Macy's Pushes Back on the Back-to-School Competition

Week 7

Macy's Merchandising Inc.

Macy's Pushes Back on the Back-to-School Competition

Called the "pressure cooker" by David Moin, back-to-school shopping  is being set in motion by such retail giants like GAP, Nordstrom, J.C.Penney, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Kohl's. Currently stores like GAP Inc. are attempting to make a turnaround  for the back-to-school season; while others like Belk are not even sweating over this "pressure cooker". Macy's is also one of the retail giants who are not sweating the competition. With additions to their back-to-school shopping such as Keds, Teen Vogue, mstylelab juniors, Maison Jules, and QMack, Macy's appears to be on top of its game with adding new fashion styles to attract the teenage customer during the prime time for school shopping.  Macy's will also be offering Facebook contest's to win $500 gift cards, fashion shows, a chance to win a New York trip and consultation with a Teen Vogue style expert, and a chance to win a free shopping spree. Macy's further pushes its marketing scheme by placing its name on coffee cups and pizza boxes on select college across the nation along with offering a chance to win $20,000 to pay off student loans. This marketing scheme is very different as opposed to last year with creative being built around social media.  

After learning about this information, I actually brought this up to my Human Resources head. Since she was the one in charge of my project (White Space for Millennial Textile Dorm), I thought she would find this tidbit of information interesting. When I brought up the article, she was delighted to hear that I was keeping up with the current Macy's initiatives. She also commented that, "the marketing strategy you read is a true testament to you and the other interns work. All of what you guys have been working on is to provide us information on how you guys shop, what you guys are looking for, and how we can best deliver those items…. You are currently witnessing the marketing ideas of other interns from last year, and next year or even this coming fall, your group's work could also be seen."

Hearing that Macy's actually values intern's input, and takes our ideas into account was an amazing feeling - another great reason why Macy's continues to grow and is a retail giant.

Moin, D. (2013, July 18, 2013). Battle for Back-to-School Market Share Intensifies. Retrieved on July 18, 2013 from: http://www.wwd.com/retail-news/retail-features/battle-for-back-to-school-market-share-intensifies-7058160?full=true

Week 7 Journal Post

July 21, 2013
Week 7

With my Macy's internship coming to an end, I have had time to realize my strengths along with weaknesses in corporate life. I have learned that my abilities to bridge both the business and creative sides and understand each are a valuable asset in the fashion industry. I have also learned that my professionalism, the way I presented myself at work, and networking skills are also things to be prided on.  I would not are rate my self as the "perfect" intern, since I was not aware of all the functions of product development, however, I do feel that I performed as the "ideal" intern. I always arrived 30 minutes to 1 hour before my boss, and was always proactive in asking for new projects and always providing a helping hand. I also maintained a positive attitude through out the entire internship process and also was the leader for my internship group project.

There are however areas that still need improvement in myself, as should everyone else. I am still working on my communication skills, since my fear of public speech has not subsided. But as I always say, practice makes perfect.  I have also realized that I must work on my excel skills. Excel is a huge factor in product development, and anyone who wants to be in product development must be a wizard at this Microsoft Office suite. And last but not least, I also need to work on my time management/ multi-tasking skills… Coming into this internship, I thought I knew the meaning of multi-tasking, but I was completely wrong. I frequently asks for tips from my boss on how to make my time as efficient as possible along with having frequent touch bases to make sure that I was on task. 

Having this internship experience was definitely an eye opener. I now understand how working in corporate life is really like and if I am truly fit for the job. Working with Macy's has been a great experience. Everyday, I was excited to go to work. The reason is because I was treated as a part of the product team and as a product assistant - not an intern. I also loved the fact that my office was very social and had a family-esc quality to it. I honestly can not say that I have had a bad experience in this internship. The only issue was the amount of work Macy's expected from us interns (especially on the group projects). On a few occasions, I actually had to work overtime to finish our project, but it was all worth it in the end when we presented our idea, product assortment, sales plan, and marketing strategy to the executives of Macy's.

With this internship drawing to a close, I believe the biggest fashion lesson learned is that no one will hold your hand and guide you. You must ask for more projects if you want to learn more, be proactive/ take charge in your learning, ask a TON of questions, and seek outside help if you are stuck.  

Week 6 Current Event:

Week 6 - July 14, 2013

Macy's Merchandising Group LLC

North American Alliance Launches Bangladesh Safety Plan

Summary

Recently, 17 North American retailers and brands released "The Bangladesh Workers Safety Initiative". Among the retailer executives who signed the alliance's pact was chairman, president and ceo of Macy's Inc., Terry Lundgren. This pact is a five year worker, fire, and factory safety policy that will provide 42 million dollars in funds to improve factory conditions in Bangladesh along with training factory workers and owners in safety standards. This initiative was created after the tragic Bangladesh factory fire that claimed more than 1,000 lives. "The initiative is built on five key elements: training, common standards, the expansion of buyer and safety programs, transparency and “sustainable financial commitments,”said Thomas Nelson, one of the pact signers.  The project will include 500 factories and is designed to strengthen a pre-existing fire and safety code created by European companies. The plan will give factory owners access to millions of dollars in loans to facilitate safety improvements and calls for safety inspections of all the factories in the first year of the agreement. In addition, the alliance will create a safety standard for all factories to abide by and will attempt to develop a partnership with the Bangladesh government to have all factories within Bangladesh under the safety standards. 

Co-Worker's Opinion

The brief summary of the article above is actually an interesting one, since I previously had a conversation with my boss and another product manager about Macy's relationship with Bangladesh factories. During a vendor meeting when this idea was brought up, the entire Macy's team went silent with awkward tension in the air. After a quick pause, the director spoke up and told the vendor that Macy's was still uncomfortable to work with Bangladesh and would prefer a company in a country without bad press. After the meeting I asked my boss why vendor's were pushing for Bangladesh. She responded with the fact that Bangladesh factories are one of the best places for vendors to meet our targeted first cost for clothing. The downside to using these factories though is the bad media that these factories have been receiving since the fire that claimed over 1,000 workers lives. As much as Macy's wants to lower the first cost and make a profit, its not worth losing our customers and degrading our reputation. 

After I confronted my boss again with this article and asked her opinions on the future of Bangladesh and Macy's, she took a few minutes to respond. I believe that I took her by surprise.  She then stated, "It is great that you are staying up-to-date on Macy's political campaigns. I was unaware of this initiative. I think it's great that we are tackling this problem. Since it is a constant fight to get the best deal and the lowest cost, we often forget the consequences to those making these goods. I hope that through this program, Bangladesh will benefit and grow along with inspiring other factory owners to improve their conditions. And if your information is correct, then I would assume in the coming months Macy's will begin sourcing with some of the factories outlined in the pact."

Citation/ Link 

Ellis, K. (2013, July 12). 

North American Alliance Launches Bangladesh Safety Plan

. Retrieve on July 9, 2013 from: http://www.wwd.com/business-news/government-trade/us-retailers-launch-bangladesh-factory-initiative-7048431?src=search_links

Week Six Journal Post

WEEK 6

Currently Macy's merchandises clothing, furniture, shoes, accessories, bedding, bath, kitchenwares, and etc.

Are these trends, fads, classics, etc. 

Working in mens wear the classics include the Charter club cashmere which never changes each year.

There is also the Raph Lauren Polos which never change design and hardly ever in color.

Trends that are currently in mens include the color story of Blue. Last year it was a green color story.

But currently prints of island clothes, linen pants, and white popovers are performing extremely well.

 

How does your company set prices?

Our company sets prices on a high low ticket bases where the average unit retail can range from the lowest price which is where Macy's makes the bare minimum of profit to the highest price where it can make double or triple the profit. The Macy's way of selling is definitely based on Markdowns and promotions.

Did you receive any new training this week?

I did receive new training this week. One of the lessons I learned was costing and how to generate a sales plan. A sales plan is what a financial plan is. It is basically figuring out your cost, gathering your receipts, gaining your mark up percents, turnover, and other loads in order to determine the price of goods and amount of sales on average that will be generated.

Experiences you had in dealing with co-workers, customers, boss?

I actually did have a confrontation with a boss yesterday. I forgot that sending an email is technically working outside of the company and I sent an email to an HR representative. The following day I had to sit down with HR to explain to me why it was not okay to do so and how working off the clock is a legal issue. I apologized and told them that I honestly forgot until after I sent them the email realizing what I had done.

Value of time spent in comparison with experience & knowledge gained?

The value of time spent and the experience of knowledge gained has been about equal. I have learned more things that a typical fashion intern would learn along with being included in many projects where I make the decision of what style or color will be used and giving the okays for designers to change or create new designs.

What are you looking forward to next week?

I am actually excited to learn how to put together a dot com selling report along with an over view of costing. Since The Macy's dot com business is a separate entity for the Macy's brick and mortar, I am interested in seeing the inner working of internet sales.

Macy's View on Competitor's Social Media Campaign

Week 5
Macy's Merchandising Group LLC

Macy's View on Competitor's Social Media Campaign

Recently I discovered an article on the Women's Wear Daily website involving one of Macy's competitors, Nordstrom. In this article, Rachel Brown highlights the new Social Media convergence of online and in-store where Nordstrom has begun to highlight their heavily pinned in-store items on Pinterest. This campaign was carried out through the use of the interest logo on hangtags, cards, and clips that are attached to cloths and accessories. Currently Nordstrom has 13 stores with the Pinterest Logo affixed to their items. These stores are located along the West Coast, Midwest, and East Coast. And each store with these pinterest items are selected and replenished based on a "store-by-store basis"said Johnson, "[W]e can figure out what product is most relevant for a store within the most pinned product.” The amount of products were also decided not by Nordstrom corporate but by the sales associates of the stores.

Upon reading this article, it definitely sparked my interest, since the major concern of Macy's Inc. right now is how to capture the millennial market. Instead of going to my supervisor with this article, I went to my Human Resource head to talk about this newest development. After explaining the article to her and relating it Macy's, I asked for Morgan's thoughts on the matter.

Morgan said, "I think this route that Nordstrom is taking is a great idea. And here at Macy's we have also been working on being connected with the millennial market by heavily investing in our dot com business that is growing substantially each year. Our dot com has been working on its website to include Twitter, Pinterest, and other functions to connect with the millennial market. And that isn't all. Macy's Inc. is utilizing you guys (interns) who are our millennial market to be our think tank each year, by providing invaluable feedback for future initiatives. And with your feedback we have been able to put on successful initiatives like pop up shops and pinterest-abilities on our home page. Like Nordstrom and other competitors, Macy's is always on the look out on how to appease the customer. Our methods may be a little different, but they always produce results."

Brown, R. (2013, July 2). Nordstrom Touts Merchandise with Pinterest. Retrieved July 3, 2013 from: http://www.wwd.com/retail-news/marketing-consumer-behavior/nordstrom-touts-merch-with-pinterest-7034768

Week 5 Journal Update Macy's Inc.

Week 5: Day 35 - July 7, 2013

Since the July 4th weekend has just come to pass. I analyzed Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Celebration along the Hudson River.

Macy's has always been the iconic image of New York City with the Macy's Thankgiving day parade, but I did not know the New York City 4th of July fireworks spectacular was also held by this company. I was recently provided this information through one of my coworkers. She asked me if I was going to the Macy's fire works show for the fourth, then handed a flyer to me (as shown above). Looking at this flyer it was definitely eye catching. Macy's did a great job including all of the images that are picturesque of New York along with providing an amazing visual of a massive concert with the silhouette of Usher on a piano stage. I also discovered from a Macy's employee that Usher collaborated with Macy's to create this flyer. 

I believe this flyer is a fantastic promotional piece. It does not necessarily boost sales for Macy's directly, but does so inadvertently by boosting Macy's PR presents (as the Thanksgiving parade does). It is also amazing that this company collaborates with a famous artist that relates to the millennials' age; while the fireworks cater to all ages young and old. I honestly could not find a way to make this flyer better because it is visually striking, not over crowded, with a great color balance, and a direct message.

Currently in my fifth week  of the Macy's internship, I have had a crash course in Product development. I recently found out that one of the Product Assistants of Macy's was fired for being unproductive on the job just a week before my start. Now I am technically the temp Product Assistant for Tasso Elba. It has been such an amazing experience so far with Macy's Merchandising Group. I have been helping to create summer strategy boards in preparation for the buy meetings, reading weekly selling reports, creating competitor selling reports, checking in new styles and pushing them down the apparel pipeline, and recently working on the spring 2014 line list in the Macy's order management system. With what I have learned so far, by far the Order Management System has been the most nerve racking. Technically, interns are not allowed to be in this system, but I had to help due to lack of a Product Assistant. Here I work with creating Master Contracts (Contracts that lead to the purchase of thousands of dollars of orders). While working on one of these contracts I accidentally deleted the customer channels causing issues with in the system. I attempted to fix the issue myself, but after an our it was apparent that I needed help. I went to the head PA, explaining my predicament and owning my mistake. Afterwards he told me that for my first time in OMS I was bound to make a mistake. The head Product Assistant then helped me fix the issue and told me to keep up the good work. Though I was scared to death to admit my mistakes and receive help, it really paid off in the end.
This week I also learned a helpful hint from my boss. With so much going on at one time and so many tasks to finish with in the day, my boss gave me a recommendation to keep me organized. She said to always put notes up in the front of a notebook and to start a to do list in the back ranked on importance. This simple but helpful advice, has definitely kept me more organized and on top of my game.

And a really funny event occurred in my office that most people won't believe. On thursday morning I watched a fellow Product Assistant come in late. He seemed like he had been drinking the night before, exhausted. I dismissed the incident to only find out later that during his last night escapades he attempted to stop his drunken friend from hooking up with a transvestite. Only after his attempts to stop his friend did the transvestite turn on him and start beating the Product Assistant up. I wish that I was able to provide a picture, but the guy had bruises all over him including stiletto mark bruises all over his shoulder and chest.

For this week I am excited about further learning on product costing and aiding in ad sample charts. I also can't wait to see another funny event in my office since mischief and fun is always a foot in the Macy's Merchandising Group.

Retail Employees Dissatisfied with Current Jobs Earnings. - Is There Hope?

Week 3 Day 18Macy's Merchandising Group LLC

Retail Employees Dissatisfied with Current Jobs Earnings. - Is There Hope?

After reading "Fashion Workers More Disaffected" from Women's Wear Daily, concern 

only emanated from me. The article was written by Arnold Karr who gives a brief overview 

of the current views in the retail job market but the industry employees. Currently many 

retail employees from various sectors of the industry are dissatisfied with their positions. 

These people vary in degrees of expertise and seniority with different backgrounds. The 

reports show that these individuals are unhappy with the work-life balance and most are 

still looking for other job prospects.

Karr also brings up facts about an emerging labor division. About  thirty percent of 

executives had a "year-on-year salary increase of 21 percent or more (Karr)", and their 

bonuses as well rose faster than any other employee with a difference of twenty-one  

percent.

After learning of this terrible news, I went and asked my boss if it were true. Upon giving a 

brief description of the article and asking for her opinion, she took a second to think. My 

boss then stated, "In the fashion industry, all companies run their businesses differently… 

this is no exception for Macy's. If you are concerned about our company and  it's policies 

then you shouldn't. We pride ourselves in constantly educating our employees with free 

classes from HR including CAD, Retail Math, Business Development, Photoshop, Indesign, 

Excel, and business etiquette. And these are just a few. Our company wants to see our 

employees grow and be happy because a happy employee in turn leads to a happy 

customer." After her quote she then explained to me that in Macy's promotion is available 

to those who strive for it and show their abilities. And this is very true with our Director of 

Men's being only 27 years old. She could not tell me about other companies and their 

values, but at Macy's it is clear that everyone who works for them is much like family.

Arnold, K. J. (2013, June 17). Fashion Workers More Dissaffected. Retrieved on May 20, 

2013 from: http://www.wwd.com/business-news/human-resources/fashion-workers-

more-disaffected-6996561?src=search_links 

Week 3 Journal Update

WEEK3

With Macy's being Marketed as the All American Department store, it is very difficult to attract every single customer from the Baby boomers to the millennial age groups. Currently, Macy's main campaign is the "Americana Push". I discussed this theme last week in my current event. This campaign was started as a reaction to JCPenney and Lord & Taylors Red white and blue theme along with implemented due to independence day on the horizon. Personally I believe this campaign is a good idea at the moment. To celebrate America, american icons, and people who make this nation great is a perfect focus for the summer month. However I can see it having future issues in the millennial generation (who is more conscious in the 'Made in America' tag). With the loyal customers being Baby boomers and generation X, there are no problems seen thus far in their campaign due to the lack of 'Made in America' concerns by these two age groups.

As stated previously, Macy's main goal is to be the All American department store. Its job is to appeal to every single market, at every age, and at different price points. Though their target customer is everyone, their main customers are primarily older clientel between the mid 30 to late 60's. These clients are typically set in their ways and are always price conscious along with shop with coupons. The customer also has a an average income and are typically family oriented. However Macy's has been slowly attempting to reach the "white space" of the marie which are the us, "the Millenials".

To reach the Millenials, Macy's would have to do a full on marketing campaign directed completely towards Social Media. Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter should all be the first sites Macy's should focus on. They should also Make their website more user friendly and trendy. Macy's should also advertise in Fashion Magazines like Vogue, Nylon, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, or InStyle, showing off their new trendy looks in a very hip and new way. And finally Macy's would also need to redo their store by creating an area within the store that is eye catching and stands apart from the normal old person's look.

This week I made a mistake and accidentally bought the wrong shorts during a competitive shopping trip. After realizing the mistake, I told my supervisor, offered to take it back and make the exchange, and come back right after. My boss was happy that I owned my mistake and gave me some words of wisdom - "Everyone makes mistakes, but don't call them mistakes…. call them learning opportunities."

I have learned a funny part of office politics. Everyone refers to the CEO of Macy, Terry Lundgren, as "TL", and people within Macy's who are close to him will actually call him that nick name. I have also learned so much this week that my 200 page note book is already almost 100 pages through. I have learned how to create a DP Tool, blow out a style tracker, and create master contracts of 100,000 of dollars of orders for vendors across the country. I have also successfully presented a sales presentation to the director of menswear, and she was so impressed that I was able to present it to the design team along with my thoughts and opinions on the coming season.

I think the most humorous thing that happened this weekend was when my roommate fell down the stairs at our apartment. At first it was scary because I thought she was going to fall right on top of me when I heard her hit the ground in front of me but her galaxy bruise on her butt is hilarious, and she was such a champ afterwards.

What Should be Macy's Current Store Initiative?

Week 2
Macy's Merchandising Group Internship
June 16, 2013
Ashley Long

What Should be Macy's Current Store Initiative?

Earlier this week, I read an article by Sheron Edelson from the Women's Wear Daily. Her post was on Terry Lundgren, CEO of Macy's Inc. The writer's story is a recap on Macy's store plans in the coming future. There are talks of bringing in smaller-sized department stores that are strictly devoted to samples.
What this means, is less inventory sitting on the sales floor, less cramped spaces, no more waiting in lines to check out. However, as Edelson states, " this is all talk". Macy's never uses these ideas on a full range of stores but on test stores to see how the company reacts to the change.  Currently Lundgren has opened up one test store in Gurnee Mills Outlet center.Lundgren states that, “[w]e’re testing [fixtures] that allow customers to see physical product and search all the inventory between dot-com and stores... We’re investing big time in mobile devices. We have a mobile app, but there’s a lot more we can do to leverage that experience to blend technology with in-store to facilitate the purchase.”And though this concept was practiced at an outlet store, Macy's does not plan on opening an outlet store in the coming future.

After learning of these better instillations (in terms of presentation) and no Macy's outlets in the near future, I brought up these findings to my boss. She was pleasantly surprised on my up to date knowledge of Macy's and provided me with her thoughts on this subject. She felt that it was great that Lundgren and the CEO's were willing to try new things.  She feels that the only way for the company to grow is to try new things. "Even if one idea fails, it should never be considered as a failure but as an opportunity to learn and grow", said my boss. She also felt that Lundgren's push for better presentation was important since shopping is not just to buy clothes but a memorable experience for the customers.

The only differing opinion that she had was on the lack of Macy's outlet stores. She believed that though the outlet store would be around similar price points as regular stores, it would still be a great way to quickly turn last season's stock while making room for the new season stuff coming in. She also added in that it would give Macy's the less crowded  feeling that people get when they come to the store which is always a bonus. 

I am unsure of who I should agree with at this point, and the only thing that Macy's could do is try it once. If it succeeds use it, but if not - learn from it.



Edelson, S. (2013 June 16). Macy's Terry Lundgren: "We Will Try Everything". Retrieved on June 12, 2013. http://www.wwd.com/retail-news/department-stores/macys-lundgren-we-will-try-everything-6983621?src=search_links

Week 2 at Macy's Corporate

Ashley Long

06/16/2013

WEEK2 - Day 14 Sunday

Upon entering this internship, I already had an idea of what Macy's was like. I always thought of it as a family store with personable people who are always willing to help. Now that I have been working in the office, learning from my mentors, and talking with upper management, I have learned that Macy's is all about teamwork, everyone's opinions matter, and the number one rule "the customer is always first". The reputation of this company is world renown. Macy's has always been known to have the magic of making the best shopping experience and is called America's Department store. The image of this employer is of an older more mature women who is looking for great clothes at a reasonable price. Working in the corporate office, I do not work directly with customer service. However, with my experiences at Macy's stores and learning the corporate philosophy of "be everywhere, do everything, never fail to astonish the customer", I can only assume that the drive to create the most memorable shopping experience is instilled into every single Macy's worker. 

I believe that I fit into this culture because I have always shopped at Macy's and knew every single brand going into this internship. The company has also treated me as an equal by facilitating my learning, working on real products, and valuing my input. I currently work in the men's division of private labels called Tasso Elba. The products that this Private brand creates include hard pieces, golf wear, island styles, and activewear.

So far the most challenging difficulties would be the fact that I am not proficient in Excel nor in the CS6 programs. It has been hurting me to be against the curve on these two programs since I have hardly used excel since freshmen year and do not have the necessary training the CAD software <not the same as Mrs. Brooks class). So far I have been combating these obstacles, by working after my internship in learning excel and asking for designers help in figuring out the CS6 CAD system. It is still a work in process since I am learning a years worth of work in only a short few weeks. I have also learned that being a southern girl has its advantage. Everyone in the office thinks I am the sweetest thing by having the normal southern hospitality and always smiling. I have also learned that to work in an atmosphere where everyone works as a giant team, communication and team skills are KEY!!! (Thank you to all teachers who have ever made me do group projects!)

Currently I have had no issues with my boss nor mentor, they have been extremely helpful and sweet so far. I have, however, had a confrontation with a coworker. When the head designer of the men's division asked for my opinion an a shirt the coworker was working on, I was honest and told him the truth of the design looking a little off in the collar. The coworker glared at me and stormed out of the room. Afterwards, I went and confronted the coworker. I apologized to him if I had said anything wrong, and that I just wanted what was best for the company and for those who are buying the divisions products. After resolving the miscommunication, we are now back to being friends.

I currently love my living arrangements! It is a little tight however the amount I pay for my living is unbelievable. I currently am staying with Olivia Barrett and Erica Boyd. We are staying in a 1 bed 1 bath studio apartment in Upper East of Manhattan. I can not wait for this week since I will be presenting a selling report of the past weeks men's shorts to the division head! Wish me luck!!

Is "Made in America" a Real Push?

Week 1 - Day 7, Sunday

Macy's Merchandising Group Internship: Current Event 1

Upon entering the Macy's Merchandising Group, I along with all of the corporate interns sat and learned about the new Macy's initiative for the 4th of July call the American Icon or "Americana Push".
This meant the push for red, white, and blue colors, the festive music, and promotional images of famous Americans.  After learning of this initiative, I decided to research this campaign. The article I found by David Moin from Women's Wear Daily shed some more light on this campaign. His take on the Macy's initiative is one that is a counter attack to many of the large department store's themes. Lord and Taylor and JcPenney are two of the large department stores that Macy's is currently battling.   Lord and Taylor is currently playing the star spangle banner in their flagship; while JcPenney is evoking Old Glory with their red, white, and blue logo. Though Moin is implicating Macy's actions, Chief Executive Officer of marketing , Martine Reardon, states that "[t]he campaign is to celebrate unique people, places, and celebrating American icons."

After reading the article and absorbing in the information, I then thought "Could this have bad implications since Macy's Americana campaign is not made in America?" I remembered Ralph Lauren's Olympic's scandal where the designer created our American Athletes clothes to evoke national pride, but instead the initiative created upset when found out that the outfits were produced in China. "Could this happen to Macy's as well since all of our clothes are primarily made overseas?"

I went and asked my boss and mentor these questions; both provided some interesting insight. What I did not know was that this program is not company wide. Many of the divisions in Macy's are not part of the campaign; this fact is due to the last years campaign featuring Brazil (which I was not familiar with). Apparently, Macy's attempted another campaign with Brazil models and icons which did not translate at all to the customers. This caused the initiative to be quickly cancelled and much of the product still being pushed on the floor today to redeem losses. Currently, Macy's is learning from the past by making the Americana push small, as a test, to ensure positive consumer response.

I also learned from their point of view about "Made in America". My boss states, "[p]eople will buy no matter what strictly because the bottom line always deals with price, and the question of - Am I getting a good deal?" This of course is their main cliental standpoint. My mentor also gave her in put by saying, "[t]hose who care about clothes made in America are only a small  percentage compared to the masses…. Most of this percentage come from your generation, the Millenials (ages 13-25), who do not have the money nor resources due to your groups age." Macy's current market is directed towards the older generation of X's and Y's who have the bank flow to spend. That goes without saying that in the coming future anything is possible. With Macy's trying to reach the white space or open niche of the Millenials and with production prices going up all over the world, producing in America may become a viable option of "killing two birds with one stone" - being profitable/ time efficient along with satisfying the demands of fair labor practices from the Millenials. Only time and shifts in the economy will tell. As for now the motto of my boss still stands - "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".


Moin, D. (2013, April 8). Macy's Americana Push. Retrieved on June 6, 2013 from:

http://www.wwd.com/retail-news/department-stores/macys-goes-american-6884147?src=search_links

June 5, 2013 - Day 3 of Macy's Merchandising Internship

Week 1- June 5, 2013

Official Start Day of In Office Work

Currently the company that I am interning for is Macy's Merchandising Group LLC in Manhattan, New York. The internship position that I am currently in is called the Product Intern for Private Brands. The term product intern was given since my position covers various aspects of the design, development, production, and distribution process. So far, the training that I have received is learning the Metrics System of the company, pre-line discussion etiquette, and reading master and pipeline lists. 

The hardest problems that I have been dealing with is actually working within the Mainframe of Macy's Merchandising Group or (MMG). The Mainframe deals with the memorization of codes in order to log yourself into the system, clock in, clock out, and manage your weekly pay rate. I dealt with this issue by, instead of bothering my boss, contacting Human Resources for assistance in explaining the Mainframe process one-on-one. I set up an appointment time with one of the main people, Micheline, and she aided me in further understanding the input process along with using the checks and balances to manage my pay.

Today, I have also learned a little bit of office politics/ gossip. I do not add into the co-worker's conversations though I have heard individuals call my boss "the dragon". I am not entirely sure what that means, nor do I want to ask. I also learned that I have to speak to certain people within my team differently than others like designer (with a slight temper), my boss (who is kind but expects results), and my mentor (loves to joke and keep the work place fun).  People within my work also find my accent and over all demeanor to be fascinating since I am from the south. Apparently they love to hear me speak with my "Savannah-ian" accent, and love it when I say things like "excuse me darlin'". Besides the whirlwind of an adult job, New York City is also the craziest town I have ever been to. The subways are confusing, and all of the blocks look the same. However, I find this place to be so fascinating and my difficulties of navigating are providing me with all the more reason to figure out this city.

With only the short time I have spent in this city and in this internship, I feel that I have learned so much. Relying on my smarts and friends instead of the close hand of family has definitely been a new change. I believe that I am growing as an individual in terms of maturity and I am also growing in the learning area. For the first 2 days of the internship, I feel as if I was just having an over view of the company, getting to know my fellow interns/ networking, and doing team building activities for the Macy's education leaders to observe. Today however was a completely different pace of learn on the job, learn quick, and always always always ask questions! I have learned so much with in this first day on things ranging from textiles application like TPI and fabric to understanding how stores are able to provide specific products to a certain demographic at almost every store.

I think the most humorous thing I have seen this week was the first time I met the male fashion designers from my team. They paraded into the meeting with their drag queen heels, providing their model walk. Their funny and dramatic personalities never fail to make me smile. I know there will be more work in the coming day, but I look forward to the mini projects they will be providing me. Some of the projects include selling reports presentations that I will give to the team, Omni-channel research, and the "giving back day" that Macy's Corporate puts on every other month.