She had majored in marketing, was interested in retailing, and had been delighted to receive a job offer from a large and prestigious department store chain in the Pacific Northwest. Her first year of employment at this chain was really a traineeship, where she would be assigned to work as an assistant to a buyer in one of the departments. Every two months she was to be rotated to a new buyer in a different department. At the end of her training, if all her buyers agreed that she had performed well, she would be offered a permanent assignment in the company.
Buyers are critical in the management of a department store.
They select the goods to be offered, negotiate purchase terms, set retail prices, arrange displays, organize promotions, and are generally responsible for the operations of the departments within the store. Each buyer acts as a profit center, and sales figures and profit margins are reported monthly to the senior executives. Sarah knew that her buyers received substantial commissions based upon their monthly profits. Sarah's first assignment was to work for the buyer of the gourmet food department. This was a small unit that sold packaged food items such as jams and jellies, crackers and cookies, cheese, spreads, and candies, most of which were imported from Europe.