Mathematics for Retail

When I started as an executive trainee at Hornes department store things were different. We were all college graduates and the company provided an extensive training program. Of course that was the 80's when there were large budgets for HR and Training.

Today I find that those large training budgets are gone. I also see a lot more people being promoted from the store associate or supervisor level instead of being recruited from colleges. They may have little or no formal schooling past high school.

Do they understand how to read a P and L? Can they calculate a mark-up or a sell-thru? Do they understand the retail method of inventory? Can they run an open-to-buy?

I have found my answer to these questions about my employees many times to be NO! So what do you do?

I have used this book Mathematics for Retail to develop my own training program for both my field and corporate personnel. We have an obligation to ourselves, our companies and our employees to develop the future leaders.

This is a great book. I recommend that you get at least one copy to use as a component of your training program. If you have the funds get one for each of your trainees. It will pay for itself ten fold.

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Mark Libell