Friday's back and so is Retail Therapy with your weekly dose of strange retail stories.
This week, we've got crazy Kanye fashion news (of course) and a hilarious confessional account of what it’s like to work at Target for a week.
This, and more, in this week's Retail Therapy.
Kanye gets into hot mess with Yeezy Season 4
As New York Fashion Week kicked off on Wednesday, attendees weren’t exactly fawning over Kanye West.
The fashion show debuting Kanye’s latest collaboration with sportswear brand Adidas was overshadowed by a series of logistical issues. The Washington Post described the event as a blend of “convoluted logistics, discombobulating secretiveness and repetition.” The music icon withheld the location until 4:30 am the morning of the show, keeping the crowd waiting for hours in the blistering heat. A few models even passed out.
The overall mood could only be described as "unenthused."
While the show itself was anything but controversial (many critics called it boring), Kanye did get into hot water over a casting call on Twitter that asked for “multi-racial” models only. Several people protested the event, holding signs and painting their bare chests with the words “Multiracial only = Light skin only you ain’t slick, Ye” and “They want black featuring not black girls.” West said in an interview with Vogue that the casting call “was not intended to exclude anyone, least of all black women.”
The short answer? Hilarious. At least in Tom Grennell’s experience.
The 20-year-old part time Target employee became internet famous after publishing a running diary of things he encountered in his first week on the job at Target.
In an interview with Refinery 29, Grennell said he worried that supervisors would fire him for the viral post, but as of Tuesday, he still had his job.
Tales from the store
Speaking of crazy retail stories, Reddit is full of them. This week, People put together a mashup of anonymous retail experiences from the online forum.
One Redditor wrote: "I was once berated for over ten minutes because of the fat content of ham. A lady was adamant that ham 'never had fat' when she was a kid."
Anyone who has worked as a store associate can imagine the eye-rolling and head-shaking going on here.
Walmart's insensitive Coca-Cola display
A Walmart store in Panama City, Florida may not exactly be the best place for a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks that occurred 15 years ago.
Earlier this week, the store took down an unseemly display of Coke products stacked to represent the twin towers with an American flag backdrop. Above the display hung two banners: One with the words "We will never forget," the other listing a discount for the soda.
Outrage doesn't quite begin to capture the anger of customers who took to social media to blast the retailer. A Coca-Cola spokeswoman apologized in a statement to CNBC, saying the display was meant to honor local firefighters.
