For a certain type of internet-fluent teenager, Shop Jeen is an unsurpassed mecca of cool. The retailer’s homepage looks as if a sex-crazed Hello Kitty threw up after drinking 1,000 jello shots, selling things like “Turnt Jesus” iPhone cases, “University of Bad Bitches” sweatshirts and T-shirts screaming “Ask Your Boyfriend How My Ass Taste.” It’s irreverent and exceptionally topical, a store for young women who don’t buy clothes as much as they buy costumes. But it is also, by many accounts, a black hole of dysfunction: money goes in, but very little comes out.
On August 13, The Cut published an exceedingly positive article about Erin Yogasundram, the 23-year-old CEO of the internet teen-focused retailer. The website isn’t the only one to do so. People are obsessed with Yogasundram: users of the site call her “Mom,” MTV recently referred to her as “Queen Bee of the Internet,” and Racked included her in a series of interviews with women who are “killing it in the fashion-tech industry.”
The article paints Yogasundram as an ambitious, perpetually on-trend chick who found fun, cool success and is now dealing with its slightly less fun, less cool consequences:
Product wasn’t being tracked properly, people weren’t getting their orders on time — basically, there were no official protocols in place. “We wanted to use this as an opportunity to really do things right, lay out processes, and build it back up from day one,” Erin says. She admits that she’s not a great manager. “It’s my weakest point. I’ve literally only been alive for 23 years.”
The rest of the piece mentions a few other blips the company has had (Chanel sued Shop Jeen for selling knock-off iPhone cases; Yogasundram and her business partner had to lay off ten of their 15 employees), but mainly focuses on her rising star.
The company’s successes, to be sure, are impressive—the brand has an enormous web footprint, with over 400,000 Instagram followers and 60,000 Facebook likes. Yogasundram says she made $50,000 in her first month, a number that has likely only skyrocketed since she founded the company in 2012. This type of rapid success would pose a challenge to any CEO, let alone one who’s 23 with no real business experience. But the troubles Shop Jeen is facing aren’t just the usual bumps that come along with building a brand, nor are they the minor hiccups glossed over in the Cut profile. Rather, according to people who have interacted closely with the company, Shop Jeen’s troubles appear to be the result of legitimate misconduct within an environment of little-to-no accountability. Many ex-employees and vendors portray Yogasundram’s business as distinctly unprofessional; they say her style of management is avoidant, irresponsible and dysfunctional behind the scenes.
Jenna Bumgardner is the owner of Space Trash, a jewelry Etsy shop that worked as a vendor for Shop Jeen for several months. During that time, Bumgardner alleges the company was often late on their payments, if generally never more than a week or two; it didn’t seem worthwhile to make the delays a thing, she says.
Then the delays got worse. Bumgardner finally reached out to Jezebel after waiting over 100 days for almost $900. Yogasundram had ignored her repeated requests for payment, until Bumgardner threatened to bring her to small-claims court. At that point, Yogasundram finally responded that she would withhold an employee’s paycheck to foot the bill.
In another email to Bumgardner (provided via screen grab to Jezebel), Yogasundram wrote:
I’m sort of baffled that you think we are intentionally withholding money from you and that it would be beneficial for us not to pay you. We’ve always paid in the past, much larger bills at that- not sure why we would decide to all of a sudden not be able to unless there was an actual legitimate problem with being able to do so.
Also sad to see your posts all over the internet about how we are STEALING from you. That’s hardly what is happening here. I flew to New York to close up our office there since we can no longer afford to have it and we were given free tickets to the VMAs…that isn’t something you pay for.
But to avoid continuing this extremely stressful and anxiety inducing conversation over $800, I am going to call my dad whom I barely speak to and ask to borrow it to pay you since asking an employee to withhold a paycheck does not suffice. I am concerned about you continuing to act irrationally on a public forum.
“She’s really trying to make us feel like the bad ones [for having asked for payment],” Bumgardner wrote in response in an email to Jezebel. “Honestly I do feel bad because I am a nice, patient person… but I have rent to pay, a cat and dog to feed, and a boyfriend who is struggling with student loan debt. My business partner can’t even afford to pay rent, and still lives with his parents while he attends community college.”
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
