The Right Girl for the Job

Daughter Liz was recently moved by her company from Atlanta to Chicago to take over an under-performing store (Lindt chocolates) in a large mall there -- a store about three times the size of the one she had been managing in Atlanta. She's been doing 12-hour days, six days a week, to bring the store up to par in the midst of the busiest season of the year. She sent this update to our family early Saturday morning to give us an idea of what it's been like -- and to remind us to be patient with retail folks this time of year. They picked the right girl for the job, I tell 'ya:

Just to give you guys an idea of what the holidays are like for a store manager in retail...

I have been awake since 4am planning out my weekend because yesterday we did about $11,400 in sales. Two of those customers spent a combined $8300.

However, I now have to tie 280 fabric bags around 280 large bags of chocolate to be delivered to Wisconsin by Tuesday. The kicker? The fabric bags won't be in my store until Monday. On top of that I have to build 105 chocolate gift baskets ($50 a piece) by Tuesday afternoon (35 a day). On average in my store we house about 25 assembled baskets which I now have to take apart to use the pieces and parts to build my own new ones. This morning I will be driving to our outlet store in Aurora, IL to pick up additional baskets and shrink wrap before heading to my own store to work today. (I sold more than what we actually had in stock.)

So, in addition to all of that I still have to meet my daily sales goals ($5000-$10,000/day) and receive 5 pallets (about 380 cases) of shipment on Tuesday into a stock room that holds half that amount plus $8300 worth of sold merchandise.

But I have to say this is still my favorite time of year to work and somehow the thrill of "how did I just do that?" makes it all worth it. But the next time you are out shopping, keep in mind what it takes to get through just the weekend. And have patience with the sales person trying to help you because you have no idea what it takes get through the "behind the scenes" part of our day. Much less, trying to smile through it all with a little holiday cheer sprinkled on top!

Love you guys!!
Liz

Sent from Liz's iPhone

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