Week 1 at Sea Island

I am working for Sea Island in Sea Island, Georgia in the Retail Department this summer. I am a Fashion Merchandising Intern and my main tasks will be working in the three retail shops but I will occasionally also work in the stock room learning how to receive shipments and the office learning the position of the buyers. I was required to attend a company-wide training course called Traditions of Excellence before I began working. I attended that course on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Then I had Wednesday off and I will be working through the weekend since this coming Monday is Memorial Day and the resort will be extra full. Yesterday was my first day and I worked in the Sea Island Shop from 10-6. The Retail Shops Manager was there and she trained me and another intern. The day was pretty relaxed as our manager told us she wanted us to mainly observe on the first day. I haven't encountered any difficulties yet besides finding my way around. There is a basement to every building at Sea Island and the basements are so huge, it's like another world down there. The hallways have names like streets if that gives you any indication of how big it is. I haven't made any mistakes yet but I'm sure I will and I will ask my supervisor how to correct them. I have learned so much about Sea Island this week - everything from the history of the resort dating back to its founding in 1928 to logistics of each department's finances and how they manage their budgets. The experiences I've had with customers, coworkers, and my bosses have all been very pleasant so far. My coworkers are all extremely nice - I think that goes along with working at a 5 star resort (everyone has to be constantly cheerful and honestly, it becomes a habit). I haven't encountered any upset or difficult customers yet but I know like any business, there will be some that are hard to please. When I do encounter these types of customers, I will try extra hard to do everything I can to please them. Part of Sea Island's mission is to improve the experience of the guest (customer) with every contact they have with the staff. The time spent at work in comparison to the knowledge gained is positive. I have learned so much valuable information so far in just my first four days of working here. The funniest thing that has happened this week was an I Love Lucy clip that we watched in our training course. I am looking forward to working in the offices this upcoming week to work with the buyers and see what they do on a daily basis.