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Because she will do almost anything for a sale. Long(ish) story: every day, we track our sales, both hourly and end of the day total. The goal is to at least make the same amount each day as that day in the previous year. Which I find completely dumb because each day brings its own challenges. Was the weather too bad for people to come out? Was this date last year a Saturday, which is typically a busier day and this year a Sunday when we're not open as long? Did we have some sort of special event or sale that drove sales up the previous year but not this year? Anyways, that number is our "comp" (apologies if I'm telling you stuff you already know). We actually use three different amounts in regards to the day's sales: comp is the minimum we should be striving for, plan is what we need to keep on track for the weekly goal (higher if we've had bad days previously in the week, lower or even non-existent if we had one or two days of really good sales) and stretch, which is an arbitrary high number above comp or plan that would look really good if we can reach it, which we seldom can. Each day, SM stresses over the numbers. And yes, I get it. It's part of her job to make the store as much money as possible, and here's why I'm not mentally suited for retail. I have neither the desire nor skill to talk people into getting things they don't want or need. Anyways, there have been times when we've been fairly close to comp by the end of the day. SM actually expects one or both of the associates working the evening shift to buy something so we can make comp. I almost always refuse to do so--they don't pay me enough to buy their (IMO) overpriced, albeit usually fairly well made, clothes and I don't NEED anything clothing or accessory-wise. But that's how much the numbers mean to SM. The night before the Sunday she worked by herself when we were all supposed to be closed, I took a call from a longtime customer who didn't want to drive in but wanted to support the store by ordering two items over the phone. She's a longtime customer of SM's and when I told her SM wasn't there, she said she'd call Sunday and place the order. So SM knew there would be at least one sale Sunday, even if nobody came into the store. I honestly don't think the customer would've minded if she had to wait a day or two to place the order...at least I don't think *this* customer would've minded. Some of the more entitled ladies definitely WOULD'VE minded and probably would've been mad that the store was closed, inconveniencing them even if it kept the employees safe and off dangerous roads in bad weather conditions.

She is. But she's only been SM's boss for a couple weeks. I believe SM feels like she knows better because she's technically been with the company longer. Chico's doesn't often promote from within except to make sales associates keyholders, assistant managers or individual store managers.

Right? We only found out about it because B has been helping out at the other store and has longtime friends working there.

She did not. Everyone except herself is part-time (company policy; only stores that do over $1 million in sales every year are allowed to have full-time employees other than a SM).

You are correct. And she's always complaining about not having time off. As a SM, it's up to her to schedule herself for 40 hours/week but instead of spreading out those 40 hours over five days and taking two days off, she only takes off Thursdays. This would've been a mini vacation for SM...and she sorely needs one. Her behavior on Tuesday (and a bit of Wednesday, and the beginning of Friday) was abysmal. We all agree that SM is a genius at the business part of running the store but she suuuuuuuucks at personal interaction, even sometimes with customers. We've actually lost a handful of long time, and sometimes really GOOD (they bought a LOT) customers specifically because of how SM treated either them or one of us.

Now MONDAY, I have no idea why she opened the store. Unlike Sunday, there was no guaranteed sale scheduled for that day. And yep, no way we were going to make up any numbers by being open on a cold, snowy day, with a store you need to walk a ways to enter and roads and parking lots that were barely plowed. Especially when the overwhelming majority of our customers are senior citizens who are fall risks or just generally more vulnerable to cold weather. I'm still looking for another job and am inching ever closer to resigning myself to a lateral move instead of improving on my situation.

<blushing> Thank you! I actually did apply at TJ's but it's a popular place to work at and I never heard back from them.