Colleen Dittmeier. Nautica intern.: take me out to the ball game!!

It's been another fun weekend filled with food and friends! Saturday was about 100 degrees, so in opt of exploring Central Park and checking out some concerts I went back to Rockaway Beach with Bernadette. The day was relaxing soaking up the sun/heat, watching movies and going out that evening. Sunday was a new experience where we met up with Allison Beach to go to a Met's game! Bernadette's brother has season seats in the outer left field, right under the shade so it was absolutely perfect! A guy 3 rows in front of us caught one of the balls and we enjoyed hot dogs and french fries while singing the classic "take me out to the ball game." Unfortunately they lost badly to the Chicago Cubs but it was a great girls day. Afterwards, Bernadette and I joined granddad at his favorite restaurant, London Lenny's, where I ate my weight in food! But below are some pictures and questions that reflect on my 5th (!!!!) week at Nautica....

What type of merchandise does your company sell? Discuss

Men's apparel, home furnishings, luggage

Are these trends, fads, classics, etc.

Within our seasonal lines there are sub-lines that we do fashion groupings but is only known from within. So our line known as "1983" would be our classic pieces, adapting the pieces over time with what is recent but here is where you find your classic polos, woven shirts, pants, etc. Then we have "99 Wharf St" which is our NJC (Nautica Jean Co.) line, which would be younger. So you would see it on a guy in college and it simply has a younger vibe to it. Then we have "Open Seas" which is would be looking at current trends and adopting it to the Nautica brand image. Again, if you were to go into a store you would not see these labels, this simply allows us to seperate color paletes and distribution. Once everything is complete we look at the sub-lines as a whole in room but categorized by wall sections which is actually what I spent all last week doing with Lauren and will post pictures of sometime this week.

Take pictures of your favorites & post

Next post :)

How does your company set prices?

We look at the price it takes to make the garment and have it shipped. This final cost is referred to as our LDP. Our goal is to raise our gross margin to 51-53%. But sometimes after the LDP comes in and raising prices that high we have to look at the product from a buyer's perspective and see what it would actually be bought for so we may only do a 48% gross margin.

Did you receive any new training this week?

I received and I also gave! We have been setting up for market week so I've been learning about the whole process of set up and checking in new lines for market week. On Friday a girl from a local school came in as part of a mentor program and she's interested in interning at Nautica so I trained her the same way I was when I began my internship.

Experiences you had in dealing with co-workers, customers, boss?

Lauren and I got a lot closer this week because we were in a showroom together everyday setting up and grabbing lunch everyday.

Value of time spent in comparison with experience & knowledge gained?

Definitely learning more and more everyday. Having the hands on experience has been the best way of learning and learning how to be in a working environment. My body has gotten adjusted to working so it's going to be difficult to go back for a semester and get out of rhythm again and then adjust all over again.

What are you looking forward to next week?

Market Week! Monday is a meeting with all the CEO's where we review all the merchandise that Lauren and I prepared last week so I'm excited to sit in on the meeting and see all that's discussed before all the buy's start coming in for the next 2 weeks. It's apparently going to be crazy. My parents, aunts and uncles are also coming in on Friday for a visit so I'm really excited to see them and show them around the city!