I learned a lot during my time working for Typo. My manager was a little bit forgetful or disorganized at times but the staff i worked with were awesome. They were a very friendly and energetic bunch. everything during retail hours was a laugh (work was done with a smile on our faces) we worked together even between the different branches to try and obtain the best results possible. I learned to work on the P.O.S systems, was given sales training, and helped give training to some extent on the new staff. I fixed little things in stores and even as the store manager (or support manager in the beginning) took turns in doing the silly little things that make a big difference, such as displays and window washing. They have a very good training program for manager and assistant managers. they have a week of interesting hands-on theory and practical training done by a professional in the group whose sole job is to guide us. They even do a follow up and assist further down the line.
I learned to delegate and work as a team and gained a better understanding of the retail industry. Just about everything could be done by everyone in the team, with a couple of exceptions
ProsDiscounts on any of the Cotton On Groups stock, friendly energetic staff
ConsLong hours of standing, no parking reimbursment or assitance
A typical day would start with coming in an hour early to make sure the store is clean and fully replenished for the day to be a success
As soon as the doors are opened our daily duties are greet the customer, create a relationship with the customer then assist them to the best of our ability
i learnt a few things how to operate as a manager. i learnt how focused and driven you need to be in order to reach your sales target
and i learnt how to adapt to every kind of personality i have assisted which to me is most important
The management always had a weak spot for me as they knew i was one of their hardest workers and always wanted to take care of me
i had to leave in order to further my career. i left to study business management and now i'm ready for the next chapter in my life
the workplace culture was all cultures formed together in unity. nobody was left out.
the hardest part of the job was always trying to be a duplicate of yourself as you would love to help each person shop easier
the most enjoyable part of the job was obviously lunch time with the colleagues and closing the doors for home time
this is the number one brand in cotton in group. I started in this brand as an assistant manager at their eastgate store which is the flagship for johannesburg and in four months I was offered a position as a store manager in pretoria for their flagship, I took the position and the team that I had at the time I fully trained them to be at management level. this was obviously evident to my senior management and they asked me to start training, so that store was not only a flagship but it was also the training store for the Pretoria region. when senior management identified that though the store had low foot traffic and high average rand on the customer I was approached by them to ask me to move my team to centution with me, cause that store had high traffic but low average sale per customer. in my first month in centurion the store become a million rand store and I was still the regional trainer for Pretoria and the flagship status was moved to centurion. In my journey at kids I have raised over 10 managers for them that are running their own stores with great success.
While working for the Cotton On Group, in the Factorie store, I experienced the dynamic qualities of both the specific brand and the company as a whole. The Cotton On Group offers great growth opportunities within in the company and always strives to empower the employees who show potential and are willing to learn.
Higher management always showed an avid interest in the lives and wellbeing of all employees and offered comprehensive benefits because of challenges faced by employees.
The company initiated a fun working environment which motivated employees to do their best; incentives were also given.
The hardest part, initially, was the long hours that store management staff were required to work. But after revision of mall hours the store hours changed and made the task more manageable.
While working for The Cotton On Group I learned that one can truly find management groups who truly care for their employees. I also learned to be more assertive and goal-orientated.
Excellent and fun environment to work in with amazing people yet the long hours are draining!
Worked at Typo (Gateway) as a P/PT and it offered me a chance to learn more about the job, about myself and also open up myself for more to others from different walks of life, great salary package + overtime is granted and company benefits are excellent.
Advancement opportunities are available although the hours you have to put in, on the job, are treacherous as they drain the life out of you!
ProsGreat learning experience, management is very thoughtful, 1 hour lunch break, company benefits include medical aid after 6 months, UIF, Pension Fund etc and advancement opportunities are available.
ConsLong hours, merchandising of store is done ever so frequently and it's a fast-paced environment.
it is draining working without knowing if you will still have the job or good hours the next coming weeks. The staff is hourly rated and they constantly cut hours to a point where one gets to earn less than they can survive on especially people who rent and catch public transport. The work is always too much as one is expected to play security, sales assistant and cleaner at the same time. there is no growth at all people get to be promoted if they know the right people within the company, one can work for the company more than 3 years without ever being recognized as a capable employee.
Unhealthy environment, too much pressure, unorganized
Working at Cotton On V&A was an absolute headache. The store is big AF but not enough employees are put on shift. You work over time and don’t get paid for it.
Then you are manipulated and told if you leave you won’t get another job , which is scary and a indirect threat .
A lot of us left because the pressure is way too much and you are expected to do so many things alone or being in more than one department at once .
If you want to loose weight Cotton on is the place for you. You will run everywhere like a headless chicken.
ProsYou get a lot of free things, which is nice.
ConsLong hours, disorganized, emotionally and physically draining.
Cotton On is a massive brand that caters for everyone,in terms of fashion;employment and the environment. It was a great privilege to be part of it,I learned a lot. Giving a customer the ultimate shopping experience, attending to their every need, building customer relationships ,promoting the brand and informing customers that the brand is also involved in community projects that uplift the less privileged (proper sanitation,education etc) .it was great working there and everyone is effective and efficient and working towards the same goal .
Cottonon is a great company to work at you get to learn a lot about business and different brands and you also grow your skills as retailer worker, the owner of the company is a good person he love his employees so much, every after 6 months we would get to receive new clothes different styles, it would depend which department you working at as they were differ, same as those working at Typo were also receiving free clothes from the company
ProsDuring holidays/festive season we get to have free lunches because we work long hours
ConsWe come early and leave late sometimes we would work night shifts
The moment you walk in you automatically feel at home,in a normal working day you have to make sure that the store is fully replenned and the store is clean.The moment a customer walks in you smile and greet and offer your services.I have learnt alot from the company and obtained quite a few skills on handling customers and dealing with queries.The team is fun and very energetic and make you feel at home and I would say the hardest part is busy days and being short staffed but working as a team made a huge difference.
Cotton on is a very chaotic company, they are very disorganized. You have a million projects to do in a day and they pile up with no extra hours for support or coverage. They will cut hours given significantly, by almost 100 hours at times. But you are expected to complete every task and have perfect visuals by the end of the day.
The company itself is very much a visual company, the amount of task work they give you within the day does not allow you to interact with customers.
There is no sense of urgency in many ways. When a manager quits or a new store opens, it will take them months to replace or hire someone for the position. So that results in other stores covering for the struggling store and being overworked with little to no compensation of store coverage. Recruiting doesn’t send any applicants to the District Manager. Pay raises are usually fought for, because cotton on gives the bare minimum for the maximum effort you do.
A lot of Store Managers take advantage of the employees, especially Assistant Managers.
Deadlines are hard to meet due to the lack of support and coverage.
They pay really well, but the pay in the long run is not worth the amount of stress and teams that you run through.
Nothing is every thoroughly prepared and set. Monthly schedule calendars are constantly changing last minute. On promotion updates, the document is sent out but then later in the day or two days out they’ve added additional things out of nowhere. Typically a bunch of new pa
ProsPay, charity
ConsHard to move up in the company, disorganized, stress, not valued, no customer service, lack of support, unrealistic standards, favoritism, mental health, lazy store managers
I worked in an outlet store and it was a great first introduction to fashion retail!
The KPIs are super unrealistic, and if you aren’t comfortable pushing sales, it probably won’t be fun for you at all.
Everyone is casual besides the managers and this makes hours and pay really unreliable. Some weeks you could work five shifts, and the next week only one. It makes keeping up a social life hard because you often don’t have much disposable income and most days I wasn’t working I tried to keep clear in the possibility I might get called in. Like even if I had just worked six days in a row, I would still try to keep the following day free because what if the week after I only got one shift? The pay itself is really good though, and you get penalty rates as well.
If you are hired as a Christmas casual, do not expect to be kept on afterwards. They only hire Christmas casuals because they need all team members in store to work Boxing Day, in addition to extra staff they’re able to call in during the Christmas week itself based on sales. You’re likely to get one shift a week until Christmas, but you’ll probably be confused each time you work because of how little time you spend in the store. But this is an ideal job over Christmas if you’re looking for a second job or are a teenager with little financial needs.
I guess it’s true for most fashion retail, but the girls my store personally hired were all skinny, white Instagram-model types who always wore revealing clothes like yoga
ProsBrilliant pay and penalty rates, fun work environment
Fun and fast-paced environment- bubbly and friendly atmosphere
a typical day at work consists of signing on, greeting customers at the door, asking if you can be of any assistance on the shop floor or change rooms, converse confidently with the customers and make them feel relaxed, creating relationships that will shape their experience in the store.
multi-tasking and rotating between the basic tasks such as change rooms and managing stock theft, signing for deliveries and preparing the items to be put on the shop floor, changing mannequin outfits, relocating stock on the shop floor (visual merchandising) assisting customers with various styles, sizes and colours, processing sales on the register, and cleaning the store (picking up dropped garments, taking the rubbish to the bins, sweeping, vacuuming, washing windows and cleaning mirrors, spot mopping the floor, clearing change rooms and return rack, maintaining the stores appearance by keeping clothing racks neat and in size, colour and style order).
what i've learned working at supre over the last 2+ years has boosted confidence when talking to strangers, i have grown more assured, and less clumsy when offering help, and becoming part of this close-knit franchise i have developed life-long friends and experiences.
my co-workers and i bounce positively off each other, when someone is unsure of how to go about a specific incident it is often we have each other to help us guide one another other in the right direction, whilst maintaining a positive and friendly environment- creating an
Cotton On has a long list of values. But they are purely for show. Especially during Covid they put people last and refuse to accommodate teams with necessary PPE or safety support. To save money hours were cut leaving a manager or associate a line for several hours. Higher ups come in and tout values that they expect the managers to uphold without upholding themselves. There is not integrity or ethics in the way the Corp managers work. The expectations are high for hourly staff with more and more work gets piled on as workers hours are cut and people continue to get sick.
Many employees have gotten sick from working with sick colleagues or from customers but management instead focuses on low traffic and sales and how to improve those areas. Instead of closing stores when staff is sick they pull managers/staff from other stores to cover in stores that are never sanitized. Also HR refuses to act ethically in ensuring that store managers are not letting sick employees work.
Recently store hours were reduced, this was due to traffic being low and staff being in store and not having customers making purchases. This has resulted in full time employees not being able to work full 40hrs.
I would not recommend this company. Like their products- they appear to be of good quality only to fall apart very quickly. Beware- you will be offered great work life balance, but it comes at a price which is stress from having limited time to get an overwhelming amount of tasks done. Also upper
ProsGreat Discount, lax dress code, work life balance
ConsCorp mgmt is not supportive, no recognition or praise, expectations constantly raised without support
All about Girl Power, supportive work environment and team, and awesome music!!
Supre taught me the true value of good customer service, that it's not just about "work", or looking at the clock wondering if your shift is finished, but good customer service is like therapy: putting yourself in the customer's shoes and then always being willing to go the extra mile to help anyone and everyone that walks in the store. Good customer service is about truly connecting with people so as to understand their needs accurately and then be able to address those needs effortlessly, not in a mechanical/robotic way, but in a fluid way, doing what comes to you naturally and being authentic and being the best you (personally and professionally) so that you can help the client the best way possible. There is a feeling of true fulfilment when you help a young mother find a very stylish outfit for her first night out with her girls, and when she says "omg, thank you so much!", it's more than just work, it's a rewarding experience and it makes you value what you do so much more knowing how much value you create for others by the service you render and that alone makes you hungry to improve and become the most badass sales assistant ever. One of the things I also really enjoyed at Supre was the culture of self-expression: I really valued the fact that all of us could each take the same set of clothing items and style them in completely different ways that expressed who we are as individuals and we could feel so comfortable in our skin and shine in our own right as like a tru
I have worked under two division brands within this company previously and I can say for certain it's the most disgustingly run organisation with a high turnover rate of employees from both a Managerial position and those who work as casuals.
They do not reward their employees or acknowledge them for their efforts when meeting or exceeding KPI/Sales targets and the constant VM (Visual Merchandise) updates to the stores is a complete hinderance.
People who say they've enjoyed their time working for this company are kidding themselves. Like most retail workplaces, there are PERSONALITIES and politics - and this overall COG brand is no exception.
You're guaranteed to:
- Not have genuine support by management (at various levels)
- They operate like a cult and treat casuals like dirt (favouritism with employees - an obvious example for shifts)
- The overall work vibe + environment is fake and demanding from an internal and external point of view
I highly discourage people from applying for Cotton On Group and any of their brand divisions.
Making note of their high turnover rate with staff - it's absolutely abysmal. People don't even last because it's unrewarding and pushy. Lack of consideration completely to support employees and their concerns.
If you're applying for a casual - good luck, shifts are dependent on either business needs, manager favouritism and generally its a bare minimum of 3 hour shifts for an entire week.
If you're a full-time Manager o
ProsFlexibility
ConsLaughable shift hours and amount of shifts given, personalities, lower-upper management, VM updates, work culture
Overall, Cotton On was an okay place to work until covid. Management caused a cluster of cases at our location pre-vaccine by mishandling covid protocols, and HR did not care and actively hushed us when anyone complained about it - our manager would tell us not to wipe down counters between customers because it “scared the guests”, rarely enforced social distancing, and came to work sick, taking her mask off to cough. After the few friends I had at work left due to these conditions, I truly felt like no one cared at all about me, despite being with the team longer than anyone else and being one of the better workers. They also would rather hire outside for keyholders than promote perfectly good employees that had worked there for over a year and were frankly more qualified than the new hires. The environment was very catty and felt like high school all over again, with people talking behind others backs (including managers) rather than actually encouraging employees to do better. They would rank everyone’s performance on register each week, but certain managers would hop on register only when they knew the customers would boost their numbers so they could outrank others, and some employees would end up on the “bottom” because they would be stuck on the floor doing the actual work that others couldn’t do correctly and were only given the slow shifts to work register. The workload wasn’t too bad and the pay was what you’d expect for an entry level retail position, but I don’t t
Proseasy workload, good discount (50% off with a few special 75% offs every few months)
Retail Sales Associate | Brisbane QLD | 28 Mar 2020
Fine if you need a uni job
I worked at COG for a handful of years. I enjoy customer service roles and fashion retail and I did enjoy this job for a good couple of years. It's ideally perfect for someone studying in my opinion due to hrs, flexibility and the discount. However, here are some basic facts:
1) The management was below average (and we'd had a few!) and would pit us against each other by choosing obvious favorites. Ego's would form and people would become bossy, etc. All for hrs. Our store was a VERY toxic workplace and I've heard the same from other stores. Myself and quite seriously everyone I worked with has stories of us going home in tear and often at work too.
2) It isn't fair. You don' get hrs based off your skills or availability, it's straight up favoritism.
3) The targets and KPI'S are usually very un-reachable and the pressure is REAL. I do feel bad for store managers here, the pressure does come from above them - but the way it was handled was always shocking. The day to day tasks though, are not tough. Greet customers, chat, fold, steam, hang, scan.
4) You will never get promoted, no matter what. Trust me. If one does, they stay in middle mgmt for years and drop out of uni.
5) The other casuals are amazing. I have made lifelong friends. I am so grateful for the job for bringing me that.
6) COG pay fairly and the discount is great. This is perfect if you need 10-15 hrs a week and have other things on your horizon and can take on or ignore the bitchiness.
7) There were
The best place to work at IF you have the right management.
I’ve been at Cotton on for 3 years and it has been the best job I’ve had retail wise, I’ve made amazing friendships, learnt new things to take me to a senior role if I’m wanting aswell but I had horrible management. It was all favortism, a completely toxic workplace and I was treated horribly, continuously picked on by my 2IC and not treated well at all by my manager, all the favorites got good hours and if I was lucky I got a 5 hour shift a week OR even Fortnight after Christmas peak while everyone was still getting full hour days or multiple 5 hour shifts a week. My managers continuously made me feel as if my work wasn’t good enough, I never got recognition for the good I did, yet all the new people and favorites were treated like absolute gold. Continuously got spoken badly about to other coworkers by my manager and 2IC to the point where I decided to leave because they made me hate my job, made me feel as though I had to walk on eggshells, continuously got anxiety before my shift and would continuously get nit picked on about anything they possibly could find to nit pick me for. It’s a good work environment IF you have the right managers that don’t play favorites, know how to properly manage, treat everyone fairly, give everyone a chance to grow, actually care about the well-being and life of their staff and not just if they’re able to work. I’ve worked at amazing Cotton on stores before where I never ran into this problem of being treated horribly and feeling like an out
ProsFriendships, learning how to progress in your role, discount.
Replenishmant / Inventory | Lara VIC | 13 Jun 2015
Former employee 7 plus years Lara Warehouse
Gave this company over 7 years of hard, honest work.
Worked public holidays, overtime and any shift they needed me to work. For what?
From day 1 I have never been trained in any role - I hit the ground running and learnt as I went along.
To be constantly harassed and bullied and discriminated against.
Bullies taking pot shots at fellow workers. They know they can get away with it. Formal complaints land on deaf ears.
Being told to sell out customer orders when it is available but the manager wont let us do our jobs properly.
In online one day I was forced to short sell 200 customer orders. I refused but they ignored me and wondered why the customers rang in complaining. Entering customer orders on system as being sent when they are still being packed - just to meet daily Kpi. The order turn around should be 48 hours - it is closer to 5 days.
The only way to be promoted is to play sport, be related or friends with someone high up, or be a male.
Dumb young new workers being promoted above those with experience and having the nerve to ask those experienced in role to train them. Then they think they can stand around and do nothing but talk to each other.
Managers that are friends or family of company owner. That is the only reason they became managers.
This company is a joke. It made me into a person that I did not like and I was always frustrated with their attitude towards workers. We were a number and our opinion or work values meant nothing. I am so glad I resign
Pros50 % off staff card - if you get one and if it will work for you
Conslow pay, bullying, lazy workers, no training, dimwit managers ......
Questions And Answers about The Cotton On Group
How did you feel about telling people you worked at The Cotton On Group?
Asked 07 Apr 2017
Am very hard working, dedicated, mature person and ready to contribute to the growth of the company.
Answered 13 Mar 2019
Because I am hardworking, dedicated, responsible and I have been in retail industry for few years and I believe I have what it takes to contribute to the growth of the business.
Answered 13 Mar 2019
What qualities are you looking for in your staff.
Asked 13 Jul 2017
Dedicated staff with right attitudes towards work, must be honest and ethical, must embrace team work as well as respect for and individual, team members to drive customer loyalty.
Answered 13 Mar 2019
Product knowledge,intergity,good customer service wirking under pressure if there is a need great passionate for retail store job that will give you power to go
Answered 17 Feb 2019
What is the promotion process like at The Cotton On Group?
Asked 18 Nov 2022
Outstanding
Answered 30 Apr 2023
Its hard to get a promotion at cotton on
Answered 14 Feb 2023
Can a 15 year old apply as well?
Asked 11 Dec 2017
Nope...cos he σr she must be attanding school
Answered 09 Feb 2019
No 15year old can not aplay
Answered 24 Jun 2018
What is the interview process like at The Cotton On Group?
Asked 20 May 2017
Great and loud and clear
Answered 03 Jan 2022
Friendly good customer service to make sales make sure customers are happy and get everything they want if we out of stock try alternative or try another branch to meet customers need
