"BEHOLD! My beautiful jewelry tree.." by (me!) Sandra, tvgp
When a compliment comes from someone whose creative work you admire; it matters more. Simple as that. So, delight I did in my call from cortney yesterday. She loved my jewelry tree -and! she took a moment to even call and tell me so. God bless her! I had just the night before said to my handsome prince, "come.. Behold! My beautiful jewelry tree!". -and to his credit he looked.. Smiled.. Gave me a 'that's nice' kind of thing, and then helped me -God bless him too!- move some boxes into the warehouse. But I knew he couldn't fully appreciate my little sculpture masterpiece... Same way I can't fully appreciate the time, talent, effort he employs installing or repairing the million dollar secret science machines he works on.. I can listen, I can smile, I can celebrate.. But I can't like, -understand/appreciate. I haven't done it. All that to say... There is a great value in "peer reviews". And not only can I tell you I work with some awesome merchandisers.. But I really, deeply appreciate and am inspired by, what and how they do what they do -because I also do it... And I'm sure there is a more formal definition for the word, merchandising, but informally we do this: place products on shelves and tables and for window displays in a creative and aesthetically pleasing way. -very easy, I'd say, to miss this, on a stroll through ricks picks as a happy customer. You just look, shop, go... It's actually the kind of thing you only notice if A. You're looking on purpose for it.. Or B. It's missing. Kinda like a great meal.. If it's great, you just eat it and enjoy.. But if it's terrible, you notice.. Or if you're consciously paying attention to how it was prepared.. You get the picture. So, the upshot here is this: we need each other in order to appreciate each other; us ricks picks merchandising masters... I noticed when Anne put the sled chair, write next to the wire lady thing, with specific colored purses hanging down and how the heights of the furniture complimented the size/shape of the products she chose.. It looked amazing when you entered the place; just perfect! And I told her so... I noticed when cortney changed the end cap into a fall/thanksgiving feast for the eyes.. Coordinating colors of the napkins with the plates with home decor just so.. How it just kind of cascaded from the top shelf to the bottom, so.. Seamlessly; so beautifully! Very pleasing to the eyes. And her fall entrance display! Spectacular! Directly inspiring a shelf I would merchandise in the other store. And I noticed when Megan re-did the end cap and how beautifully, creatively, she organized the incoming candle shipment.. Her use of color, space, size divided shelf by shelf, just so.. Creative, artistic, magnificent! I noticed how patricia completley transformed a BBQ section into a gorgeous palace of purses and scarves.. Every item placed a specific distance apart from the other.. Colors and sizes all somehow complimenting each other without being designed to do so.. And the thing is -we are working with peg boards and steel racking, and wood shelves. Nothing glamourous. But the products! ..home decor! Frames, candles, kitchen stuff, toys, purses, BBQ, garden art, furniture, candy! Soaps, holiday decorations, stationery, wine, sculptures, chimes, paintings, wall decor, clocks, jewelry, linens, blanket throws, bathroom stuff.. Books! It goes on and on.. And it goes out and out with the customers in their shopping bags.. And new stuff comes in and in... And I call it, affectionately, the store of perpetual movement. Every single shift offers me something new to see.. And it's my joy to walk through and see which co-worker created what new masterpiece in what part of which store...and to just enjoy their talent, their shelf, their window display, their end cap, with the same pleasure I walk through any art show or gallery. Literally, it's the same pleasure.. Only better, because I get to be inspired! And I get to be creative too! If I walk through a gallery and admire great oil paintings, that's both the beginning and end of that because I don't paint. But walk through ricks picks.. And I light up from the inside.. Inspired and energized! What shelf can I transform today? My most recent mini-masterpiece was the salt & pepper shakers/Danville. Heaven! Heaven! Heaven.. And all I was really doing was removing the products from one shelf area over to another, but the thing is.. They were all disheveled where they were.. Picked over and through by customers for so long, there was no rhyme or reason anymore.. I moved them to their new location and re-ordered them by height, design, color, shape, etc. And... Well, the process is a little messy.. A lady walked by and said, "I'm glad I get to shop, and don't have to do the work". -I looked up at her and was like, "this is not work! This is heaven.." I meant it. I love moving product around.. I was born for this. Oh, I suppose if that's all I did, I would lose my mind, but it is so far from all we do.. We ring up purchases at the register, chit chat with what I'm convinced are the greatest customers in the world..we unpack pallets and pallets of product; we inventory; we break down boxes, we price ticket massive amounts of items; we go, go, go...do, do, do... And sometimes time restrictions make it so that you really do just have to stick products on shelves, fast as you can, no art about it.. But we all know.. Soon as time and circumstance allows.. We're gonna get our merchandising hands in that area and make it beautiful, make it creative, make it... Attract you like a magnet; hypnotize you... Our merchandizing magic, when it works.. Draws you in and you don't even know why.. You pick up products and suddenly must have... We mesmerize with color...design.. Creativity... And let me tell you.. There is no commission involved here.. But! When products sell from an area -whoever merch'd that area accepts that as a personal compliment and reward. I've never enjoyed a job more than this one... The variety of responsibility; the variety of product; the perpetual movement, the great customers, the opportunity to be creative, to be inspired by my co-workers creativity, the two cool downtown locations, the hours, ... The journey to land here feels as turbulent and trying as the journey to find my handsome prince.. But with both, I wasn't specifically looking And yet have that internal sensation, 'at last!'... This is where I belong
posted by SHE @ 7:28 AM
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