oxfam...

So recently i applied for a fashion merchandising placement with oxfam, if you have read my other pot's chances are you know i have a huge interest within in visual and fashion merchandising, so i thought it would be the perfect opportunity for me to further my skills and experience within this area as it is hopefully something i will be continuing when i finish university. i managed to bag myself a placement :-)!

My first day was on Friday 30th April 2010. starting at 10AM we culled the clothes from the shop floor removing anything that had been out over 2 weeks, as it was unlikely to sell in that store and needed to be moved to a different oxfam store, whilst i did this another girl which was doing the same placement as me was redoing the windows and sorting out some of the shop-floor layout, this left me slightly downhearted that i was doing basic shop-floor work while somebody else got to do the windows and displays.

I didn't let it get me down to much though, after all it was my first day i couldn't expect them to get me doing all that straight away!

After culling myself, Andrew (the store manager), Moira and Naz (the other two helping on the placement) went to a coffee place around the corner to discuss a plan for the store. the discussion went well and i felt like what i said was received well about the training of staff to make sure they are aware of trends so they can merchandise the stock properly when we aren't there and keep the shop looking its best.

After the meeting i thought it was best for me to tell andrew everything that has been going on with me being ill and make him aware of what has gone on, he was really nice about it and said it wouldn't be a problem and told me there was lots of things i could do from home as well! this sounded promising. He told me that i would be able to keep on top of the blog/website he had got up and running by posting trends and making sure that everything was running smoothly in store via the website. the website is also going to be used by other stores as there were so many people applying for the placement they have sent candidates to other stores in the are to do the same as us in the Withington store. he also said that once they are placed within different stores i would be able to check on them and make sure things were running well and the other stores looked their best too and that they were keeping on top of merchandising standards. this sounded really promising as these are tasks usually undertaken by a head visualfor a company or store. it would also give me different skills for the job in comparison merchandiser to my physical layout and merchandising experience at french connection; by the end of my shift i was much happier about my prospects within the placement.

All in all i think it was a great first shift, and the perfect start to my career as a visual merchandiser.