Example 1.
I decided to interview Gaby, one of my friends who works for a boutique at the farmer’s market for almost a year now. She typically works at the register but has also been able to expand beyond that position into involving herself more with the brand. Gaby usually works open-close shifts where she is mainly responsible for keeping the store tidy and attending to customers. The boutique typically gets new shipments during the weekday and she is responsible for hanging and steaming these garments and accessories for the manager to tag. When there’s slow foot traffic, she is encouraged to merchandise the accessories table as well as the racks. Before closing, she typically cleans up and spaces the racks.
One of the benefits Gaby has experienced from this job is the ability to gain knowledge about what it’s like to contribute to the growth of a brand. The business has been open since 2013 but has really been prioritizing its online presence these days and Gaby has been able to help with that by taking pictures wearing the new styles that come in, generating more traffic on the site. Additionally, she will pick items off the racks once an online purchase is made and set them aside to ship.
Gaby believes that a degree will only open new doors for her in retail and moving forward with pursuing a higher position such as assistant manager/manager. To be a manager, Gaby strongly suggests getting involved with the brand as it will create trust between you and the brand. Lastly, she suggests learning about the business you are interested in managing.
Example 2.
I have had the opportunity to Interview my brother in law, Jonathan, who is the Manager at Dicks Sports & Goods in Flowermound. Jonathan has been with his company for about six years now. The position started off as Cashier and over time he was given the Manager role which has showed him many new experiences in his field, especially working in retail. On a daily basis he deals with customers, internal employees, vendors, suppliers, you name it. I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to question what his day to day duties and work flow look like. Below you will see the questions I thought were the most interesting to pick for Jonathan’s interview.
For the first two questions, I asked Jonathan, “What is the average day like in your position and what advice do you have for someone who wants to be a Manager?” To start off with the first question, Jonathan stated that the average day in his position consisted of clocking in, checking his voicemail and emails for all updates of the day including employees schedules, making rounds around the store to make sure everything looks presentable for the customers, verifying all accounts with the registers, attending customer needs when they need to reach him, attending his employees needs when they also need to reach him, checking the scheduling again for his workers to make sure everyone is coming in or making sure everyone is covered for their shifts and so on. Just by hearing how he explained everything in detail made me think how much he does do in his role. For the second question, Jonathan said that the only advice he has for someone that wants to be a Manager is to make sure you are ready for multitasking, have patience with your employees and requests, and to love what you do.
The last two questions that I asked were, “Would you consider working in Retail a demanding job field and what are the beneifts and drawbacks in working in retail?” To answer the first one, Jonathan said that working in retail is actually demanding. Especially when it comes to his store, there are always new products coming in, with that comes customers seeking service for the product and so on. Jonathan said, “Don’t even get me started when Christmas comes around!” I thought that was quite funny. For the last question, Jonathan said that the benefits of working at Dicks are the discounts and sometimes free items that he has access to. Of course, who wouldn’t love that! As far as drawbacks, he says that sometimes he works very long hours and those hours are always switched around at different times of the day, especially if they are short staffed. Overall, I learned alot from this Interview and thought of it as quite interesting to learn the ins and outs of his views on retailing. I looked online and read on a website known as www.signifyd.com with a title that reads, The State of Commerce 2022, and I quote, “Inside the Retail’s reset after the chaos of Covid. You’d think 2022 would be a time for retailers to rest after two years of scrambling during a pandemic that saw rapid-fire ecommerce growth and dramatic change in consumers’ habits and preferences.But reatil doesn’t take a breath.” That alone shows me that yes, retail is high demanding, even after Covid for example. There will always be that flow of demand. From this interview, I have learned so much and I am looking forward to learning more throughout this course.
