“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 963 (Saturday) – retail memories

When I was a kid, Mummu and I took regular trips downtown. We would visit Parke Snow, where we took the elevator to the credit counter on the top floor to pay on her charge account. Sometimes we would look at the shoes, clothes, and accessories. We’d also visit Rogers in the Square, further down Main Street, with the same mission. At Rogers, the payments were magically transported via pneumatic tube to an office upstairs. Sometimes at Rogers, we would see the window displays being changed out, which seemed like such a cool job. I recall hearing that the window dresser came in from Boston to change the displays, which made the job seem even more exotic. 

In November and December, we visited many more of the downtown stores as we tackled Mummu's Christmas list. That’s when Rogers had the gift wrap station set up behind the sales counter. The gift wrapping process was fascinating, and I would study the clerks as they wrapped the boxes in festive paper from industrial sized rolls mounted at the counter. The creases were precise. The seams were perfect. There was never any excess paper and the corners were perfectly folded. 

Sometimes Mummu had gifts wrapped at the store, but usually she let me do it. Wrapping all her Christmas gifts was one of my favorite holiday activities. We'd be in her living room with the TV on, and I’d spread everything out on the living room rug and get busy. She sat in her chair writing the tags to attach to the packages.

Retail visual merchandising memories.

In college and again later, I worked in retail in various roles including floor clerk, jewelry counter, and customer service. My favorite was the year or so when I was the visual merchandiser who hung the signs and other elements, made up the display beds, and dressed the mannequins. 

Visual merchandiser was the best job in the store, and as fun as I imagined it to be when I was a kid. It was way beyond the couple mannequins in the windows at Rogers. The store was significantly larger, and the role involved every department. There were big rolling ladders to push through the store, and death defying wobbly fixtures with heavy mannequins on top.

The planograms from corporate indicated the location of the ceiling hangs and wall posters, and what outfits to display. Half the time our signs were late and the outfits had either already arrived and sold out or not arrived on the truck yet, and I got to pull outfits for the silent salespeople based on what was in stock. 

It's funny to me that I enjoyed doing the store visuals so much. I’m not one of the homeowners who change out the décor each season. After more than six years in The BungaLowell, I haven’t yet managed to hang all the artwork yet. It feels like a miracle if I get any Christmas decorations up. Maybe with a corporate booklet and a paycheck I’d like it more.