Since the 1960's technological innovations and globalization have contributed to the declining numbers of manufacturing jobs. At the same time, the service sector has grown exponentially. This development has created a demand for more low-skill, low-wage jobs and fewer high-skill, high-paying jobs (Macdonald and Sirianni 1996). Retail workers comprise a key part of the growing service sector. Currently, retail work is the largest and one of the lowest-paid occupations in the U.S. My dissertation is an ethnography of a large, nationally renowned department store where I conducted 17 months of participant observation and 35 in-depth interviews with Latina and white female sales associates. My dissertation analyzes why women choose this job, how the department store deploys technology to develop new forms of labor control and how the retail workers/sales associates develop forms of resistance to craft a space to develop their social and cultural capital while juggling juggle work and family responsibilities. I find that the structure of sales work at the department store and the social interactions that emerge limit workers' objective forms of mobility, as defined by pay raises, promotions, and the ability to acquire skills that can be transferred to other jobs. Despite the low pay and limited opportunities for promotions, the majority of the workers perceive retail work at this department store as a form of subjective mobility they value such as working in a clean environment where a professional presentation of self is emphasized. A critical feature of this work is that a narrative of mobility is presented by the organization as possible although in reality, it is rarely achieved. This study broadens our understanding of processes of mobility and stratification in retail work that is service-oriented.