The Melting Pot of Cultures in NYC

The other night, someone asked me if I wanted to attend a seven-fishes Christmas dinner. It took me back in time.

The first job I landed out of college was a seat in the Macy’s training program. You spend the first three months going through a program to understand how the business works. It was a brilliant program. Unfortunately, it does not exist anymore.  

Some days, we would hear from leaders in different parts of the company. On other days, we would be assigned to a buying office for two weeks to learn how that business worked. We would also spend some time in the store line. By the time you were placed in your first position, you had been working at Macy’s for three months and they then decided where to place you depending on your skills, and the empty department manager positions across the organization.

The churnout must have been relatively high because there was a training program class of 15-20 people each month, sometimes bi-monthly. There was also camaraderie among everyone working there, almost like in college. What year were you?  

I got placed in Kings Plaza, running the cosmetics department. Little did I know that I had been placed in a job that few people get put in. Most people running the cosmetics departments throughout Macy’s were professional managers, so they did not come from the training program but were hired by the store manager. 

At 22 years old, I was overseeing 100+ people with a professional co-manager. I learned how to run a profitable business, turn inventory, manage people, connect with customers, sell, and manage up. I could have improved at managing up, but I was good at managing people. 

The diversity of my team was vast. I was deep in Brooklyn, one of the few indoor malls besides Queens. I had every race and ethnicity working behind the cosmetic counters. It was there that I learned about the seven-fishes meals.

I fell in love with New York and the ladies behind the counters. I was taken with it the first time I took a bus up Madison Avenue, staring at the buildings outside the window. But being deep in a part of New York, where I met the most incredible people and learned about their families, cultures, and lives, was the biggest gift of all.

After first landing in NY over forty years, I still walk the concrete and lament, I love this town so much and I am incredibly lucky to live here.