One womans midcareer misadventures in the absurd world of American retail After losing her job as a journalist and the security of a good salary Caitlin Kelly was hard up for cash When she saw that The North Face-an upscale outdoor clothing company-was hiring at her local mall she went for an interview almost on a whim Suddenly she found herself middle-aged and mid-career thrown headfirst into the bizarre alternate reality of the American mall a world of low-wage workers selling overpriced goods to well-to-do customers At first Kelly found her part-time job fun and reaffirming a way to maintain her sanity and sense of self-worth But she describes how the unexpected physical pressures the unreasonable dictates of a remote corporate bureaucracy and the dead-end career path eventually took their toll As she struggled through more than two years at the mall despite surgeries customer abuse and corporate inanity Kelly gained a deeper understanding of the plight of the retail worker In the tradition of Nickel and Dimed Malled challenges our assumptions about the world of retail documenting one womans struggle to find meaningful work in a broken system.
