Go Red Sox

 Oh man, what a week. I really didn't plan out my hours well and I worked a few too many 8 hour shifts so I'll probably be a bit over the required hours but oh well. Aside from being pretty exhausted, it was a super cool week. I got to shadow a few different managers and really get a more behind the scenes look at the whole operation. I personally think that I've seen a good amount of the background operations but when I remarked such to a room of managers, I was greeted with a slight chuckle, almost to say "what a fool". It's all laughs with this great group of managers and I'm really grateful that they let me shadow a few of them. On gameday's, the DeAngleo's will always be in the store during the game and they are super cool, talking with the staff and helping out on registers and it's super cool to see the owners pitching in. I was hoping to be able to shadow one of them when they were in but it didn't work out.  As I said in my last re

 hours: 6 total: 78 Following up from yesterday, we finished up the run through of the store in the morning and then towards the end of my six hours, we started on finding new spots for the five new types of hats we are expecting tomorrow. These hats include a new variation of the Boston marathon type hat, with the yellow and blue coloring and the 617 logo. Since these are new hats, we are placing them closer to the entrance of the store in hopes they will sell well. I didn't stay long enough to see the whole process through but hopefully tomorrow, I'll get to see the work I did today pay off. It was difficult to move everything around because obviously, we don't operate with any open spaces so sometimes, worse selling hats are sacrificed back up to the warehouse temporarily to see how the new hats will sell. Often times these new hats are limited in stock so the hats that are sent back up come back down in a few weeks time and back into their old location. 

 hours 6 total 72 We are slowly getting towards the end of the senior project and I have officially passed the 70 hour mark! Today we only worked 6 hours and it was pretty slow today. A really gross rainy day out meant the tours of Fenway Park were pretty light on numbers and the store was very quiet. Days like these call for a full store run through. Everyone who is working will be assigned an area of the store, (men's, womens, kids, hats, novelties) and is responsible for making sure everything is in the right spot and put away correctly. This often leads to heaps of product up at the front that is either in the wrong spot or was put on the wrong type of hangars. Believe it or not, one of the most important things in the store are the different types of hangars. In some cases, a specific hangar is used for clothing to identify it more easily, and some, like Nike hangars, are mandatory in the contracts the store holds with those companies. (This also applies to any Vineyard Vines

 hours 66 total 8 Today was a follow up from yesterday's reset day because we didn't exactly get everything done. I shadowed our main floor manager Tim who is basically the main guy on the store floor and this guy knows everything possible. It's really cool shadowing him because even though I work under him, I don't often get to see the things he does behind the scenes. Tim handles keeping the whole store at max capacity for every product and finding spots for any new things in the store. We had a few new products come into the warehouse the other day and once it's processed through the warehouse, we have to find spots in the store for them. Today we had to find two spots for a new sweatshirt from Vineyard Vines which we think will sell really well so it got a very good spot. We then have to move the older product to a less good spot. The premium spots are just defined by how close to the entrance the spot is.

 Hours:8  total 58 Today was a much slower day because the Red Sox are off to the west coast for a road trip. After every homestand, we have what’s called a “reset day”. Honestly these days are the worst because there’s a lot to do but none of it is very interesting. The whole store needs to be swept and vacuumed, we have to restock every piece of product to it’s full capacity on the floor, and we go through the whole store to make sure everything is in the right place. I spent a lot of time up in the warehouse pulling lists which is basically just bringing tons of product down for people to put it out on the floor. I can usually fly through the lists I have to do because I know the warehouse decently well so it’s never too bad. There were a few schools doing field trips to Fenway today so there were lots of young kids in the store which always makes for some funny moments.  

 hours: 50 total 8 Today was a longer day, contrary to earlier plans. I worked 8 hours today as my soccer practice was canceled. Today I shadowed Ima, our warehouse manager again as we received a truckload of product yesterday and today was the day to put everything on its shelves in the warehouse. We utilize pallet and pallet movers to move heavy boxes efficiently and easily. The boxes aren’t terribly heavy by themselves but when you’re moving 3-40 in a short time, the pallet movers make things much easier. After that was helping the managers on the store floor with taking some inventory and trying to find possible spots for new product. We don’t usually have an open rack anywhere so sometimes when we get new product, an existing product will have it’s floor availability lessened. The managers can just go on their computers and look at overall sales to decide which product can be sacrificed for product.