As said in the title, I wrote this post on the train ride home the past Friday. There was no internet on the Regional to New Haven, so I am posting now. This will be the first of a few written at that time.
I am finally on my way home after a long commute to the train station. I was let out very early from work. Originally having a reservation for a 7:00 ticket, I tried to get an earlier train. Little did I know, the journey from the burbs would take me 3 times the amount it should have taken to get to the train station in Philly. After gallons of sweat, a few untamable teardrops, a lot of stress, huffing, and a little puffing, I made it on a train two hours earlier than the original. Not too shabby, although it would have been nice to get on the 3:57 if traffic had allowed me. Whatever. I’m over it.
I feel bad I haven’t set out the basics of what I have been working on at Anthropologie so far. I was so gung hoe about keeping a blog to collect all the memories of this experience. I didn’t want to forget a thing, but I avoided writing because it took me a very long time to process what has been happening. I have only come to this realization now. Having no experience in the buying and merchandising world, I didn’t even know how to log what people were saying and the projects they gave me to work on.
Meet the team:
Well, half are in London, so we’ll skip those
Chris: the planner, the supervisor, the (I think) more money end of the operation
Ellen: I am not sure what she does exactly, but I think she oversees all of the buyers. She seems to know everything about every product. She goes to every meeting. She seems to be the super woman. And, she leads with a soft-spoken demeanor that I admire
Jen: My mentor. She is the buyer for dresses and accessories, which includes jewelry, hats, scarves, winter wear, bags, shoes… and any other accessory item I can’t think of at the moment. She has pretty much taught me everything I know about the buying system and beyond.
Emily: Buyer for blouses, knits, and skirts. Now sits next to me.
Kim: Buyer for intimates, jackets, and trousers. Master of Denver, her wiener dog.
Jourdan: the merchandising assistant (MA), which is the next step after intern. She started only a few months ago, has had retail experience before coming to Anthro. She is leaving at the end of the month because of family issues at home. She will be transferred to a managing position at the Midwestern branch.
Me: the UK buying intern.
What I have been working on:
The first couple of weeks I really had to plough through everything to get a handle on it. The team made sure to bring me to every meeting to be exposed to as much as possible to be able to understand as much as I could about the process. I remember the first day, Jen spent an hour and a half explaining all of the main spreadsheets they use. They were so difficult to understand, especially because I haven’t looked at a spreadsheet like that EVER. I am so accustomed to the world of art classes, where I am working with my hands, and theater classes, where we talk about our feelings. Analytical work with numbers and paper is not something I have done in a long time. I tried to take as many notes as I could about everything, but it was hard to balance the writing with the listening. Either way I was missing things, hoping they would come up again at some point. The best has been learning by experience. I plunked out numbers to get through the different pages of IP (the system the company uses to keep track of everything about every product) and MTS, another product management program. I discovered the glory of the numeric pad on the right of the keyboard. SO MANY SKU NUMBERS. Mostly, I worked on the updating of information, quality control, and consistency of information.
All of the stuff they have had me work on is not busy work. The projects have been things that they needed to do themselves, or even things they wished they had time to do themselves. I am in awe of how much information the buyers have to keep track of. All of the lingo and learning how to comprehend it. Every project comes at the same time, and you must be up to date on everything. This job is multitasking to the infinite degree. The first two weeks were like learning a new language. Completely. Though, I did have a great moment the other day when I realized I could type the numbers speedily and basically without looking at the numeric pad on the keyboard. I wonder if this is what Spain is going to be like. A complete overload where I try to soak in as much as I can, ask questions, and get enough sleep to be recharged for the next day. This is all mental exertion, nothing physical, except for hiking up 3 large flights of stairs multiple times a day.
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