week 7

I actually really enjoyed about thinking about different improvements that could be made to the store. It gave me a chance to think about what I might do differently if I was the person in power. When thinking about ways to improve, I found myself thinking about things that other, bigger retail stores already incorporate into their business. One big thing that our store has a problem with is theft. We already take some measures to reduce the amount of theft in the store, but there are other things that we can do to help. The biggest place that I feel that costumers are hiding away clothes is in the dressing rooms. Right now we don't have any system that allows us to know what is being brought into the rooms. I think that it would be in the our best interest to start making the costumers check in with an employee to show how many items are being brought in as well as checking the number of items on the way out. Many clothing stores do this to prevent theft but I also understand that this is more difficult with a small business. We have less resources as a larger company and cannot devote one person to just watch the dressing rooms. Something that should work in our case would be to move the register close to the dressing rooms so that the person working the front desk can also run the dressing rooms. Another problem that we run into at the store is people purchasing big furniture items for pickup at a later date and then don't come for pickup until a week or sometimes later. This creates a problem in that once an item is sold, it has no value to us on the selling floor. We end up moving these pieces into a storage unit that runs out of room quickly when there are multiple pieces for pick up. As of now we do not charge for the use of this storage unit and I believe that this could help. If we charged for storage after an initial allotted amount of time, this would allow for a couple of things to happen. First, most people don't want to spend extra money if they don't have to so more people would be inclined to pick up furniture more quickly. Second, if consumers do have to use our storage, we will make money off of them to pay for a larger or second unit for storage. We wouldn't have to worry about when someone will be picking up their furniture anymore. These were just a couple of ideas that I had that I would most likely implement if I was the one in charge.

Week 6

The person who I decided to shadow was my mentor. The reason why I decided to shadow this person was because they have the most responsibility at the company and have control over all the day to day operations. When I get to work, my boss has already been there for at least an hour working away. Before I arrive, my mentor has all of the resisters ready for the day, a list of things that needs to be done for the day and is ready to put us to work. Over the few days that I shadowed my mentor, they were in charge of scheduling furniture pickups from consigners and made sure that the trailer was ready for moving. On most pickups, my mentor went along to inspect potential items and decided on which pieces would be taken for resale. They also gave us instructions on how to tend furniture items that needed attention before we sold them and decided how to present each piece in a way that would be pleasing to consumers. My mentor also dealt with consigners who brought items to the store. Looking through and deciding on which items will sell and which items to pass on. They also deal directly with these costumers, explaining how the store works and the procedures that go along with consigning at the store. The store that I am working for is also currently looking into expanding, so I was able to watch my mentor search for different locations and think of different strategies for expansion. Over the few days I shadowed, I was able to witness the purchase of another store next to my place of work that they are going to incorporate into the store. My mentor had to figure out the best way to combine the stores through making layouts that showed how each restructuring would benefit the store. At the end of each day, my boss handles all the money and views reports to see how that day went. By viewing these reports, my mentor sees how the store is doing compared to the months before and can find trends that might effect the business. I feel lucky that I was able to witness the expansion process and cant wait to see how everything turns out.

Week 8

Looking back at my internship, I can say that I really enjoyed my time and learned many new things. I had never worked in retail before and had not thought of retail as something that I would be interested in the future, but I really enjoyed working at the store. I have been looking for a new job in order to start a career and have been taking jobs in retail into account more than I was before my internship.What I personally found to be the best part about my internship was being able to work along side the owner of the business and take from them what they had learned during their process of starting their own store. I was able to see the day to day duties performed by the owner and saw how much relied on what they did. I realize how important it is for a person who wants to own their own business to have extensive knowledge on how a business runs and all the aspects of business that have made other companies fail. I was also able to learn the different aspects of a retail store and what needs to be done in order for a store to run smoothly. The company that I have been working for has only been in business for a year and is about to expand for its second time. I find my self fortunate that I was able to work for a company that is doing so well in our current economic state and it gives me hope that I will be able to start a business venture of my own. Overall I found my experience at my internship to be a positive one. I never ran into any problems with my mentor and everything went rather smoothly. I feel that I have gained much needed experience from my time working and that I am better prepared for what ever my next business venture is. I have taken a job where I interned for now and am looking for a new job out of state. Without a doubt in my mind, my experiences through my internship will be beneficial to my next endeavors.