Business Trip Wrap-Up

Thursday was our last day in Greensboro and there wasn't very much left to do as the RD's spent most of the day re-arranging the floor layout side and putting their final touches on things before the photographer shot the final lay out. Since there wasn't a whole lot to do we spent more of the time working individually on our projects only taking a break to go on another DC offices visit right before lunch. Rusty didn't want to keep us any longer as there wasn't a whole lot there for us to do other than work on our projects so he let us take the rest of the day off and return to Raleigh.

Overall, I had an excellent time on our lab visit. The two things that stuck out most to me from the entire weekend was how close the Polo group was. Everyone was very accepting of us as interns and quickly included us in the jokes and conversation at dinner and in the lab. Rusty and Cynthia told us in the initial interviews as well as on several other occasions how close everyone was but I had no idea that they were this close. The second thing that stood out to me was the first class treatment that we all received on behalf of Rusty and Polo. As this was my first business trip I was not at all expecting the level of hospitality that we were shown the entire weekend. The only reason why the actual work that we did in the lab was not one of the bright portions of the trip was because Catherine and Megan and I had talked the weeks after the first lab week and I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. However, it was still and awesome experience.

Total hours: 70 hours

DC Networking

Today, Wednesday, we did a little bit of work around the lab like organizing some more of the inventory (not a whole lot). But other than that we spent a lot of time meeting some of the DC Staff and some of the other RD's that were in Greensboro for lab this week. First we talked with some of the specialists from RLX. They talked about the line, some of the complications and struggles that they have had as well as sharing some of their secrets to success and different marketing and merchandising techniques. It was interesting to hear about their experiences because RLX is a relatively new line for Ralph Lauren. We also spoke with the leather goods director. This conversation was a little more brief than the discussion with the two ladies from RLX. She discussed how the economy changes have caused them to lower the price point on some of the leather goods such as the belts. After lunch we went down to the offices of the DC and met with Marty, one of the specialist in the operations department. This was really interesting to me because his job was very similar to what I would like to be doing. Unfortunately, he mentioned that they haven't hired anyone anytime soon and weren't planning on it either. Marty gets to travel a lot with his job which really really interests me as this is something that I aspire to do in my life. We finished up the day by spending some time working on our projects until we finished working for the day.

My First Business Trip

Tuesday morning the interns and I arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina for our lab week. This is my first official business trip (although we have called Frisbee tournaments in the past "business trips") thus far in my professional life. Tuesday started out by meeting the other interns, Rusty, and Tony at the lab in the DC. There were several Regional Directors there as well that I have not had the pleasure of meeting yet because I missed the last lab week. Anyway, today at the lab we started by unpacking some of the items for the fall line to be released in August as well as took inventory for everything that was brought up to the lab. We also had the pleasure to sit in on a meeting between all the RD's and Brett Banks in which they discussed different layouts, merchandising schemes, and color combinations to incorporate with the new directives. This portion of the day I found extremely interesting. We finished working at 7 and all went to dinner together. The destination tonight was Lucky 32's. Most of the RD's sat at a table together allowing the interns, Rusty, and Tony to sit together and discuss the happenings of the day. Upon returning to the hotel, I was astonished. I hadn't imagined us staying in a hotel this nice; it truly was an awesome experience that got me excited about beginning my professional career soon.

Big Momma

Big Momma
Big Momma
Big Momma
Big Momma
Big Momma
Big Momma
Petite
Petite
Petite

Today, Thursday, we spent the day in women's wear at Crabtree Mall. This was a very very interesting day for me; I usually am a little slower than the girls to pick up on a lot of the things that we do in the stores because they do a lot of the things we do in class, but now that were in the ladies department I am extremely lost. Women's wear is split into 3 divisions - petite, lauren, and today's women. We started the day in petite and re-arranged some of the fixtures and such there. Most of the product in womens is hung up so there weren't many issues with standards, mostly just work with fixtures and displays.

The Lauren area of Belk was well maintained and we didn't do a whole lot of work in this section aside from doing some work with standards as well as tightening up some of the displays. We also prepared the store for the arrival of the next new line.

In the "Big Momma" also known as Today's Woman, we re-dressed some of the manikins and displays as well as fixed a lot of the standards. Pictures of what we did are shown above. Once again there was another first for me today - using a steamer...I've had lots of firsts with this amazing opportunity in the form of an internship.

Big and Tall

Secondary Concept Table After
Secondary Wall Display After
Primary Wall Display and Primary Concept Table After


BIG AND TALL
Primary Concept Table Before
Circle Table Before

Secondary Concept Table Before

Wednesday the interns and I spent all day in the Big and Tall section on Polo at the Streets at Southpointe Mall. Essentially, we re-arranged most of the store, including the new Grey Line (as far as we knew this is was the only location in Raleigh that was fortunate enough to have this line so far). I've uploaded the before pictures as well as the after pictures so that you can see them. I actually decided earlier that morning that I will be doing my end of internship project on Big and Tall.

Recovery Day

Today was a recovery day at the Men's Store in Crabtree, in essence we were re-arranging/cleaning up from our absence last week. We moved some of the t-shirts to double expose them on the opposite side of the store. We also did some work in the dress shirts area. We re-folded and tidied up some of the shirts that were displayed. We also did some work with the ties and chose some different shirt and tie displays for this section of the store (see pictures). We also did some work on the leather display in the case by the registers. To finish off the day we talked to Tony, he was basically the man in charge with everything that concerned shipments into the store. We also met with Tyree to go over our numbers for the past week...We beat Southpark in few categories. Tomorrow, we head to Southpointe

RIG master

Today we were back at Crabtree preparing for the upcoming "holiday" rush for fathers day. Again, we did a lot of the same things as far as shifting fixtures all over the place but the highlight of the day for me was when I got to prepare my very first rig. My goal when setting it up was to follow the collection, Bohemian Summer, but I wanted to outfit him in something that I would actually wear myself. The best part was that the fun didn't stop there. We also (Megan, Catherine, and I) designed an entire display, which is also displayed. In addition to the large display shown, we also set up a smaller display in the swim wear section but it was far less impressive than the display shown. Overall this was a GREAT day - my favorite so far, hands down.

There's a first time for everything

Today we were at Southpointe Mall in Durham. Today we did things very similar to what we had done on Tuesday and Wednesday. When we first arrived we checked the sales numbers for the store the past week at this location and re-arranged things in the store to promote the healthiest sales environment. We also took a walk around the mall in the afternoon. This was a nice change in pace from the usual routine that we have experienced the first part of the week.

Our goal on our excursion was to essentially do a market analysis of other retail stores in the mall. We checked out an assortment of different stores throughout the mall after lunch to examine their different schemes as far as layout and atmosphere that the store attempts to create to attract its consumers. This little "field trip" was host to two retail first for me - first visits to Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters. Anthropologie is most definitely not a store that I would shop at, mostly because they don't carry and mens clothing. The floor as you walk in reminded me of the entrance of Cracker Barrel because of the light hardwood floor. The smell reminded me of a Bed Bath and Beyond because of all the scents from the candles and aromatic goods. All in all it was an interesting store. Urban Outfitters was a very cool store. Anthropologie is under the Urban Outfitters Umbrella except Urban Outfitters is a much more hip version of Antropologie and they carry mens clothing. I fully intend on going back to this store to shop at some point.

We lost market share!?

Today we were at Triangle Town Center's, off of Capital Blvd, Belk location. Upon arriving we all met Ellis and a host of mall staff (Lauren, Lori, Tom, and several others) that were somehow all associated in some way or another with Polo or they were at least concerned with the well being of the store. One of the first things that was brought to our attention by the upper level mall staff and Cynthia was the fact that this particular store lost some of its market share to Macy's and Dillard's at this mall. So naturally, there was only one thing to do...go investigate.

First we ventured to Dillard's where we met Andrew, the sales associate at Polo at that Dillard's. Cynthia told us that she was shocked that this store had crept up on us because their presentation is typically poor but they make up for it with lower price points and sales. However, as we approached the store I noticed that the store actually looked pretty exceptional. Andrew started working at that location about 3-4 months ago and since had gotten there had really taken it on himself to rid the store of its reputation of having a poor layout and presentation; he had done just that. The only thing that Cynthia noticed was that his manikins were not outfitted with the directives that were prepared in the labs. After asking him we realized that he didn't necessarily get the directives. He had a notebook with some up to date information and some outdated information pertaining to what the stores fixtures should look like. Other than that he was simply using his fashion knowledge to outfit the manikins and it didn't look that bad. I can see why they had a little cut into the market share at this location after visiting their shop.

Back across the mall we trekked until we arrived at Macy's. This location somehow stole a good portion of the market share and if you heard that as you were looking at the shop, it would baffle you. I'm still not actually sure how they did it honestly. We walked in and didn't see an associate at any point during our 15-20 minute visit. There were clothes all scattered around the store in what seemed like any kind of order or where ever there was space. They had the Bohemian Club items in the very back against the wall, as well as some new arrival oxford and linen shirts, and I can imagine that nothing or very little throughout the store was actually sized. The whole store just seemed "out of whack". There was a Lauren Ralph Lauren sign above the mesh shirts at their first table when there was absolutely no womens wear in their store. I even remember seeing Tommy Bahama and Nautica jeans on their jeans rack in the back. The notion that this store took a good portion of the market share away from the Polo Shop, looking like it did on our visit, was dumbfounding.

We spent the rest of the day moving fixtures and making sure everything met standards at the Polo Shop with the goal to take back our market share. Just while we were there I saw items that were barely touched in their previous positions (linen shirts) not only finally receive some attention but actually being bought and taken out the store. Its amazing to me, as a supply chain guy and a typical male shopper, how much goes into the layout of a retail floor and how affective the methods really are. Anyways, we pressed on in the shop determined to make it look ship-shape with the motivation of beating Macy's but for me that was a distraction as I thought about that most of the day. It still behooves me that they cut into the market share with that kind of service and presentation.

My First Day

Today was our first day on the job. Megan, Catherine, and I all met outside of Hudson Belk - Menswear this morning at 10 o'clock to meet Cynthia excited for what the day had in store for all of us (pun intended). The first thing that we did was meet the staff at the store in Menswear. After meeting the staff Cynthia showed us what she does every Monday. She comes in and checks over the numbers. Numbers comparing this weeks sales to last weeks sales, numbers comparing sales from this day to this day last year, and also all the numbers comparing this particular stores numbers to that of the other Polo stores across the country.

After assessing the sales figures we re-arranged items and fixtures around the store to try and push it out the door better. As this is my first experience in retail with apparel I didn't realize so much went into what outfits went onto the manikins or where different things in the store were located. Today we also learned what an acceptable folded mesh shirt looks like according to Polo standards (we got a lot of practice with this since we re-folded the entire mesh wall and some). Towards the end of the day we looked at the Polo Big and Tall area; this was located in a separate area from the shop where we were most of the day. Cynthia told us that for the most part this area ran itself which blew my mind. It was a kind of self governed area that had a very niche market and very few people perused this area. This area is the second biggest/best big and tall offering in the area! I was shocked to hear the sales numbers on big and tall as it was much more successful than it appeared.

That concluded our first day at Crabtree Valley Mall. I'm looking forward to coming back to Crabtree Friday to see if sales jumped in the areas we intended it to by moving merchandise around. Tomorrow we're heading to Triangle Town Center to work our magic over there as well.

Greensboro Visit

This past Friday was my first official day as an intern in the wonderfully intriguing world that is Polo Ralph Lauren. We met at the Eastern Distribution Center (DC) that is located in Greensboro, NC. Needless to say, I was extremely excited but nervous all at the same time. Retail was a completely new arena for me as a supply chain nerd from NC State. At least I will be surrounded with fellow students from the College of Textiles today.

We started out with presentations and breakfast in one of the conference rooms upstairs. Of course we had a company overview; I was surprised how much new information I learned during this even with my extensive research before my interview and after I got the position. Some of the other presentations that we were privileged to consisted of were a supply chain presentation and video, Mark was literally a human encyclopedia on everything that concerns Polo, and we also had some very interesting in depth introductions.

After the presentations and such we went back downstairs and ate lunch in the bistro, behind the cafeteria at the DC. And I must say that maybe I'm just used to cafeteria food not being the greatest looking foods (thank you fountain dining hall) but the food we had for lunch looked and tasted incredible. I remember someone asking at some point if the employees there ate like that everyday and I believe Rusty said yes. At that very moment, I knew that this was the place for me. Its like the Polo chefs knew that food was the quickest was to my heart - food.

Next was the plant tour. Unfortunately we only had time for a quick 35-45 minute tour so our tour of the humongous facility was very brief. On the tour we saw the embroidery department (where two of the interns will be spending most of their time this summer), the loading and unloading areas (that looked a lot like what I saw on a UPS tour this past year), the garment on hanger section (GOH- here we saw some ridiculously priced black label items), the storage areas ("rabbits" and "cherry pickers" were abundant here), and finally we saw that sorting areas.

We took another plant tour after the Greensboro DC tour. We all caravaned to High Point to tour the DC (I believe they referred to this location as the "dot com DC"). Everything that is ordered from Polo.com comes through this store. The layout and concept of this location was very similar to that of the Greensboro DC's. One of the largest differences was the size and purpose of the embroidery section, the sorting section, and the packaging area. At this location items are sent directly to the end consumer, instead of actual shops, so here the merchandise is sent out in smaller and more visually friendly boxes or gift boxes. Another big difference was what was upstairs. Here they had a complete staging area where employees can set up displays for customers who are looking for an ensemble or color specifications, an entire call center where all calls concerning polo.com are directed to, and a large call center training area.

This is where my first day with Polo ended. We returned back the DC to receive lovely parting gifts from Rusty - custom fit knit Polo shirts. I'm exhausted from the early 8:30 start this morning and get rewarded with the scorching heat at 4:30 and the largest parking lot ever, otherwise known as 40 East. Even though I'm running late and in a hurry to get home it feels as though nothing can bring me down off this high - I start work Tuesday!