A week at UNIQLO: What it’s like to be running your own store in your early 20s
You could be store manager in 10 months
A year isn’t a very long time – maybe you’ll have changed your hair, run a half marathon or watched every single Coen brothers film ever made.
Whatever you’ve achieved, you probably won’t have started running an entire store for one of the biggest retail companies in Europe.
Meet the UNIQLO grads who are already running their own stores in countries all over the world.
Want to run your own store?
Apply for the UNIQLO grad scheme
Monday
Laure Rudloff: Area Manager
Based in Regent Street, London
The first thing I do when I get to the store at 7am is check the local figures for the previous day and the global figures for the previous week.
At 8am the three central London stores meet to present the figures from the previous week to the senior management. I’ll explain the reasoning behind the figures and we’ll use them to give feedback to the rest of the departments about prices, what products we should push, and what lines to invest in.
I’ll then go on the shop floor and see what’s happening, what needs to be changed and what we need to work on to make sure we’re as customer friendly as possible.
The grad scheme threw you right into running a store. At the end of the day it’s still a business so although we were learning and having a good time we still needed to make money and succeed. The great thing about the role was you didn’t need to wait months to see the impact your decisions made – you could see them within a couple of days.
I’d like to get experience opening new stores in the UK or abroad and then based on this I’d like to open a country, maybe as a COO. I think it’s doable in five years at UNIQLO which is not something I’d be able to say about any other scheme.
You could be opening stores all over the world in 5 years
Apply to the UNIQLO grad scheme here
Tuesday
Mark Barnatovic: Concept Floor Design
Based in Oxford Street, London
I work on the concept floors of UNIQLO Oxford Street, which aim to present an interesting theme or concept rather than selling UNIQLO clothes. Every month we come up with a new concept to talk about and work with external creative agencies to communicate this along with our UNIQLO products.
The initial suggestion for the concepts is mine, although we make sure we co-ordinate all the departments and include ideas from others. When coming up with a concept I consider the global company plan of what they’re trying to achieve that season, what celebrations are happening in the UK that month, such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day, and if there’s a collaboration or individual item we’d like to push a bit more.
On Tuesday we order our new lines for the week. We’ll talk with our visual merchandisers about where we’re placing these items, how we’re dressing the mannequins and if there are any posters to go along with it.
I’ve had numerous opportunities with the grad scheme to learn from different departments, ask questions and learn from the many different departments I’ve been exposed to. We get to see a business from all different angles and get an in depth understanding of how UNIQLO operates.
There are so many diverse and exciting roles in retail
Discover what’s right for you with UNIQLO
Wednesday
Philippine Brousse: Store Manager
Based in Bordeaux
I start the day by greeting the team and checking the shop floor with them to make sure all the sizes and products are available. I’ll then decide the layout of the store with the visual merchandiser to make sure it looks good and links to our branding image.
On Wednesday we have our markdowns, so I check that all the items have stickers and that the new sales advertising is good.
Then I’ll analyse yesterday’s sales, check our stock and order anything we’re running low on.
All the days are different and dynamic. The majority of the training takes place on the shop floor and since the store is open from 10am to 8pm, there’s always something to do.
You’ve got 10 months to become a store manager, so it’s very fast and you have to take an active role in your own training.
My favourite part of the scheme has been that after six months I moved store from Paris to Nice. It was challenging – you have to be credible to your new team even though you’ve only been working for six months and be able to develop their skills as a good leader.
I’m now opening the second UNIQLO store in Bordeaux which is really exciting. In five years I want to be the country manager, which is something completely possible when working for a company as fast-moving as UNIQLO.
Are you looking for a challenging, dynamic role?
Apply to the UNIQLO graduate scheme here
Thursday
Mika Lönnbro Fukino: Assistant Store Manager
Based in Belgium, seven months into grad scheme
Thursdays are when our big campaigns start, so if we have a new sports collection or a collaboration with a designer they’ll be launched on a Thursday.
We have some continuous collaborations, such as our UNIQLO t-shirt collaborations with Pharrell Williams and pop culture artist Keith Haring. Last year there was a long-term collaboration with French designer Christophe Lemaire, who’s now an artistic director for UNIQLO.
Uniqlo is a very ambitious company and they don’t settle for less. You learn something new every single day, whether it’s folding a t-shirt properly or ordering the right amount of stock, it’s so broad and no one day is ever like another. You’re taught a very broad set of skills and you never get bored because you’re doing so many different things.
You deal with so many different kinds of people, the management team, the store staff who are from 19 different nationalities and are all so different with different backgrounds and ages. You have to adapt your leadership style to different kinds of people as well as talk to customers.
Want to help launch massive international campaigns?
Apply to the UNIQLO grad scheme here
Friday
Day off!
Saturday
Mara Weber: Supervisor
Based in Berlin, seven months into grad scheme
Saturday is the last chance of the week to make up the rest of our weekly targets and prepare for the challenges of the next week.
We have to make sure the shop floor’s in good shape, that we’re bringing a lot of stock out and that our customer service is on point so we can meet and surpass our targets.
I’ll split my time between the shop floor and behind the scenes in the office. You have to be really flexible as you can’t tell what there is to be done if you’re not on the shop floor a lot. You need to figure out the situation and how you can impact it directly.
The scheme places an equal emphasis on knowledge and practice because those two things really do inform each other. You need to have knowledge and be able to set it into practice, and by doing so you can update your theoretical knowledge.
I’m excited to see where UNIQLO will extend to next and what other opportunities there will be in Europe. I’d love to be able to work in another country as part of the company. Travel in Germany has already been a component of the scheme and it expands your knowledge because each store is unique and it really helps to round out your skill set.
Sunday
Day off!