It's a Great Time to be a Running Store Employee!

Since my sophomore year of college at the University of Minnesota, I have worked part-time at a locally-owned, specialty running shoe store in St. Paul (and now Burnsville, too), Run n Fun.  I have always loved working at the store.  Perry and Kari, the owners, work most days at the store, and are able to help out the rest of the employees with the difficult questions (Which Asics shoe came in blue and silver 3 years ago?  How many ounces does the Adidas Boston Classic weigh?  What shoe has replaced this Nike shoe that I have never heard of, and looks like it was bought in the 80’s? ).  They are very generous to their employees, and thankfully for all the college student-athletes and professional runners on staff, they are very flexible with scheduling.  The customers who come in are generally very nice and share my excitement and love for running.

So what can make this awesome job even better?  Well, lately some shoe companies have decided that in order to help shoe employees be knowledgeable about their products, they would give us free shoes, clothing, and education about their products.  In the past, reps have come in with a couple samples of their shoes and have only had the chance to talk to the full-time employees.  But, during the past year, Nike has had a few educational events where all the employees of Run n Fun could attend.  To sweeten the deal, they give us food, new shoes, and clothing.  A couple weeks ago, James and Lauren, Nike reps, took us to Target Field in downtown Minneapolis.  We got a tour of the stadium, played some games in our new Nike outfits and Nike Free shoes, and ended up eating dinner.  So fun!

Then, on Friday night, all the women who worked at Run n Fun were invited to a ladies night at the St. Paul store, with Brooks rep, Clerc.  She dumped out a whole box of clothing and said we could try on and keep any of the clothes we wanted.   My roommate, Elizabeth, and I couldn’t believe our good fortune, and we keep jumping around in excitement when we got home. 

Motto of the story, if you’re looking for an awesome job, it’s a good time to get into the running customer service industry.