Emo Fashionz

Emo Fashionz is a small-scale, Gothic-ish niche market boutique catering to the darker interests of Emoguins and Gothguins, be they authentic or simple wannabes. There are four Emo Fashionz stores, all in South Pole City. The company fears further branching out because really going corporate violates the non-conformist creeds found in certain sects of Gothicism.

In line with its anti-commercialization creed and roots, Emo Fashionz is incorporated as a non-profit organization. This means that all money is reinvested into the company and its mission, as opposed to be split to the owners or shareholders. By reinvesting their capital, the small store has remained in business through focusing on its customers above its bottom line.

Agent Meltie is a frequent customer, and the store is popular amongst the gothic subculture. It is most famous for its accountant, though, a prim-and-proper penguin that, by most any account should hate his employers. He doesn't, though.

Background
Emo Fashionz was founded in 2008 by four ethnic Gothguins, two adhering Emoguins, and one poser, all of whom were disappointed in the fact that they had trouble finding clothes and accessories that suited their tastes. The depressed bunch pooled their resources and decided to found a company that would cater specially to their alternative lifestyle.

There was one problem, though. The mainstream stance on things, the corporate world, and anything that really involved money or business was frowned upon under classical Goth teachings. It was because of this, then, that the group decided to hire an accountant to perform all of the "mess" that "the establishment" thrusted upon them.

They did not want the establishment controlling them, not even in secret.

They turned to an aged, ethnic Prepguin- of all things -to assist them, one named Johnathan Welf. They were lucky, because this Prepguin was impressively tolerant of what is usually one of the main mortal enemies of their race. (These enemies being the nerds, the greaseballs, and the Gothics.) He was made their accountant, though he prefers the term "CFO". The gothics rolled with it (or, as they said, "whatever").

Though they often clash because of their very nature, Jonathan and his employers are actually friends, though other Prepguins are appalled and other Gothics and what-not tend to treat him rudely when he's assisting in a store.

Products available
Typical Emoguin and Gothguin clothing is available, as well as makeup, comic books, stuffed black puffles, Waddle-Verse sneakers, Coo-Coo-Ka-Shoe charms, socks, skinny jeans, and more. When Snowtendo created Veranda's Tables, this was the first location it could be purchased from.

In 2009, it was rumored that they were selling Vam shirts. Xet went undercover as a teenage Gothguin and found it was true. Vam shirts with the quote, "French Toast Likes Me!" were selling like nuts. Xet bought them all and destroyed them. After that, they never received any more shipments.

In 2010, the "Emoguin" phase took over and penguins as young as ten were storming the shop. Almost all the fresh shipments they set out in the morning were gone by noon. The workers decided to embrace the Emoguin life with sales. They requested shipments of new things like different comic books, CDS, different shoes, and more! Pretty soon, the rate of shipments being like they were never there to begin with was about two seconds.

After the Emoguin phase began to die down, it was business as usual. They tried to sell the Vam shirts again, but Xet came and yelled at them, so that wasn't an option again.

Corporate governance
Emo Fashionz is unique in the fact that it is a non-profit organization. This means that all money is reinvested into the company and its mission, as opposed to being split to the owners or shareholders. By reinvesting their capital, the small store has remained in business through focusing on its customers above its bottom line, as well as violating their own belief system.

To overcome this, they arranged their boards of directors in a method normally reserved to tiny little community banks, and created the voting system from stores with systems similar to GoodyMart. Each member in Emo Fashionz was also an "owner" of the store for legal purposes, and possessed one vote that could make or break the directors.

In the sense of membership, only members can purchase Emo Fashionz items. Patrons can acquire a Membership card at the cashier's counter at the very front of the store for free. The Gothic owners of this store only use Membership cards for the voting system. Denying anyone the right to shop would be "conforming to other businesses", so the cards are simply handed out.

So far, the members have voted for the same creatures time and time again (the initial founders). Johnathan was hired with a contract stating that he can not be fired.

Corporate image
That would be a trick question. Emo Fashionz does not have a corporate image.  Conforming, even to the non-conformists, is against the shop's code of conduct. Therefore, the store does not require its employees to dress in any particular way, nor does it maintain how the store should look. An elected owner of an Emo Fashionz branch could color it pink and green, for all they care, and the only way to change it would be having the members vote that owner out and hope the new one has more Goth-esque tastes.

However, because of its nature, no Emo Fashionz currently has this problem. Gothics tend to elect Gothics as directors, so the stores are as black and misunderstood as ever.

Trivia

 * Agent Meltie is a big fan of the store (and obviously a member) and reccomends it to all her friends.


 * Thinking that he would please his brother in doing so, TurtleShroom (penguin) has offered several times to purchase Emo Fashionz under either Holyberden or GoodyMart, promising stores all across the continent and to make Emo Fashionz a household name. ProxyShroom himself has criticized TurtleShroom for this, and still can't explain the tenents of Gothicism to the stubborn bird. Anti-commercalization and countering "The Man" never really resonated with any of the Jones Family.


 * Although not all of them are active or have even shopped more than once, there are over 50,000 members of Emo Fashionz. However, since most Emo Fashionz members received a card to purchase one item or were tourists, and since they never came back, they don't usually respond to the biannual voting sheets. Eliminating one-timers and rare patrons, there are an estimated 7,000 active members- AKA shoppers that visit at least twice a month -in the company, and of these, between 2,000 and 5,000 vote.


 * Membership cards are for life, free, and do not need renewing.


 * Their T-shirts are low quality and tend to get holes or fading images.