Retail Therapy

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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 C ole 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. Themes of class, power, and precarity thread through the novel, as Cole exposes the quiet desperation beneath the surface of everyday transactions. With razor-sharp humour and unflinching honesty, Retail Therapy captures the exhaustion of late capitalism—where even escape feels like something that must be bought and sold. Experimental PlayReleased July 2025 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. In 2025, Worms Publishing brings a cohort of experimental writers to the literary top-soil with the introduction of a new series of books, written by London’s emerging visionaries of the literary, dramatic and poetic. Conceptualised with a shared recognition on how words can bridge and bind, we are thrilled to announce the series, Silk. Working across form and genre to showcase writers outside of conventional publishing, Worms endeavours to support and cultivate underrepresented voices with a focus on female and non-binary authors and artists. Publication date: December 2025 (Second Edition)180 × 110 mm | 180 pagesPaperbackISBN: 978-1-0369-1417-2 Show more