Wednesday April 15, 2015

The first appointment we went to on our field study tour was Macy’s. We got the

opportunity to see their buying office at The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, Texas. Macy’s is a

major department store was established in 1866. This fact surprised me because I had no idea

they have been in business for the past 149 years. Macy’s has locations all across the country,

but the cool thing about the company is that depending on the location, different stores will carry

different things to meet the demand of the customers. This department store also has a huge 8

week internship program. College students have the chance to gain career insight while also

getting paid and giving back to the community. I am very interested in the management

development program with this company. It has been one of my dreams to be a manager at the

Macy’s in New York City, the largest store in the world.

Wednesday April 15, 2015

Our next stop on the first day of the study tour is to JC Penney’s corporate offices in

Plano, Texas. These offices have everything you can possibly need without ever leaving work. It

contained a Starbucks, Subway, Walgreens, day care, fitness center, and clinic. This company

was founded on the golden rule; treat others how you would like to be treated, which I thought

was a very neat aspect. This makes for a great atmosphere to work in. They also are a very

philanthropic business, giving back to the community through volunteer work and service

projects. The statue in the lobby of the building of the founder had hands bigger than the size of

his body to represent a giving nature. JC Penny’s also had an internship program, but it seemed

like it would be extremely competitive and hard to get into. I do not know if this company was a

right fit for me, but is overall a great business for someone to work for.

Thursday April, 16, 2015

The first stop of our second day is Premier Jewelry design and manufacturing in

Flower Mound, Texas. Premier Jewelry is a direct sales high end fashion jewelry company

whose target customers are women. This company got started 30 years ago and has close to

40,000 sellers around the country. The design team for Premier Jewelry makes 800 new designs

every year. One lady from this team travels to Asia to get unique design ideas to bring back to

the company. Each piece of jewelry starts off on a computer screen and then is transformed into

a beautiful accessory for women to wear. The manufacturing part of this company goes through a

large series of tasks to make the best quality jewelry. This includes plating, casting, epoxy,

antique, vibe finishing, and inspection. There are a wide range of business opportunities from

working in design, manufacturing, or being a sales representative at home selling jewelry.

Thursday April 16, 2015

After touring Premier Jewelry design and manufacturing, we went to Premier Jewelry

product distribution and order fulfillment in Irving, Texas. Here we got to see how orders are

processed and sent all over the country. Every piece of jewelry is inspected thoroughly before it

ever leaves the building. It was very neat to see the technology and machines that go into

distributing merchandise. Inside the building was a small museum on the history of the company.

They were founded on Christian values and still live that out today. We also had a lady in

marketing explain to us how they make all of the catalogs and label designs. This seemed like an

interesting job to me and would make for a fun career. Even getting involved in direct sales

would be a good route to take in learning how to sell products and this would be a great company

for me to do that with.

Thursday April 16, 2015

For our last appointment of the day we traveled to downtown Dallas to Savoir Luxe, an

online high end designer consignment store. The lady that started this business actually found it

by accident when giving a friend a favor. How she started her business was a very interesting and

inspiring story. I actually found myself thinking that owning my own business may be something

that I would really enjoy. I mean who doesn’t want to be their own boss? It all starts with one

good idea and can grow into a really great business, as the owner of Savoir Luxe has

demonstrated so well. I also started thinking about working more on the designer end of fashion,

which I have never really considered before. I have always loved learning the history of

designers and seeing new trends walk down the runway so this may be a career path I could take.

Friday April 17, 2015

We started off our last day of the field study at the Dallas Market Center. This is a place

where businesses all throughout America come and purchase goods at wholesale price to sell to

their customers. This was one of my favorite parts about the study tour. I have never been to a

market center and was such a cool experience for me. The Dallas Market Center had everything

you could possibly imagine available to purchase. Designers have permanent spots in the

building and new businesses can rent booths to sell their items. The lady taking us on our tour

said that buyers like to go to the booths because they are always looking for something new and

unique. There are many career opportunities throughout the center. We met some ladies that

work with the designers to get the products to the consumers and also sell the products at market

and on the road for those who cannot make it to Dallas. I found myself considering doing

something like this in the future. I think I would have a lot of fun and really enjoy it.

Friday April 17, 2015

Our last stop on this three day fashion study tour is a trip to Bass Pro Shops in Grapevine,

Texas. Bass Pro Shops is an outdoor sports store whose target customers are outdoorsmen. Here

we went on a tour to learn about the visual merchandising techniques they use throughout the

store. It was very interesting to see that everything you see around you has a purpose in why it is

there. After learning about how they merchandise their products, I realized that I have fallen into

those layout schemes used for customers to buy products. In addition to offering a wide range of

products, they also offered services like the shooting range, meeting location, restaurant, and

concession stand inside of the store. Even though this is not the category of retail I would like to

go into in my career, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the visual merchandising at Bass Pro

Shops.