From November 2007

Dorothy Minkus-McKenna
Professor, Berkeley College, NYC

Dorothy Minkus-McKenna channeled her inner Barbara Ehrenreich (author of “Nickel and Dimed”) by taking a department store job this past holiday season. While Ehrenreich wanted to experience what it was like to get by on minimum wage, Minkus-McKenna hoped to study customer behavior and test some theories.

Now that she’s back from fieldwork straightening women’s apparel, Minkus-McKenna is a professor of marketing and international business at New York’s Berkeley College, where she also teaches courses on consumer behavior and entrepreneurship.

What led to your undercover work?
I was inspired to do some original research based on three things: The use of mystery shoppers, the advent of reality shows and the desire to confirm various theories and strategies from a retail course I teach. So I applied for a part-time job at a major department store in an upscale mall and omitted my advanced marketing degrees [from the application]. I was assigned to the moderate [women’s] department as a flyer, a person who straightens merchandise.

Did you receive training?
Orientation was scheduled for 9 a.m. Four people were supposed to attend, but only two of us were there at the appointed time: another showed up much later, and one never did. We watched a video giving the store’s history and some general references to customer satisfaction. Training included learning how to use the cash register and completing transactions. Actually, there was very little specific detail given about how we were to help customers. One of the most common questions I had to answer concerned restroom locations, but those locations were never pointed out during orientation.

Your main job was to straighten women’s apparel?
Yes. Picking up after people who leave clothes anywhere and everywhere and who unfold all the neatly stacked sweaters or jeans. On busy days it was impossible to keep up with the mess.

I did find there were three types of items that ended up on the floor even without customer help: silky blouses, cardigan sweaters and shawls. Pick up the silky blouse, put it on a hanger, watch it slip to the floor and repeat the process over and over.

Did you think there must be a better way?
Well, yes. What about hangers with foam pads to prevent sliding? Maybe that’s too expensive. Or what about using the loops inside the blouse to hook over the top of the hanger? That could be seen as too labor-intensive or not very customer-friendly. So in the end, they hire people to pick up the fallen merchandise and let that be reflected in the price.

Working during retailing’s most hectic time of year must have been illuminating.
My schedule for Black Friday [began at] 6 p.m., so I was fortunate enough to miss the crowds, but the telltale signs of their presence could be found on the changing room floors. It was “trashed” -- that’s the word for willful messing, isn’t it? There were inside-out pairs of jeans everywhere.

I also saw many potential catastrophes as children -- without moms voicing any disapproval or warning -- played with the life-sized mannequins

Other observations on the human condition?
Well, after three weeks on the job, it finally happened: a hostile customer. I accidentally bumped into a middle-aged woman of average height and I’m 5 ft.10. This bump, on a scale of 1 to 10, was a 2, compared to an average day of Christmas shopping in New York City which rates 7 to 9. She freaked and said I bumped into her on purpose. The manager was called and I got a talking to. I offered to quit; all this for $6.47 per hour minus parking expenses.

So, did the experience help in proving those theories or strategies?
I did manage to do a little merchandising experiment with jeans. On one counter, I overlapped sideways several pairs of jeans so that the size and price information could easily be seen without pulling the entire pile of jeans out. It’s so much more convenient for the customer, but apparently not merchandising chic. The next day the jeans were returned to their original and inconvenient position.