At Apollo, we take pride in partnering with retailers to help manage and display products. Our merchandisers assist in remodels, resets, implement plan-o-gram updates, stock shelves and displays, tag products, conduct surveys, build displays, and much more. When merchandisers are unavailable for projects locally, Apollo is quick to travel in merchandisers to the store. Traveling merchandisers like Emily Reddye and her husband, love the variety the job provides.
“I love to travel, it’s an adventure. I’ve been to Alaska four times, Maine, California, Wyoming. It’s great to be able to see historical sites along the way, too,” she says. “Juneau is definitely my favorite. I did a Fastenal project there, as well as cosmetic merchandising projects. It’s just magical. My husband and I got to go fishing which was great. And a lot of people don’t know this, but there’s actually a rain forest there. The mist was just beautiful. We got to see glaciers there, too, and lots of animals. Everyone in Alaska is just so nice and the town is very cool with different kinds of cool shops. Every Thursday at 7p in Cope Park they have beer baseball, too. Apparently, the firefighters in the town started it years ago and now it’s a tradition that continues. They do it religiously every Thursday- rain, sleet, or shine. They play baseball, but you have to run the bases with a beer in your hand. It’s fun- people are just so nice there and the air is so clean and fresh.”
Emily told me not only does she and her hubby love the travel and variety, but this type of merchandising job has made her and her husband a better team personally. “We work together really well now. It just made us better partners.” Emily explained that she was hired by Apollo after responding to a job ad on Indeed, the career site. Before that, she was working at a canning company, and she really wishes she had seen the ad sooner because she loves working as a traveling merchandiser. “I was hired as a traveling merchandiser in June 2018, however, I had a kidney issue and couldn’t go to work right away. Later in October, she got a call from her District Manager asking if she could go back to work and travel. She told her, “Yes, if you can hire my husband,” and the rest is history. She ended up getting promoted to Team Lead just several weeks later and now trains others in the Pacific Northwest.
Emily said the first year she worked mostly in Seattle, but it fluctuates every year. During Covid she didn’t travel as much, but now they’re working like crazy. “If you want to be a traveling merchandiser, you really need to be flexible. You need to love variety and change. If you like meeting new people and being in a different store frequently then you’ll love this job. You also have to have good customer services skills, because you will be stopped by customers in the store a lot and you’ll also be dealing our customer- the retailer.”
She also explains that problem-solving 101 is needed across the board. “There are so many times when I have to problem solve. For instance, a tray for a specific cosmetics brand may not have been sent. Sometimes cosmetic merchandising trays from other lines are interchangeable, though, and I can find an unused tray from another cosmetics line like Almay or Revlon that uses the same one. Or I can use a hanger as a tray. You just have to find a way to make it work.”
If you want to get paid to travel whether you’re solo or have a travel partner, and love variety and meeting new people, then contact us at marketing@apolloretail.com or head to our career website at apolloretail.com/career then click APPLY and keyword search “Travel” or “Traveling” to populate all travel jobs. We’d love to hear from you!