/ Articles by Cara Wood

Every store needs an artist. That’s not something you’re going to hear every day, or maybe even ever, but it’s true. Your product doesn’t sell itself. You have to have great marketing to bring people to your store, great salespeople to explain the product and show how it’s useful, and you have to have a great merchandiser to set up the product attractively.

Let me tell you a story from when I was a lowly sales associate in a mall store for middle-aged ladies who like cardigan sweater sets. It was a Tuesday morning – not the most exciting time to work at the mall – when an older, married couple came in. I offered to help them, but given the amount of grumbling and the surprisingly angry vibes for a Tuesday that I was getting, I mainly left them alone. (Sometimes, folks, it’s just not worth it.) After a while, they came up to the register with two t-shirts, which I rang up with a sunny smile. I announced the price to them – full price.

Retail has a really high turnover rate, so during the three years I worked in a store in college, I met a lot of different retail employees. Some of them were downright terrible fits for the retail world, but some of them were excellent. And while the excellent employees I worked with varied widely in background, interests, personality types, etc., they all had several qualities and skills in common.

We’ve come back to December again, and tis the season for holiday windows displays. Retail window displays are possibly never more beautiful than now. Retailers go above and beyond to outdo yourselves.

You’ve probably bought something at a retail store and been asked at the cash register if you would like to buy one of the tchotchkes conveniently located right in your face. Or (worse), you’ve been the sales associate suggesting that the person buying Taylor Swift’s latest album might want to take home the overstocked Metallica CD your manager ordered you to suggest.

This is the first Mother’s Day that I’ve ever been married, so now I have two mothers to shop for. My whole life, Mother’s Day gifts were always easy to think of. My mom is easy to shop for. She loves help around her house; she loves fun knick-knacks for the living room; she loves new outfits. My mom is probably the easiest woman in the world to shop for, and I never realized how lucky I am. Until this May.