The Penalty Box

The Penalty Box is a sporting goods store in the Galleria Mall owned and managed by Coach Halder. It is where Jen works for the entirety of the series (with the exception of "Take This Job and Squeeze It," which starts with her working at the Big Squeeze). As a result, the Penalty Box is one of the more frequent settings in the show, rivaling the Khaki Barn in its number of appearances.

At the store, Jen is allegedly the hardest worker and one of the best salespersons. Despite this, her abilities are infrequently recognized by Coach Halder. This may be related to her actions early on in the show, however, as she skipped out on work in "The Big Sickie" and stole a jacket (which she later returned) in "The Five Finger Discount." In the first instance she ended up being put on a longer probationary period, and in the second instance she was put on probation again after having gotten off of probation. Both of these early escapades may have convinced Coach Halder that Jen was not trustworthy, which may be why Jen's efforts at work are infrequently recognized. Furthermore, when Jen was promoted to Assistant Coach (the store's name for Assistant Manager) in "Wrestlemania," she ordered a thousand sets of wrestling gear that the store came very close to taking a huge loss on.

One of the more interesting aspects of the store is the existence of an actual penalty box inside of it. This box is used to punish employees who have broken one of the store's many rules. In the store that Jen works at, Coach Halder sets the rules and uses them to punish employees for actions that irritate him personally, such as wearing mismatched socks or talking about love. As the Penalty Box is implied to be a franchised chain store, it is unknown whether the rules are set solely by the proprietors of their respective stores or whether there is a general rulebook handed out to franchisees.

At the store, all employees are required to wear referee uniforms and the salespeople are referred to as some type of coach. Coach Halder, as the manager and owner of the store, is ostensibly the head coach; assistant managers are assistant coaches, sales associates are customer coaches, and trainees are assistant customer coaches. Because of this, it is unknown whether Coach Halder actually coaches a sport or whether he simply likes the appellation of "coach."

Trivia

 * Coach Halder has a longstanding rule against showing affection while in the store or at work for the Penalty Box.
 * In "The Fake Date," it is revealed that the Penalty Box throws a huge staff party every year with an expensive prize given away at the end of the night.
 * Jonesy worked at the store in "Bring It On" and proved to be a more adept salesperson than Jen when it came to hocking sporting equipment.
 * In "The One with the Cold Sore," the Penalty Box served as the filming site of the movie.
 * it’s also one of Chudd Chudders’s Bang On Or Bogus questions on Skatoony, in which he says that Jen works there.