Informational Interview White House | Black Market

For my Informational Interview I personally interviewed Katie Salah, the store manager for White House | Black Market at Wisconsin Place. White House | Black Market is an American fashion store targeting women 25 years of age and older. White House | Black Market is known for its sleek lines, and its focus on white, black, and other variants of the two colors. The brands significant focus is on creating a comfortable, inviting and hospitable atmosphere for customers. Seating is available in store with water available. During special events food and refreshments, and catering are occasionally offered.

While talking to Miss Salah she told me about her responsibilities which include hiring and training new employees, motivating the associates to sell, making our numbers every day and how the store performs at the end of every week day month year, and also solving any conflicts within the store, if any. When talking about hiring and training Miss Salah pointed out that the retail industry in general has a high turnover rate; therefore, it is her job to be constantly training new staff. We also discussed where she believed there would be an increase in employment in retail in the future. She answered that where she sees room for developing is in technology, and improvements to the system that is used to “ring up” transactions. “I think there’s going to be more technology in the stores, for example right now we have some of our marketing has a barcode on it that if you have that app in your phone you can scan it and it pulls up like a list of styles or something like that or advertisements in magazines.” Also she remarked that the social media, such as Twitter and Facebook has helped the store sell more since people know about discounts and specials sooner and the WHBM is also able to reach out to an extremely large clientele.

When I asked her how WHBM differed from its competition such as Anne Taylor, Liz Claiborne and other stores, Miss Salah said that WHBM has a higher level of customer service since they make shopping more of an experience, and the people who work there are not just sales people they are personal stylists: “We try to give every customer the same experience we’re not just there to go get them sizes and ring up their transactions, but were there to help them see how to wear things, how to do it differently and to make them feel comfortable and beautiful.”

Lastly we talked about how WHBM and the whole retail industry in general was impacted by the recent economic recession, she answered that people were more conscious about what they were spending their money on, maybe less disposable income, so less money to spend on the things that they want and looking to purchase just the things that they need, getting what they need for a particular occasion and that particular season and not really going overboard and getting all they want.