Week 3 at Sea Island

The main shop that I work in is the Sea Island Shop and I think the advertising for that shop is done very poorly. Most of the guests of the resort don't know anything about the shop unless they just happen to stumble upon it. It is down a long hallway and is slightly hidden so that doesn't help bring in traffic. As far as I know, there isn't any advertising for any of the shops on the island. The Director of Retail has discussed the idea of building a small window case in the lobby of the main building to house a mannequin and some information about the shop to point customers in our direction. I thought this was a great idea and she has presented the idea to upper level management but nothing has been executed yet.
The Sea Island Shop has many target customers. Most of the merchandise is high-end so I would definitely say all customers should accept high price points. The shop is 40% men's clothing, 40% women's clothing, and 20% gift items. The men's clothing is very colorful, preppy, and golf oriented so I would say the target men's customer is a younger, fashion-savvy, athletic man. The women's clothing is targeted toward middle-aged women but the buyers have recently tried bringing in brands, such as Kate Spade, to target younger women (20s). I think the buyers could more effectively reach this younger target market through accessories. We carry many handbags in the shop but most of them are DVF and they are upwards of $500. I think if they brought in trendy, more cost effective accessories, they would see more purchases from younger women.
I made a mistake the other day on the micros when checking someone out. I asked one of the other sales associates to help me and together we fixed the issue. I had entered a number in wrong and now I will make sure to be extra careful when entering information.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit in on a meeting with the buyers and a rep from Robert Talbott. I have never gotten to see that process before so I was extremely excited for that. I was a little out of my element because it was strictly menswear that they were buying and I don't know much about menswear. However, I'm learning more and more everyday! It was so interesting to see the process of buying and their decision making.
I love that they are giving me more time in the retail offices because I was interested in learning more about the back-of-house operations while I'm here. Each time I'm in the offices, I am learning so much even though I'm only down there for a couple hours at a time.
The most humorous thing that has happened this week is the guests that come in to shop after dinner and after they have had one too many glasses of wine. They say the most hilarious things so it's always entertaining to work the closing shift in the shop.