Working in the Margins

“Buying is a lot of fun,” my colleague Kathryn said. “You get to shop all day!” That sounded so good to me that when Kathryn told me she was retiring at the end of the year, I applied for her position the very next day.

While I usually don’t write much about my job, I’m going through some big changes at work right now and thought I’d blog about them. When I told people I was an “online merchandiser”, nobody know what I meant, and now that I’m a “buyer” no one knows what that means either. (I didn’t know about those jobs myself until about five years ago.)

I started working at Good’s Store in 2017, but instead of stocking or cashiering at one of the four retail stores, I worked in the brand-new ecommerce department, adding photos, writing product descriptions, sending emails, and making improvements here and there to the website. I learned Photoshop, Excel, and the basics of front-end programming. I watched the webstore going from a few sales a day in the beginning and to skyrocketing sales during the pandemic.

Even though I liked my job, by 2021, I felt like I had learned almost everything I could about online marketing at Good’s Store. Kathryn has held her job as buyer for the past thirteen years. I knew that if I wanted to try for her position, it was likely now or never.

The Oxford definition of a buyer is “a person employed to select and purchase stock or materials for a large retail or manufacturing business” and that is exactly what the Good’s Store buyers do. Just as it’s natural for non-technical people to think that websites seem to ooze out of cyberspace, those of us just see the store shelves full of merchandise (or not full, à la 2020/2021) don’t think about all the planning it takes.

A few weeks after I applied, Harlan, the head buyer, formally offered me the position. After I committed, it felt odd to see my online merchandiser position go up on the Good’s “employment opportunities” list.

I started training full-time with Kathryn on November 1, and boy, it has been stretching. I’ll be buying for three departments— Giftware, Notions, and Fabric. While most of the things I’m buying aren’t big-ticket items and don’t have a huge array of sizes like clothing or shoes, the categories I do have like office supplies, yarn, sewing notions, health & beauty, and fabric each have hundreds or thousands of “skus”. “SKU” stands for “shop-keeping unit” and is a number used for inventory management, pricing, and barcodes in IRIS. (IRIS is Good’s Store’s very own, formidable business software. No flashy user interface, but knows how to work hard.)

Speaking of software, I’ve decided Kathryn’s brain is like a database— capable of remembering an unlimited amount of stuff, all while balancing frequent appointments with sales reps, dealing with a constant flow of emails, going to shows, running sales, managing a complex yearly schedule, all while keeping one eye on the trends and the profit margins. (Like the Proverbs 31 woman— “She sees that her trading is profitable”.) I’m trying to get everything out of Kathryn’s brain into my Evernote account and Outlook calendar— “Let’s see, so you order these special lightbulbs for Christmas by March? You stock full collections at Store 1 & 2, and half-collections at 3 & 4? We sell this ribbon by the yard, stock it by the roll, and order it by the sleeve? Do we order from this company on their website or e-mail the rep?”

Happily, after about six weeks of training, I do feel like I’m making progress. But I don’t think the job will lose it’s challenging aspect anytime soon, like learning to prioritize tasks and keeping a long do-to list organized. Or the constant choices: Will the customers like the avocado sea salt foaming body wash, or shall I stick with the lotion? Shall I order a case of this new self-published book or cruelly drop the flyer in the trash can? Set the price at $1.79 or $1.99? Are owls trending?

Thanks to Covid, this is an interesting time to start a job like this: retail is booming, inflation is driving prices up, shipping times have increased. “December used to be a slower time,” Kathryn told me. “But not anymore.” Like anything else in life, business can be unpredictable.

Even when you shop for living.

Blessings and best wishes on whatever your day’s work holds for you! ~Susan