Helen works at our Retail Store on Mondays. Learn what her days are like when she comes to work!
Caribou’s store front is located in Humber Plaza Mall at 270 The Kingsway, being located in such a community focused mall allows connections to be built with customers and fellow shop owners. The day always starts off by ensuring those visiting other stores within the plaza are aware of Caribou Gifts, which means displaying our sign out front for all to see. Working on a Monday sees an abundance of orders that have come through since the store closed on Saturday. The list of orders to be fulfilled is reviewed, and completed based on the date of requested delivery. Other than our local courier it is unlikely other couriers will be with us at the beginning of the day, this often means if I work quickly and efficiently, I can have the orders which requested next day shipping, out to the courier that day. In our extremely busy periods we still operate like this, knowing our large and corporate orders are dealt with through our critical path by coordinating deliveries and shipments of supplies to fulfil orders. We work as far ahead as possible to get these ready and worked on whilst limiting the disruption to our daily online orders and in store purchases.
For those gift baskets that are purchased online and displayed in store, we remove and prepare for delivery as soon as possible. The gift basket is then replenished to ensure the store is at maximum capacity of inventory for those browsing or wanting to purchase. It’s always a pleasure when someone walks in to the store, it’s nice to talk to those who live nearby and to understand who they might be looking to buy for – especially if it’s themselves! There are all sorts of shoppers who frequent the store, those who are repeat shoppers, those who have just stumbled across us and those who have been recommended by a friend or family member. One of the interesting things working at Caribou is getting to know customers, where they’ve come from, what they do, who’s important to them in their life. There are a range of products available for all different ages 0-99, with two young kids myself, I love to be able to peruse the store and make recommendations based on my own purchases or of those items my family have at home. The online stores see purchases come in throughout the day which continue to get fulfilled and ready to ship.
Most recently my Monday was taken up by dressing the window ready for Valentine’s Day. Megan had a great vision and I was able to add to it and make it come to life. The window displays are created to entice those browsing to come inside and see what we have available, so the products on display need to cover the clientele people will be purchasing for. Keeping on top of inventory and organization is key when we have so much product in store, when there are quieter times in the day I restock the shelves as needed, and make sure all items are easily available and you can tell what is where at a glance. With product being moved quite quickly, there isn’t time to unpackage each box, so we ensure the box is displayed in such a way that you can easily access what you need.
Megan works quite frequently with clients on custom orders which involves, at times, a lot of back and forth to get the custom gift basket and budget to match up. Once these have been approved and ready to be made, I will work on these. Putting an order together, custom or not, imagine going shopping – that’s basically what our back of storage is like!
The day winds down often quickly but I ensure the store is clean and tidy, especially the back area, so that co-workers can come in the next day and continue with their work!
Tags: Our Story
Megan Munro
My name is Megan Munro and I am the founder of Caribou Gifts (est. March 2020). I am passionate about helping people find the perfect gift, as well as giving back to the community we live and work in.
