I know of a select few including myself who do it all.. merchandise, update, build wall formats, and do the job of an SMM on a daily basis. It’s with the amount of staff we have and just bare with it. Showing a fake a-s smile while praying to god something positive will change. Hang in there fellow VMs and former Trimmers now VMs. Wish you all the best this Q4 of 25.
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Double Hockys sticks
No help.. yet they want more elevation.
Visual Managers are salaried executives. Look up in your state what the minimum amount of $$ yearly salary is required to be labelled as ‘salaried.
Merchandise associate here.....NO I'M NOT DOING YOUR JOB BECAUSE I DON'T GET PAID FOR IT! VM'S AND VC'S we are not d-mb..change your own mannequins that's what you get paid for and don't pull us away from our tasks because you can't complete yours. Just know that if I'm pulled away you will be stuck with Placing all my merchandise because I am working at the pace that they are paying me for.
Start my day by checking the floor for missing or na--d mqns...because its apparently rocket science to just throw on a shirt or dress.
Check for missing hands.
Check receiving for collateral no customer cares about...but for some reason youll get in trouble for not having it.
Spend hours in meetings that have nothing to do with your workload.
Beg for help, schedule help...to then just do it yourself.
Email some random cat lady about missing collateral.
Email your DVM about missing Collateral.
Email your SrM that youve emailed others about missing collateral.
Pretend to care about a picture of Julia Roberts.
Look for fixtures that are never organized.
Frankly I dont follow the directives. Other than the color story...each store should style like their customer. Just elevated.
You spend more time Merchandising because they havent hired capable Merch staff ANYWHERE!!
I feel seen! There’s not enough time to express the frustration… reporting to people who don’t know the true vibe of VISUAL merchandising but think they do…
Those stupid trends and the “motivation” photos that only the big stores carry… “If not available use something close” … Pffft, yeah riiiight…
Gotta love as the visual merchandising “Display person” I’m setting up trucks and unloading them, working fulfillment cuz someone called off.. taking big tables on/off the floor…
If’n we’re not on the next list to close…( I think we will be…) ima out! I now only work for the insurance . Shame, I REALLY used to be proud and LOVE my job…
My years working for Marshall Field’s was nothing less than AMAZING! Not so much anymore.
@v7 Yes. Smaller stores are the worst. But some larger stores also have the same problem. Copy the looks as closely as you can. Fake it out to get it set by the due date because you have nothing it calls for. It takes much longer to scrounge around to find pieces to fake with than if you actually have thr merchandise called for. With no time to go back to redo if by some off chance you get one of the pieces in. Then in walks your district visual director and she parades around grabbing merchandise that resembles what's called for or happens to find the one thing you got in and missed it. What's this!!! Or you could have used this!!! Nevermind the fact none of it was there the day you had to set the project. Or someone in your store with more authority or thinks they do takes issue with your faking or styling skills.There's not enough time or help to set things once let alone come back to redo it several times. Frequently your directed pieces come in after the next set up has already been faked out. The only creativity on these set ups is your faking out skills. And some mannequin styling.
Is the company really strict about copying the visual directive? I heard there is no creativity anymore and you have to copy everything, down to the mannequin looks.
Its a thankless job with very little support or direction. And it all depends on the level of experience of your store team.
You clean up behind others more than anything because no one has standards in Macys.
As a VM with one helper I feel like we both run around trying to complete tasks on list that will never be completed with no help from anyone else in the store.
How many of the VMs have "teams" ?
My impression is that some have a few people on a team, while others do it all themselves. I think it really depends on the store manager, if they think visual is important or not, and how many helpers they allow the VM to have.
@OP Go back through older topics to May 8. You should get some insight from some of the replies. As a former VM turned into a visual captain I can say look around you. A visual colleague's work is never caught up. As for a team? Ha. No other colleague but maybe a select few have any interest or care about visual projects. If you're considering a VM position see for yourself. Don't trust what you hear in your own store.
@cr thank god for a team.....your Starbucks sipping description is perfection
@cr I've never been a vm, but I worked with them years ago before I left Macy's and they work their butts off. This is definitely not a typical day in the life of a vm. This is called slacking off.
Sit in the office looking at Zog’s and plan o grams. Sip Starbucks while on the computer.
Break time.
Open visual mail from UPS and FedEx.
Lunch time.
Take the visual posters down and flip them to non sale. I took my sweet time to do this.
Break time.
Set up the visual posters for the new sale. I hide them in between signs.
Go home and collect my executive salary.