store manager

buyer

Ally Fashion

working for Ally fashion has been the biggest let down for me. going into the job i was so excited, as prior to the job i was a loyal customer, and was super keen to work somewhere i actually felt i knew well. i could not have been more wrong. in my time working at ally fashion, i had felt nothing but belittled, unsupported and under appreciated by my superiors. in the beginning i loved the job, but as i started to progress, the pressure was applied at full force. i was expected to behave like a manager, with little to no training, not to mention having to run the store and act as manager but not getting paid a single dollar difference. it is truly disheartening as i loved the team of girls i was with, on many occasions i had a lot of fun, but the minute that you can’t be perfect, and reach standards higher than the sky, you are looked down upon, and made to feel like YOU are not good enough by the people above you. i had not felt anxiety to that extent in many years. i was constantly walking on egg shells, and having mental breakdowns on the regular purely out of fear for what would be said to me if i couldn’t complete absolutely everything. i was in a position where i felt the need to protect the girls younger than me, leaving me to take on absolutely all of the blame. they can say as much as they would like that their criticism is not directed towards you specifically, but when you know you know. no matter how hard you try to impress this company or your superiors, it will never be enough. not once did i hear a single word of encouragement, but was constantly flooded with negative comments about why i should just be better. i was constantly left not only questioning myself as a worker, but also as a human being, and it drove my self esteem into the ground. my RMs were the main reason i left. not an ounce of support. if you have any life outside of work, that’s just not good enough for them. before starting at ally, i was desperately in need of a job after being unwell for a long time, but if i would have know then what i know now i would have saved myself all that hurt and just stayed home, and i urge anyone else thinking about working there, to do the same. 

I was a casual employee in 2016 in Brisbane QLD areas.
The staff discount is 35% off clothing which isn't much compared to other brand staff discounts e.g. cotton on group or just group. 
Being a casual employee for Ally Fashion means 'no job security' in hind sight. Don't ever think about calling in sick because quite a lot of managers question you and then cut your shifts for two weeks. (Being an employee there I have heard this happening many times aswell as it happening to myself which then resulted in termination of employment when I was going to report it to fair work union etc). Unfortunately I had just missed the cut off for the casual employee laws in QLD/Australia. I had 4 months instead of 6 months of employment. I needed an extra 2 months in order to have a case of unfair dismissal. 
Most of the employees are nice but I wouldn't ever look the managers or merchandisers in the eye. 
I was the best casual at my store and I only got 6-9 hours a week (highest out of the three of us casuals at the store).. 1 day a week and one day a weekend. I could barely live. Not to mention you cannot be employed with another fashion retailer e.g cotton on because this would clash with ally fashions policies etc of employment.
The pay rates for casuals are quite good but unfortunately that is all that is good about this company. The store managers are mostly unprofessional and lazy. Casual girls in most stores did all of the harder work. I have also seen regional managers make full time employees cry and then dismissed for showing emotion. I am not even lying this actually has happened, so sad.

I started off working at the Ally Fashion outlet a few days a week from 10am-6am or 12pm-6pm which were good hours. Eventually this decreased to 1-2 shifts a week for 3 hours. The 3 hour shifts were to cover the other staff members lunch break.  The store was very quiet during the week and often I was left by myself in the store.  When I was by myself it was difficult to manage tasks. The place got very dusty and messy. Over the weekend when it was busy the place was left trashed by the customers with clothes everywhere especially closer to closing time. We had so many boxes of old stock out the back that we didn’t have room for, the racks were packed full. The signage was unclear causing customers to get frustrated when a top wasn’t $5 due to being deceived by the sign. We only took card which I found unfair as  so many customers wanted to purchase but couldn’t. Basically the place was very disorganised, every time I had a shift items would change spots and the store was large it would take a long time to organise. Multiple customers attempted to return items despite having a sign and stating at checkout no refunds or exchanges. I was feeling very unwell one time and had no choice but to come in as there was no one to cover me due to us being a small team.  I did enjoying working with the other team members and that we had plenty of cheap clothes to buy. I would’ve enjoyed it more had the place been organised properly and that I hadn’t be used to cover someone’s lunch break. I love retail but this specific store wasn’t for me.

Overall I was blessed to work in 3 different stores and have amazing teams. I enjoyed going to work and being surrounded with positive outgoing employees. I had great relationships with all my team members and this made going to work enjoyable for me. 
As the Manager I did have a lot of responsibilities. Always keeping the store presentable was high on my list. Merchandising was a on going duty that had to be done everyday. With 70+ new styles each week I had to keep my store looking fresh and new. 
Though my team was amazing I felt I didn't have the support I needed from head office. Working in Manly where the store is positioned outside unfortunately my team and I had no access to air condition. This made the store hot and unbearable to work in. With no access to a breeze through the store I felt head office gave us no help in trying to fix our working condition. The store still remains in this condition. 
Overall I have learnt that without support there is only so much you can do. I believe I supported my team in every situation both work and personal hence why our store was always running so smoothly. The hardest part of my job would be leaving. If management was as supportive as I was to my team I believe I would of stayed. But with moving my personal life around to manager 3 different stores, making all of them a success and no help in between it had pushed me to the point of wanting more and felt unfortunately this company was not for me.

Don’t waste your time working for this horrible company. You constantly feel like you are doing a bad job, you are constantly made to feel like you’re not good enough. 
The rm are absolutely awful, they  play favorites, they are horrible at communication and they are awful at customer service. 

You are always wrong even if your just doing what your told your still wrong. You dread every single shift you work because the rm give unrealistic expectations, you are expected to do so much in one day and if you don’t that done then you get in trouble. 
The pay is awful a full time makes a dollar less than a full time store manager.
They want you to hire so many casual but they only give them 1 three hour shift. They don’t pay you over time so staying back to finish up isn’t an option because you don’t get paid but if you don’t finish those task on that day they you get in trouble. 

If you sick you get made to feel so bad, most of the time people would come to work sick and then if you had to go home earlier you made to feel even worse. 

The only way you progress with this company is if your friends with higher ups or if you get a recommendation from someone who’s been with the company for a while. 

Rm and some managers have really unprofessional relationships. They have dinner with each other and the rms make fun of managers behind their back.

This company is so unsupportive . Don’t waste your time 


I personally was able to grow in this company and progressed quite quickly from a casual to a 2IC. Overall it was a pleasant experience but towards the end of my time there the management seemed to head downhill causing a loss of interest and happiness towards the job. I felt pressure from those above me to comply with whatever they deemed correct and somewhat lost a sense of who I was as a person and wasn't able to really do things the way I felt were true to who I was. It became harder and harder to trust the information given to me and would only recommend it as a casual or part-time level. I felt like it took over my whole life and I wasn't able to keep it separate from the other parts of my life i.e. focusing on my future career as I was always worrying about the store. The balance just wasn't there and for a retail job (not even a high-end one) I felt that it caused myself and my other team members more stress than it should have. Definitely walking away a different person than I was 6 months ago when I would have done anything for the company.

Ally Fashion is one of the most Disgraceful company’s on the planet.
This job was quite genuinely the worst job I have ever had. The staff were untrained and we had NO support from management whatsoever. We were without a store manager for months - with 4 staff members who had no training and one of which was quite possibly the most evil, conniving person I have ever met made this job the worst.
There were multiple times where I would open and close on my own without a lunch cover while getting multiple boxes of stock, having to rearrange the store and being berated by one casual staff member and upper management.
This company makes stupid, and apathetic decisions to the point of sacrificing their teams mental health for their financial gain (such as opening a new store a week out from Christmas and then forcing 2 of 4 kotara staff to work at the new store because they did not hire staff for it !!!!!) 
Also the discount is awful and has a lot of conditions to it. 
You can only get it when you’re on shift (mainly working alone??) with a manager (we didn’t have one??) at the store you’re employed at. Make that make sense? 
If you work here expect to be sworn at by upper management for making mistakes in procedures you were not taught to do in the first place.
If you chose to work here expect to hate life !

 


I worked here for almost two years and still question how I lasted that long. I started as a part time team member, with in two weeks I was full time. 
During my time we went through 4 managers. I was never good enough to be one but I was good enough to train 3 of them. They never gave me a reason why, even though I had asked multiple times where I was going wrong. 
I was repeatedly promised management roles, but was blind sided on multiple occasions. 
Every senior figure in the company does things differently, and you're always doing wrong by someone, and trust me, they aren't afraid to let you know. 
Even though I was expected to manage for months, and my role consisted of assistant manager duties when I was working under another manager, they would NEVER give me the titles and NEVER pay me manager wages. 
The quality of the clothing is appalling, with a lot of stock arriving moldy, damaged or with foul odours. 
Getting abused by customers was a daily occurrence, always about the ridiculous returns policies or damaged product. 
This company is the least socially responsible company I have ever worked for. There is no concern for employees or customers.

Coming into retail I honestly just expected to sell clothes, but that's only one very tiny part of working at Ally.
You get freedom to use your problem solving skills, you get to get to know customers and learning new styles of fashion is super fun, it's like Christmas when you get a whole box of new styles to put out.  The VM aspect is so enjoyable being able to create something beautiful but also have a good guideline to follow is just the perfect combination of structure and creativity. 

It's very fast paced in busy stores and if you like to complete tasks and always be on the ball then working at Ally is definitely the way to go. I've never had a boring day on the job!

Only negative i can say is be wary of what regional management you fall under. Some are absolutely fantastic but unfortunately there is one that isn't very accommodating when it comes to families and daycare hours. 

Massive shout out to 'E' and 'L' for being such strong, powerful, organised women who are always willing to listen and have as much compassion as they do professionalism. 

There is room to grow in the company, girls start as casual and can become a manager within 12 months if you work hard enough. I've only met amazing women and if you want a career where you feel apart of something big then definitely give Ally a go.

The management here is completely inept, and it shows in every aspect of the workplace. Rostering is a disaster, shifts are thrown together without any consideration for fairness or consistency, it left staff constantly scrambling and stressed. Also expect to be forced to work unrostered shifts and expect to be running the store alone. There’s no clear communication, no foresight, and no accountability; it feels like chaos is not only normal but expected. On top of that, the work culture is toxic. Everyone seems to have a stick up their ahh, constantly looking to criticise or undermine rather than support each other. Collaboration and morale are nonexistent, replaced by tension and resentment. Instead of teamwork, there’s petty competition, and the management does nothing to address it. The combination of poor leadership, erratic scheduling, and inflexible, judgmental coworkers makes the environment exhausting and demoralizing. It’s hard to feel motivated or valued when every day feels like walking into a storm that leadership refuses to control. Worst job I have ever had.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Store manager 1 salary reported	$61,500 per year
Buyer 3 salaries reported	$91,667 per year

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