![]() "If you want a positive outlook on the company, I won't be a good person to interview."īut I'm not looking for a positive outlook - I'm just looking for an outlook, period. If you want a positive outlook on the company, I won't be a good person to interview." However, after working there for four years, I no longer do. "To be honest with you, I used to believe in everything Altar'd State stood for as a company. "If you want an accurate representation of the company, the reviews on Glassdoor are pretty spot-on," a former employee who requested anonymity tells me. If the company does have anything to hide, it's the 2.4 rating it holds on Glassdoor, a vast company review database that archives millions of employee-submitted evaluations. What little information, criticism, or even news there is out there about the company, in the bowels of the internet, is limited to local news sites, personal blogs, and job listing aggregators. But what does a clothing company that trades in moderately-priced blouses and wood blocks posterized with inoffensive truisms have to hide? Altar'd State seems innocuous enough, if not wholly well-intentioned. They've all signed an NDA.Īs a reporter, you train for this sort of reluctance when covering covert military activity, the sex lives of political figures, or Star Wars plot rumors. ![]() Well, some want to talk - but they can't, legally speaking. But no one at Altar'd State wants to talk. I desperately want to talk to someone, anyone, with a direct connection to the company. All 26 either flat-out reject or ignore my pleas to briefly chat. Then I reach out to 26 current and former Altar'd State employees for more information. The questions I sent over elicited "hesitations" from the leadership team, my point of contact explains in her last, apologetic email. ![]() They initially seem receptive to participating in this story, but after four weeks of back and forth, the company's home office withdraws its cooperation. So I contact corporate headquarters in Knoxville. It claims to " donate a total of 1% of all sales to local and international charities" and "fund employee volunteer hours each month." Despite its large footprint (59 stores! 19 states!), you can't find out much more about the brand than what I've just told you. The company's website details its history, which began with a single "modern Christian retail store" in Knoxville, Tennessee. There are currently 59 Altar'd State locations sprinkled throughout the South and Midwest, in 19 different states. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here. The archives will remain available here for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |