Today is our last day of working in Nocibe. We arrived into work for 9am. Thea changed all the prices on the perfumes and I was taking stock of the shelves that were to been returned. I had a list and each item had to be scanned on the till to make sure the codes were correct. When our day ended the lovely staff from Nocibe gave us a gift to say thank you to us. This was nice because it meant that they did appreciate us. After work we headed to the train station where we meet the others and said our goodbyes to Sabine our coordinator who did so much for us here in France. Off to Brussels we go for a couple of nights before we head back home on Sunday.
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Thea and I arrived at work for 10 am. We started the day with the usually daily cleaning routine. After that a delivery of stocked arrived in. We tagged everything with security tags and restocked the store. By the time we had all this done it was lunch time. After lunch I got to help serve customers. The language barrier is still a challenge but we are learning each day. Today I got to apply perfume to customers. This is where the customer comes in and asks to try a fragrance they like. They stand there and you spray them with the fragrance. At home I have never seen this done before. I also helped a customer pick a fragrance for a gift for somebody and she spoke a little English which helped, also I was able to get make up for a customer and tell her the price of it. Even though she had no English I could still help her. Thea also got to help customer's choose fragrances for themselves and for gifts. It's a good feeling when you know the customer is happy with their purchase. Over all it was a successful day.
This morning was just like waking up in Ireland; weather wise. Just like at home, it was a miserable windy and rainy morning. We set off on our usual walk to the bus at 8.15am. Once we got into work we were kept busy for the whole day. There were a lot of deliveries all day so we were kept busy unboxing the deliveries and then putting security tags on them before popping them onto the shelves. After we were done putting out the deliveries and restocking we then had to price the products and make sure all the prices were correct. In the store they check up and update the prices every two weeks.
For the rest of the day we were in our element doing some visual merchandising. We made sure that the perfumes were well presented and were displayed in the correct way whilst also making up new compositions. The compositions are like little gift sets they make up in store. The store is really well known for their lovely compositions and are extremely popular with the customers. Joanne and I got to pick the products for the compositions and then get to make them up. After work we all decided to meet in Bethune and celebrate Pancake Tuesday French style with some crepes. Pancake Tuesday isn't as big over here as it is in Ireland but instead they celebrate Mardi Gras around this time of year where there is lots of colour and parades to be seen. À demain, -Thea Today we were very tired from an activity packed weekend, I got a very warm welcome from my line manager who had been on a week holiday and who had just resumed today also. After exchanging pleasantries, we went straight to the business of the day. She assigned me an area of responsibility to carry out for the day. So I spent the whole of today, checking all the products and making sure they all had ticket (as they call it) or price tags and anyone that didn't have it will be withdrawn from the line and brought back only after they have been tagged because we are taking stock inventory tomorrow so every item has to be properly accounted for. It was a busy day and was completed successfully.
It was a lovely weekend in Paris. The weather wasn't bad as well and we got a chance to look around the different shops and attractions. Paris is littered with all the big brand names. It was fun going to those shops that you hear about but have never been to. Just being there and looking around even if you are not buying anything was more than enough. At least we took some nice shots. The high point for me was seeing the crowd of people moving from one shop to the other or from one tourist attraction to the other, and people taking photographs or making a video of the whole scenery. Paris is magical... Everyone should visit. It was funny to see the pigeons flocking around me to eat from the crumbs that fell from my biscuits, and before I I knew it I had been surrounded by a large flock of pigeons. Obviously, they have a very powerful communication system because it was only one that discovered the food and instantly the whole area was covered with them.It was a beautiful sight! The fun in Paris was over and it was time to come back to the real world and we boarded the train back to Bethune, and got a taxi to Bruay to get ready for our final week of work in France. We all travelled on the bus this morning, except Caela. Joanne and Thea got off at Bruay la Bussaisrie to get another bus. So Bláthnait, Bridget and me continued until Centre Commercial, where we all work.
This morning I was checking the shoes sizes at the back wall and making sure the shoe size matched and were in the right place according to the size. In the afternoon I had to scan the barcodes of the shoe boxes, input the right price and then stick them in the shoe to be placed at the back wall. I also went around the shop making sure all the shoe boxes were neatly stacked and that the right shoe corresponded to the box. Sabine was very gracious and collected Bridget, Bláthnait and myself from work and dropped us to the train station where we met up with Caela , Thea and Joanne to catch the train down to Paris for the weekend. -Laoise Today Laoise, Bridget and I got the bus to our work placements in Centre Commerciale in Bruary la Buissiere. Bus drivers are very friendly here and we've learnt that the custom is to exit via the centre door of the bus rather than the front door, and to yell a friendly 'Au Revoir' as you do so. I'm working in La Halle, a fashion 'mode' store that has an extensive range of clothing, shoes and accessories for children, men and women including plus size and maternity wear with a number of brands located in store under the 'La Halle' brand ('marque').
I parted ways with Laoise and Bridget who were working close by in French stores, Kiabi and Besson, and made my way to my store for my start at 9.30am. I've learned from my store manager, Séverine, that the first and last thing to do when I start/finish is to say good morning/evening en Francais to every member of staff individually as part of French custom. Next is a short briefing from my managers, Olivier or Séverine on the 'plan du jour' ......and so work begins. At first everyone begins working on store standards and then it was on to an in-store merchandising activity. This morning I was helping Angelina, who does this on a daily basis for the store. This is an area i'm very keen to progress in and want to gain as much experience in while i'm here. The only challenge was Angelina didn't have any English so it was a case of 'actions speaking louder than words' and working as a team to understand each other. This morning's focus was mainly on three women's 'femme' brands under the 'La Halle' group, 'Miss Liberto', 'Mosquito', and their home brand 'LH by La Halle' . The merchandising in-store is geared towards commercial display with plentiful stock on the floor. The store layout is very spacious which is great when your working with many brands. From what I've learned the aim is to constantly revamp the brand layout to make sure it's selling. The 'La Halle' managers can see this by running daily sales reports and shares this information with the retail team. From working with Angelina today, i've learned that it was important to keep the similar brands aligned with each other, ensure there was adequate spacing between the bays, appropriate signage above the bays, correct tickets/tags on the clothes and that the display itself was harmonious in terms of colours and type of clothes. Angelina would very often stand back and review our progress, which is an important element of visual merchandising. After this was finished, it was all about meeting and greeting customers and helping with their queries. We had our first English speaking customers this afternoon since my work placement started so they received special treatment when I was able to help them in terms of what they were looking for! The team in La Halle are extremely helpful but with limited French/English on both our parts it's quite hard to maintain a conversation. However, every day we're learning a little more which is great. We had a lot of fun last night when we discovered Bubble Foot in a multi sports centre called Le S'match. After a long day at our work placements, it was just what we needed and really good fun. We are leaving the college tomorrow for a weekend trip to Paris and really looking forward to that. -Bláthnait Today Thea and I started work at 1pm. We got the 11.30 bus for work. We have two buses to catch to get to Nocibe. Nocibe is a perfume and cosmetic store. The name comes from an island called Nocibe. It is a family run business.
In the store everyone works as a team. Each team member is trained in all the brands in store. Unlike stores at home you are trained in one area only and you look after that brand. Each customers is greeted with a hello and welcome to Nocibe. When we arrived at work it was straight into stocking today the testers. The testers are stored in an office of the main stock room. We wrote down the brand name, the day and how many were in stock. It is a slow process but must be done. It took us 3 hours to get through all the testers. All stock in store is tagged with a security tag. These tags are taped to the testers and are hide in all the retail product. It is clever how they hide them. After that Thea and I learned about the new visual merchandising displays. We got to set them up and make up compositions to display. We also learned how to wrap without using tape which is great and not as easy as it looks. Today I got to serve a customer who could speak English. It was really nice. The language barrier is hard at times and I do feel this is a challenge. At the end of the day we learned how the close down the store for the night. Everyone gets involved in getting the store ready for the next day. We finished at 8pm and Sabine our French coordinator kindly picked us up as buses here stop at 7pm. Bonne Journée. -Joanne Today marks the halfway point of our Erasmus journey. In one way it has seemed like the longest week ever but in another way it has flown by. We are all feeling quite proud of ourselves today that we've made it to here, and looking forward to the next leg of the journey.
Today was another typical working day as we were up and out early. At this stage we are getting a little more confident at work and it's evident our employers are gaining confidence in us also, but everyday is a new challenge. We are doing different tasks and we are all still finding the language barrier tough. The hardest part is the customers, you really want to be able to help them and feel somewhat annoyed when you can't understand everything that they are saying. Grasping a language takes time and everyday we add a few new words to our expanding vocabularies. Some days in work are a lot quieter than others and this can make some days feel very long and that's part of the challenge as other days can be very different. After work this evening we went to "Le Smatch" where we played "Bubble Football" which was great fun. It was hilarious as we ended up ditching the football altogether and just messed around chasing each other about and knocking each other over. A great way to spend a few hours. We got back to our accommodation around 9pm and Máire out GTI accompanying person was there waiting for us. We all sat around and chatted about our day, it's really nice to catch up in the evening and hear everyone's updates. A bientôt! Today as always was a very busy day. As my line manager and the overall manager are both on a week off it was very difficult to communicate with the team I worked with today as they have no English at all. Both my line manager and the overall manager speak a bit of English so it is always very easy to understand what they're saying even though it's not perfect English. However, through a combination of sign language and mustering a bit of simple French I have learned I can manage to get through the day's tasks.
The moment I walked in today I was told my task assigned to me was to tagging all products meant for sale. Kiabi, the company I am working in is very big and sells their own brands for women, men and children's clothing. Their sale is massive at 70 percent off and shoppers are always coming in, in their droves. I was constantly busy with tagging the sale items all day with an hour break from 1.00 pm to 2.00pm. During my lunch break I went out and had lunch with Bláthnaith and Laoise at subway. Although the hours are long and the job is fast paced with everyone on the shop floor constantly on the move, it is a good experience for me as I have the opportunity to observe and appreciate in the importance of presentation. We move about on the the shop floor constantly fixing clothes and making them look attractive on display. I learned that you must present your products to your customers in a way they will value it enough to make a purchase. If they're left on the floor, nobody will be attracted to buy. So we are constantly putting back the clothes to their original state of display. The job I did today was a little different to what I have always done, in that I have not dealt with sale items before except fixing the clothes on the shop floor. The little challenge I had was to master the use of the equipment used in sticking the sale item on the clothes in such a way not to injure myself because it is so sharp and can easily injure someone. I got a couple of pinches from it. Overall, it was a nice day and I closed at 6. 30pm as usual and headed to the bus stop to catch no.32 bus. Today we all had a well deserved lie on. After that we got up and got the train to the beautiful city of Lille for some retail therapy. We all felt like treating ourselves. Bláthnait decided she would go to Gant for the day to meet her aunt. The trains are so different to home. They are double decker trains. When we arrived at the train station in Lille, Again there was high security. Soldiers were walking around in groups of four with guns. As we walked to the city centre of lille we stopped off for some crepes for breakfast. We continue on up to the square and done some sight seeing and we were all ready to shop. We checked out some of the designer shops. Louis Vutton and Hermes. It was nice to see there stores as we have a store design project for our course and it was good to get ideas. We all headed back to our apartment in the evening for a nice relaxing night.
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