In retail and customer service it's EXTREMELY common for rumors to fly. Literally everywhere I've worked (and I job hopped a lot) had divisions between certain cliques and groups, that merged and melded when they needed to work together and then chatted about each other after.

Try not to take it too hard. The longer you work there the more you'll see, and the more you'll have to chat about with coworkers about the managers when the opportunity strikes.