My mother once said to me that I should shop a little bit every day. I was a teenager at the time and I did not like shopping. I became very bored because shopping took up time I'd rather have spent with friends or riding my bike and it was hard for me to stand in dressing rooms trying on different pants and shirts, but my mother liked me to look nice and organized. Fortunately, my mother had very good taste and a great sense of style and knew exactly what would fit me.
For years, through high school, and well into my twenties my mother bought many of my school and work clothes. The reason why I did not like to shop was because I had a very bad experience shopping with my mom. One day my mother took me for shopping at Macy's Herald Square. I was upset because the store was very busy. There were too many people running up and down to find the best deal they could get. As I remember, it was "a one day sale". We arrived a bit late, around 12 noon, and the store had been open since 8 a.m. because of the holiday season. Most of the things she found were not the right size. She was hoping to find a sales person to help her find the right size, but unfortunately, none of them were available. So, she started getting very agitated because she had spent almost half of the day in the store for nothing. Somehow, between her looking for a salesperson and moving from department to department, I lost contact with her and it took us about an hour before we found each other again. When we finally met, she put all the blame on me and started yelling at me. I was very afraid and very sad. you could say more about the afraid period--I think that was before you met, when you were alone. You don't really describe that I felt terrible and decided to never go shopping with my mom again. This was the most terrible shopping day of my life. Since that experience I hated shopping and really did not care about clothing.
For years, that experience haunted my life and it took me years to start going back to department stores to buy things for myself. I realize that shopping well is a way of taking care of oneself and those you care about. It is efficient to know what you like and what you do not, what your size is and what makes you look attractive and what does not and to always have what you need. I also always thought my mother must have loved to spend money, but my mother didn't mean that one should spend so much money. She meant that one should LOOK, really look at things to see what would be just right for me, for herself or a friend. To my mother, shopping was time well spent and time never wasted because it made life a little better for all whom my mother loved.
Today, I realize that my mother's interest in shopping affected my entire life. For about nine years, I have been working in the clothing industry. Today, with what I have learned from my mother and from my own experience in the field, I have become one of the top sales specialists at Brooks Brothers, Inc. in New York City. One experience that affected my life is with a customer at Brooks Brothers. I remember that it was a slow day for business. A customer walked into the store and looked anxious. He asked me if I could help him find a gray suit because his luggage did not arrive at the airport and he had a big meeting the next day. He also told me that he is very difficult to fit off the rack and that he always bought made-to-measure suits. With my experience and expertise, I not only found him a gray suit that fit him really well, but I also suggested a navy stripe and a tan suit because it was holiday time. Brooks Brothers finished the alterations of all three suits the same day and I personally delivered the suits to the customer's hotel. A week and a half later, my manager called me in his office and showed me the letter the customer had sent to the company regarding my excellent customer service, my professionalism and my expertise in the field. Then one day, a month later, I received a phone call from the customer, who happended to be a CEO of a major American newspaper. He wanted me to find him in the store any suit that I thought would fit him. I found him ten suits. A day later, I called him back to tell him what I found. His answer was, "Sold. Send them to me." That was my biggest one day sale in my life ($18,000.00) for one customer. Brooks Brothers was very happy about the customer getting back to me and letting me choose the suits for him. Since then we developed a very good relationship and he sent me two or three of his colleagues to build my customer book. From that experience, I started feeling that I love what I do for a living and that I love clothes.
I love clothes, but I also enjoy making our clients and customers look good as well. I love to help them shop for what is exactly right for them. For example, selling a suit to someone is almost like putting myself under the skin of the customer. I feel happy just as my mom used to be when she saw someone dressed up. Again today, I feel the same when a customer purchases a suit because of my expertise. I really do not know what I will be doing if I did not follow the footsteps of my mother. I still cannot forget my experience with my mother in the past and today she is still telling me what to wear and how to wear it. My mother is still fixing my neck tie when I go to visit her. She always has a question about the shirt and tie I chose to wear and always has an opinion of my selection, sometimes good and sometimes only fair. I am very happy to share with her what she always loves and I hope that in the future she will work with me as a partner in opening a clothing business.