Product Merchandising

I haven't seen a lot of blogs write about this opportunity so I'm going to.The only reason I was able to get into it was by the grace of a wonderfully helpful older man I worked with in a different setting. This can be rather enjoyable work when you find projects close enough to home so that you aren't stuck in a car for a few hours. I don't know about anyone else, but travel makes me sleepy.
When you are merchandising, you are setting up, or rearranging, a display. You need the ability to follow a plan-o-gram and some critical thinking skills. I say this because the plan-o-gram may not always follow the space available in/on the display. This is especially true when it comes to gift cards. From what I learned in speaking to others in the industry, there are several reasons no one likes setting up a gift card display. For the most part, I didn't have a problem with that one, except certain companies not allotting enough time for a completely horrid looking display. It could have been the usual mess-up by the customers not putting them back where they got them from but in some cases it is very obvious that the previous merchandiser did not follow a plan-o-gram.
My only true drawback to this type of work was that I have to rely on a ride to get anywhere out of the area. I am not able to drive on my own any longer. That's my problem though, not the company's. If you are not able to drive, this work is probably not for you. You need to be able to bring boxes of items with you to a store, get approval from a store manager before and after setting up, do the set-up as per the plan-o-gram, clean up, and go within a specified time period. Store managers won't always be willing to let you do the set-up , although I only had that problem twice. Also, sometimes the manager will have a different idea than what the plan-0-gram says. In my previous experience, I was able to just change it to what they wanted and am not sure if some companies would tell you not to do it in that case.
Some companies I know you can work with for merchandising are:
Lawrence Merchandising Services
American Greetings
Nike
Retail Merchandising Services


I have worked for one of these companies, but am not going to say which so as not to infringe on anything. You always want to do your homework on companies you want to work with/for. None of these are affiliates and this article is my own experience and views.