I spent 2009-2017 working for J. Crew in NYC as a retail manager and, at that time, the depth of loyalty people had for the brand was astonishing. I could go on and on about the transformation of J. Crew over the years, but what lead me away is more interesting. After a WILD Black Friday 2016 at Rockefeller Center, I read that Patagonia had donated their entire BF proceeds to environmental activism. I applied to work there the same night!
When I took a position with Patagonia the following year, I began to see what true brand loyalty can look and feel like. Ultimately, what it feels like to trust a retailer and have them trust you. The employees are invested and relaxed. They love the product and the mission. That translates to everything the brand does. The company allows the staff to be human, to respond with customer service issues with empathy instead of a bottom line. In a world where it can like nobody cares, that feels novel.
I no longer work for the company due to the cost of childcare in this country, but they have made a lasting impact on me as a consumer and a human. They have their issues, as all companies do, but I think they’re doing it right.
OMG, I remember J.Crew in Atlanta in the early aughts had a woman named Rosemary running the fitting rooms and people were SO loyal to her. They came FOR her. And she was so warm and engaging and made people feel great! I think she was like the #1 salesperson in their company at the time. And Patagonia is a wonderful brand. In my real estate career we did leasing deals with them and they always stood out as doing business in the right way.
I also worked for J Crew in a number of cities from 2010-2014! Were you ever working in the collection shop in 2012? If you haven't read the book "The rise and fall of Jcrew" that came out earlier this year I think you'd find it fascinating, especially the pieces related to your tenure there. I also loved the founder of Patagonia's book "Let my people go surfing"... something I remember from that book that I thought was incredible was that they offered childcare services? Was that not a thing when you were working there? Just curious!
I’ll check out that J. Crew book! Patagonia does offer childcare onsite at their Ventura offices and a stipend to those who work their retail stores. They also gave me 16 weeks paid maternity leave, a drop in the bucket compared with other countries, but great in the US. They honestly do so many cool things it’s hard to list them out!
Jess, I just got home from work and opened my substack app and this is the most kind post. I was so bummed that we didn’t have those earrings! We keep samples of every archived style in our office and I couldn’t believe it was the one pair of lab-grown Dorsey earrings we didn’t have. Thank you so much for sending them her direction. We absolutely are not a perfect company but we care deeply about our customers and their experience. Great businesses are built one order at a time over the course of years. We are just getting started and we aim to be better every single day.
The first department store that I ever shopped in was Nordstrom’s. It’s where I fell in love with fashion. They used to have a department called Savvy and I remember walking through it wishing that I could buy Ella Moss and Seven jeans. They had every color of Juicy Couture sweats. There was a grand piano in the entrance and it was the first place I bought Bobbi Brown makeup. When I was 15 I asked the woman behind a register there who decided what clothes went into the store. She explained to me what a buyer was.
I’m pretty sure that I work in fashion because of Nordstrom’s.
I worked in Savvy!! Man oh man, the True Religion and Seven jeans, the candy-colored lacoste polos. The Ella Moss! Our had a grand piano too and a live pianist on the weekends. I'm pretty sure I work in fashion because of Nordstrom, too.
I could cry. I too have dyscalculia and dyslexia. School was tough and that is where I learned that I had to work even harder than anyone else just to grasp school concepts. I was amazingly diagnosed in 2nd grade and my parents were incredibly proactive and hands on with me in getting the help I needed. But because I love to read I just kept at it. For anyone with kids there are two beautiful books: Thank You, Mr. Falker and Aaron Slater, Illustrator. Customer Service and going above and beyond - truly the way to endear customers for life. An amazing book about that concept is Hug Your Customers (by Jack Mitchell of the Mitchell's Stores) and the Zappos book - Delivering Happiness.
Finally sitting down to read this (my attention span was shot yesterday!) and it made me cry.
I felt the same way when I learned about the word "neurodivergent." Same with "overstimulation." Why do I always want to sit on the end (vs. the middle of the table) at dinner? Why do I struggle to understand (and get grumpy) when someone speaks to me when I'm watching a movie or focus on something else? Why did I feel so tired after being in a large group? Why do loud noises bug me so much? Feeling seen and understood like this is such a gift. For me, it shifted the focus in a major way and helped to improve my self-confidence. I'm not weird, spacey, stupid or anti-social. I just need to care for myself in a particular way that helps feel and be my best.
I couldn't agree more re: brand loyalty. Meg is the perfect example of a founder that is just doing things so right. She is the epitome of grace and grit, elegance and hard work. A founder that is not afraid to roll up her sleeves and do the hard work. I admire her (and everything she has built) so much. And this story makes me a customer for life.
The only other brand I can think of right now (and it isn't the founder) of course, is Delta Airlines. They always go above and beyond to provide great service to everyone, not just those seated in first class or with super-status. Every time I have a problem or request, I'm blown away by how hard the representative tries to help me (even if it is me that is the problem).
As your sister's best friend who is about to get married, I couldn't be more thankful for her, for you and for Meg. Together, you're making my day even more special and I'm so incredibly grateful. As you so beautifully noted, Meg is in a league of her own. I was already a Dorsey fan but Meg's willingness to go out of her way for me, let alone answer my panicked Instagram message, has made me a loyal super fan for life. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Words do not exist to adequately express my gratitude, truly. 🤍
I have "my people" that keep me coming back to a certain grocery store, coffee shop or boutique because of the real-life, person-to-person connection. It is a different scale and effort entirely to achieve this digitally. I was not surprised that you listed Dorsey as an example; they/Meg ooze service, sincerity and authenticity.
I also have dyscalculia - never officially recognised but easily recognisable (I was always "bad at math", invert numbers, write numbers as letters, etc., but loved algebra because it had letters in it!). It makes things challenging but I am also left-handed, which I think is invaluable to my problem-solving skills. As a teacher, I am so grateful for these strides in recognising that not everyone learns the same way, and I see how empowering it is for even elementary students to be able to say for example, "Could you read this for me, I have dyslexia", without feeling that there is something wrong with them.
Also, you have given me another way to make me more discerning in my buying habits - I simply won't engage with shops/brands with bad customer service any more. I live in Italy, and specifically Rome, where the culture is not focused on the customer's needs, but sees the customer more as a supplicant. Obviously this is not universal, but it's widespread enough that I can already think of a few places I don't need to frequent any more...
" Learning that there is a name for how my brain works and that other people have the same struggles was major for me. I talked about how assigning language to something is powerful and how words like “neurodivergent” helped me make sense of myself."
This was so beautiful Jess, thank you for sharing. Really reminded me of your essay from last December (“The Lonely Season”) which was an automatic subscribe for me right when I started using Substack. Thank you 💗 I have a close friend who is a SEIT here in ny who herself has some dual diagnoses (including dyslexia) and she often calls it a superpower for herself and the kids she works with. It really does make you a creative problem solver in her experience 💗
First of all, if you didn’t say that photo was taken when you were 27 years old, I’d have thought you took it yesterday.
Anyway, your writing is so emotionally available and I absolutely read the entire newsletter! Thank you for the education on this learning disability that I never heard of. You are a downright brilliant woman!
Very interesting article. Working retail in Paris, I can see a huge difference. American retail culture, modeled after say, Bergdorf’s has a « never say no culture ». And in Paris, we get a harsher rap for saying something is “not possible”. There are reasons, which I won’t get into, but it’s fascinating.
And for example, go into a Dior boutique in Paris, a lot of clerks are on their phones to arrange things for clients.
But amongst all the fuss, there are the Sunday moments when Bernard Arnault pops into the shop, to look at the visual merchandising and asks to move things around. Indeed, very interesting look at Nordstrom.
Not to say Dior won’t go out of their way. For Christmas I bought my sister in law a moisturizer she wanted, and not only was the manager talking to me for about twenty minutes and asking me about the ribbon, she also asked if I’d like to be splashed with perfume before heading out.
As a current Nordstrom employee, I will just say that all our client info, store communications and scheduling are on apps on our personal cell phones. Am I on Teams sending a message to my manager, sending a ‘style board’ to a customer or checking Facebook? It all looks the same to a customer, unfortunately. The rest I will agree with.
I was diagnosed late (34) with ADHD and related so much to your journey; writing was always my escape too. Thank you for sharing your story, and here’s to people and companies who use their work to help others!
Jess thank you for sharing this!! Its so rare to see loyalty in the retail landscape these days and it makes me miss the days of old, my mom and her sisters are extremely loyal Nordstrom customers so I loved hearing about your experience working there! They definitely treated customers like royalty. You also introduced me to Dorsey and now I need a pair of Huggies for my birthday!!
I spent 2009-2017 working for J. Crew in NYC as a retail manager and, at that time, the depth of loyalty people had for the brand was astonishing. I could go on and on about the transformation of J. Crew over the years, but what lead me away is more interesting. After a WILD Black Friday 2016 at Rockefeller Center, I read that Patagonia had donated their entire BF proceeds to environmental activism. I applied to work there the same night!
When I took a position with Patagonia the following year, I began to see what true brand loyalty can look and feel like. Ultimately, what it feels like to trust a retailer and have them trust you. The employees are invested and relaxed. They love the product and the mission. That translates to everything the brand does. The company allows the staff to be human, to respond with customer service issues with empathy instead of a bottom line. In a world where it can like nobody cares, that feels novel.
I no longer work for the company due to the cost of childcare in this country, but they have made a lasting impact on me as a consumer and a human. They have their issues, as all companies do, but I think they’re doing it right.
OMG, I remember J.Crew in Atlanta in the early aughts had a woman named Rosemary running the fitting rooms and people were SO loyal to her. They came FOR her. And she was so warm and engaging and made people feel great! I think she was like the #1 salesperson in their company at the time. And Patagonia is a wonderful brand. In my real estate career we did leasing deals with them and they always stood out as doing business in the right way.
I also worked for J Crew in a number of cities from 2010-2014! Were you ever working in the collection shop in 2012? If you haven't read the book "The rise and fall of Jcrew" that came out earlier this year I think you'd find it fascinating, especially the pieces related to your tenure there. I also loved the founder of Patagonia's book "Let my people go surfing"... something I remember from that book that I thought was incredible was that they offered childcare services? Was that not a thing when you were working there? Just curious!
The J. Crew book is phenomenal!!
I’ll check out that J. Crew book! Patagonia does offer childcare onsite at their Ventura offices and a stipend to those who work their retail stores. They also gave me 16 weeks paid maternity leave, a drop in the bucket compared with other countries, but great in the US. They honestly do so many cool things it’s hard to list them out!
I didn’t work at the Collection store… I was at the kids store in Tribeca at that time… I think?
Love this!
Jess, I just got home from work and opened my substack app and this is the most kind post. I was so bummed that we didn’t have those earrings! We keep samples of every archived style in our office and I couldn’t believe it was the one pair of lab-grown Dorsey earrings we didn’t have. Thank you so much for sending them her direction. We absolutely are not a perfect company but we care deeply about our customers and their experience. Great businesses are built one order at a time over the course of years. We are just getting started and we aim to be better every single day.
The first department store that I ever shopped in was Nordstrom’s. It’s where I fell in love with fashion. They used to have a department called Savvy and I remember walking through it wishing that I could buy Ella Moss and Seven jeans. They had every color of Juicy Couture sweats. There was a grand piano in the entrance and it was the first place I bought Bobbi Brown makeup. When I was 15 I asked the woman behind a register there who decided what clothes went into the store. She explained to me what a buyer was.
I’m pretty sure that I work in fashion because of Nordstrom’s.
Thank you again for your thoughtful words. ❤️
I worked in Savvy!! Man oh man, the True Religion and Seven jeans, the candy-colored lacoste polos. The Ella Moss! Our had a grand piano too and a live pianist on the weekends. I'm pretty sure I work in fashion because of Nordstrom, too.
I could cry. I too have dyscalculia and dyslexia. School was tough and that is where I learned that I had to work even harder than anyone else just to grasp school concepts. I was amazingly diagnosed in 2nd grade and my parents were incredibly proactive and hands on with me in getting the help I needed. But because I love to read I just kept at it. For anyone with kids there are two beautiful books: Thank You, Mr. Falker and Aaron Slater, Illustrator. Customer Service and going above and beyond - truly the way to endear customers for life. An amazing book about that concept is Hug Your Customers (by Jack Mitchell of the Mitchell's Stores) and the Zappos book - Delivering Happiness.
Finally sitting down to read this (my attention span was shot yesterday!) and it made me cry.
I felt the same way when I learned about the word "neurodivergent." Same with "overstimulation." Why do I always want to sit on the end (vs. the middle of the table) at dinner? Why do I struggle to understand (and get grumpy) when someone speaks to me when I'm watching a movie or focus on something else? Why did I feel so tired after being in a large group? Why do loud noises bug me so much? Feeling seen and understood like this is such a gift. For me, it shifted the focus in a major way and helped to improve my self-confidence. I'm not weird, spacey, stupid or anti-social. I just need to care for myself in a particular way that helps feel and be my best.
I couldn't agree more re: brand loyalty. Meg is the perfect example of a founder that is just doing things so right. She is the epitome of grace and grit, elegance and hard work. A founder that is not afraid to roll up her sleeves and do the hard work. I admire her (and everything she has built) so much. And this story makes me a customer for life.
The only other brand I can think of right now (and it isn't the founder) of course, is Delta Airlines. They always go above and beyond to provide great service to everyone, not just those seated in first class or with super-status. Every time I have a problem or request, I'm blown away by how hard the representative tries to help me (even if it is me that is the problem).
Thank you so much for this essay. <3
"I just need to care for myself in a particular way that helps feel and be my best." yep, that part.
As your sister's best friend who is about to get married, I couldn't be more thankful for her, for you and for Meg. Together, you're making my day even more special and I'm so incredibly grateful. As you so beautifully noted, Meg is in a league of her own. I was already a Dorsey fan but Meg's willingness to go out of her way for me, let alone answer my panicked Instagram message, has made me a loyal super fan for life. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Words do not exist to adequately express my gratitude, truly. 🤍
You are so welcome. Wishing you a warm, wonderful wedding day. At the very least, I know your makeup will be great ;)
I have "my people" that keep me coming back to a certain grocery store, coffee shop or boutique because of the real-life, person-to-person connection. It is a different scale and effort entirely to achieve this digitally. I was not surprised that you listed Dorsey as an example; they/Meg ooze service, sincerity and authenticity.
I also have dyscalculia - never officially recognised but easily recognisable (I was always "bad at math", invert numbers, write numbers as letters, etc., but loved algebra because it had letters in it!). It makes things challenging but I am also left-handed, which I think is invaluable to my problem-solving skills. As a teacher, I am so grateful for these strides in recognising that not everyone learns the same way, and I see how empowering it is for even elementary students to be able to say for example, "Could you read this for me, I have dyslexia", without feeling that there is something wrong with them.
Also, you have given me another way to make me more discerning in my buying habits - I simply won't engage with shops/brands with bad customer service any more. I live in Italy, and specifically Rome, where the culture is not focused on the customer's needs, but sees the customer more as a supplicant. Obviously this is not universal, but it's widespread enough that I can already think of a few places I don't need to frequent any more...
how people make you feel is what lasts!
Jess, this made me cry- I have discalculia too! ❤️🫶🏼
here to reassure you that you are a grown up and never have to look at a times table flash card again
" Learning that there is a name for how my brain works and that other people have the same struggles was major for me. I talked about how assigning language to something is powerful and how words like “neurodivergent” helped me make sense of myself."
This. One hundred percent this.
This was so beautiful Jess, thank you for sharing. Really reminded me of your essay from last December (“The Lonely Season”) which was an automatic subscribe for me right when I started using Substack. Thank you 💗 I have a close friend who is a SEIT here in ny who herself has some dual diagnoses (including dyslexia) and she often calls it a superpower for herself and the kids she works with. It really does make you a creative problem solver in her experience 💗
Wow what a callback! Thanks for being here <3
First of all, if you didn’t say that photo was taken when you were 27 years old, I’d have thought you took it yesterday.
Anyway, your writing is so emotionally available and I absolutely read the entire newsletter! Thank you for the education on this learning disability that I never heard of. You are a downright brilliant woman!
that is a very nice thing to say, because I look at that picture and think wow, who is she
Very interesting article. Working retail in Paris, I can see a huge difference. American retail culture, modeled after say, Bergdorf’s has a « never say no culture ». And in Paris, we get a harsher rap for saying something is “not possible”. There are reasons, which I won’t get into, but it’s fascinating.
And for example, go into a Dior boutique in Paris, a lot of clerks are on their phones to arrange things for clients.
But amongst all the fuss, there are the Sunday moments when Bernard Arnault pops into the shop, to look at the visual merchandising and asks to move things around. Indeed, very interesting look at Nordstrom.
Loved as always reading The Love List!
Not to say Dior won’t go out of their way. For Christmas I bought my sister in law a moisturizer she wanted, and not only was the manager talking to me for about twenty minutes and asking me about the ribbon, she also asked if I’d like to be splashed with perfume before heading out.
As a current Nordstrom employee, I will just say that all our client info, store communications and scheduling are on apps on our personal cell phones. Am I on Teams sending a message to my manager, sending a ‘style board’ to a customer or checking Facebook? It all looks the same to a customer, unfortunately. The rest I will agree with.
I worked there over ten years ago so I am sure some things have changed! Back then we werent even allowed to have our phones on the floor haha
I was diagnosed late (34) with ADHD and related so much to your journey; writing was always my escape too. Thank you for sharing your story, and here’s to people and companies who use their work to help others!
big hug!
Jess thank you for sharing this!! Its so rare to see loyalty in the retail landscape these days and it makes me miss the days of old, my mom and her sisters are extremely loyal Nordstrom customers so I loved hearing about your experience working there! They definitely treated customers like royalty. You also introduced me to Dorsey and now I need a pair of Huggies for my birthday!!
that makes me so happy to hear!
Wow throwback photo! 🤍
what a time, what an era