The Cultural Classroom

There comes a point in higher education when you find yourself eager for your classes, excited to share something you've discovered with your professor, and overall relating more and more of what you've learned in the classroom to outside of it.  Or at least, you are fortunate if you can get to this point in education, fortunate if you can find that niche of passion that you give your unrelenting dedication.

This "a-ha" feeling generally comes to people later on in college, after completing gen-ed's and delving into the depths of their chosen degree.  I've been blessed to have felt this sense of belonging to my major since the Fall Quarter (2013) of my sophomore year.  I knew early on I needed to be in the fashion industry, but, to say the least, the freshman design courses and I did not make a good pair.  So when heading further into the Drexel Design and Merchandising curriculum, I found my place and my place found me--the business end in the fashion industry.  Numbers, buying, percentages, and Excel are just a few words that bring a smile to my face, so it was no wonder that when I took Retail Merchandise Planning this past spring I was in absolute heaven.

Despite doing math problems for homework, creating buying plans, and toying with Excel, there was something particular about this class that sparkled in my eyes.  For one of the first times, I was able to make connections between my life outside of the classroom and my life within without being prompted.  The majority of the merchandise planning class was first spent defining terms, such as mark downs, mark ups, stock, and more, and second, defining these terms in the sense of their purpose, how they're used, and their context in retail.

When looking at their place in retail, I noticed these terms to be remarkably similar to knowledge I already had.  It didn't take me long to realize that this similarity was not found in a past class whatsoever but at my job at Loft.

Despite already loving my job, I now had a newfound love for it, being able to understand a lot of the going-ons in the background.  The abundant amount of sales and promotions Loft has that I mentioned in my last post ("Survival of the Fittest: Safari of the Sale") suddenly made sense.  Although I had a semi-realization much earlier on that retail stores in general that have regular promotions set prices much higher, using promotions to make customers think they are getting a deal, I now knew this was fact.  I knew why Loft held these promotions.  I knew that Loft did not view mark downs as a monetary loss, but as a way to make net profit.  I knew the reasoning of certain items going on sale faster than others.  I knew how Loft created stock turnover and generated new regular clients.  I knew the background of Loft's numbers.

And I could not be any luckier to have had this indescribable connection to a future career before hitting 20 years of age, and that is something else I know.