Settling in to a New Position – Blog #120

In Blog# 120 I talked about my transfer to Bay Area checklist. In this blog I want to talk about settling in to a new position.

I arrive at the store the following week. I meet the two Pacesetters on the floor Andre the Palo Alto Veteran and Jeff an up and coming salesperson with a great personality. Both were great guys and made me feel really welcome. I sat down with both of them and they told me they missed sizes in the best items frequently.  

This was something I definitely was going to dig into that. The rest of the team was very welcoming. My first asst. I recognized from Arden Fair. I would chat with her more extensively later in the day when the second asst. arrived.

Salon Shoes to the Left

Over to the left of my new department was the Salon area. The buyers name was Daryl. He was a very well dress guy with a great smile on his face. I immediately liked him. He was funny and very easy going. Daryl had a great team on his side and had a great mix of merchandise. This store was known for its Ferragamo business as he built it pretty strong.

Brass Plum Shoes to the Right

To the right of my area was the Brass Plum department or “Juniors Shoes”. Terry was the buyer over there. He was a little more reserved than Daryl but he was equally a great guy. I could tell we would all get along really well. Terry and I chatted a little bit about my BP experience and looking at his floor he seemed to have it dialed. BP Shoes also had a good team over on that side, everyone was really friendly.

No Office

So I went into the back room to where my office was and compared to Arden Fair it was just a desk. It was fine for now as I probably was going to be figuring things out for the next few months. A desk area wasn’t my priority. My Clerical’s name was Stacey and she seemed really nice as well.

So far so good, Everyone I met was nice and now the real fun begins,…need to figure out why business has been bad for the last few years. I started going through the PO book to see what kind of flow we had coming in the next few months. Given the sales on some of the brands I could tell right away the quantities were probably a little light. Maybe there are reasons for that.

The rest of the day I called some of the key brands to introduce myself. I asked them if there were issues with shipping and such I should know about. How they felt about the quantities going forward. Of course most of them said they were too light lol. I was going to meet with Scott tomorrow so I could get his take on things.