Post #8 - Observing Community

This past weekend, I was able to go home and attend a meeting at Intermix, a high end clothing store at my hometown mall. I was able to attend because as I said in one of my previous posts, I worked at a clothing store which is really close to Intermix. Therefore, I already had contact with the manager there. Before I went, I did not expect it to be that formal because there are multiple Intermix's in the country. However, there is only 1 in the state of Michigan. I was wrong though, and I learned how meetings are a very important process to that individual store's success. Not only did the meeting focus on marketing and sales techniques, but I also found myself sitting in on a public relations meeting. That was pretty cool because I am currently taking a public relations class here at Michigan State. The manager discussed with the employees recent communication with other Intermix stores, mainly in New York City. They also talked about different ways to advertise locally while building relationships with local businesses and customers, too. After the more important aspect of discussion, the meeting consisted of smaller topics, like making the customer happy and techniques to selling product. During this part of the meeting, I was reminded of my days working at Caruso Caruso. Our meetings were actually really similar. We always talked about different things we could do to attract the local customer, especially because Caruso Caruso wasn't a corporate business. So we were always talking about ways to attract customers. The method of communication was really a 2-way street. Not only did the manager stand in front of the employees and go through a list of what she was to talk about, but the floor was also open for employee opinion, too. It was a pretty laid back meeting but still was as formal as it needed to be. Overall, I enjoyed attending this meeting because not only did I learn, but I was able to connect the topics to what I've already experienced as a sales employee. That was my favorite part.