SEATTLE, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Wet Seal, once one of the top retailers for American teens, is facing public backlash from recently-fired employees after closing stores around the country without advanced warning.
The embittered trend apparently began at a Wet Seal in Seattle's Northgate Mall, where employees displayed in the store's front window the reasons they felt wronged by Wet Seal for the abrupt closure notice.
Among the offenses itemized by former employees were dissolution of owed paid vacation and sick days, no transfer assistance and only providing a single day's notice of termination for seven employees with a combined 33 years on the job. The sign also features the hashtags #ForgetWetSeal and #BoycotWetSeal, which quickly took off on Twitter.
Show your support for Wet Seal employees! #forgetwetseal #boycottwetseal pic.twitter.com/D2qE6tATim
— Kyle J (@kylejasinski) January 5, 2015The public shaming by the Northgate Mall's former Wet Seal employees also struck a chord at other locations around the country, with stores in Atlanta, Dayton and Norfolk posting signs describing similar unfair treatment in the wake of its consistent financial shortcomings.
Wet seal wildddddddddddddd they closed down the store in stonecrest pic.twitter.com/zhVxM3OtOf
— YANAGLIZZY' (@Dreadheadyana) January 5, 2015Another Wet Seal protest sign at another failing mall store (xpost from /r/dayton, Ohio) via /r/pics ... pic.twitter.com/yLMueJrKn4
— Reddit Pics (@redditpicsbot) January 5, 2015And another. Wet Seal in Norfolk, VA. via /r/pics http://t.co/IJ14AyXtvd #pics pic.twitter.com/cAOBx7dbfS
— Reddit Pics (@redditpicsbot) January 5, 2015It is unclear if those other locations were subject to similar last-minute closings or if they were posted in solidarity with the Seattle-area location.
