Day 23 - Oct 31 Halloween

Today is Halloween.

I am sick.

This sucks.

Day 18 - Oct 26

Today we had a managers and STA meeting at the "Chaobei office" aka Starbucks

Starbucks - Our second home - we seriously spend anywhere from 4-10 hours here a day
May (GM for APM) and Gary (GM for Chaobei) going over the 10 day battle plan with Lordus

Zeus (VM), Raymond (CM) and Edie (DM)

All our separate group huddles - We are seriously taking over this Starbucks

Joanne, Daniel and Arthur talking about the fixture delivery for tomorrow's overnight

Trisha and Carol going over VM stuff

We went over how the fixture delivery schedule and wall sets should look.

The 2nd Floor is suppose to be handed over to us tomorrow at 5 pm...I don't think its going to be ready...

Girls room

Boys room

Escalators to the first floor

Our poor sales associates had to move all these boxes back into the training room after spending 6 hours training...this is only about 1/4 of the boxes

The 1st Floor is worse! and it is suppose to be handed over to us by 5 pm tomorrow @__@

The Japan team flies in tomorrow to review the store before the fixture start coming in.

The rest of the day we had P & P training and VM standards training.

We had to steal random places around the mall to conduct these training...

Zeus and I conducted our VM training hidden behind a restaurant

The mall is freezing! It is about 36 degrees in Beijing right now...brrrr I was not prepared for this.

I am going to call it an early night. I have a gigantic blister on my toe and it is too cold to function so I am going to eat my 10 dumplings (for $1.20), finish my book and prepare myself for the Forbidden City tomorrow :)

Wanted List!

I am on the look-out for:






And in my dreams:



I can't find GOOD SHOES ANYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are going to try and hit up the luxury malls tomorrow... oooh la la

Day 17 - Oct 25 T&A training

We totally went to the wrong place for training today. So instead of being 20 mins early, we ended up being 20 mins late for our T&A training.

We had a Time & Attendance meeting where we reviewed the system they will be using to input their schedule (they won't be using PM like we do in the States).


They are also getting a finger scanning machine for their time-clock, thus preventing any sort of time theft. Their time also clocks at every 30 mins so if you are late and clock in any later than 5 mins past your start time you are automatically clocked in at 30 mins past the hour.

Their employees are also ALL full time employees and full time employees only get an hour break (no 15's) and they only get paid every month!
And their PTO time is calculated every 3 months, so for example if they work 70 hours a week for 2 weeks then only worked 20 hours the next week then they would not get any sort of over time pay! But they do get paid triple time for National Holidays.

Also, their "borrow form" is way easier than ours.

After the T & A training we went for lunch at Chamate (same restaurant we ate at last night, just a different spot).

It was pretty good - not my favorite though.


I got the shrimp wonton soup.

After lunch we actually stayed at the restaurant for another 5 hours!!! for our "Operation Clock" meeting where we discussed roles and responsibilities and went through all their different daily/weekly/monthly checklists.

I learned that the Gap's here will be offering free alterations for all their customers (not just Gap Card holders - bc they don't have a loyalty program set up yet) and their basic denim actually goes up to 699 RMB = $100!!! (This does not include their "limited edition jeans" which retail at around $300).


I also got confirmation on the hotel I will be staying at in Hong Kong, but I don't know when my flight will be yet.

Oooh la la...

Shangri-La Hotel & Resort

Thanks Gap!

Day 16 - Oct 24

What a terrible day to be off.
Jim and I met for breakfast at 8 am and it was pitch black outside. It looked like it was 8 at night.
It had rained last night so everything was so dark and drab.

We decided to hit up some museums today so we met Zeus (the VM for Gap-Chaobei) -after hitting up the Silk Market again - and went to a contemporary art museum called TODAY ART MUSEUM.

Those are "people" sitting all around the top of the building

Installation with a horse and beetles

Installation with goat on concrete bricks

Installation with plastic where the pieces get smaller as they ascend

After the museum we went to a little shopping area called SOHO and had dinner at Chamate.

These were the best sweet potato fries I've ever had!

pot 1: lightly fried tofu with mushrooms and lobster
pot 2: chicken with snow peas, cabbage and mushrooms
pot 3: tofu with mushrooms and shrimp

On the way home we hit up the little grocery store that I recently found hidden right in our building!

Hmmm...I will have to try these

I am getting sad because Halloween is only a week away and I will be stuck at work setting Adult walls while everyone back home is enjoying my favorite holiday :(

I just hate the fact that Halloween will fly by and I won't even notice it because no one here celebrates or decorates for it.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone's costume on Facebook :((((((

Day 15 - Oct 23

Today felt like such a long day.
I came in prepared to LOD the shipment team all day and ended up working on the schedule with Gary, Mike and Jim.
Right when thought the schedule was finally starting to look good, Gary walks in with (of course) MORE changes.
Now I understand how stress he must be.

Th fixture delivery for the 2nd floor was pushed back to the 27th now and the 2nd floor handover is also pushed back.

Luckily I have tomorrow off :P

For lunch today Gary took Jim and I to a local hole-in-the wall type place near the mall.
It was pretty good. The duck we ordered wasn't that great though (even Gary didn't like it). It wasn't the red roasted kind I like.

Spicy Chicken on the table wok and the not so good duck

After work Jim and I hopped in a taxi and ended up sitting in traffic for 20 mins and barely moved a block. We spent more than we usually do to get home just sitting there.
So we got out and walked back to the mall and had dinner while we waited for traffic to die down.

You cook your own food on the skillet plate and it keeps it hot while you eat.
The paper around it keeps the food from popping all over you.

Now I am home researching some stuff to do in Hong Kong :D

Day 10 - 14, Oct 18 - 22

Oct 18:
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)

They had huge beers that cost 4 RMB (60 cents) and our family style meal ended up costing us each 20 RMB (less than $3)...AH-MAY-ZING!
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

The Gap is two levels and I believe 12,000 square feet(????)
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)

The people working were using these rickety looking hand-made wooden ladders.
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 :D

The 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 :[