Crabtree
We got to spend Friday with Megan Wakefield, who is the ASM (Area Sales Manager) for Polo in Belk. We had previously met her in passing, but it was really cool to spend more time with her and get a full run-down on how things work on her end. She started off by getting to know us a little better, then she began educating us on the general history of Polo and Belk.
She also explained the importance of market share, which is defined as "the percentage of an industry or market's total sales that is earned by a particular company over a specified time period." She showed us one of the main Excel sheets called the "Polo Scorecard" which illustrates the market share for all of the different Polo doors. Along with that, she showed us the store sales plan by week for Polo in Crabtree, which helps the stores keep up with their actual sales compared to their sales plan. The Monthly Planner also helps the specialists with this goal, showing their Daily LY, Week to Date LY, and Month to Date LY, then they have the space to put what they are actually making compared to those numbers. She said most stores don't do all of this in-depth calculation, which may explain why they don't do quite as well as Crabtree!
We were a bit confused as to what all the lingo was around Belk such as "Pacesetter" and "Consultant," then some people were "Specialists," and Megan did a great job of telling us all the differences, making it clear that being a Consultant was every employee's goal and Specialists are solely for the Polo shop. Another thing that was news to us, was that every employee in the Crabtree Polo shop was actually a Specialist!
We talked about the Polo shop and how BSR (Basic Stock Replenishment) is so important due to the fact that it is 28% of total Polo business for Belk, and also because it is a full margin product and makes the store, Belk, and Polo Ralph Lauren profitable! Lastly, she showed us the computer system and "The Hanger," which is where they pull the numbers to do their daily comparisons. It was great of Megan to dedicate her day to us and I think we all took a lot from our shadowing experience.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Southpoint & Crabtree
On Monday we spent the morning in Southpoint, since their numbers had gone down some after the Father's Day craze. We made a few changes in the shop and did some recovery so everything could hopefully bounce back. We then went to Crabtree to help do some basic recovery and go over sales with the specialists there. It was a low-key day but a good one, and we also got to spend some time working on our project which was a huge help.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Greensboro
Tuesday we woke up bright and early to get to Belk at Friendly Center in Greensboro. We started off by listening in on a conference call concerning changes being made in certain stores in the division. We then went straight to Children's wear to try and solve some problems. We stayed at Belk for about four hours, moving merchandise around trying to simplify the area with the space available. We ended up with three different rows of product, all much more organized and sized than it was when we found it. It felt like a very productive morning!
After we took a lunch break, we headed straight to the Eagle Hill facility to meet everyone that was there for Lab, and also so we could begin getting all the product ready. We met SO many great people involved with Men's Wholesale/Retail Development right when we got there, such as Brett Banks, who is the Director of Presentation and stationed in New York, Junji Romero - the Visual Director who is also from New York, Robert Stanchina, Senior Director from New York, then Tom Parks who is the Regional Director out of Chicago, Brian Trauthwein - the Regional Director out of Miami, and finally Aaron Milasich who is the Regional Director out of San Francisco. It was such a great group of people to be learning from, and it seemed like they were very glad we were there to help.
It was nice having the Charlotte interns there to help, and we spent a large part of that day folding and setting up concept tables to prepare for the photographer the following day. The Children's wear team had already been working on their set up, so I took pictures of those and you can see them below. The picture of the men's store is the finished product on Wednesday - everything looks perfect as you can see!
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| Children's |
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| Children's |
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| Behind the scenes |
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| New Equestrian Line |
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