Bridget O. (sixteendays) -
Helpful Score: 9
Caitlin Kelly has no idea what it is to work in retail.
Working one day a week, for just over two years, in a high-end store, in one of New York's most upscale malls is not "experiencing what it's like on the other side of the cash wrap". At best, what Kelly experienced was an extended research project to benefit her successful journalism career. Yet, she continously writes about the difficulty of being on your feet for such long hours (again, for one shift per week) and how dreadful her pay is for the work she puts in ($11/hour - more than I've ever made at any retail job with 12 years of experience).
However the most disturbing aspect of this memoir is her constant mention of her co-worker's ethnicites. Kelly often makes mention of her African-American and Latino co-workers as getting the best job they could. In one disturbing section of chapter 3, she finds it necessary to talk of the store manager's assistant's personal life, letting us all know she had a baby out of wedlock. After discovering that some co-workers may have criminal records, Kelly states "I was shocked, although maybe I shouldn't have been.". No further explaination for this statement is given and one must assume the undertone is "because they were all blacks from the Bronx".
Kelly may have done well for herself in her chosen career of journalism (this book makes it clear she loves dropping the fact that she's interviewed Presidents and the Queen of England), but writing this book was a false step. The pages reek of her racial and social privledge and prove that she is still blind to it. While she wants us to believe she is now a much more enlightened consumer, the only thing we know for sure after reading this is that she'll do anything for a scoop.
Working one day a week, for just over two years, in a high-end store, in one of New York's most upscale malls is not "experiencing what it's like on the other side of the cash wrap". At best, what Kelly experienced was an extended research project to benefit her successful journalism career. Yet, she continously writes about the difficulty of being on your feet for such long hours (again, for one shift per week) and how dreadful her pay is for the work she puts in ($11/hour - more than I've ever made at any retail job with 12 years of experience).
However the most disturbing aspect of this memoir is her constant mention of her co-worker's ethnicites. Kelly often makes mention of her African-American and Latino co-workers as getting the best job they could. In one disturbing section of chapter 3, she finds it necessary to talk of the store manager's assistant's personal life, letting us all know she had a baby out of wedlock. After discovering that some co-workers may have criminal records, Kelly states "I was shocked, although maybe I shouldn't have been.". No further explaination for this statement is given and one must assume the undertone is "because they were all blacks from the Bronx".
Kelly may have done well for herself in her chosen career of journalism (this book makes it clear she loves dropping the fact that she's interviewed Presidents and the Queen of England), but writing this book was a false step. The pages reek of her racial and social privledge and prove that she is still blind to it. While she wants us to believe she is now a much more enlightened consumer, the only thing we know for sure after reading this is that she'll do anything for a scoop.
Helpful Score: 4
This book was boring at best. Repetitive and whiny, Kelly often reminds us of how everyone and everything is beneath her. By only working one day a week in retail she did not have nearly enough experience to write a memoir about it, thus filling the pages of how she "was a journalist". She came across as neither likeable or relatable. I'm not really sure how this even became a book.
Kristin D. (kdurham2813) reviewed Malled: My Unintentional Career in Retail on + 753 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
An interesting memoir of sorts. A bit repetitive and a little on the whiny side, I enjoyed reading someone else's take on the retail industry, but this is not on my top of list of favorite non fiction reads.
Throughout the book she repeated many details over and over again - from describing her co-workers to the fact that corporate made all the decisions, except they were miles away from her store. With each repetition of her points, it made her book sound like a list of complaints and she wasn't providing any new points to convey her arguments.
I respect her efforts to try out a different industry that is completely out of her comfort zone, but being a retail alum - I am appalled at how much she complained and only snuck into her book once that she only worked two days a week, which quickly changed to one day a week. You don't know retail until you work nights, weekends, and everything in between. Two days or even one day a week would not a retailer make.
Definitely an interesting read which I think I could enjoy more than others because I spent many a days behind a cash register during my college days.
Throughout the book she repeated many details over and over again - from describing her co-workers to the fact that corporate made all the decisions, except they were miles away from her store. With each repetition of her points, it made her book sound like a list of complaints and she wasn't providing any new points to convey her arguments.
I respect her efforts to try out a different industry that is completely out of her comfort zone, but being a retail alum - I am appalled at how much she complained and only snuck into her book once that she only worked two days a week, which quickly changed to one day a week. You don't know retail until you work nights, weekends, and everything in between. Two days or even one day a week would not a retailer make.
Definitely an interesting read which I think I could enjoy more than others because I spent many a days behind a cash register during my college days.
A very engaging read. I read nearly the entire thing one night, stopping only because I was very sleepy. I also recently "down-shifted" my career & was very interested in how the author reacted to a similar situation. This book went beyond the typical retail memoir, diving a bit deeper into the issues that make it very difficult to have a retail career & the challenges faced by "disposable" employees. The only minor nitpick I had was that the author included repetitive details about a handful of topics. Plus, as someone who worked full-time retail for several years, working a single day per week is not exactly the full JOY of the retail experience.
