Why Waste Time Not Being Happy?

Hi everyone,

Not sure what week this is, time just seems to be flying by lately and honestly I treat summer as a countdown to NSO more than anything else. I don't think I posted last week but I wanted to make sure to tell you all about the wonderful team lunch we had with Barbara Polla, the mother to my boss Ada. I had heard that Swiss people were generally happy,- or was that Finnish people? Either way, Barbara might be the happiest woman I have ever met. The woman is in her sixties but approaches life with more energy and positivity than I do at my young 19 years of age. She was just so very exuberant and genuinely interested in every single thing that anyone had to say. She had an striking presence, you couldn't miss her if you tried- well this may have been due to the fire engine red dress she wore-but still, she was quite a woman.

The team lunch was in NYC last Tuesday so me and Kate, my coworker and Ada's assistant, took the (freezing cold) Amtrak into the city and met Ada, Barbara, Catherine(our PR girl) and her new intern Cristi(on a special program from Costa Rica). We dined on Park Ave. at a lovely restaurant with yellow walls, clearly the name escapes me, but they served yummy bread. We talked mostly about Alchimie, Barbara explained its history and how she and her husband Luigi started the first laser clinic in Geneva and how this developed into a skin care line led by her daughter. We mused about the importance of looking at employees as comrades rather than subjects. Me and Cristi jabbered endlessly about Penn, apparently its her dream school! Win. She is also thinking about Georgetown, I was quick to push that thought out of her head.

But as I said, no matter what it was that we talked about , Barbara was so thoroughly invested in everyone's opinions, enthusiastically leaning over the table to both hear better and show her interest in your answer to her numerous questions.

Kate commented on how happy she was and her answer is what made me love her even more. “What else should I be? Why waste time not being happy?” Amazing. The woman is amazing, and honestly she is so right. Why spend time being sad,stressed,nervous? Life is short. I'm definitely going to carry that along with me throughout life and especially during the school year when I get down about classes, extracurriculars, family, etc. I've just got to remember, time is never wasted when you're in a good mood.

Until next time,
Nanette

ps. here's an interview my boss Ada did awhile ago, watch it if you want to learn more about the company:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aJt0pdh0Kw

LF USA: Weeks 3-5

Hello,

So while quite clearly my goal of posting weekly completely fell apart, I fully intend on making up for it by blogging more often this week. What has happened is that basically both my regular work/group project and regular schedule has filled up completely with the holidays, family visits and events, friends' birthday etc. Sorry! To come back on a fun note, I totally did not get to post any pictures from the annual Lif & Fung Picnic. This year was extra special, since the company is celebrating its 105th anniversary with picnics across all international hubs starting in Guangzhou (where the company was founded) and ending in Hong Kong (current HQ). Because LF USA is made up of about 16 different acquired companies, it was crazy to see all 2,000+ employees come together with their families and enjoy the fun atmosphere as one, big entity.

More updates on my e-commerce project and work in production to come shortly!

xx,

Marlena

Bookings, bookings, and more bookings...

Hi everyone!

Things have begun to calm down here on the third floor of MJ Headquarters.  Market has been over for a while, and the orders are starting to finalize.  We still check the "bookings", or orders, everyday; usually three or four times a day, believe it or not, just to make sure things are up to date.  This has become one of my primary jobs: comparing old bookings to new ones, as in this morning's print-out compared to this afternoon's print-out which is later compared to this evening's print-out.  Sounds a little redundant?  I thought so too, but now I'm starting to realize there is indeed a point to this madness.  Detailed reports are requested at any minute of the day from the executives, merchandising team, finance department, sales room down the hall...you name it, someone's asking for it.  Everyone wants (and needs) to know what's going on at all times, because important decisions are often made on the spot.  This includes closing a door (somewhat technical name for a store open in a certain region or country), dropping a product (whether a whole style is cancelled or just a color), or fixing an error that could prevent orders from going through.  So careful (and often) checking is indeed necessary.

Besides checking these infamous orders (finally, they're starting to balance out and stay the same!) I have been putting together reports that contrast this year's sales with last year's sales, all in hopes of coming up with reasonable forcasts and predictions for the upcoming season we're about to start working on (Spring 2012). 

One thing I've been noticing lately is how important it is to double check your work.  Reading emails, reports, or orders with even the smallest typos completely negates any authority the writer has over the subject matter at hand.  Maybe I'm being too tough, but when I hand in something I've spent hours on only to have it handed back to me thirty seconds later because a small color coding is incorrect, I can see how important this is.  If this is one thing I take away learning from this internship, I know it'll be useful in my college career and even more important in my professional life.  With that being said, you can probably guess I spent a great deal of time today checking over numerous excel files to make sure they were perfect--and when I can hand it in to my boss with confidence and see her smile of approval, it's all worth it!

Hoping to dodge this sporatic New York rain on my way home...talk to you soon!

Alex

Week 4: Photo Shoot in the West Village

Hi again!

A lot has happened since I last wrote, but I think the most interesting thing to describe is the photo shoot I went to last Tuesday. I went downtown to the West Village with the creative intern, Hannah, to Industria Studios. Inside Studio 6 was a wide open space with big windows and panels set up in various corners. A long table had a great breakfast spread and later, gourmet lunch. There was an area sectioned off with bright lights for makeup, manicures/pedicures, hair, dressing, etc.

The shoot we got to spend a lot of time watching was men's sweaters and coats. It was only two models standing together in front of a gray screen. Stylists and creative directors surrounded them without shoes on (as to not dirty the backdrop that continued below their feet). I thought it was so interesting how models have

to be okay with other people doing everything for them - meaning that they can't fix their hat themselves (for example); someone has to take his or her shoes off, run over, and fix the hat without asking the model "May I?" There were constantly people re-tousling the models' hair, re-pinning their jackets (with paper clips and binder clips in the back!), and re-tying their shoes.

Music was playing in the background to make the posing more fluid for the models. I heard that this particular photographer, Peggy, is known for making the models feel very comfortable. She had a small rolling chair behind the camera and was dancing from her seat in between every shot. At the same time, she continued to glance over at another screen that showed her previous shots to see what they'd look like in print. (She's the one standing in light green).

One interesting thing to see was all of the different posses that were there. I'd guess that half the people at the shoot really didn't have a function at all. Maybe except for getting the photographer Li-Lac chocolates when she wanted them.

All in all it was a really cool experience. It did involve lots of sitting around and waiting for hair and makeup, but while waiting we got great food and I was able to talk to some of the models. The guys were both really down-to-earth regular people - not what I would have expected. It seems like we put models up on a pedestal, like a separate type of human... no more for me! One of them was telling me about how he sweats profusely when he has to do sweater shots outside during the summer.

Anyway, this is an outing I'll never forget. I feel so lucky to have been included. I have my supervisor, Lauren, to thank for that.

Thanks for reading!

Keri

Dancing with ‘the Cat’

As a merchandising intern, I quickly realized that the relationship between a vendor and a buyer forms the foundation of the retail business. My buyers have allowed me to meet with many of their vendors, each with a different personality—most times in line with the company image. I have to say the most interesting vendor visit so far was with Puma.

I intern with the active wear department, where a heavy emphasis is placed on the sneaker brands. Many of these sneaker brands are located within the New England area: Saucony, Reebok, New Balance, and Puma.

Puma has this brand image of being urban and modern. I fully expected the U.S. headquarters to be outside of an urban metropolis, but it was quite difference from my expectations. My buyer picked me up at 8AM for forty-minute drive to Puma. While I was expecting a trip through urban-suburban commercial developments, we actually traveled on some of the most scenic routes I have ever been on. We passed farmlands tucked between forests, misting lakes, and even the historic Lexington and Concord. Puma was tucked away in a nondescript business park full of wooden paneling. The building, looking very similar to a white version of the Puma shoebox, stuck out like a sore thumb.

We signed in at the front with coffee and treats in tow—ice breakers. The vendor met us and took us into the Puma auditorium, and into a showroom cleverly hidden behind billboard walls. The games began.

The first half an hour of the meeting was dedicated to a conversation that fell in between the warm enthusiasm of reunited friends and the cool professionalism of business partners. I was astounded by the details both the buyer and the vendor were able to recall about each other. It became evident that, to a certain extend, my buyer and her vendor cared about each other—a care that stemmed from a business partnership, but out of necessity extended into their personal lives as well. After the quick catch up, the conversation smoothly transitioned into business. The Cat, as Puma is frequently referred to, no longer sat tame.

The vendor started off the discussion with: cotton prices are up, poly prices are up, tariffs are up (at this point, I was expecting prices to be up 50%)—BUT we were able to hold most of your prices steady with the exception of a few items. The vendor was very good at what she does, but my buyer knew the game well. My buyer glossed over prices all together as she intended to leave negotiations till later. We focused in on the styles.

There is a general misconception that off-price retailers like TJX (T.J.Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, etc.) only buy dated items through closeouts. I found that was not the case at all. A lot of product, especially in the active wear department are in season and purchased directly from the vendors. Of course, sometimes, the buyers have to turn a blind eye to the margins made on these products because the stores must carry the brands at great value to the customer. Puma is a company whose product we really want for our customers, and are willing to purchase at very questionable margins to our company.

While we were choosing the styles from Puma, I realized that buyers at TJX not only purchased goods for the company, but they were also designers and innovators. Puma provided us with the styles they were going to produce for us, but the buyer decided on the color story and silhouettes. The buyers were extremely well versed in current trends and consistently applied their knowledge. Of course, their view of the trends is not only based on magazines and blogs like so many of us fashion fanatics, but their decisions are also based on sales numbers. TJX has an amazing, in-depth system that tracks the selling of styles and colors to a t. At Puma, the buyers applied all of this knowledge and created a beautiful Spring 2012 Puma collection for our stores.

Deciding on the styles took the majority of our day. I was anxious to see how we would tie back to pricing at the end. What surprised me was, we skipped the pricing all together! I later learned that buyers and vendors generally discussed and finalized prices and quantities over the phone rather than in-person.

The trip to Puma gave me a taste of the dynamic lifestyle of a buyer and the 1001 different hats the buyers of an off-price retailer has to wear.

Next time, I promise to take pictures!

Target Week 4: Fast, Fun, and Friendly

One of Target's brand values is being "fast, fun, and friendly." Around headquarters, the acronym "FFF" (much faster than saying all three words) is used to describe both the culture and the many events planned to make Target a great place to work. As an employee, this means finishing meetings as soon as everything has been said (instead of dragging them on longer), having weekly team lunches & breakfasts, and taking the time to get to know our fellow team members.

Every Monday we have a team meeting, which always begins with a 5 minute FFF event before diving into financial updates. Last week, we raced to finish a word search for all of the categories in produce (stone fruit, mushrooms, etc.). This week, we shared our plans for the 4th of July weekend. There are also monthly FFF larger events, like last Friday's perishables mini-golf competition. Each department (produce, fresh meat, deli/bakery, etc.) designed their own par 4 hole using materials from around the office, and then we played through for the floor championship. The produce team won!

This week, as we continue to work on our project, we have had the opportunity to meet with a wide variety of people on our floor. It is really cool to have visibility to so many different roles at Target as an intern: buyers, managers, division heads, supply chain experts, organizational effectiveness team members, etc. The most common entry level job here is a Business Analyst (BA) on the Merchandise Planning team, but after spending a couple years as a BA, there are all sorts of career paths and jobs - Target is definitely an exciting place to work!

Week 3...or Week 4? Who's counting anyways...

Hi all,

This week was pretty uneventful in terms of new things happening at the show room, but in terms of epiphanies, I HAD ONE. I had a most liberating revelation this week. One of those revelations you're probably supposed to have like way before you get to college and decide you're going to business school but who cares...

Anyways so I applied to Penn thinking, well I'm not 100% sure, but I think I'd like to get into the fashion and beauty industries, maybe do some work for fashion and beauty/health magazines, anything like that. I didn't see being in the College, the Engineering school, or the Nursing school being the path to that, sooooo, I figured I'd do Wharton. I've always been interested in fashion, used to do some designing of my own. Love the cosmetology industry, I buy makeup like it's my job, so I always figured those were the avenues for me, business is good for everything so I welcomed the fact that that was where my future was headed.

As I wrote about in my last post, one of my projects at Alchimie is to do Daily Clippings, snippets of current beauty industry news. One of the primary sources for these is Womens Wear Daily, a world renowned magazine that publishes stories on the beauty,fragrance,fashion, and retail industries. I troll the website for interesting stories, and let me tell you, EVERY STORY IS INTERESTING.

But back to my revelation. I realized that I'm always telling people that I really love fashion and that I really love makeup, but it hit me this week, What do I really know about fashion and beauty? I know the big designers that everyone else knows, Marc Jacobs, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, etc , but there are hundreds of smaller designers that are just as prominent in any particular season, there are fashion houses whose staff are famous for particular styles or particularly famous lines for a particular season and much more. There is so much competition within the beauty and skincare industries, with Estee Lauder leading the charge and various other companies, both domestic and foreign, elbowing out the competition and creating room and support for themselves among consumers.

It became so clear to me this week, that to claim to have an interest in something, you have to do the research behind it. You have to put work into learning about it. I learned that despite what I claimed my interests to be, there was no way I could actually hold my ground in any type of conversation, debate, what have you on these topics.

So I've decided to spend this summer broadening my knowledge of all things beauty,retail, fashion, etc. I shall become a connoisseur of sorts, or at least try.

But that's all for now folks, til next time,

Nanette

P.S

check out the website!
http://www.wwd.com/

the subscription is a hefty price, but SO worth it.

End of Week 3: Lauren and working in-store

Hello again!

I'm reporting back on the exciting opportunities from the end of last week. On Wednesday all 36 interns went across town to 39th and 7th where the Lauren by Ralph Lauren Show Room is.

It was extremely pristine. Nothing but clear drinks were allowed onto the floor. I'm not quite sure how literally they meant that. Club soda? Tonic water? Vodka?

Along with the fact that we were seeing new styles for the fall before anyone else, it was also cool to pay attention to how the rooms were set up. The stylists have to create scenes that depict to the buyers how the clothing will be worn. They

also have separate rooms for different parts of the country. California and Florida are especially differentiated. I think we also had a great experience because Ralph Lauren has a very good relationship with Bloomingdale's. That's where he first sold clothing and is willing to do lots of exclusives for the store. If a buyer sees something they like but want to alter, Lauren is very accommodating whether it's colors, length, or size adjustments.

On Thursday all of the interns worked in the 59th Street store. Before the store opened, from 9-10am, there was a "Loss Prevention Shoplifters Fashion Show." They set up a runway surrounded by fold up chairs on the fourth floor and employees strutted down the aisle wearing the designers that have been stolen the most from the store. They were also accessorized with lots of security tags all over the clothing. The clothes they were wearing bulged with extra items stuffed underneath that they pulled out as they passed. The idea was to remind employees how important preventing shortages is, but to also have fun with it.

During the day we were each paired with a store manager to shadow. I was assigned to Mens' Suits, a department I know nothing about. It was particularly interesting because this department is comprised of extremely expensive purchases. Seeing the work that the salespeople do behind the scenes to stay in contact with their loyal customers was incredible. Whether it was sending out letters or making calls when new styles come in, the Bloomingdale's employees were on top of everything. By 5pm I could not wait to get off my feet and relax.

I'm so impressed and have newfound respect for salespeople. There's so much more to it than I ever would have guessed. They treated us all to Forty Carrots frozen yogurt after our long day. Martha, another Penn intern in the Women's RTW dept., was lovin the M&M's :)

Right now I'm working on sweepstakes and giveaways at work. Eleven winners were chosen from thousands who posted pictures of themselves on the Bloomingdale's page wearing certain items. Those eleven are being flown into New York for a weekend in August and having personal shoppers help them pick out $5,000 worth of merchandise from the store. They get all sorts of extra prizes as well, like Jimmy Choo sunglasses, Lagos jewelry, and Jo Malone fragrances.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to a photo shoot downtown where images for the upcoming fall campaign are being shot. The actress Amber Heard is the primary in the shoot. It's going to be my first time at anything like this, and I can't wait to see it!

Until next time,

Keri

Update from Marc Jacobs

Hi everyone!

My apologies for the late posting!  These first few weeks at Marc Jacobs were crazy.  I started my internship on the eve of Market, which is basically when the lines (rtw clothing, handbags, collection handbags, etc.) are beginning to be finalized and buyers from around the world are coming into see previews and place their orders.  Those first two weeks were nothing short of staying till 8 or 9 (not exactly the best idea since I'm commuting back and forth to New Jersey every day), working on the weekend, and ordering large amounts of food for the office to share.  Since I'm in the business planning department, I have been working since day one with people to edit reports and help finalize these plans.  I have also gotten to see orders coming in more recently from around the world, which has been really interesting.  Being able to see the differences (and similarities) in what people order for different countries (or even between regions of countries) is fascinating.  The orders from Asia were my favorite though; I've been studying Chinese throughout grade school and now at Penn and I love looking at trends and what's popular, especially in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.  Some of the words on the order documents even came up in Chinese, which was a huge excitement for me.

My daily tasks can include anything from editing these orders and matching them with our reports to organizing sales reports from various stores around the country.  I also put together and edit books to display past lines and present lines, with pictures and colors of each item (these are always fun to look at).  One of the more exciting things I've gotten to do is attend a sales meeting with representatives from different departments.  I listened as they discussed how the brand was doing in different department stores as well as against various competitors.  I also got to attend a viewing of the Resort 2011 line for Women's Ready To Wear at the off-site studio (normally this would be held at the headquarters, but this summer they are doing renovations). This was probably my favorite day, because not only did I get a sneak peak at what will be in stores starting in October, but the merchandisers and designers also explained their inspiration and reason for the pieces they created and the colors and materials they chose.

The energy in the office and the people who work here are great too.  Everyone is so fashionable (as you would probably expect) and no outfit I've seen so far seems too outrageous for the office.  All the employees are so obsessed with the brand--which makes for great dedication and loyalty to the company.  So far I'm absolutely loving every minute of being here.  Even if there are a few minutes of down time, there is something always coming up that needs to be done.  One thing I've learned is that you can never offer yourself and your assistance too often.  Even if it is something as simple as offering to do a coffee run, everything is appreciated.  And every task you're given is another opportuntity to learn something new! 

More updates to come!  Until next time,

Alex

Target! Week 3

Sorry for the delay! These past few weeks have flown by - it's hard to believe I've already finished a quarter of my internship!

I am working at Target Corporation this summer in the Merchandise Planning pyramid, which is located at their downtown Minneapolis headquarters. I have been very pleasantly surprised by the size and sophistication of this city; it is definitely very young and filled with fun things to do! I am living on the University of Minnesota campus with the nearly 300 other relocating summer interns.

The first couple weeks of the internship involved lots of training. The first week, our classes were fairly general, on topics from the Retail industry to Target-specific computer programs, which are used to track sales and every other metric imaginable. Last week, we were trained on the specific systems used in the Grocery division (where I'm working) and the nuances of managing the Perishables business. Since this is my first internship working in retail, I've really enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about the industry and what makes Target different as a company. Target headquarters definitely has a very unique, collaborative culture, which I will talk about in an upcoming blog post. I am still absolutely amazed that the 5% of its profits Target donates to the community amounts to over $3 million a week!

All business analyst interns at Target work on a strategic group project that affects one of the divisions of the company. I am lucky enough to be using everything I've learned as an OPIM concentration (lots and lots of Excel!) working on a project related to inventory management in the Produce department. This is our second week really diving into the project, and I am already surprising myself with the amount I have learned so far. Also, one of the cool perks of working in Produce is getting to sample the products our department buys whenever a vendor comes to visit - today we got peaches and nectarines from a fruit vendor!