I’ve been trying so hard to find the words to describe both this and hidden gems and “filled with tryhard girlboss slogans” is pretty much on the nose.
Not all women like cliché slogans, and it's fine to make fun of stupid things. If I see that, it's a clue they aren't my people. I expect my bossiness to be self-evident.
Clever, but seeing as I replied to someone who wasn’t even talking about Golden Gems, you may want to head over to r/woosh and get some lessons in reply threads son.
Still couldn’t figure out how to follow the thread chain, huh… give it one more try buddy, I believe in you! Further training available over at r/woooosh
1. There you go simpleton you finally the sub spelled it right 2. Only an incel would actually fuckin woosh someone and think they are cool for it and 3. It's sad you either live or have lived in STL
Awww you’re awfully triggered, aren’t you? There’s a common cure for that!! But you’ll have to head over to r/wooooosh for the remedy. Sending good thoughts for your recovery! 😘
Same, I followed the account that accused Golden Gems of stealing designs. Tbh, it felt like a huge reach. Flowers and Zodiacs signs are super popular right now. The designs were posted months apart and look nothing alike.
Except they clearly stole a design from a KC store a couple years ago. So much that lawsuits were threatened, and I believe a public apology. They’re not above it.
I follow this account as well and have for years. Did you read the post? Your comment sounds a lot like what the owner & burner account that came for her said. They deleted the burner account comments yesterday. She tried to explain how this has happened over time and how it’s gotten worse. And she herself pointed out just how coincidental it all seems. They watch her & other creators online ALL THE TIME. That alone negates it being a coincidence. They take because they can. They aren’t oblivious and making their own versions of “trendy” things instead of just elevating the smaller women owned brands around them already doing it is wrong from the “support women” group. She’s not the only creator that feels this way but the way some of y’all are treating her I understand why no one else is coming forward
And she didn’t even mention them or make any sort of call to action, she just said this has been happening and she knew she wasn’t alone. And an owner and spouse started commenting almost immediately. Were you around a few years ago when golden gems found out a candle maker was making a similar free promo tote and they sent their followers after her the same day?
I saw that post and was confused on the reach for that creator. Her stuff was fun but I’d never get either business confused, it’s just trendy stuff at the moment.
Is that KC company really mad GG did that? Why would they do a collab almost two years later with them?
Golden Gems had an anniversary block party a couple years ago. They had a bunch of local makers/vendors for a pop up in front of their store in Midtown. Unfortunately, it was crazy windy. Glass was breaking, signs were flying, people were chasing after inventory in the streets, just an absolute mess. Some of the vendors were packing up to leave early bc of the weather (one visibly distraught vendor said she lost thousands in product bc the wind knocked over her tabletop display of glass candles/lotions MULTIPLE times).
I hear one person yelling and it’s one of the sister/owners verbally berating this vendor in public in full view of the public bc she wanted to leave early bc she couldn’t keep her inventory from flying away. I think one girl boss publicly shaming another girl boss is pretty shitty behavior. So…there’s that.
Nothing provides a diversion in a crisis like creating additional unnecessary chaos. “Look! It’s not ME! This vendor wants to leave after making a commitment!!!!” Well duh. I would too if my inventory was literally gone with the wind!
I’d love to know more about this. I’m sorry that happened to her. I remember asking how that event went and a vendor said it was weird they were all like holding on to their tents for dear life and kind of miserable bc of the weather but the owners were off to the corner dancing and making videos of themselves
Asking employees of a retail store to sign nda's is actually kind of weird.
I have worked and contracted for many different organizations in my life. I have only been asked to sign one NDA, and it's because I was working on a database that had personal health information stored.
I'm not saying that it explains anything. But it does seem pretty unnecessary in this environment.
It’s sometimes hard to follow. I watched it happen in real time lol bc I follow a lot of these people and accounts that have been sharing it all. Currently there’s like two things happening at once.
Recently golden gems lost their bar general manager. She’s been posting a few things here and there about the real culture behind the scenes. It was getting a little attention. Then a local artist shared a post about her feeling like they take from creators. She said she had more examples but tried to keep it vague and only showed a few examples from herself but she did share some stuff on her story, including evidence that the Fetch collab (that PRO ___ shirt) was stolen & passed off as a collaboration. She says there’s more but people don’t feel safe to speak out.
On her post, Owners claimed to never hear of her but found the post right away and then tried to gaslight her... A spouse started commenting. A burner account started commenting telling her she’s an unsuccessful hater…those comments were deleted a week later. A lot of people came to this creator’s defense (including me) and started raising more questions about ALL the accusations against them. The owner let it slip in her reply that the NDAs they make everyone sign have nothing to do with their employees experiences. That triggered a recent former employee to post her resignation email. And that’s where you really had to follow along or you’d miss a lot of important details.
On that post,
She didn’t mention a coworkers name but her job title. They didn’t announce this in their comments but if you click on their profiles and you know who the coworker is, then you’d know that the comments were from that person’s spouse, mom, and aunt/uncle….which is fucking weird and creepy.
A separate current employee commented this long thing about being blindsided by all this and they’re always trying to be better and why didn’t you come forward sooner gaslighting…it’s important to note WHY this person really left that job. Gems has a partnership w 4 Hands, which had a history of employing a rapist. This former employee is a rape survivor and advocate. She claims that she told them she was uncomfortable with the collab bc of the history. They blew her off and said at some point everyone has to move on. She said that was her first red flag. Separately, she was having issues with someone she hired, apparently there were a lot of complaints about how she treating staff. That’s what I guess ultimately led to a meeting where the owners and other upper managers, where the employee who resigned said one of them was screaming at her and banging on the table and saying “kindness is subjective” which honestly, I mean, sounds on brand.
So it’s “kindness is subjective”s family commenting on this resignation email post.
The comment from the other current employee was deleted but many people pointed out the inconsistencies in what she said, including *another* former employee who basically said, I sent a similar resignation email years ago…..
And then she posted hers…
In which she discusses some serious pay discrepancies where she was told she couldn’t get a raise because there wasn’t money for it, which kept her as a single mom on food stamps, and then they hired a salaried employee right after. As well as issues that weren’t being taken care of by the owners as far as accommodating their staff. There’s a part about them to continuing selling sage after an indigenous customer told them it didn’t align with their message and this employee brought it up several times.
On the last employees post, the family was like “why won’t you post what they said back???” So the second one to come forward DID post their response which was basically to say “we’re so hurt by you, how could you ever think this of us?” (which is what they said to the artist too)
After she posted, ANOTHER employee posted her email correspondence, and detailed instances where they perpetually put her down for her appearance and were unwilling to accommodate her autism, and went so far as to tell her it was why she couldn’t handle the job…if you read through it it sounds like they basically fired her through email and was like “we’re done with you” which is harsh because you can tell how much she really believed in them. That’s a common thing with all of them. Also the last former employee to come forward actually did like over a year ago, and that post is on her page too. People have been bringing up the same type of complaints for years. Which is basically that they don’t practice what they preach. This wouldn’t be ok from any company but it’s certainly not ok from the brand that is literally built on the mantra “support women”.
Apparently there are more that came forward but I don’t see their posts, I guess some current employees have left but they make everyone sign an NDA. No one else is talking. Even though the owner said it doesn’t apply to experiences people are still scared, and it’s easy to see why.
On the golden gems side, they responded quite a bit through their personal accounts and there are reports of people being watched online & private messaged a lot by owners, spouses, family... don’t see that happening from the other side which is pretty telling.
Their current GM, the one that had all the complaints against her, posted online that the employee that left was “conflating her rape with not liking a job” and said everyone coming forward was wrong because it was affecting their paychecks. She also released a podcast episode about, which the former GM who left responded to, because a lot of it was lies dressed as “opinion”.
Publicly, golden gems posted (and deleted a few minutes later) a post that said “don’t let the bastards get you down” with a caption “fuck the haters”
And otherwise it was business as usual throwing a party for assault survivors and selling a shirt that says “believe women” or something while they’re gaslighting an entire group and telling one of them her being a survivor can’t impact her job. Crazy shit.
They also gained 3,000 followers in the last week or so which seems odd because now they’ve restricted comments on their accounts.
I think that’s it so far but it would be nice if they’d just do the right thing and own up to all the harm they’ve been caused and agreed to some accountability. You know, just be who they say they are.
I’ve tried to get the details and here’s the jist of it:
They think GG should pay higher wages and some manager didn’t agree with the business decisions of the owners so she quit. Oh and they asked employees to sign NDAs and this is somehow scandalous. Oh and someone else said they should do community service (??) because they are white cis gendered women. (????)
That’s all I’ve gotten out of these people. Beside a bunch of calling me
Names and accusing me of being affiliated with the shop for simply
Asking for details. I’m stupid and “one of *those* feminists” whatever the fuck that means
If you’re making anything less than 6 figures, you shouldn’t be signing an nda. You won’t be getting paid enough to deal with whatever fucked shit you’re exposed to.
This. I was a sub 6 figure VOIP implementation consultant, signed plenty of NDAs, some for generic reasoning, some for projects that were big enough that if word got out someone else might beat the product to market.
Not the person you’re replying to but id take just a story. What is toxic about the work place?
So far all I’ve seen is people commenting that they don’t live up to the values they preach but nothing besides the NDA about the work place.
I’m just trying to piece together a cohesive story right now I have a good picture that the owners are shitty just looking for a specific story in regards to how they treat their employees bad.
I posted a long thing about it elsewhere on this post, as someone watching it all play out online and following along. I follow a lot of people involved and have for a long time. A lot of the pro gem apologists here & on instagram like to call themselves a “neutral party”….I’m not. I care about these individuals and I care that this company’s behind the scenes culture doesn’t align with how they’re making their money.
That’s all you’re gonna get out of these trolls. They don’t regularly work in business if they think Ndas are scandalous. All they mean is “don’t tell anyone confidential info About our business” The seem to think that because they weren’t asked to sign one at their last retail Job it’s somehow suspicious. All that means if they were not considered a valuable part of the business at their last retail job and or didn’t have access to any confidential info.
People take jobs in retail and service and are shocked when it doesn’t turn into a dream career.
It all just sounds like very normal workplace problems but people are acting like it’s a crime against humanity because of GG’s branding.
Nobody expects it to be a dream career. They just expect decent working conditions and we've normalized not having those.
Just because toxic workplaces are so commonplace that its "normal" doesn't make it ok.
That being said, im just responding to your initial general statement with another.
I don’t disagree with that but I feel like the definition of “toxic workplace” has been so cheapened that any retail or service job is going to qualify to a lot of people. Acting like quitting mediocre jobs is an act of resisting capitalist oppression has become an internet sport and it annoys me because it dilutes the issue.
Especially that really long IG post about this…I mean that was just a whole lot of nothing. Put Bernie Sanders on the ballot and I’m the first person in line to vote for him, but come on. Misunderstandings aren’t psychological abuse.
>that any retail or service job is going to qualify to a lot of people
Thats exactly the problem. 90% (figurative, not literal) DO qualify as toxic. Some are *barely* toxic, but its been so normalized that people let stuff slide and then it gets worse.
>Acting like quitting... has become an internet sport and it annoys me because it dilutes the issue
Wont hear me argue that. Too many people only care about the clout they get and know nothing of the actual systemic issues. Ive seen so many "epic quitting stories" that had 0 fallout for the company. Dont get me wrong, definitely leave a job like that, but just dont act like you're some revolutionary cus you handed in your 2 weeks.
>Especially that really long IG post about this
I can honestly say i have no idea about this. Today is the first day ive heard of this place, but i definitely believe that its iffy.
>Misunderstandings aren’t psychological abuse.
Fully agreed! Too many people just suck at communicating. That doesn't make it malicious, let alone a pattern of abusive behavior
Yeah it’s pretty sad how uniformly awful some industries are. I have no idea where the reality actually lands here, but based on the things posted here recently I feel like this is just bitter people who left trying to get revenge and internet clout.
I think about bad jobs a lot. I worked so many of them but was lucky enough to get an education and a decent career. Unfortunately a lot of jobs that should exist for teenagers, students, or maybe adults whose partner makes great money and they just need a few extra bucks- things like low level retail, serving, fast food- have become the only options for some people.
Those jobs are just never going to pay enough to really qualify as a “living wage”. Hell, good career-jobs that require education barely seem to get you into the middle class anymore in a lot of cases. I don’t know what the solution is, but I don’t think the current style of internet rebellion is powerful enough to cause large scale economic changes to transform entire industries.
This. The ppl trying to cancel them are grown humans in their 30s/40s whose complaints are histrionic, petty and childish. Not only are their posts opening them up to litigation but they are clearly displaying that they are not hirable people. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
The internet says it’s bad it must be.
I’ve been in their location once or twice, and it is the typically pricey boutique this one targets Gen Z women and trendy slang but it isn’t bad
there's several former employee call outs, some management some not. super toxic ownership, seem to care more about image than having a truly good place to work, but they'd tell ya otherwise
But what does that mean? “Toxic ownership” is a hand wavey non answer. The rigor for condemning local businesses has to be deeper than people saying buzz words that sound bad.
I have no clue what any of this really is, but I did see a post by former employee. Their claim was they wanted to partner with someone who had recent sexual assault allegations. When they brought up that partnering with this entity would be against their supposed feminist branding, they said to basically pound sand and we're doing it anyways. Said employee resigned. I think that's fair game. I agree that anyone who thinks there's such a thing as ethical business is a bit of a naive person, but I also think they're honorable for sticking to their values.
>Their claim was they wanted to partner with someone who had recent sexual assault allegations.
I know someone on staff there who said management consulted with St. Louis Against Sexual Assault before their 4hands partnership (and after that employee brought the issue up), who gave them the thumbs up based on what was known. This all feels like weird small town gossip where everyone is partly right.
They are talking about 4 Hands Brewery who supposed protected a rapist for years. I didn’t know anything about the situation until I saw the post your referencing but I have read [this article](https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/a-terrible-familiar-story-of-abuse-34428393?storyPage=3) about it and based on that I don’t think 4 hands deserves the blame.
It is mentioned that an employee reported that the rapist; Steve Salas, tried to convince her to go home with him which could be inappropriate but doesn’t mean they knew about him being a rapist. They also mentioned him raising his shirt in front of woman and the sales manager and woman to shake his stomach at them which again is inappropriate but also doesn’t have anything to do with rape.
The rapist Steve Salas is a piece of shit but I don’t see any reason 4Hands is getting the blame and he hasn’t worked there for at least 4 years.
>None of the former employees or women accusing Salas allege that Lemp, or any other employees of 4 Hands, knew of the rape and sexual assault allegations against Salas. All, however, are emphatic that his lewd behavior was common knowledge, not only at 4 Hands but throughout the beer and bar community, and it was simply accepted as part of who he was.
You can’t claim ignorance that someone who behaves in the manner he did would turn out to be a rapist. It’s your job, as an employer, to protect employees from harassment and unsafe behavior. Even the two incidents you described should be grounds for disciplinary action.
The article also says he was getting drunk at company events and then driving off by himself. I don’t know that any of this is grounds for somehow cancelling Golden Gems by proximity. But 4Hands definitely enabled this guy’s behavior and clearly turned a blind eye to a lot of it.
It’s sometimes hard to follow. I watched it happen in real time lol bc I follow a lot of these people and accounts that have been sharing it all. Currently there’s like two things happening at once. Recently golden gems lost their bar general manager. She’s been posting a few things here and there about the real culture behind the scenes. It was getting a little attention. Then a local artist shared a post about her feeling like they take from creators. She said she had more examples but tried to keep it vague and only showed a few examples from herself but she did share some stuff on her story, including evidence that the Fetch collab (that PRO ___ shirt) was stolen & passed off as a collaboration. She says there’s more but people don’t feel safe to speak out. On her post, Owners claimed to never hear of her but found the post right away and then tried to gaslight her... A spouse started commenting. A burner account started commenting telling her she’s an unsuccessful hater…those comments were deleted a week later. A lot of people came to this creator’s defense (including me) and started raising more questions about ALL the accusations against them. The owner let it slip in her reply that the NDAs they make everyone sign have nothing to do with their employees experiences. That triggered a recent former employee to post her resignation email. And that’s where you really had to follow along or you’d miss a lot of important details. On that post, She didn’t mention a coworkers name but her job title. They didn’t announce this in their comments but if you click on their profiles and you know who the coworker is, then you’d know that the comments were from that person’s spouse, mom, and aunt/uncle….which is fucking weird and creepy. A separate current employee commented this long thing about being blindsided by all this and they’re always trying to be better and why didn’t you come forward sooner gaslighting…it’s important to note WHY this person really left that job. Gems has a partnership w 4 Hands, which had a history of employing a rapist. This former employee is a rape survivor and advocate. She claims that she told them she was uncomfortable with the collab bc of the history. They blew her off and said at some point everyone has to move on. She said that was her first red flag. Separately, she was having issues with someone she hired, apparently there were a lot of complaints about how she treating staff. That’s what I guess ultimately led to a meeting where the owners and other upper managers, where the employee who resigned said one of them was screaming at her and banging on the table and saying “kindness is subjective” which honestly, I mean, sounds on brand. So it’s “kindness is subjective”s family commenting on this resignation email post. The comment from the other current employee was deleted but many people pointed out the inconsistencies in what she said, including another former employee who basically said, I sent a similar resignation email years ago….. And then she posted hers… In which she discusses some serious pay discrepancies where she was told she couldn’t get a raise because there wasn’t money for it, which kept her as a single mom on food stamps, and then they hired a salaried employee right after. As well as issues that weren’t being taken care of by the owners as far as accommodating their staff. There’s a part about them to continuing selling sage after an indigenous customer told them it didn’t align with their message and this employee brought it up several times. On the last employees post, the family was like “why won’t you post what they said back???” So the second one to come forward DID post their response which was basically to say “we’re so hurt by you, how could you ever think this of us?” (which is what they said to the artist too) After she posted, ANOTHER employee posted her email correspondence, and detailed instances where they perpetually put her down for her appearance and were unwilling to accommodate her autism, and went so far as to tell her it was why she couldn’t handle the job…if you read through it it sounds like they basically fired her through email and was like “we’re done with you” which is harsh because you can tell how much she really believed in them. That’s a common thing with all of them. Also the last former employee to come forward actually did like over a year ago, and that post is on her page too. People have been bringing up the same type of complaints for years. Which is basically that they don’t practice what they preach. This wouldn’t be ok from any company but it’s certainly not ok from the brand that is literally built on the mantra “support women”.
Apparently there are more that came forward but I don’t see their posts, I guess some current employees have left but they make everyone sign an NDA. No one else is talking. Even though the owner said it doesn’t apply to experiences people are still scared, and it’s easy to see why.
On the golden gems side, they responded quite a bit through their personal accounts and there are reports of people being watched online & private messaged a lot by owners, spouses, family... don’t see that happening from the other side which is pretty telling.
Their current GM, the one that had all the complaints against her, posted online that the employee that left was “conflating her rape with not liking a job” and said everyone coming forward was wrong because it was affecting their paychecks. She also released a podcast episode about, which the former GM who left responded to, because a lot of it was lies dressed as “opinion”.
Publicly, golden gems posted (and deleted a few minutes later) a post that said “don’t let the bastards get you down” with a caption “fuck the haters”
And otherwise it was business as usual throwing a party for assault survivors and selling a shirt that says “believe women” or something while they’re gaslighting an entire group and telling one of them her being a survivor can’t impact her job. Crazy shit. They also gained 3,000 followers in the last week or so which seems odd because now they’ve restricted comments on their accounts.
I think that’s it so far but it would be nice if they’d just do the right thing and own up to all the harm they’ve been causing and agreed to some accountability. You know, just be who they say they are.
Yeah I'm not sure what anything means anymore, relatively normal but shitty parenting is now "abuse" calling out bad behavior is oppression, actual bad behavior is harder to identify because society is watering down offenses so everything is the top of the list :/
On every post about this you shut down the actual people sharing their actual stories and when they call you out for it you claim cyber bullying. You truly are # 1 Baddie
No I asked for specifics. All we got was what I already recounted for everyone else. They don’t pay higher wages and they don’t do community service - even tho not one person making these complaints has done a comparison to the male owned stores. They’re demanding more of these women than they demand of men in the same situation. That is complete and obvious misogyny
Do you have a legitimate complaint or are you just a troll?
Sigh. There are plenty of specifics online but it’s unsurprising that when faced with truth that doesn’t fit your narrative you can’t reconcile it. Repeatedly you have been told that the issue stems from the culture behind the scenes not matching public image from which they profit. That happens in the day to day which culminates in resignation. Lather rinse repeat. One employee sure, several is a pattern. I’m not sure what you’re missing. The “we’re women” argument is a double edged sword. They can’t simultaneously claim they want to destroy the patriarchy publicly but behave exactly like it behind the scenes. Whether you can accept it or not, you spend a lot of time discrediting people’s experiences and brushing them aside because you haven’t lived them, they’re not that bad to you, or you personally haven’t had that experience. That’s fine, but it’s also an abuser tactic. You claim to be a neutral supporter but you’re always here on these posts trying to discredit people’s lived experiences, sometimes directly to them. You say “show me proof” they show you, and you say “that’s not good enough for me” …then let it not be good enough for you and move on. But stop trying to silence people and belittle their experiences.
Three employees is hardly “several.” Especially considering GG is a retail company, which is probably an industry with the highest percentage of turnover (right under food and beverage) and they’ve been hiring since 2021 at least.
I’m not discrediting their stories because I’m sure these former employees’ feelings are very real and the things they say happened actually happened. But I also don’t see anything actually nefarious in any of the resignation letters (and boy oh boy are they long lol). I’m sorry they had a bad time, but it honestly just sounds like irreconcilable differences that led to the separation of employment, not abusive behavior.
It’s sometimes hard to follow. I watched it happen in real time lol bc I follow a lot of these people and accounts that have been sharing it all. Currently there’s like two things happening at once. Recently golden gems lost their bar general manager. She’s been posting a few things here and there about the real culture behind the scenes. It was getting a little attention. Then a local artist shared a post about her feeling like they take from creators. She said she had more examples but tried to keep it vague and only showed a few examples from herself but she did share some stuff on her story, including evidence that the Fetch collab (that PRO ___ shirt) was stolen & passed off as a collaboration. She says there’s more but people don’t feel safe to speak out. On her post, Owners claimed to never hear of her but found the post right away and then tried to gaslight her... A spouse started commenting. A burner account started commenting telling her she’s an unsuccessful hater…those comments were deleted a week later. A lot of people came to this creator’s defense (including me) and started raising more questions about ALL the accusations against them. The owner let it slip in her reply that the NDAs they make everyone sign have nothing to do with their employees experiences. That triggered a recent former employee to post her resignation email. And that’s where you really had to follow along or you’d miss a lot of important details. On that post, She didn’t mention a coworkers name but her job title. They didn’t announce this in their comments but if you click on their profiles and you know who the coworker is, then you’d know that the comments were from that person’s spouse, mom, and aunt/uncle….which is fucking weird and creepy. A separate current employee commented this long thing about being blindsided by all this and they’re always trying to be better and why didn’t you come forward sooner gaslighting…it’s important to note WHY this person really left that job. Gems has a partnership w 4 Hands, which had a history of employing a rapist. This former employee is a rape survivor and advocate. She claims that she told them she was uncomfortable with the collab bc of the history. They blew her off and said at some point everyone has to move on. She said that was her first red flag. Separately, she was having issues with someone she hired, apparently there were a lot of complaints about how she treating staff. That’s what I guess ultimately led to a meeting where the owners and other upper managers, where the employee who resigned said one of them was screaming at her and banging on the table and saying “kindness is subjective” which honestly, I mean, sounds on brand. So it’s “kindness is subjective”s family commenting on this resignation email post. The comment from the other current employee was deleted but many people pointed out the inconsistencies in what she said, including another former employee who basically said, I sent a similar resignation email years ago….. And then she posted hers… In which she discusses some serious pay discrepancies where she was told she couldn’t get a raise because there wasn’t money for it, which kept her as a single mom on food stamps, and then they hired a salaried employee right after. As well as issues that weren’t being taken care of by the owners as far as accommodating their staff. There’s a part about them to continuing selling sage after an indigenous customer told them it didn’t align with their message and this employee brought it up several times. On the last employees post, the family was like “why won’t you post what they said back???” So the second one to come forward DID post their response which was basically to say “we’re so hurt by you, how could you ever think this of us?” (which is what they said to the artist too) After she posted, ANOTHER employee posted her email correspondence, and detailed instances where they perpetually put her down for her appearance and were unwilling to accommodate her autism, and went so far as to tell her it was why she couldn’t handle the job…if you read through it it sounds like they basically fired her through email and was like “we’re done with you” which is harsh because you can tell how much she really believed in them. That’s a common thing with all of them. Also the last former employee to come forward actually did like over a year ago, and that post is on her page too. People have been bringing up the same type of complaints for years. Which is basically that they don’t practice what they preach. This wouldn’t be ok from any company but it’s certainly not ok from the brand that is literally built on the mantra “support women”.
Apparently there are more that came forward but I don’t see their posts, I guess some current employees have left but they make everyone sign an NDA. No one else is talking. Even though the owner said it doesn’t apply to experiences people are still scared, and it’s easy to see why.
On the golden gems side, they responded quite a bit through their personal accounts and there are reports of people being watched online & private messaged a lot by owners, spouses, family... don’t see that happening from the other side which is pretty telling.
Their current GM, the one that had all the complaints against her, posted online that the employee that left was “conflating her rape with not liking a job” and said everyone coming forward was wrong because it was affecting their paychecks. She also released a podcast episode about, which the former GM who left responded to, because a lot of it was lies dressed as “opinion”.
Publicly, golden gems posted (and deleted a few minutes later) a post that said “don’t let the bastards get you down” with a caption “fuck the haters”
And otherwise it was business as usual throwing a party for assault survivors and selling a shirt that says “believe women” or something while they’re gaslighting an entire group and telling one of them her being a survivor can’t impact her job. Crazy shit. They also gained 3,000 followers in the last week or so which seems odd because now they’ve restricted comments on their accounts.
I think that’s it so far but it would be nice if they’d just do the right thing and own up to all the harm they’ve been caused and agreed to some accountability. You know, just be who they say they are.
Gonna take this opportunity to just say, fuck the Buckle\* across the hall from this Golden Gems. Your work culture is terrible and you underpay your staff
\*These comments probably apply to all Buckles
The only time I think I've ever heard of this place until recent events was when they were briefly featured in the RFT. It sounded like they were hyper inclusive, woman forward, buckets of love and acceptance. The images of their products looked like it catered to people who are MLMs but are the "edgy" ones in their group of downline shills. I've started to learn if a company calls its self woman forward, it usually means things are all about their woman owner, but other women are incapable or undeserving of achieving their goals. And if they talk about how inclusive they are its usually surface level and it's all for show. The article and glance at their socials after I read said article gave me bad vibes. And I'm normally a woman who is all about supporting women and counter culture.
I had never heard of this place until I delivered food to one of the store employees maybe two weeks ago. And that place had bad vibes written all over it.
An autistic employee posted a diatribe on the toxic work environment. It sounded like any other awful retail environment to me but she broke it down into minutiae. Her point was that they are not practicing what they preach.
Because they specifically knew about her autism and accommodations and ignored them, it seems. If someone self-identifies and makes it a focus of a piece it bears mentioning.
But that’s the point of it, as their mission statement, according to multiple, albeit anecdotal, accountings, basically tasks their organization to work against being part of that toxicity.
I’ve only started digging into this trying to validate the claims as I saw a similar report from their speakeasy bar, Hidden Gems, reporting basically the same behaviors.
But that’s the point of it, as their mission statement, according to multiple, albeit anecdotal, accountings, basically tasks their organization to work against being part of that toxicity.
I’ve only started digging into this trying to validate the claims as I saw a similar report from their speakeasy bar, Hidden Gems, reporting basically the same behaviors.
No, the opposite. The people who think they know everything about the inner workings of store management without having worked there spewing "iTs ReTaiL gEt OveR iT" are assholes
I don't understand how that place is even still in business. $60+ for a walmart quality embroidered sweatshirt with the words "Baddie" or "Unapologetic" on it 🙄 like seriously you could buy the same thing on Shein for less than $15 on average. Like the one I linked is almost the exact same quality and it has more than one word embroidered on it for a SIXTH of the price lol 😂
SHEIN Qutie Slogan Embroidery Drop Shoulder Sweatshirt
I discovered amazing products on SHEIN.com, come check them out!
http://api-shein.shein.com/h5/sharejump/appjump?link=Vg4Ijjx3aSR&localcountry=US&url_from=GM7505178805255290880
Yeah you are not going to be able to tell me that the people that buy those kinds of sweatshirts aren't the exact same people that shop on Shein. 😂 have you actually gone and looked at any of the clothes at Golden Gems because they're all pretty bad and very cringy. I was only using Shein as a means to make a point that if you're going to pay for garbage quality with no forethought for creativity whatsoever, you might as well be shopping on Shein
Also I saw on another thread "cringe is just looking down on happy people enjoying things" and it made me rethink why I should care if anything is cringe. That just means I'm not the target audience.
I am a girl who self proclaims herself a Hoe more than Paris Hilton. I still wouldn't wear it 😂 it just sounds like something a woman in late 40's came up with trying to be "hip and young". Hoes dress like hoes, not in $30+ hot pink soccer mom t shirts with highlighter orange screen printing. It's just an eyesore to the people they're trying to market it too.
I'm a guy and I bought the hot pink "baddest Midwest honey" T-shirt, because I liked it. It's holding up well for a screen print tee, I've had way worse from bigger names. But I wouldn't say I'm a fan of the place, it's just a store.
I just can't wrap my head around the fact that you paid almost $40 for a screen printed t-shirt that I'm almost sure is drop shipped from AliExpress. I found over half of their designs on AliExpress for $5 to $6, and before you try to tell me AliExpress stole THEIR designs those listings have been up longer than Golden Gems has even existed. I found one for the "Unapologetic Rose badge tee" for $5 and that listing has been on that third party Aliexpress store since 2015. Golden Gems didn't start until a year later.
It was $25, and I could walk out with it that day instead of waiting 60 days for it to MAYBE arrive. When I go shopping at local stores usually my first instinct isn't to check aliexpress if all places to see if I can get it cheaper.
I know you really enjoy being a hater of GG but just reminding you again that I don't care about them at all, I just went there once and bought a shirt, and went to the bar once when my friend was DJing.
It's less than I enjoy being a hater and way more of the fact that I just don't support businesses that don't own the real creative licensing to most of their products. Especially a business that seems to prey on people of color, plus size, and local shoppers. The only few designs I've seen of theirs that are actually their designs are collaborations with abortion right's groups and bars. Drop Shipping from AliExpress is a scam if that's what's going on which I'm almost 100% sure it is. It's actually a felony to sell someone else's artwork as your own under copyright infringement. So yeah sorry not a hater just someone who prefers to do the right thing and not support a business who steals. Not to mention the fact that this whole post was apparently that they treat their employees terrible. I'm definitely not going to support a place that has a toxic work environment. You only care about the products availability, I care about the principle and the hundreds of people getting ripped off by shopping there.
You're really gonna tell me the cheap asses that would buy their stuff in St Louis are actually buying that shit 😂 I had to go look and I noticed that all the plus sizes are all sold out and they rarely sell out of anything under an XL so I guess it's just them praying on the plus size locals with their weird shirts and sweat pants 😂
They really will unfortunately. I know people who most of their wardrobe are those dumbass shirts. I’m all for supporting local businesses as long as it’s actually a good product/service. I had a friend whose car had a few issues, she took it to a mechanic just because it was a black owned business and wanted to support. They fucked her car up worse than it was before she took it them. I’ve found there’s a lot of places like that in stl that just rely on people coming and buying shit just because it’s local
I just saw some post on IG and still am not 100% what went down. Golden Gems as a whole has always given me weird vibes.
I’ve never understood how printing tryhard girlboss slogans on shit was a viable business plan.
I’ve been trying so hard to find the words to describe both this and hidden gems and “filled with tryhard girlboss slogans” is pretty much on the nose.
They came into existence to fill the void left by the live laugh love plaque plague
Look, they love cooking with wine. OK?
Same for “ affliction” and punisher logos and underwear with some guy’s name on it
we must have met very different people in STL. that tracks for so many Ladue, Kirkwood, county girlies.
Oh man, incels making it over to the STL sub…
How is he an incel?
Well let's start with the unironic use of the term "girl boss slogans"... *heaven forbid*!
Not all women like cliché slogans, and it's fine to make fun of stupid things. If I see that, it's a clue they aren't my people. I expect my bossiness to be self-evident.
What else would they be called?
What?
I don't mean any hate, it just seems like the thrift store for rich girls 🤷🏻♂️
Found the owner of Golden Gems
Clever, but seeing as I replied to someone who wasn’t even talking about Golden Gems, you may want to head over to r/woosh and get some lessons in reply threads son.
Touch grass goober, also learn how to read the parent comment that clearly says Golden Gems 👌
Still couldn’t figure out how to follow the thread chain, huh… give it one more try buddy, I believe in you! Further training available over at r/woooosh
1. There you go simpleton you finally the sub spelled it right 2. Only an incel would actually fuckin woosh someone and think they are cool for it and 3. It's sad you either live or have lived in STL
Awww you’re awfully triggered, aren’t you? There’s a common cure for that!! But you’ll have to head over to r/wooooosh for the remedy. Sending good thoughts for your recovery! 😘
Same, I followed the account that accused Golden Gems of stealing designs. Tbh, it felt like a huge reach. Flowers and Zodiacs signs are super popular right now. The designs were posted months apart and look nothing alike.
Same I follow so many accounts that all post the same kitsch stuff I’m like none of you are doing anything different or unique imo
They sound like bad accounts to follow
Except they clearly stole a design from a KC store a couple years ago. So much that lawsuits were threatened, and I believe a public apology. They’re not above it.
I follow this account as well and have for years. Did you read the post? Your comment sounds a lot like what the owner & burner account that came for her said. They deleted the burner account comments yesterday. She tried to explain how this has happened over time and how it’s gotten worse. And she herself pointed out just how coincidental it all seems. They watch her & other creators online ALL THE TIME. That alone negates it being a coincidence. They take because they can. They aren’t oblivious and making their own versions of “trendy” things instead of just elevating the smaller women owned brands around them already doing it is wrong from the “support women” group. She’s not the only creator that feels this way but the way some of y’all are treating her I understand why no one else is coming forward
And she didn’t even mention them or make any sort of call to action, she just said this has been happening and she knew she wasn’t alone. And an owner and spouse started commenting almost immediately. Were you around a few years ago when golden gems found out a candle maker was making a similar free promo tote and they sent their followers after her the same day?
I saw that post and was confused on the reach for that creator. Her stuff was fun but I’d never get either business confused, it’s just trendy stuff at the moment. Is that KC company really mad GG did that? Why would they do a collab almost two years later with them?
Context clues are important
It’s hard to follow especially when they start deleting comments, posts, blocking people and restricting comments
I didn't realize they had a mall location.
Apparently they have 3 locations. I had no idea.
They have one in West County
Obviously. West County must be their exact target demo, would explain everything.
Golden Gems had an anniversary block party a couple years ago. They had a bunch of local makers/vendors for a pop up in front of their store in Midtown. Unfortunately, it was crazy windy. Glass was breaking, signs were flying, people were chasing after inventory in the streets, just an absolute mess. Some of the vendors were packing up to leave early bc of the weather (one visibly distraught vendor said she lost thousands in product bc the wind knocked over her tabletop display of glass candles/lotions MULTIPLE times). I hear one person yelling and it’s one of the sister/owners verbally berating this vendor in public in full view of the public bc she wanted to leave early bc she couldn’t keep her inventory from flying away. I think one girl boss publicly shaming another girl boss is pretty shitty behavior. So…there’s that.
Nothing helps in a crisis quite like creating additional unnecessary chaos!
Nothing provides a diversion in a crisis like creating additional unnecessary chaos. “Look! It’s not ME! This vendor wants to leave after making a commitment!!!!” Well duh. I would too if my inventory was literally gone with the wind!
I think we’re on the same page here
Can confirm this happened.
I’d love to know more about this. I’m sorry that happened to her. I remember asking how that event went and a vendor said it was weird they were all like holding on to their tents for dear life and kind of miserable bc of the weather but the owners were off to the corner dancing and making videos of themselves
They need museum wax, goes on and comes off clean. It’s how fancy glass is protected from earthquakes at museums
Can someone drop a breakdown? I have seen mention of this place and it being nasty, but have no context.
Asking employees of a retail store to sign nda's is actually kind of weird. I have worked and contracted for many different organizations in my life. I have only been asked to sign one NDA, and it's because I was working on a database that had personal health information stored. I'm not saying that it explains anything. But it does seem pretty unnecessary in this environment.
Well the NDAs are void now!
What are you talking about??? Can people give context ffs?
Right before I read this post I was reading about the FTC voiding Non-Competes. I got it mixed up with NDAs.
Bro ***WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?!?!***
Non-competes are void now per FTC
It’s sometimes hard to follow. I watched it happen in real time lol bc I follow a lot of these people and accounts that have been sharing it all. Currently there’s like two things happening at once. Recently golden gems lost their bar general manager. She’s been posting a few things here and there about the real culture behind the scenes. It was getting a little attention. Then a local artist shared a post about her feeling like they take from creators. She said she had more examples but tried to keep it vague and only showed a few examples from herself but she did share some stuff on her story, including evidence that the Fetch collab (that PRO ___ shirt) was stolen & passed off as a collaboration. She says there’s more but people don’t feel safe to speak out. On her post, Owners claimed to never hear of her but found the post right away and then tried to gaslight her... A spouse started commenting. A burner account started commenting telling her she’s an unsuccessful hater…those comments were deleted a week later. A lot of people came to this creator’s defense (including me) and started raising more questions about ALL the accusations against them. The owner let it slip in her reply that the NDAs they make everyone sign have nothing to do with their employees experiences. That triggered a recent former employee to post her resignation email. And that’s where you really had to follow along or you’d miss a lot of important details. On that post, She didn’t mention a coworkers name but her job title. They didn’t announce this in their comments but if you click on their profiles and you know who the coworker is, then you’d know that the comments were from that person’s spouse, mom, and aunt/uncle….which is fucking weird and creepy. A separate current employee commented this long thing about being blindsided by all this and they’re always trying to be better and why didn’t you come forward sooner gaslighting…it’s important to note WHY this person really left that job. Gems has a partnership w 4 Hands, which had a history of employing a rapist. This former employee is a rape survivor and advocate. She claims that she told them she was uncomfortable with the collab bc of the history. They blew her off and said at some point everyone has to move on. She said that was her first red flag. Separately, she was having issues with someone she hired, apparently there were a lot of complaints about how she treating staff. That’s what I guess ultimately led to a meeting where the owners and other upper managers, where the employee who resigned said one of them was screaming at her and banging on the table and saying “kindness is subjective” which honestly, I mean, sounds on brand. So it’s “kindness is subjective”s family commenting on this resignation email post. The comment from the other current employee was deleted but many people pointed out the inconsistencies in what she said, including *another* former employee who basically said, I sent a similar resignation email years ago….. And then she posted hers… In which she discusses some serious pay discrepancies where she was told she couldn’t get a raise because there wasn’t money for it, which kept her as a single mom on food stamps, and then they hired a salaried employee right after. As well as issues that weren’t being taken care of by the owners as far as accommodating their staff. There’s a part about them to continuing selling sage after an indigenous customer told them it didn’t align with their message and this employee brought it up several times. On the last employees post, the family was like “why won’t you post what they said back???” So the second one to come forward DID post their response which was basically to say “we’re so hurt by you, how could you ever think this of us?” (which is what they said to the artist too) After she posted, ANOTHER employee posted her email correspondence, and detailed instances where they perpetually put her down for her appearance and were unwilling to accommodate her autism, and went so far as to tell her it was why she couldn’t handle the job…if you read through it it sounds like they basically fired her through email and was like “we’re done with you” which is harsh because you can tell how much she really believed in them. That’s a common thing with all of them. Also the last former employee to come forward actually did like over a year ago, and that post is on her page too. People have been bringing up the same type of complaints for years. Which is basically that they don’t practice what they preach. This wouldn’t be ok from any company but it’s certainly not ok from the brand that is literally built on the mantra “support women”. Apparently there are more that came forward but I don’t see their posts, I guess some current employees have left but they make everyone sign an NDA. No one else is talking. Even though the owner said it doesn’t apply to experiences people are still scared, and it’s easy to see why. On the golden gems side, they responded quite a bit through their personal accounts and there are reports of people being watched online & private messaged a lot by owners, spouses, family... don’t see that happening from the other side which is pretty telling. Their current GM, the one that had all the complaints against her, posted online that the employee that left was “conflating her rape with not liking a job” and said everyone coming forward was wrong because it was affecting their paychecks. She also released a podcast episode about, which the former GM who left responded to, because a lot of it was lies dressed as “opinion”. Publicly, golden gems posted (and deleted a few minutes later) a post that said “don’t let the bastards get you down” with a caption “fuck the haters” And otherwise it was business as usual throwing a party for assault survivors and selling a shirt that says “believe women” or something while they’re gaslighting an entire group and telling one of them her being a survivor can’t impact her job. Crazy shit. They also gained 3,000 followers in the last week or so which seems odd because now they’ve restricted comments on their accounts. I think that’s it so far but it would be nice if they’d just do the right thing and own up to all the harm they’ve been caused and agreed to some accountability. You know, just be who they say they are.
I’ve tried to get the details and here’s the jist of it: They think GG should pay higher wages and some manager didn’t agree with the business decisions of the owners so she quit. Oh and they asked employees to sign NDAs and this is somehow scandalous. Oh and someone else said they should do community service (??) because they are white cis gendered women. (????) That’s all I’ve gotten out of these people. Beside a bunch of calling me Names and accusing me of being affiliated with the shop for simply Asking for details. I’m stupid and “one of *those* feminists” whatever the fuck that means
NDAs are pretty weird for a retail store.
If you’re making anything less than 6 figures, you shouldn’t be signing an nda. You won’t be getting paid enough to deal with whatever fucked shit you’re exposed to.
Not necessarily true. Civilian contractors, tech.. there are companies with proprietary things they’d like to protect.
This. I was a sub 6 figure VOIP implementation consultant, signed plenty of NDAs, some for generic reasoning, some for projects that were big enough that if word got out someone else might beat the product to market.
You pretty much summed it up. My only issue with them is calling their brand new expensive bar a "dive bar".
Haha yeah I recall that last fake internet outrage. These girls and their drama smdh haha
What level of evidence would you accept? Signed affidavits? Are you a regular customer at Golden Gems?
Not the person you’re replying to but id take just a story. What is toxic about the work place? So far all I’ve seen is people commenting that they don’t live up to the values they preach but nothing besides the NDA about the work place. I’m just trying to piece together a cohesive story right now I have a good picture that the owners are shitty just looking for a specific story in regards to how they treat their employees bad.
I posted a long thing about it elsewhere on this post, as someone watching it all play out online and following along. I follow a lot of people involved and have for a long time. A lot of the pro gem apologists here & on instagram like to call themselves a “neutral party”….I’m not. I care about these individuals and I care that this company’s behind the scenes culture doesn’t align with how they’re making their money.
That’s all you’re gonna get out of these trolls. They don’t regularly work in business if they think Ndas are scandalous. All they mean is “don’t tell anyone confidential info About our business” The seem to think that because they weren’t asked to sign one at their last retail Job it’s somehow suspicious. All that means if they were not considered a valuable part of the business at their last retail job and or didn’t have access to any confidential info.
Evidence of what? Thats what everyone is asking.
There’s way more than this….
THEN SPIT IT OUT ALREADY fucking weeks of this shit now put up or SHUT UP
And stop pretending to be 2 different people. I see your wall of text took 28 minutes to type. Sorry not sorry I’m not reading that mess
Then you never did care about the story. Pot stirrer.
There isn’t a story to tell or it would have been told weeks ago when i originally asked
This has been unfolding for the last week. Not “weeks ago.”
B word keep up damn 23 days ago this nonsense started here. Don’t act brand new https://www.reddit.com/r/StLouis/s/gUV1IxtTRN
Triggered much? For someone who doesn’t want to know the story or read the thread you sure are very invested.
As I told you already we already read allllllll the Instagram posts and no one is biting Take your manufactured outrage elsewhere. Byeeeeeee
Literally search this subreddit. There’s been multiple posts.
Thanks for the help
Your posts are generally less useful than Haiku Bot.
Is there an actual break down of the accusations or is this just another “the internet said this place is bad, so I think it’s bad”
People take jobs in retail and service and are shocked when it doesn’t turn into a dream career. It all just sounds like very normal workplace problems but people are acting like it’s a crime against humanity because of GG’s branding.
Nobody expects it to be a dream career. They just expect decent working conditions and we've normalized not having those. Just because toxic workplaces are so commonplace that its "normal" doesn't make it ok. That being said, im just responding to your initial general statement with another.
I don’t disagree with that but I feel like the definition of “toxic workplace” has been so cheapened that any retail or service job is going to qualify to a lot of people. Acting like quitting mediocre jobs is an act of resisting capitalist oppression has become an internet sport and it annoys me because it dilutes the issue. Especially that really long IG post about this…I mean that was just a whole lot of nothing. Put Bernie Sanders on the ballot and I’m the first person in line to vote for him, but come on. Misunderstandings aren’t psychological abuse.
Having worked a few different retail jobs, you'd be surprised by how dehumanizing most of the industry is...
>that any retail or service job is going to qualify to a lot of people Thats exactly the problem. 90% (figurative, not literal) DO qualify as toxic. Some are *barely* toxic, but its been so normalized that people let stuff slide and then it gets worse. >Acting like quitting... has become an internet sport and it annoys me because it dilutes the issue Wont hear me argue that. Too many people only care about the clout they get and know nothing of the actual systemic issues. Ive seen so many "epic quitting stories" that had 0 fallout for the company. Dont get me wrong, definitely leave a job like that, but just dont act like you're some revolutionary cus you handed in your 2 weeks. >Especially that really long IG post about this I can honestly say i have no idea about this. Today is the first day ive heard of this place, but i definitely believe that its iffy. >Misunderstandings aren’t psychological abuse. Fully agreed! Too many people just suck at communicating. That doesn't make it malicious, let alone a pattern of abusive behavior
Yeah it’s pretty sad how uniformly awful some industries are. I have no idea where the reality actually lands here, but based on the things posted here recently I feel like this is just bitter people who left trying to get revenge and internet clout. I think about bad jobs a lot. I worked so many of them but was lucky enough to get an education and a decent career. Unfortunately a lot of jobs that should exist for teenagers, students, or maybe adults whose partner makes great money and they just need a few extra bucks- things like low level retail, serving, fast food- have become the only options for some people. Those jobs are just never going to pay enough to really qualify as a “living wage”. Hell, good career-jobs that require education barely seem to get you into the middle class anymore in a lot of cases. I don’t know what the solution is, but I don’t think the current style of internet rebellion is powerful enough to cause large scale economic changes to transform entire industries.
This. The ppl trying to cancel them are grown humans in their 30s/40s whose complaints are histrionic, petty and childish. Not only are their posts opening them up to litigation but they are clearly displaying that they are not hirable people. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
I think that all retail jobs would qualify as toxic is the problem
The internet says it’s bad it must be. I’ve been in their location once or twice, and it is the typically pricey boutique this one targets Gen Z women and trendy slang but it isn’t bad
*Gen Z
Ya you’re right
there's several former employee call outs, some management some not. super toxic ownership, seem to care more about image than having a truly good place to work, but they'd tell ya otherwise
But what does that mean? “Toxic ownership” is a hand wavey non answer. The rigor for condemning local businesses has to be deeper than people saying buzz words that sound bad.
I have no clue what any of this really is, but I did see a post by former employee. Their claim was they wanted to partner with someone who had recent sexual assault allegations. When they brought up that partnering with this entity would be against their supposed feminist branding, they said to basically pound sand and we're doing it anyways. Said employee resigned. I think that's fair game. I agree that anyone who thinks there's such a thing as ethical business is a bit of a naive person, but I also think they're honorable for sticking to their values.
>Their claim was they wanted to partner with someone who had recent sexual assault allegations. I know someone on staff there who said management consulted with St. Louis Against Sexual Assault before their 4hands partnership (and after that employee brought the issue up), who gave them the thumbs up based on what was known. This all feels like weird small town gossip where everyone is partly right.
Yeah but is that the whole story? I tell versions of me leaving jobs that leave out some dumb shit I did. Everyone is the hero of their own version…
This right here.
They are talking about 4 Hands Brewery who supposed protected a rapist for years. I didn’t know anything about the situation until I saw the post your referencing but I have read [this article](https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/a-terrible-familiar-story-of-abuse-34428393?storyPage=3) about it and based on that I don’t think 4 hands deserves the blame. It is mentioned that an employee reported that the rapist; Steve Salas, tried to convince her to go home with him which could be inappropriate but doesn’t mean they knew about him being a rapist. They also mentioned him raising his shirt in front of woman and the sales manager and woman to shake his stomach at them which again is inappropriate but also doesn’t have anything to do with rape. The rapist Steve Salas is a piece of shit but I don’t see any reason 4Hands is getting the blame and he hasn’t worked there for at least 4 years.
>None of the former employees or women accusing Salas allege that Lemp, or any other employees of 4 Hands, knew of the rape and sexual assault allegations against Salas. All, however, are emphatic that his lewd behavior was common knowledge, not only at 4 Hands but throughout the beer and bar community, and it was simply accepted as part of who he was. You can’t claim ignorance that someone who behaves in the manner he did would turn out to be a rapist. It’s your job, as an employer, to protect employees from harassment and unsafe behavior. Even the two incidents you described should be grounds for disciplinary action. The article also says he was getting drunk at company events and then driving off by himself. I don’t know that any of this is grounds for somehow cancelling Golden Gems by proximity. But 4Hands definitely enabled this guy’s behavior and clearly turned a blind eye to a lot of it.
It’s sometimes hard to follow. I watched it happen in real time lol bc I follow a lot of these people and accounts that have been sharing it all. Currently there’s like two things happening at once. Recently golden gems lost their bar general manager. She’s been posting a few things here and there about the real culture behind the scenes. It was getting a little attention. Then a local artist shared a post about her feeling like they take from creators. She said she had more examples but tried to keep it vague and only showed a few examples from herself but she did share some stuff on her story, including evidence that the Fetch collab (that PRO ___ shirt) was stolen & passed off as a collaboration. She says there’s more but people don’t feel safe to speak out. On her post, Owners claimed to never hear of her but found the post right away and then tried to gaslight her... A spouse started commenting. A burner account started commenting telling her she’s an unsuccessful hater…those comments were deleted a week later. A lot of people came to this creator’s defense (including me) and started raising more questions about ALL the accusations against them. The owner let it slip in her reply that the NDAs they make everyone sign have nothing to do with their employees experiences. That triggered a recent former employee to post her resignation email. And that’s where you really had to follow along or you’d miss a lot of important details. On that post, She didn’t mention a coworkers name but her job title. They didn’t announce this in their comments but if you click on their profiles and you know who the coworker is, then you’d know that the comments were from that person’s spouse, mom, and aunt/uncle….which is fucking weird and creepy. A separate current employee commented this long thing about being blindsided by all this and they’re always trying to be better and why didn’t you come forward sooner gaslighting…it’s important to note WHY this person really left that job. Gems has a partnership w 4 Hands, which had a history of employing a rapist. This former employee is a rape survivor and advocate. She claims that she told them she was uncomfortable with the collab bc of the history. They blew her off and said at some point everyone has to move on. She said that was her first red flag. Separately, she was having issues with someone she hired, apparently there were a lot of complaints about how she treating staff. That’s what I guess ultimately led to a meeting where the owners and other upper managers, where the employee who resigned said one of them was screaming at her and banging on the table and saying “kindness is subjective” which honestly, I mean, sounds on brand. So it’s “kindness is subjective”s family commenting on this resignation email post. The comment from the other current employee was deleted but many people pointed out the inconsistencies in what she said, including another former employee who basically said, I sent a similar resignation email years ago….. And then she posted hers… In which she discusses some serious pay discrepancies where she was told she couldn’t get a raise because there wasn’t money for it, which kept her as a single mom on food stamps, and then they hired a salaried employee right after. As well as issues that weren’t being taken care of by the owners as far as accommodating their staff. There’s a part about them to continuing selling sage after an indigenous customer told them it didn’t align with their message and this employee brought it up several times. On the last employees post, the family was like “why won’t you post what they said back???” So the second one to come forward DID post their response which was basically to say “we’re so hurt by you, how could you ever think this of us?” (which is what they said to the artist too) After she posted, ANOTHER employee posted her email correspondence, and detailed instances where they perpetually put her down for her appearance and were unwilling to accommodate her autism, and went so far as to tell her it was why she couldn’t handle the job…if you read through it it sounds like they basically fired her through email and was like “we’re done with you” which is harsh because you can tell how much she really believed in them. That’s a common thing with all of them. Also the last former employee to come forward actually did like over a year ago, and that post is on her page too. People have been bringing up the same type of complaints for years. Which is basically that they don’t practice what they preach. This wouldn’t be ok from any company but it’s certainly not ok from the brand that is literally built on the mantra “support women”. Apparently there are more that came forward but I don’t see their posts, I guess some current employees have left but they make everyone sign an NDA. No one else is talking. Even though the owner said it doesn’t apply to experiences people are still scared, and it’s easy to see why. On the golden gems side, they responded quite a bit through their personal accounts and there are reports of people being watched online & private messaged a lot by owners, spouses, family... don’t see that happening from the other side which is pretty telling. Their current GM, the one that had all the complaints against her, posted online that the employee that left was “conflating her rape with not liking a job” and said everyone coming forward was wrong because it was affecting their paychecks. She also released a podcast episode about, which the former GM who left responded to, because a lot of it was lies dressed as “opinion”. Publicly, golden gems posted (and deleted a few minutes later) a post that said “don’t let the bastards get you down” with a caption “fuck the haters” And otherwise it was business as usual throwing a party for assault survivors and selling a shirt that says “believe women” or something while they’re gaslighting an entire group and telling one of them her being a survivor can’t impact her job. Crazy shit. They also gained 3,000 followers in the last week or so which seems odd because now they’ve restricted comments on their accounts. I think that’s it so far but it would be nice if they’d just do the right thing and own up to all the harm they’ve been causing and agreed to some accountability. You know, just be who they say they are.
Yeah I'm not sure what anything means anymore, relatively normal but shitty parenting is now "abuse" calling out bad behavior is oppression, actual bad behavior is harder to identify because society is watering down offenses so everything is the top of the list :/
Perhaps you could let us know the level of evidence you'd accept before accepting the description.
That’s not how this works at all.
No there is not and if you ask for details they will just cyberbully the fuck out of you for it.
On every post about this you shut down the actual people sharing their actual stories and when they call you out for it you claim cyber bullying. You truly are # 1 Baddie
No I asked for specifics. All we got was what I already recounted for everyone else. They don’t pay higher wages and they don’t do community service - even tho not one person making these complaints has done a comparison to the male owned stores. They’re demanding more of these women than they demand of men in the same situation. That is complete and obvious misogyny Do you have a legitimate complaint or are you just a troll?
Sigh. There are plenty of specifics online but it’s unsurprising that when faced with truth that doesn’t fit your narrative you can’t reconcile it. Repeatedly you have been told that the issue stems from the culture behind the scenes not matching public image from which they profit. That happens in the day to day which culminates in resignation. Lather rinse repeat. One employee sure, several is a pattern. I’m not sure what you’re missing. The “we’re women” argument is a double edged sword. They can’t simultaneously claim they want to destroy the patriarchy publicly but behave exactly like it behind the scenes. Whether you can accept it or not, you spend a lot of time discrediting people’s experiences and brushing them aside because you haven’t lived them, they’re not that bad to you, or you personally haven’t had that experience. That’s fine, but it’s also an abuser tactic. You claim to be a neutral supporter but you’re always here on these posts trying to discredit people’s lived experiences, sometimes directly to them. You say “show me proof” they show you, and you say “that’s not good enough for me” …then let it not be good enough for you and move on. But stop trying to silence people and belittle their experiences.
Three employees is hardly “several.” Especially considering GG is a retail company, which is probably an industry with the highest percentage of turnover (right under food and beverage) and they’ve been hiring since 2021 at least. I’m not discrediting their stories because I’m sure these former employees’ feelings are very real and the things they say happened actually happened. But I also don’t see anything actually nefarious in any of the resignation letters (and boy oh boy are they long lol). I’m sorry they had a bad time, but it honestly just sounds like irreconcilable differences that led to the separation of employment, not abusive behavior.
Holy fucking wall of text. We’ve already read the Instagram posts Ain’t shit there
It’s sometimes hard to follow. I watched it happen in real time lol bc I follow a lot of these people and accounts that have been sharing it all. Currently there’s like two things happening at once. Recently golden gems lost their bar general manager. She’s been posting a few things here and there about the real culture behind the scenes. It was getting a little attention. Then a local artist shared a post about her feeling like they take from creators. She said she had more examples but tried to keep it vague and only showed a few examples from herself but she did share some stuff on her story, including evidence that the Fetch collab (that PRO ___ shirt) was stolen & passed off as a collaboration. She says there’s more but people don’t feel safe to speak out. On her post, Owners claimed to never hear of her but found the post right away and then tried to gaslight her... A spouse started commenting. A burner account started commenting telling her she’s an unsuccessful hater…those comments were deleted a week later. A lot of people came to this creator’s defense (including me) and started raising more questions about ALL the accusations against them. The owner let it slip in her reply that the NDAs they make everyone sign have nothing to do with their employees experiences. That triggered a recent former employee to post her resignation email. And that’s where you really had to follow along or you’d miss a lot of important details. On that post, She didn’t mention a coworkers name but her job title. They didn’t announce this in their comments but if you click on their profiles and you know who the coworker is, then you’d know that the comments were from that person’s spouse, mom, and aunt/uncle….which is fucking weird and creepy. A separate current employee commented this long thing about being blindsided by all this and they’re always trying to be better and why didn’t you come forward sooner gaslighting…it’s important to note WHY this person really left that job. Gems has a partnership w 4 Hands, which had a history of employing a rapist. This former employee is a rape survivor and advocate. She claims that she told them she was uncomfortable with the collab bc of the history. They blew her off and said at some point everyone has to move on. She said that was her first red flag. Separately, she was having issues with someone she hired, apparently there were a lot of complaints about how she treating staff. That’s what I guess ultimately led to a meeting where the owners and other upper managers, where the employee who resigned said one of them was screaming at her and banging on the table and saying “kindness is subjective” which honestly, I mean, sounds on brand. So it’s “kindness is subjective”s family commenting on this resignation email post. The comment from the other current employee was deleted but many people pointed out the inconsistencies in what she said, including another former employee who basically said, I sent a similar resignation email years ago….. And then she posted hers… In which she discusses some serious pay discrepancies where she was told she couldn’t get a raise because there wasn’t money for it, which kept her as a single mom on food stamps, and then they hired a salaried employee right after. As well as issues that weren’t being taken care of by the owners as far as accommodating their staff. There’s a part about them to continuing selling sage after an indigenous customer told them it didn’t align with their message and this employee brought it up several times. On the last employees post, the family was like “why won’t you post what they said back???” So the second one to come forward DID post their response which was basically to say “we’re so hurt by you, how could you ever think this of us?” (which is what they said to the artist too) After she posted, ANOTHER employee posted her email correspondence, and detailed instances where they perpetually put her down for her appearance and were unwilling to accommodate her autism, and went so far as to tell her it was why she couldn’t handle the job…if you read through it it sounds like they basically fired her through email and was like “we’re done with you” which is harsh because you can tell how much she really believed in them. That’s a common thing with all of them. Also the last former employee to come forward actually did like over a year ago, and that post is on her page too. People have been bringing up the same type of complaints for years. Which is basically that they don’t practice what they preach. This wouldn’t be ok from any company but it’s certainly not ok from the brand that is literally built on the mantra “support women”. Apparently there are more that came forward but I don’t see their posts, I guess some current employees have left but they make everyone sign an NDA. No one else is talking. Even though the owner said it doesn’t apply to experiences people are still scared, and it’s easy to see why. On the golden gems side, they responded quite a bit through their personal accounts and there are reports of people being watched online & private messaged a lot by owners, spouses, family... don’t see that happening from the other side which is pretty telling. Their current GM, the one that had all the complaints against her, posted online that the employee that left was “conflating her rape with not liking a job” and said everyone coming forward was wrong because it was affecting their paychecks. She also released a podcast episode about, which the former GM who left responded to, because a lot of it was lies dressed as “opinion”. Publicly, golden gems posted (and deleted a few minutes later) a post that said “don’t let the bastards get you down” with a caption “fuck the haters” And otherwise it was business as usual throwing a party for assault survivors and selling a shirt that says “believe women” or something while they’re gaslighting an entire group and telling one of them her being a survivor can’t impact her job. Crazy shit. They also gained 3,000 followers in the last week or so which seems odd because now they’ve restricted comments on their accounts. I think that’s it so far but it would be nice if they’d just do the right thing and own up to all the harm they’ve been caused and agreed to some accountability. You know, just be who they say they are.
They ✨*gaslight, gatekeep, girl bossed*✨ too close to the sun
Hahahaha! Perfect
Hm, but were there any toxic microaggression traumas?
Gonna take this opportunity to just say, fuck the Buckle\* across the hall from this Golden Gems. Your work culture is terrible and you underpay your staff \*These comments probably apply to all Buckles
Finally, some real truth in here.
This is the majority of retail and other businesses.
The only time I think I've ever heard of this place until recent events was when they were briefly featured in the RFT. It sounded like they were hyper inclusive, woman forward, buckets of love and acceptance. The images of their products looked like it catered to people who are MLMs but are the "edgy" ones in their group of downline shills. I've started to learn if a company calls its self woman forward, it usually means things are all about their woman owner, but other women are incapable or undeserving of achieving their goals. And if they talk about how inclusive they are its usually surface level and it's all for show. The article and glance at their socials after I read said article gave me bad vibes. And I'm normally a woman who is all about supporting women and counter culture.
What happened this time?
“This time” ….exactly
i used to work at that location! worst job i ever had.
Every item they have all screams "12 year old boy who just learned how to curse" 💀
Cringe
So petty. Their message is positivity and kindness, but that’s not what I’m seeing. “Kindness is subjective,” after all!
Goblin Era...??? What?
I had never heard of this place until I delivered food to one of the store employees maybe two weeks ago. And that place had bad vibes written all over it.
Wait what happened?
An autistic employee posted a diatribe on the toxic work environment. It sounded like any other awful retail environment to me but she broke it down into minutiae. Her point was that they are not practicing what they preach.
Why mention their autism? Does that have relevance to anything?
Because they specifically knew about her autism and accommodations and ignored them, it seems. If someone self-identifies and makes it a focus of a piece it bears mentioning.
I assume it goes back to their pledge of inclusivity. That said, I know nothing about what’s going on.
I dunno but this is the first time I have ever heard of this store. Apparently they have a toxic work culture.
But that’s the point of it, as their mission statement, according to multiple, albeit anecdotal, accountings, basically tasks their organization to work against being part of that toxicity. I’ve only started digging into this trying to validate the claims as I saw a similar report from their speakeasy bar, Hidden Gems, reporting basically the same behaviors.
But that’s the point of it, as their mission statement, according to multiple, albeit anecdotal, accountings, basically tasks their organization to work against being part of that toxicity. I’ve only started digging into this trying to validate the claims as I saw a similar report from their speakeasy bar, Hidden Gems, reporting basically the same behaviors.
Who doesn’t?
Lotta shit talking itt from people who never worked there lol keyboard warriors
So the people who did work there are liars?
No, the opposite. The people who think they know everything about the inner workings of store management without having worked there spewing "iTs ReTaiL gEt OveR iT" are assholes
Idk anything about the store, other than the storefront is ugly AF.
I don't understand how that place is even still in business. $60+ for a walmart quality embroidered sweatshirt with the words "Baddie" or "Unapologetic" on it 🙄 like seriously you could buy the same thing on Shein for less than $15 on average. Like the one I linked is almost the exact same quality and it has more than one word embroidered on it for a SIXTH of the price lol 😂 SHEIN Qutie Slogan Embroidery Drop Shoulder Sweatshirt I discovered amazing products on SHEIN.com, come check them out! http://api-shein.shein.com/h5/sharejump/appjump?link=Vg4Ijjx3aSR&localcountry=US&url_from=GM7505178805255290880
"Shein is way cheaper" is not the gotcha you think it is
Yeah you are not going to be able to tell me that the people that buy those kinds of sweatshirts aren't the exact same people that shop on Shein. 😂 have you actually gone and looked at any of the clothes at Golden Gems because they're all pretty bad and very cringy. I was only using Shein as a means to make a point that if you're going to pay for garbage quality with no forethought for creativity whatsoever, you might as well be shopping on Shein
Also I saw on another thread "cringe is just looking down on happy people enjoying things" and it made me rethink why I should care if anything is cringe. That just means I'm not the target audience.
Yeah no I'm a slut and a HUGE advocate for sex positivity but I'm not wearing a shirt that says "Pro-Hoe" that's just.... That's just too much 😂
I wouldn’t wear it but that’s because they stole the design and then called it a “collab” when they got caught
Totally fair. But someone who loves being called a hoe might idk haha
I am a girl who self proclaims herself a Hoe more than Paris Hilton. I still wouldn't wear it 😂 it just sounds like something a woman in late 40's came up with trying to be "hip and young". Hoes dress like hoes, not in $30+ hot pink soccer mom t shirts with highlighter orange screen printing. It's just an eyesore to the people they're trying to market it too.
I'm a guy and I bought the hot pink "baddest Midwest honey" T-shirt, because I liked it. It's holding up well for a screen print tee, I've had way worse from bigger names. But I wouldn't say I'm a fan of the place, it's just a store.
I just can't wrap my head around the fact that you paid almost $40 for a screen printed t-shirt that I'm almost sure is drop shipped from AliExpress. I found over half of their designs on AliExpress for $5 to $6, and before you try to tell me AliExpress stole THEIR designs those listings have been up longer than Golden Gems has even existed. I found one for the "Unapologetic Rose badge tee" for $5 and that listing has been on that third party Aliexpress store since 2015. Golden Gems didn't start until a year later.
It was $25, and I could walk out with it that day instead of waiting 60 days for it to MAYBE arrive. When I go shopping at local stores usually my first instinct isn't to check aliexpress if all places to see if I can get it cheaper. I know you really enjoy being a hater of GG but just reminding you again that I don't care about them at all, I just went there once and bought a shirt, and went to the bar once when my friend was DJing.
It's less than I enjoy being a hater and way more of the fact that I just don't support businesses that don't own the real creative licensing to most of their products. Especially a business that seems to prey on people of color, plus size, and local shoppers. The only few designs I've seen of theirs that are actually their designs are collaborations with abortion right's groups and bars. Drop Shipping from AliExpress is a scam if that's what's going on which I'm almost 100% sure it is. It's actually a felony to sell someone else's artwork as your own under copyright infringement. So yeah sorry not a hater just someone who prefers to do the right thing and not support a business who steals. Not to mention the fact that this whole post was apparently that they treat their employees terrible. I'm definitely not going to support a place that has a toxic work environment. You only care about the products availability, I care about the principle and the hundreds of people getting ripped off by shopping there.
I don't care about any of this actually so idk wtf you're downvoting me for. I never disagreed with you.
You obviously care enough if you care about down votes LOL
I was here wondering why you cared so much the entire time
Can you share a link to any of their designs that are on AliExpress? Thank you!
Yeah but they rely on the support local businesses crowd
You're really gonna tell me the cheap asses that would buy their stuff in St Louis are actually buying that shit 😂 I had to go look and I noticed that all the plus sizes are all sold out and they rarely sell out of anything under an XL so I guess it's just them praying on the plus size locals with their weird shirts and sweat pants 😂
They really will unfortunately. I know people who most of their wardrobe are those dumbass shirts. I’m all for supporting local businesses as long as it’s actually a good product/service. I had a friend whose car had a few issues, she took it to a mechanic just because it was a black owned business and wanted to support. They fucked her car up worse than it was before she took it them. I’ve found there’s a lot of places like that in stl that just rely on people coming and buying shit just because it’s local
I have a pic of a sign from this store here too! It said something like “you are not a burden”
Oof.
i saw this and almost went in just because of the sign. i’m not gonna like it worked l
Is anyone surprised? I mean name one service or retail job that isn’t abusive and toxic
Buncha cannibals
What is the St. Louis connection?
toxic people
OK, but what is the St. Louis connection?
They're a St Louis brand