Forever 21 reviews

3.2

46% would recommend to a friend

(8,778 total reviews)
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Winnie Park

47% approve of CEO

29% positive business outlook

Forever 21 has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 8,778 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Forever 21 employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Ventas al mayoreo y al menudeo industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

9K reviews
1.0
Jul 9, 2014

Worst corporate structure, worst owners, worst everything

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The relationships I've made with my teammates, we went through psychological and corporate war together.

Cons

Trickle down management, nepotism and if you are not Korean you do not have a chance for solid further advancement. The high turnover in corporate is evidence of the mismanagement, and basic misery felt by much of the employees. Since the company is based on discount fashion, the materials I needed for my job are discount, to the point of the CEO having to sign off on my employees computers which too time for us to get. Rather than invest in the employees they company would just want to open up more stores.

1.0
Jun 18, 2014

Don't waste your time

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Breakfast and lunch program. Pretty ladies.

Cons

Too many to list but here it goes. 1. Company Culture - Could be a great company to work for, but most managers in place are only there because of knowing the right people or kissing the right butt. 2. Communication barriers with some high ranking managers sometimes makes your job that much harder. 3. Compensation below average (unless you are Korean or part of the family). Expect long hours with little regard to your personal life. No work/home balance. 4. Benefits okay, could be better for the amount of money the company makes. 5. Not a place for seasoned employees. 6. Turnover rate has to be over 50% (most people that leave quickly could have been great assets to the company but realize that things would never change). Its almost a slave like mentality, they don't care how you feel just get the work done. 7. Most employees are very unhappy (reason see note #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6). 8. HR - pretends to have your back, but doesn't. HR is supposed to be a neutral department, but I saw several employees get fired, just by taking the word of the manager when everyone knew that it was a bad firing. There should be too many lawsuits against this company, but most employees decide to just walk away. I started on a Monday, and by Thursday I knew this was not the company for me.

2.0
Apr 19, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. Working as a visual merchandiser you have the freedom to use your own merchandising ideas, techniques, & can make your work your own. 2. Meeting very great coworkers & customers 3. You will learn a lot of competitive skills to take elsewhere

Cons

1. Company culture is to USE employees until they become burnt-out or complacent & fearful retail slaves. 2. Management style is very untraditional for a fast fashion store. No one talks about current fashion trends or what is on the runway that inspires the clothing in the store. Many of the management have NO fashion sense at all & don't give 2 cents about fashion and style. 3. Associates have no growth unless they kiss butt or do favors for management. 4. The company promotes that merchandisers are a part of management but they are treated like they are not. 5. If you are a merchandiser you spend more time cleaning up the store from the night before than merchandising. You have to spend hours running things back to the proper sections because the store is always understaffed so their are no associate to help with anything. 6. Poor discount...only 10%...no perks or promos EVER offered for employees 7. The store is run by fear! Only negative criticism nothing is ever constructive or positive. 7. There is a NO refund or exchange policy for employees. If something doesn't fit right you are stuck with it! 8. If any toiletries like toilet paper or soap runs out in the bathroom they will not order more until they get a new budget for the month. The store can go weeks without soap & even management won't take the step to spend money on soap. This is disgusting & unsanitary. There are over 200 employees with all types of germs going around. 10. They don't clean the employee break room. It is very dirty the tables have old food stuck to it. The fridge door is broken & reeks of rotten food. There are spills that are never cleaned out of the fridge. 11. Store music is way too loud & the playlist is the same all year round. Some of the songs they play are offensive & ratchet. 12. This company hires ANYBODY! This may be a great thing for those who just starting out in the workforce but it is not good for business. Many of my coworkers had no clue nor did they care about working for this company they are just there for the paycheck. Even members of management were inexperienced and many of the managers had no experience running a high volume store. 13. NO SICK DAYS AT ALL even for Full Time Visual Merchandisers 14. There is are no grace period when it comes to clocking in for the begining of your shift or coming back from break if you are 1-2 minutes late OR early you can be subject to a writeup. You must always clock in exactly at the time you are due. This is unfair & sometimes impossible because there is only one place to clock in so if everyone starts their shift at the same time or comes back from break at the same time there is a chance you can be too early or too late. If you are working a closing shift, & still working past 12am you must clock out at 11:59pm & back in at 12:00am because the company does not want to pay overtime. They want to make it seem as if you are clocking in at midnight to start work the next day when in fact you have been there since the day before. 15. The store is always understaffed with associates but overstaffed with managers. The managers are trained to walk back & forth and babysit employees rather than help out with customers & the tasks at hand.

Viewing 25 - 27 of 8,778 Reviews

Glassdoor has 9,474 Forever 21 reviews submitted anonymously by Forever 21 employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Forever 21 is right for you.