Maya Vargas (Jennifer Lopez) is the assistant manager at the Value Shop store she has worked at for several years. During that time, she dramatically improved sales, customer relations, and general store culture through her intuitive and innovative methods. She is awaiting a store visit by an executive of her company (Mr. Weiskopf), and anxiously hoping to be promoted to manager. Her boyfriend, Trey (Milo Ventimiglia), co-workers and several regular customers all assure her she’s guaranteed to get the promotion, but instead she’s passed up in favor of Arthur (Dan Bucatinsky), a non-local company employee with an MBA from Duke. Mr. Weiskopf explains that while he values Maya’s dedication and success, she only has her GED and no college degree which makes her ineligible for the promotion by company policy. Maya is bitterly disappointed, but she reluctantly agrees to stay on as Arthur's second-in-command at the store.