Why Talbots?

When I first interviewed for Talbots in 2015, I had never stepped foot into the store before and I knew nothing about the company. I knew I loved specialty retail, but I had been a habitual job jumper as nothing felt right. I ended up working at 8 different retailers in 6 years! The Talbots interview just felt right, it was not anything dealing with clothing, it was all about the culture. I felt a connection there, a family I was searching for, and who knew that was just the beginning.

Everywhere else I had worked spouted the same stuff about their culture and their open-door policies, but nothing made its way down to the field teams. Yes, we had a sign in our stock room, but no one truly lived by it until Talbots. Everywhere else I had worked had felt like my name was *enter company name here* associate who was easily replaceable and the I had nothing of value to bring to the store or company. That is where Talbots has been completely different, they care! They care about you, your life, what your strengths are and genuinely want to help you get to where you want to go, whether that be with them or not! They want to hear your opinions to better the store and more importantly the company as a whole!

The same goes the other way, this is the only company I have worked for where I feel like I know the leaders that are way up the company. I know their faces, their voices, their vision for us. Everywhere else I have worked I barely knew the district leaders, let alone anyone higher than that. Here we, the field team and yes, even associates, regularly see and hear from #1, 2 and 3 in the company. They have expressed vulnerability and honesty in every interaction.

This connected caring culture oozes over to our customers as well and the company wants that to happen. Never have I been “friends” with my customers until Talbots. I want to reach out to them and hear how their trip went, I want to let them know we got a collection in their favorite color.

So why Talbots? It is our culture, it’s what we do.