Retail Therapy is a raucous and darkly funny meditation on consumerism, survival, and self-worth in an era of economic decline. Through biting dialogue and immersive detail, Jess Cole crafts a vivid portrait of working life on the crumbling high street—where ambition collides with corporate indifference, and identity is both a performance and a commodity.

Set in the basement of a fading department store, the novel follows the HOTshop GIRLS as they navigate shifting sales tactics, impossible targets, and the slow erosion of their own aspirations. Between stockroom politics, relentless corporate oversight, and the absurd logic of retail, they carve out moments of wit, camaraderie, and fleeting resistance against a system designed to wear them down.

Jess Cole (she/her) is a writer based in South London. She has written for Vogue, The New York Times, The Guardian, and is a regular contributor to MARFA. Her creative practice spans dramaturgy, performance pieces, and prose. Cole finds wit—especially when it’s quick and sharp—deeply sexy, a sentiment that pulses through her writing.