We had a meeting at the APM office in the mall (this is their temporary location)
Carol the District Visual Manager for Beijing went over some VM information with the team then we worked on the pre-retailing schedule.
I don't have any pictures from the meeting, but Carol is the cutest thing ever, with the best hair cut and clothes. She use to work as a VM for Miu Miu and Prada in the UK and China, drooool.
After work all the STAs (minus Karen C bc she was sick) and a couple of the supervisors from the APM store had dinner at some hole in the wall place that ended up being an absolute gem!
This was just the beginning
Justin, Jim and Mike enjoying their 60 cent beers
Nathan, Paolo and Dean (Paolo's the one who told us about this place)
At dinner we found out that everyone that drives in Beijing is by law not allowed to drive at least one day each week. You look in the paper and it might say drivers with license plate that end in 1, 4, 7 can not drive on Mondays, plates ending in 2, 5, 8 can't drive on Wed etc...and it changes every 3 months.Then they told us that it cost about 200 RMBs (about $30) to be able to drive in Beijing and in Shanghai it cost about 40,000 RMBs (about $6,000) to be able to drive!!! So you only see very expensive, nice cars in Shanghai. I thought that was CRAZY.
Oct 19:
Today was the first day we got to actually see our store.
Our Mall
Our store - It is MASSIVE!
So excited!11 levels with an "amusement park" and...
ice rink on the 8th floor
Adult on the ground level and Kids/Baby and body on the second.
The store looked VERY unfinished, and the contractors kept trying to push our handover date back, but as of now it is still set for Oct 28th...I am a little nervous about this.
Justine (K/B DM), Crystal (Men's DM) and Daniel (CM)
Kids room
Lordus (District HR) and Trisha (District Manager from Canada)They seriously took pieces of wood and nailed them together to make these, and they were using them like stilts to get around instead of having to get off the ladder and moving it and climbing back up!!!
Next time anyone back home complains about having to use a ladder I am going to show them this...
Later, Jim and I had lunch on our own today with out Joanne.
We had a little trouble ordering (only one of us got our food) but we remedied the problem and split it, which ended up working out for the best because one order was more than enough for the both of us.
My desert :)Oct 20:
OMG I started my period today :P Bleh, I am hating life.
Today is the first day of Pre-retailing too.
The store is freezing.
We have to wear these flimsy mask because of the dust and paint fumes (its really bad).
And the space is cramped (we only get two shops to use to process shipment).
And it's only going to get worse because we are getting 11,000 more units a day for the next 5 days and it all needs to fit in this space.Today 8,000 units came which wasn't bad except we have to:
1. open the boxes
2. cut all the Hong Kong prices off the tag
3. sensor any items without sensors
4. look at a "pull back" list for items they sent us that need to be sent back
5. sort
6. size
7. pull samples of each item and check them off a list (for pre-set) then box them up
8. sort the items into divisions then into shops then re-box them accordingly
Jim and I got sushi for lunch, I was in need of some serious sushi.
By the time Jim and I left I was getting a headache.
By the time I got home my headache was so bad I could not stand up by myself.
I felt so sick I could not do anything. I had body sweats and chills. I ended up taking a bunch of cold meds and falling asleep by 11:30pm.
Oct 21:
I woke up feeling a lot better. A good hot shower also helped.
Nathan and I really wanted to go shopping, so I met him at his place and we went to Xi Dan to look around and wait for Paolo to meet us.
We went to these "department stores" across the street from the mall and they were crammed with a bunch of crap.
The downstairs had a bunch of sweets and knick-knacks which were cute, but we didn't end up buying anything there.
I went to Uniqlo to get some heat tech thermals to wear for working in our store (yes, it is that cold in there).
Then we headed over to the silk market to try our luck.
It was crowded and intense, but fun.
After shopping I went home to meet Jim, Joanne and her parents for dinner.
Her parents are visiting from Guam and it is their first time in Beijing!
They are soooo sweet.
Oct 22:
Went into work in the afternoon.
Met Gary, Trisha, Mike, Joanne, Raymond and Daniel at Starbucks (this is Chaobei's "office") to discuss scheduling, back room set up etc.
Had lunch at some Korean place (I think)
where your food is cooked in a hot stone bowl in front of you as you eat.
It was good :DThe store has made some major developments...
We have floors now!!! and some paint!!! but it is no where near ready for handover in 2 days :[
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