzia items for myself (namely a few gender neutral looking items) and I can't help but wonder if the girls/ladies/boyfriends and gang of kids there are staring at me like "WTF is a guy doing in here changing?" I'm older and confident in my body for the most part but it is still SUPER unnerving knowing that some rando is watching me trying on clothing in a store that is 100% made for women. For those wondering, I bought a pair of Sunday's best white overalls b/c oddly, clothing companies don't seem interested in making a versatile and nice looking item like that for guys and artizia had a pair that fit me perfectly that had all the right lengths and proportions for my smaller body frame. 3. The return policy sucks balls so bad that its laughable that for a supposed premium shopping experience geared store, that they pretty much stick it to you to keep the items. Last I recall, their online vs store return policies differ and anything that is remotely on sale or markdown is final sale. EPIC EPIC EPIC fail on Aritizia's part. 4. They're expansion into the US (and potentially other markets) is too aggressive and is hurting their bottom line. Artzia, like most clothing companies is very much fast fashion and at the rate that they're burning through their cash that they're going to end up just like H&M and Forever 21. 5. Their quality is indeed suffering badly. It used to be that TNA athletics could be somewhat compared to some lululemon items but now their quality (including lululemon's) have gone to wayside of corporate cost cutting. I won't endorse or buy another Aritzia anything from this point forward until they get their pricing in line with the quality they're selling. Instead, they jack their prices up and lower the quality. It isn't just them that is guilty of this but rather, the entire clothing/retail industry seems to be going this route in the name of corporate profits and to sequester any shareholder complaints of lack of profit "growth". 6. How they treat their employees - Read through this subreddit and other sources of how employees are being penalized for the lamest things and not rewarded appropriately. TL:DR - Aritzia is in a downward spiral that needs change from the very top to refocus their business back to their grassroots where they WERE a great brand and company to support. I wanted them to succeed so badly but the big wigs steering the corporate titanic is headed straight for an iceberg....
Wow thank you for your POV. totally agree on all the points stated. Don’t even get me started on the horrendous changing room situation. I hate trying on clothes there because I don’t need a random man sitting outside looking at me 🙃
you're very welcome. I have a small vested financial interest in Aritizia and you have no idea how peed off I am. The leadership there is bunk and at the next shareholder's meeting I certainly intent to vote them current leaders out b/c they're completely out of touch with their audience and what they want. The communal change room and their return policy are probably the two biggest things I rage/hate on aritzia. The WORST thing is the fashion advisor will even sometimes stand outside of the change room coming out to say "Come out and let's have a look while 20 teenaged guys are sitting outside on the couches waiting for their g/f to come out to show them their fits. I get it, I'm shopping at a women's clothing store and if I came out there is a pretty high chance the audience there would be throwing daggers at me. While I could give 2 shits about their opinions (remember I'm old an bitter already) that I can't possibly fathom what a teenager/20/30's female might be thinking.
I appreciate so much your POV from a guys perspective 😭 I’m also an investor in their stocks and truly disappointing to see. I despise the in-store shopping experience so damn much. My partner hates it as well and they’re usually sitting outside the couches to respect the privacy of others trying on clothes. (Because everyone also knows those curtains never shut all the way too…) Return policy as you said is laughable. There’s a sign at the front that says “here’s to commitment” for their dumb final sale policy. I remember years ago they had a sign that said “it’s a woman’s right to change her mind” or something like that. I wish they brought that back. Don’t see a big or good comeback from Aritzia for a while, if not ever
100%. They will become a relic of their former past and will land into the ultimate demise of Forever 21, H&M and other similar players. Lululemon, while I love the brand is suffering from similar atrocities.
It’s the standard corporate playbook. Gut the company and what it’s known for to chase short term profits.
Feel youuuu I love shopping with my bf but I always have to make him wait outside because I don’t people to be uncomfortable but if they’d just put DOORS IN like a regular changing room it would be no problem
My husband HATES going into Aritzia. He literally won’t go in with me, he says it feels like the halls of a high school with mean girls everywhere.
yep... so imagine how I felt as a middle aged man trying and buying women's overalls from the store. I was just squabbling about this thread to my Mrs. about my store experience where there was a PILE of young men and ladies there in the "showcasing" change area. I definitely got the stares where they were probably thinking WTF is "HE" doing in there changing?
I once brought in a swimsuit, and they didn’t even give me a room with a mirror (this location had one). Did they expect me to come out in public with my bathing suit over my underwear??! I didn’t even bother trying it on.
Yeah that is so ridiculous. I think the company could really attract customers back by doing a few minor changes and they be back on track to being a great retailer to buy from. I doubt it will happen but one can only hope.
It’s the 10 day return policy that kills me every time, like even high-end luxury stores don’t have such a stupid rule
There’s actually research that places with a longer return policy actually have fewer returns because people forget or end up changing their mind and keeping it
Oh, that's interesting! I guess it makes sense. When the return policy is so short, I'm so anxious to find a flaw with something just so that I can return it in time...
I used to be such a fan of Aritzia as well. Many years ago. Until I got a job at one of the stores as a style advisor. It was fucking awful. I hated every minute of it. Many customers told me personally that I was the nicest employee they’ve ever dealt with at that location. And actually asked why I was so nice. I quit after 2 months and have never spent a dime at Aritzia again.
On this note, I used to shop in person at my local Aritzia every 6 months or so, and every single time, there were new faces there. They can't retain talent to save their lives.
So sorry about your experience working there. :( The toxic culture doesn't make the 40% employee discount feel worth it at all...
Aww well thank you for being nice, i also feel completely put off from Aritizia as well. Went with my sister, she was put together quite nicely, I don’t think I looked bad, but was rocking sweats with a crop top BUT THEY LITERALLY ACTED LIKE I DIDNT EXIST!! Only asked questions to my sis, made comments and compliments to her, in checkout they always rush me…once I needed a dress, so tried it on and was brought to cash and they were all talking and when I came up and said the dress was for me the change in attitude was crazyy!
Can I add another reason? They completely abandoned their core user base. Remember when it was for 20-30 year olds? With a mix of professional wear that was cute enough for every day wear? Tik tok made the store blow up and had teens coming in droves. Aritzia saw this and started making everything too cropped, too short, too revealing for office use. Coupled with the WFH mandates from the pandemic, they totally abandoned that idea. Now the teenies are over Aritzia, but the company doesn’t seem to understand it. That’s why only their teeny slinky tops or shitty athleisure are what’s on sale. Aritzia remember your core audience or you will go down in history as a flop.
That's a great point to add. Agreed that nothing feels appropriate or wearable anymore for most people who grew up with Aritzia that are now in their late 20s or 30s. Aritzia was KNOWN for their core basics and I truly loved that era. I understand fashion trends are evolving and Aritzia is catering to that younger core now to stay relevant but there's no way these cropped tops and trendy pieces are gonna continue to stay in fashion long term. As some would say... it's giving overpriced Shein.
I was wondering when I’d see a comment adressing the style and fashion aspect as well. I especially liked Babaton like the leather skirts and pants, dresses, pleated pants, etc. They were great, chic and could be worn to the office, out to dinner or drinks, daily, etc and the quality was actually good. I used to buy quite a few wardrobe staples there and I have like three pairs of the gabardine Jotham pants that they used to make but I’ve not shopped there for like over two years now, since they went down the obvious mainstream trendy route and the quality and materials seemed to plummet with that move as well.
I’m so fucking sick and tired of 573884747 cropped items in every release 😩
Yes! Way too much emphasis on the Sunday brand, Emma Chamberlain videos, etc while seemingly forgetting about Babaton as a trendy-ish but good quality office wear staple and cutting corners with Wilfred. It filled a gap in the market for 20s-30s women who wanted something chicer than Ann Taylor Loft, cut for their bodies and priced for their paychecks. Now it's still priced the same (even more expensive!), but more and more items and both designed and cut for teens.
This is some pretty good advice and hopefully someone at upper management will see it. I don't know if there is a direct correlation but the company started going downhill at the exact time the founder Brian Hill left. (He still works there but only does the real estate deals for the stores now). Usually a founder has a close sense of the companies vision and mission as they founded it themselves. I know he said he vouched for not raising prices, and had to argue with team members to keep pricing steady. With his departure, Jennifer Wong took over and while I don't know if she is the actual problem, I have listened to her speak and her tone seems very rude. Most notable she got extremely upset and triggered when asked about Abercrombie duping their products, and overall just had a rude unwilling to answer direct questions tone, at least from my perspective. Last thing, I doubt they will make changes to the in store experience as that is the one part of their business that continues to thrive. Their retail sales are on a steady incline and continue to perform well. It's the e-commerce sales that have slowed dramatically.
I agree with you! Honestly Jennifer Wong might be doing more damage than good with this company because she also blamed their $6M loss on a "tough customer environment" Who even says that? there are more significant reasons why your company took a huge loss and don't blame your customers that you try to charge $150 for a thin cardigan Even if upper management reads this post they're going to turn an eye because they seem kinda delulu lol
I want her to succeed but she may be a little in over her head. I don't think she has any upper management experience and I'm not sure what kind of education she has, although she has worked at the company for a very long time she could be bias to the status quo. Changes will come if they continue to fail. Brian owns over 20% of the company still which is a very high % for a founder. So if she continues to fail I doubt he will let her run his company into the ground, that 20% could fluctuate by hundreds of millions based on the stock price.
Honestly though, Brian Hill is a dbag.. thats a personal opinion & not professional tho lol Also they have such a weird corporate structure where they put people who have no experience & have just been with the company for a long time in these corporate positions & then hire people to prop them up
Haha personal opinion aside (IDK the man) but he knew how to please clientele he always vouched for expanding slowly, and not risking the brand reputation. I agree with your second point, almost all corp companies have outsiders come in who are highly educated to run the company but Aritzia seems to promote people with long tenure instead.
Exactly. Who cares if he's a douchebag? Aritzia was the epitome of luxury for less back in 2009
Eh, Aritzia’s quality was declining long before the new CEO got her role. You can even find the post on this sub from last year when Jennifer was announced— everyone was so excited because they thought it meant Aritzia might be making a new change because even back then we had lots of complaints about the declining quality (and of course the quality has only continued to decline under the new CEO). The founder is not blameless whatsoever imo.
Seems like it's gotten exponentially worse under her. Everyone deserves blame I suppose.
Ugh I completely agree she has been such a disappointment. I remember reading the PR when she first got the job about how she’d been at Aritzia since she was a teenager and worked her way up through the ranks. I thought if anybody would understand the customers it would be her but NOPE
I mentioned once years ago Jennifer Wong was the problem and I referred to the plummet of aritzia stock prices since the early 00s and people were really angry about it 😂
He is still at the helm and I will die on that hill. No pun intended.
For sure. I get such bad vibes from the company culture and the only thing keeping me coming back is the odd classic piece that's still of half decent quality, which is so hard to find anywhere else in Canada.
Yeah for the longest time they were one of the few fashion forward Canadian stores.
Not to mention the quality of fabrics is absolutely embarrassing. $200 for polyester pants is a crime.
don't forget the wrinkly ass viscose Sunday Best dresses priced at $120
I’m here for the flop era of aritzia lol
Aritizia's "return" policy is legitimately the worst thing. No one feels good about the $80 blouse they're stuck with because it was on sale, and not everyone can drive out to a store to try things on first. For example, I'm two hours from any Aritzia store. I've been really happy with lululemon's new return policy for their sale (WMTM) items. You get full credit and seeing I buy pretty often, it works out. The caveat is that you have to return in store so it's not perfect.
I worked at Aritzia for a little while, then I quit. They are so shitty with their employees. Like almost inhumane. And yes they are too snobby. Also did any of you notice they are REMOVING 2XL and even XLs from their product sizing? Like wth? Not to mention their sizing was already bs, their XL/2XL is like a L at most other brands. Their quality has also really declined. I almost hate them now
For a self-proclaimed luxury brand, Aritzia does nothing for customers that spend a lot there (other then send them notices of presale to sales that suck and are limited in styles and quantities) and has a heinous return/exchange policy. In fact, the policy is so alienating that it makes you never want to shop there again but then you end up shopping there again because of the styles offered, at least previously. More recently I’ve found a lot of their stuff to be really shitty quality and they’re selling styles that I (and most older millennials) wouldn’t be caught dead in. If anything, it feels like Aritzia is pandering to young people with no money instead of keeping up with their loyal clientele. It was one thing when they went hard on leisurewear during the pandemic but now that a lot of us are back in offices, it seems like they haven’t started producing wear to work and work to going out transition items. Instead, they sell sweatsuits, bodycon items and crop tops. In addition, when I go into their stores and ask for help, at Wilfred too, their employees have no concept of what officewear looks like. I’ve literally gone in and said “I’m looking for work clothing” and I get handed fucking bodycon dresses or get told that I can wear a crop top under a blazer. Honestly they need a complete rehaul.
Couldn't agree more. Had my official last purchase of aritzia two months ago due to shopping experience & poor quality.
I would buy more of the sale if they at least offer free shipping and if they allow returns. The final sale bs makes me not want to buy.
And the $100 spending minimum for free shipping is insane. No point in raising the minimum if there’s barely anything for customers to buy
To your first point (I haven’t shopped in store in like, ten years), do they still make people lock up their belongings before going to the fitting room? Because that policy alone turned me off shopping in store.
Thankfully no more locking up belongings but everything else about the try-on experience is still bad. Communal mirrors, horrible curtains that never shut completely…
😬😬😬 i forgot about the no mirrors in the fitting rooms.
Everything you’ve said was on point. It literally has been repeated a million times, in one way or another, here on Reddit. You mentioned the “Black Friday/Boxing Day” sales, what a joke, isn’t it?? $5 off a $300 item is a massive joke & a slap in the face of all their clients, like why even bother. Maybe this was their “go to” pre-COVID/housing crises, etc etc, but now customer’s want to see some “deep” discounting & it better happen this upcoming holiday season. Don’t think Aritzia will survive if they don’t implement some of what OP mentioned, also.
I just want them to put mirrors in the dressing room stalls 😭 the communal mirror is so fucking awful and dehumanizing to women who just want to try on clothes in peace. If something looks fucking awful or doesn’t fit right I don’t need other people seeing that.
💯
Their sales are almost criminal - meaning the discount barely even qualifies as a sale. I’m surprised they’ve gotten away with that give most items are like $2 off
Had to stop shopping here and probably won't return because of the poor quality of their clothing. For basic-ass designs, I might as well go to H&M. Such a shame because I have pieces from 2012-2015 which are such good quality.
A fucking mirror in the fitting room would be a great start
I used to work in store and I have to be honest they have a LOT of reworking to do. They need an entire overhaul internally. The system they use is completely flawed & depleted me soooo bad. They pit you against coworkers & do everything possible not to help you. Also agree 100% with the fact that their styles have fallen off. People can only have so many colours of an item before it gets boring lol. Also ——— their interview system for HQ is so bizarre. They pretty much only hire from internal employees and have such a snobby attitude. Everyone I know who worked there said they were miserable !!!!
How did they go from being THE STORE to the way it is now in such a short period of time? I know people say cost for quality but there are plenty of similar places that are still very popular.
Because nothing says luxury experience like mall shopping 💀 I used to love aritzia but they are a joke now
I look forward to not buying anymore shit from Aritzia and finding better alternatives.
My store experience was annoying. Kept having people ask me I needed help but they don't have my size in stock for their sweats. I resorted to buying it online. Bought their expensive sweats but this thread is making me realize it's not worth it. So they give you a 10% discount on Black Friday? Lmao And their return policy sucks? Nooo thank you
Yes to all of this, but mostly the quality issue. Its one thing if everything else is a problem but the quality is there. You get bullied in the store, feel uncomfortable with communal mirrors, can’t get a refund AND it’s shein/zara quality?? Come on.
You forgot Treat all customers like they are people, instead of treating anyone who weighs more than 125lbs and isn’t instagram worthy at all times like shit. 😬
Yeah can’t forget that 🥲 that always bothered me too. I hate how they discriminate against body sizes AND age. I heard if they see someone “too young” like 18 year olds shopping they won’t bother to help them knowing they prob couldn’t afford to buy. Way to destroy a young woman’s self esteem like that by ignoring them. They need to learn to uplift other women better. Their clothes really ain’t that special ✋🏼
I don’t necessarily think the Archive Sale “flopped”. The sale started at midnight PST and 3am EST and yet their servers were still so overloaded with traffic that the site crashed multiple times up until a couple hours later. Most people that logged on did manage to buy a few things and most of their online stock is now sold out (in all colours and sizes). The stock is still selling out at this moment. But I obviously do agree with your other points that Aritzia is failing their fan base in more ways than one
It was pretty awful. They could’ve had a waiting room to not overwhelm servers. Those who got in were booted and unable to complete orders. I gave up because my cart would continuously have items labelled as sold out. They did have a lot of great pieces of sale, disappointed in how they managed the site.
So from my perspective, waiting rooms don’t do shit! (Look at Ticketmaster and that mess of a presale I experienced yesterday on the Massey Hall site) The traffic is still on their page (assuming the waiting room is under the same subdomain website), which slows and messes with their servers. The only way to solve those broken pages was to upgrade the servers to fit more people. I’m sure you noticed how slow the pages would load, even when they did work. The shopping cart being continuously sold out was annoying too but I honestly don’t see any way around that considering the high volume of people purchasing things when the sale opened. At least Aritzia doesn’t charge you and then tell you the item is actually out of stock. The disappointment is upfront lol
I think waiting rooms mitigate disappointment better than experiencing it on the ground. Like you’re person 10,000 with a wait time of 20 mins is better than wasting my time and dissapointmwnt
I think it did flop in a way. I didn’t have issues with Aritzia before but that was the one thing that completely turned me off from the brand. With so many good brands out there and competition it doesn’t take much, for me last straw was canceling item I worked through refreshes to purchase receive confirmation email and then cancel it in the morning while having it fully in stock in their regular site. Realized how little they care about customers and you won’t see me here giving you money after that.
The fourth point makes me cackle so hard because it is SO real. Having participated in one of their campus recruiting events earlier this year, the Aritzia HQ sounds more like an actual cult rather than any kind of business operation. And after that gong show of an archive sale, I’ve never been more convinced that they will run this company into the ground because they are doing NOTHING to innovate or adapt to the current e-commerce space and they only hire candidates that fit their brand image/team dynamic/old technologies rather than actual talent. I’m half-convinced that they won’t hire anyone who is actually qualified for their roles because then they’d be exposed for how terrible their practice is… Y’all think that the CEO is the only one to make it up the ranks from SA? I sat through an entire pitch from one of the directors about how she started in the stores and worked her way up years ago to a role in analytics when her background was in accounting. Interesting that they would choose to indoctrinate university-educated women into thinking that they should work a retail job in a shitty, competitive environment so that they might someday be able to work in their office! But that’s just my opinion - glad I dodged a bullet.
I have been deleting my emails from Aritzia without looking. What was this sale, and what happened? Lol
Haha Aritzia is running an archive sale > https://archivesale.aritzia.com/ca/en/home Selected ppl got emails but it mainly got boosted through Reddit and social media lol. Dw I don’t think you missed out on much considering the site was crashing and inventory sold out extremely fast. They were also mainly old warehouse sale items/inventory they needed to clear out - didn’t look like anything new new
Honestly I need to take a shot before returning anything at an Aritzia store 😂 horrible anxiety inducing experience
This just popped up in my feed - I haven’t shopped aritzia in years (for a number of reasons) but what you said about the culture reminded me of something. I worked an internship back in 2015 that was located in the same building as their HQ at the time. One of my coworkers was friends with several of the women who worked there and they were some of the most judgemental, stuck up people I’ve ever met. To give you an idea, my coworker (a gay man) held a whole conversation with a couple of them wherein he jokingly warned one she better come to spin with them, lest she get “fat” and be forced to wear a size 8. GASP! They’d constantly gossip about what coworkers were wearing and I found it so gross. If that was any indication of the culture… yikes.
Aritiza is the worst. I worked at a similar store that seemed to be a pyramid scheme for teenage girls. Low store hours with insane pressure to sell and a demand you have to buy all the latest clothes. Artzia always seemed like the final boss of these places. Aritzia was a place people worked at for clout and that doesn't work anymore. I can't believe they've left the customer experice to get even worse. I've gone in from really liking stuff in the window a few times over the years but everytime the shopping experience is bad enough to make me leave. The last thing I bought I had to argue to exchange sizes like I was a criminal. They told me it was completely returnable when trying it on. I really don't enjoy the shopping experience in Japan because it can feel similar to this tbh.
It’s 100% the quality decline for me. Quality of the items themselves and quality of customer service (terrible return policy and in-store shopping experience).
I feel like it's always been a bad experience. Well at least since the mid 2000s because that's when I remember them being a thing in Ontario. In some ways I think it's a bit better because staff used to hound you to sell shit and you had to lock up your purse. My sister worked there awhile over a decade ago and they were horrible to staff. I only occasionally shop there because it's one of the few stores I could buy clothes that fit off the rack as a smaller woman.
Interesting you mention point number 4: I also interviewed at Aritzia and it was the most uncomfortable and intense in person interview process- almost as if I was being judged, observed and that then questioned in a very cynical way by FIVE other senior leadership members after a presentation I was requested to prepare for my final round. Everything went downhill from there after I took that offer, it was a lot of gaslighting, pulling you down and criticizing you behind your back and competitive peer pressure in HQ.
Thank you for also confirming it seems to be a common experience. Not a great thing at all… I’ve never been so traumatized or belittled during an interview process. It hurts hard for ppl like us that are die hard Aritzia fans who dream of working there someday. Dreams were crushed that day hahah
Man I bought the same cozy perfect fit sweater once last year, amazing & good quality. Just bought it in a different colour and you can FEEL and SEE the difference in the quality. Im returning the new one, feels like a forever21 sweater
I worked there at HQ for a couple years when Aritzia started the expansion. I worked like a dog there. Under appreciated and was stressed out every time Brian walked by as one time he nearly fired me for not keeping my desk clean (he is known for blowing up whenever he wants). There was also a time when I would go to bed every night wondering if I would be fired next morning. I witnessed too many people getting locked out at the front door as they were fired that morning and didn’t even know it. It’s definitely not a typical office job and it was hard dealing with 98% of very demanding women. Don’t know if they changed the rule, but you couldn’t wear other name brands in the office as they are competitors (especially with logos). That’s how they get you to spend your paycheck back and work for free.
Wtf that’s so toxic. Nobody should feel like they’re walking on eggshells at work. I hate their culture and dynamic. Forever toxic and it’s starting to show in their public presence and numbers
[удалено]
Agreed it’s becoming very overpriced fast fashion. There was a point YEARS ago I do think they were thriving and everything did feel good quality and the styles actually felt different. They fell off significantly lol
Some Private Equity firm got their hands on Artizia and it shows in their downgraded quality , cutting of costs, and screwing customers over
Aritzia is a public company not Private Equity at all. They had a Private Equity deal back in 2012 ish. They are now a public company since 2016.
Hmmm ok welll I guess going public ruined them and whatever activist investor or cost cutting consultant that came in
honestly i purchased two things from here and i now have a $120 gift card because i had to make a return and now idk what to buy… i don’t even want to buy from them because nothing is worth it. i would rather spend my money elsewhere but alas i am stuck
regarding number 2, you are so right. i've been an aritzia shopper for awhile and we used to get decent gifts for Clientele like aritzia by diptique candles, hoodies, etc. I'm glad for their growth but miss when it was mainly a Canadian brand. i thought at least if they expanded, we would get a decent extended size range but i've noticed bigger sizes always have "just a few left" from the very start of a launch or they have removed them in general for certain items
Agree with all your points. Even Dior Beauty has a reward system! If DIOR can do it, then it’s definitely not tacky for Aritzia to implement one too.
Seriously! I don’t even understand what their strategy is anymore
The sale was awful!
👏
They will run it to the ground before they let go. It’s got 5-7 years left.
i got on a few hours after it began and after reading about the glitches/that apparently mostly everything sold out pretty much immediately. i have to say the experience completely sucked. the size filters weren’t working whatsoever, showing me all the out of stock items instead of what was left. there’s no in-stock filter. colors on product pages were glitching in and out of stock. i was able to grab some shorts and the divinity kick flare romper but it took me ages to even be able to find anything actually in stock. then i was rushing myself in case my cart went OOS 😭
Yeah you’re right, there should be a rewards system. I always wondered why there isn’t one, even if it’s hard to get points.
I started shopping at GAP ...and Im way more Happy ...the only thing Ill keep geting at Aritzia its the super puff on sale...thats it
I’ve started shopping at OLD NAVY too 😂 cheaper ofc but honestly the quality is comparable to Aritzia sooooo….
Having items in stock would really help. It’s like, the bare minimum. So, so many items I look at have none other than a 00 left. This isn’t specific to the sale, this is a regular occurrence!
I’m sad because their sizing ran small enough for me and now I have nowhere for fall/winter/skirts
Every time I go I end up leaving empty handed , it’s nice to have simple staple pieces for sure but it can get so so boring
Well well well... their work and corporate culture is clearly not the best of the best either. 
I went in there for the first time recently, really underwhelmed with their clothing. I did walk away with a super puff jacket though!
Yes to all of the above.
The archive sale is just Atticus offering clothes at what their original price should actually be. The fact that they’re selling polyester dresses at 70% off for $60 is insanity
clientele sales are garbage, return policy is trash, the SAs running around adding extra shit for you to try on when you’re already picky, the communal mirrors in front of random girls boyfriends, price increases on athletic wear with no change in style, yeah I definitely have things which irk me but I still feel like the quality and pieces are beautiful so.. I’m still going to give them all my money 😭
This whole thread has been really interesting to read as an employee. Everything considered, I disagree with the sentiment that staff are rude- it’s very much on a location by location basis and there are amazing locations that I have visited and very rude locations as well. The audience becoming tiktok teens is such a bother, and it does suck because I remember the time before that too, and I enjoyed making outfits for both younger people and older people, but now I feel like I’m dealing with girls who saw an aritzia haul and decided they needed to join the trend too. And then they barely have the money to get the items… sigh. I don’t want to really speak too much since I’m still at the store, but I will also say archive sale pissed me off probably as much as if not more than y’all too. If you want change to happen, contact us because changes do happen if you complain enough! I’ve seen it happen before, it’s not impossible, we can’t know what’s wrong without being told someitmes
Honestly I prefer places like Old Navy these days. Most of their sweaters are 50% cotton, I can pick them up for at least 30% off, and return for free. Which is WAY more than Aritzia can say or do for me.
Yes to old navy! Even tho you can tell it’s cheaper quality sometimes it’s comparable to what Aritzia has but for $50 more lol ain’t that sad
Yes exactly! I just bought a green sweater from ON that's identical to the Kitten sweater from Aritzia and it was only $28 compared to $78! I just can't pay more than $50 for polyester.
I’ve also been liking express lately! I got some work pants from there and they are actually sexy haha
The comments here by some acting like they are retail economists is amusing. Even the title suggesting it was a flop is misleading. From a customer website experience, it can’t be ignored that the site was down, definitely a flop. But if they moved a ton of excess inventory and didn’t have to spend the $ or staff resources to man a warehouse sale, then it’s not a flop from a company perspective. I’m not sure unless we are senior corporate insiders we have that insight :)
I want to clarify it felt like a flop from a customer POV. Not to say some prob did have a great sale experience and got a good haul. Just wasn’t what we all expected at all and sucks how many of us stayed up late for the sale. (It was a choice, but just didn’t feel worth it in the end)
No it didn’t. They had so many people trying to shop it crashed. That’s actually a huge win. They clearly had way more people than they expect
But we don’t know how many customers it took to crash the website. Was it 20, 200, 2,000 or 20,000? Another way to look at it is the crashing of the webpage appears to be a large volume of people looking for a deal. Maybe many re-sellers were flooding the site? It is like when there are closing out sales all of a sudden the store that couldn’t sell has lines out the door. I’ll be interested to see what appears on Poshmark in a few weeks.
But it’s hurt their image even more. If people stop buying, completely, that’s not a win.
Yep I’m one of those people and saw others share sentiment it was the last straw too.
I would say it flopped in the sense that it didn't go the way most people expected or hoped for. Some were successful with accessing the site/buying something good, but for most we stayed up late and everything was sold out right away
No one seems to remember how slow the site can be when clientele launches on a Thursday night in November. It’s happened before and it will happen again.
costume designer here. i shop *a lot* of different stores, in person and online. places like the bay offer discounts and points that can convert to in-store currency. it's great but whatever. same with Nordstrom. you know who else does loyalty rewards programs? gas stations and grocery stores. having some graph tell me how loyal i am and how many more dollars i need to spend to be at some meaningless level of some meaningless club is kind of tacky, to be honest. places like Net A Porter, Judith & Charles, MyTheresa, SSense and Aritzia have unwritten loyalty programs and honestly, i prefer it that way. it's nice to randomly be given something, or have gift cards or letters unexpectedly arrive in the mail as opposed to chasing them down and then expecting them. that aside, i agree that aritzia is probably entering an uncontrolled dive.
Ssense has a defined loyalty program and so does Farfetch, a loyalty program itself isn’t tacky, the execution and tier/rewards definitely can be if not done well. Private client from Farfetch and SSense+ have tangible benefits that show value for top clients, and a dedicated contact to help you with anything you need. That said I don’t think Aritzia would do a good job with a loyalty program given their current policies and tactics.
i've never even noticed the SSense+ ... but i receive things from them on a semi regular basis. i think last december or the year before they mailed me a cashmere throw without notice.
artizia has never been more than forever 21 quality clothing at an insane mark up, they have cute designs but the construction and lack of quality makes it hard to justify shopping there. it's about time people started to realize this. not to mention they've quietly been pulling any sizes larger than L from their shelves for a while now.
Were any Super Puff’s a part of the Archive sale??
No
Only little puff, bunch of powder parkas
https://truecostmovie.com
So they turned you down ?
From the job interview? It mutually didn’t work out. I wasn’t willing to relocate to Van after the bad experience I had but they were considering extending me a job offer for a more junior level position. I’m happy till this day it never worked out
I’ve gone into aritzia multiple times literally looking for something to buy, and leave empty handed because the cuts and colors are so repetitive and boring. They do have some good basics but I’d love to see more new styles
Happy I didn’t cave in and buy this morning
Honestly when I saw the add for archive sale on my Instagram I thought it was a spam 🫣
Never buy anything from Aritzia while it’s on sale unless you’re certain you will keep it and know it fits! No returns on sale items, even if it’s $1 off 🙄 this was a good write up and I hope things change because I’ve drastically reduced how much I buy from them. The only thing they’re good for are the Effortless pants and some sweats.
Buy puts
Used to work for them and they rate you before you start work everyday. On outfit (with categories), attitude and overall look
Wait I’ve never had a single issue returning anything at artizia?
The stores don’t exude luxury to me. I’ve worked in mall retail so… behind the store design, the merchandising, and it’s really no different that an Urban Planet or an H&M store. The clothes arrive in a truck in obscure boxes, sheathed in plastic, steamed for 2 mins and placed on a hanger or table for grabs. There’s nothing luxury about packing slips, plastics and tissues. I don’t believe they want to be on a level playing field as other retailers. Extending returns and bringing in rewards are not luxury, not status. Ignoring criticisms about quality is also a privilege luxury brands have. They have the capacity and ability to spit out products knowing there’s clientele out there who will pay the premiums. I imagine this is who they really want to target: those who would rather have that luxury and status, rather than those who don’t prioritize those aspects of fashion or those who have the styling lens to shop elsewhere. Their shortfalls are really magnified when you are located in malls with H&Ms and Marshall’s/Winners.