Mario Sports Mix

Had a Japanese dinner with Victoria the other day in SS15, Subang. It was a good catch up session :)
The going-ons on the Japanese side and also on my side. Both organizations are currently undergoing some top management changes and when there are new people on board, they definitely would like to do something new, implement new policies & processes, to create a new piece of history with them in their new governing era. People who are underneath them will be worn out very fast if they cannot keep up with the pace. Even on my side, since the arrival of The General – we are having presentations on every Wednesday on our leaflet promotions. The General have been very strict. All selected items to be advertised in the leaflets needs to meet the minimum criteria of total of 1,200 units or RM20,000 in value sold. In stationery case, this is not applicable at all. Even my best-selling ball point pen model previous sales history is only around 800 units++. Papers & files are being slotted for Press Ad and they comes with very thin margins. Sigh…very sien. That is why in my coming range review presentation with The General – I actually put a remark that I no longer want the monthly leaflet exposure anymore. Just retain the Press Ad slots, Everyday Low Price (EDLP) and give me more pages during the Mini BTS, Year-end BTS, BTC, CNY, HR and Christmas. So, I can spend more time to focus on merchandising. As there are more stores now with multiple formats – it’s really been very difficult to manage so many of them altogether. All of them operate on their own whims & fancy. No communication & coordiantion at all. What’s more in my position – my competitors have 3 different buyers to manage this department where as I am the only one person - one leg kicking to manage it all alone. In Aeon Big, Jonas manages the Stationery aspect and Jonas have another Books buyer. William does the Luggage portfolio plus the Seasonal Deco. I think the same thing goes to the English as well. On Victoria's side - the team have to work at the store level to do the planograming one after another, the store team are not helping out, leaflet slots have been reduce, the Japanese are not providing the necessary solutions & resources; thus making life harder by the day and also the latest news that everything & everyone will be merge in the future. So, what is going to happen to the excess buyers?

It was a good meet-up between two very tired souls. We encourage each other, we sigh together :) we listen to each other whines about the woes of living a retail life and give each other the support and encouragement when the days ahead are rough :)