Tonight on Undercover Boss...
- Hi, Greg. - Hi, guys.
Greg Scott...
Do you feel like we should have more gold?
CEO of New York & Company...
I want to look distinctly different.
Goes undercover.
Hi, can we help you today?
Okay.
By joining his employees on the front lines.
Ooh.
This fashion-forward boss...
Super heavy.
Will meet the people who keep his company en vogue.
Where are we?
I know it's a lot, but I know you can do it.
While undercover...
- How do you find that? - Look.
He'll struggle to make the cut.
- Don't be nervous. - Okay, yeah, yeah.
Somebody messed up and put that six up there.
Yeah.
And what will happen
when he finds out his company
is going out of style?
We rarely have younger girls come in.
They all think that it's an old lady store.
Oh, they do?
Find out next
on Undercover Boss.
Sync and correction by ~LittleDuck~ www.addic7ed.com
Based in the fashion capital of the world, New York City,
with more than 500 locations across the country,
New York & Company is a leading retailer
of women's fashion.
With celebrity partnerships that include Eva Mendes
and Jennifer Hudson,
New York & Company is a model in fashion retail.
Keeping his company on the cutting edge
of the fashion world is one man.
My name is Greg Scott, and I'm the CEO of New York & Company.
New York & Company is a women's retailer based in New York City.
We're the best-kept billion-dollar secret.
There's so many people that haven't discovered us.
New York & Company grew up
as a brick-and-mortar store retailer.
Originally, we were Lerner Stores of New York,
starting in 1918 here in New York City on 34th street.
Today, we've really evolved.
We have approximately 354 New York & Company stores,
140 outlet stores,
and we have an online business
that does over $200 million a year.
We respect women,
and we respect their sizes,
and we say, you know what?
We carry 0 to 20, petite and tall,
and it's kind of a differentiator for us.
I grew up in Northern California in Napa.
My father and mother split up
when I was in second or third grade.
So I grew up with my father. He remarried.
And I had a great relationship with my father.
Graduated from UCLA...
Great education.
Unfortunately, my father died in my senior year in college.
And I basically was pretty much on my own.
And my real mother was not really in my life at that point.
That has driven me a lot, because
after my father died, it was me.
There was no one gonna help me.
There was no one that was gonna g...
It was me.
I didn't have any money
so I joined the Macy's training program.
So I was at Macy's for eight years
and got a job at Henri Bendel.
And then quickly, I was recruited by Ann Taylor.
And then in 2000, I joined a company down in Los Angeles
as the president of Arden B.
Later I got a call from Manny,
the founder of Bebe, and he asked me to become the CEO.
And I went to Bebe in 2004,
and for five years,
Bebe had explosive growth.
And in 2009,
after successfully running the company
for almost five years,
I was pretty much let go.
But you know what? It all worked out.
I'm at New York & Company.
So I joined New York & Company in May of 2010.
And in that quarter, the company lost $50 million.
- Hello, everybody. - Hi.
So e-com is troubling.
You know, there was a lot of pressure.
But every day, I'd wake up and go,
"Here are the five things I'm gonna do today."
And I just kept doing it.
I would say the turning point for New York & Company
was when actress Eva Mendes
partnered with us on a celebrity collaboration.
And after 2015, where we had four really strong quarters
in a row, we were really on our way, we thought.
And then, around the fourth week of March of 2016,
all of a sudden, stock dropped 40% in one day.
This was five weeks of bad business,
and for that, stock analysts crushed us.
But traffic did come back,
and things did get better.
So, um...
you know, I take it personal.
- Hey. - Hi, Greg.
- Hi, guys. - Welcome to Holiday.
Thank you.
I love this business.
I am passionate all the time.
I don't know if I love these snowflakes.
All right.
I love looking at ways
we can do things better.
Do you feel like we should have more gold?
- I feel like it's... - Well, we can.
I'm highly, highly focused and always have been
from the early point in my career.
- All right, thanks, guys. - Thank you.
- Have a good weekend. - Have a good weekend.
Bye.
- How are you? - How are you? I'm good.
- Good. - So what are we gonna do today?
I want to look distinctly different,
maybe light-ish brown, blonde.
In 2010, we lost $50 million.
Last year, in 2015, we broke even.
We need to go to a company
that's making significant profit.
There are so many people that haven't heard about us.
How do I get the word out?
So now is the perfect time to go undercover,
so I can find out, is there something we can do
to significantly improve our results
that I don't know about?
Wow.
While undercover,
I'll be posing as a yoga instructor named Brett.
My employees will think they're on a different reality show.
They will have no idea it's really Undercover Boss.
(energetic music}
Today I'm in Bensalem, Pennsylvania,
and I'm gonna be working with a sales associate
doing a closing shift.
All right, it's ready.
I got your receipt.
Sales associates are the difference between
having a good store that performs
and a store that does not.
They really are on the front line.
Their number one responsibility is to sell.
One of my initiatives to improve sales
is a tablet that will allow the associates
to look up items, place orders,
and make sales actually on the floor.
So I'm excited to see how that is being used.
- Anthony? - Hi.
- Hi. Brett. - Anthony. Pleasure to meet you.
I'm gonna show you the ins and outs of register.
Okay.
We're also gonna be making sure that your store
is gonna look pristine, perfect,
and very fashion-forward.
Okay.
Brett is very in his own world.
He's a little bit more down-dressed.
Brett does not have to worry about me raiding his closet.
All righty, so we're gonna get started with the register.
- All right? - Cool.
Okay, so the set-up looks complicated.
It's very easy.
So what I'm gonna do is just log in real quick.
_
- Coupons are a very big thing. - Okay.
But it has some exclusions.
Do customers understand this?
It's hard for them to understand,
because when you read this, what do you think?
Um, I read $10 cash.
- Exactly, you think cash. - Yes.
- That's not how it is. - Oh.
This is a coupon for $10 off eligible items.
So all those signs that you see that are red...
- Yes? - Are considered New York deals.
Okay.
_
Okay, is that hard?
- It's very hard. - Okay.
- Because everyone reads cash. - Yes.
And if I was a customer, I would read that too.
- As cash. - Just like how you did.
Yes.
Clearly, customers get frustrated
not being able to use a coupon on top of everything,
so I need to fix that.
Do you want to do an order?
- Yeah. - Well, you're gonna.
Yeah, okay, okay.
- Okay. - This is different.
- Yeah, we have the tablet. - Okay.
Because what we did with the tablet is... it's a new thing.
- Okay. - Like this can detach from here.
Okay.
And you could even ring someone up.
- Do you do that? - I don't personally.
Okay.
Because I feel like it's easier
to just help them on the sales floor
and then bring it to the rep desk.
- Okay. - But you can do that.
- It's one of... - Cool.
Yeah, it's a really nice option.
That's when Greg Scott almost popped out.
Can you show me how this comes off?
- Oh, yeah, sure. - Okay.
I need a manager to do it,
because I can't do it personally.
I was like, "What?"
Really? Like, a manager needs to do that?
That tablet was to be automating us
to prove our selling, to improve efficiency,
so he could be on the floor finding sizes for the customer,
showing the customer what we have online.
So now she's gonna unlock it for us.
That honestly was probably the worst thing
that could've happened.
Okay, so now she's gonna unlock it for us.
Okay.
It was like, "Manager on aisle six."
I mean, it was, like, crazy.
- Perfect. - Okay.
So now you got a mobile register.
So we can go anywhere with it?
I could go on the floor, scan items...
- Okay. - Ring up a sale.
You just don't use it very much.
- I don't personally. - Okay, okay.
I think it's way easier to just have 'em come.
Okay.
We need that tablet to be flexible.
We spent so much money getting those out.
What a waste.
I have to fix that immediately.
So it's all women's?
No men's? Or are those men's?
Well, actually, this is an all women's clothing store.
Okay, okay.
But, for example, I'm wearing
some of the clothing.
- Oh, you are? - Yes.
I do try to wear some of the clothing while I'm here.
I would, because people will see it.
- Yes, exactly. - And go, "Okay."
Like, I would love to wear, like, the pink jeans,
and, like, some tears in them.
Why can't you wear these?
- Just the dress code. - Oh.
- It's just the rules from Corporate. - Oh.
Men associates are allowed to wear black and white, mainly.
Okay.
And then woman associates are allowed to wear color...
- Okay. - And denim.
We talk about what the women associates wear,
but we never really talk about the men.
And what I see today is, we actually are not
treating the men the same.
We are now officially done taking care of our customers.
- Okay. - So we're gonna close the gate.
Okay.
We're gonna start on our metro portion.
So we're gonna grab some mannequins.
Because that's what we're gonna be dressing.
All right.
So tell me a little bit about yourself.
Like, you're from San Francisco, right?
I'm from San Francisco.
- How about you? - I've been here my whole life.
- Your whole life? - Yes.
I used to live with my grandparents.
I had my mother pass away when I was ten.
- Oh. - So that was kind of surreal.
And my father wasn't really in the picture.
But my grandmother and grandfather took me in
when I was just a little kid.
- And it's very humbling. - That's... wow.
And my grandfather actually recently passed away.
Aww.
So now I live
somewhat with my grandmother, somewhat with
- my friend's family. - Okay.
I'm in the process of helping her move
into an apartment that's closer to where I'm living now.
Okay, so how... do you work here part time, or do you...
- I am a part-timer. - Okay.
It helps a lot, especially, like,
going to school and everything.
- So you go to school too. - I do.
Right now I'm studying fine arts.
Oh.
But I'm hoping to transfer to maybe FIT,
because I also want to do fashion, as well.
Oh, so you do want to go to design.
Yeah, I do. How's she looking?
- She looks good, no? - Perfect.
Just gonna bring her down a little bit there.
I really enjoyed meeting Anthony.
He totally understands how to do a mannequin
and make them look amazing.
- She looks good. - She does.
Yes.
And he actually has an eye for it,
so we need more people like that.
But I definitely have to make some changes
to our coupon and our training.
So we have these two...
Today, I'm in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania,
and I'm gonna be working with a key holder
and a fitting room specialist.
- Hi, how's it going? - Hi.
Good, how are you?
A great fitting room stylist
has the ability to be totally honest with a customer
and say, "That looks great on you,"
or "I've got something even better for you."
Hi, I'm looking for Amber.
If we have a fitting room stylist who doesn't
give customers honest opinion,
and they go out and somebody says,
"Where'd you get that? You need to change"...
They're not coming back to New York & Company.
- Hi. - Hi.
- I'm Brett. - Hi, Brett, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you. - How are you today?
- Good. - I am a fitting room stylist.
So what we're gonna be doing today is,
you're gonna be filling outfits in the fitting room,
customer-servicing everyone
and anything else that happens today.
- Okay. - Okay?
And we're gonna start on the floor.
This is all of our wear-to-work items.
In the middle, this is what we call our dry pile.
- Cool, cool. - So over here is downtown.
- Do you like these too? - I do.
- Okay. - They... yes.
Although they're very...
They fit very contoured to your body.
_
- Do you tell people that? - Yes.
- Right. - We do not like false honesty.
We don't want somebody to buy stuff
and return it because
they weren't comfortable with buying it in the first place.
Yes.
Okay, so what we're gonna do is,
because we have some customers on the floor,
I'm gonna have you talk to some of them.
So if you want, you can head over and ask them, you know...
- Are you coming with me? - How are the...
I will come with you. I'll hang back.
- Okay, all right. - You ask them how they're doing.
Hi, how are you today?
- How are you? - Good, good.
Can we help you with anything today?
No, we're pretty much finishing up... just got done.
You are? Okay, all right.
Let Amber, myself, Brett, know if you need any help.
- Sounds good. - Okay.
- Thank you. - Good job. Okay.
My impression on how he's doing with customers...
Um, he's very nervous.
Hi, can we help you today?
- _ - Okay.
He doesn't have a lot of self-confidence.
For talking with people.
All right, so what we're gonna do is...
Do you need a fitting room?
Okay, do you want to come back?
Come on back here.
You can be right there. You're welcome.
So what I'm gonna have you do is,
I'm gonna, you know, ask if anybody needs anything.
If it's very, very busy, I literally stand in the middle.
I be like, "How's everybody doing in here?
Can I get anybody anything?"
And then you just help out as much as you can.
Okay.
I'm gonna see if she needs anything.
How are you doing down here?
_
Sure, no problem.
_
I will go check.
So we're gonna grab her a 16 in the beige.
- Gonna give you those. - Okay, yup.
Do you want me to look at anything else, or no?
Um, you can... if you want, you can check and see
if we have 16s in any of them.
In anything.
That way we can give her a nice variety.
What Amber did... She said, "Okay,
"she wants some jeans... let's just find every 16 jean we have
and put it into that fitting room."
Amazing. Exactly what we want.
So what type of customers
do you think you're trying to appeal to?
I'm trying to appeal to my yoga students.
- Okay. - What about you?
For here, in New York & Company?
- Probably 25 to 45. - Yes.
But, like, we don't... We rarely have
younger girls come in.
Okay.
Also because New York & Company's
- been around for so long... - Okay.
They all think that it's an old lady's clothes.
- Oh, they do? - They do.
We've had a lot of ladies come in and be like,
"I've never shopped here because it's...
We think it's old ladies' clothes.
People are surprised when they come in?
Yes, especially if they're first-time customers.
I know about this issue,
and we've done a lot of work
to try to shed that image
through marketing and celebrity collaborations.
It's clear that I still have work to do
to change the perception of New York & Company
that we're the store where your mom shopped.
So back here is our stock room.
Oh, wow, do you ever work here, or in it, or no?
Um, it depends... If it's slow,
everybody works everything.
But they would rather have you in front?
Yes, but managers will do processing.
When do you think you'll be a manager?
I... I have no idea.
That's not in my life plan right now.
It's not? Why?
No, I have too many other things to worry about.
- Like what? - I have a baby!
- What... - She's only two!
- It's very strenuous. - Right.
Having children is very strenuous.
My dream got put on hold.
I started working at Kate Spade,
loved the whole industry,
but I got pregnant working there.
- I had a very bad pregnancy. - Oh.
So, um, I then stopped,
and I went... Started working here.
So...
I was a manager down there too,
so it happens.
I got to work back up to it.
But you work... You will, right?
- Hopefully. - You will.
- I hope so. - You will, right?
- I hope so. - You have, you have...
I have the drive for it, and that's what you need.
You got to have the self-confidence.
Do you think you'll be married?
Yes, it got put on hold.
We were supposed to be married in 2015,
and we didn't have enough money to
pay for a wedding and raise a child.
My mom says I'm just doing everything backwards...
Have a kid, and then I'll get married,
and then I'll have a house.
And you are your mom are still really close?
Yeah, I actually live with my mom.
- Oh, you do? - Yes.
My daughter, my fiancé, and I
live at my mom's.
- Wow. - She's my support system.
And that's what you need.
- You need... - Yes.
You need people to give you the drive,
and that's what she does.
She gives me the drive
- to do what I do. - Wow.
Okay, so back here is all of our marketing.
Amber seems so much more mature than 22.
She was the total package
in terms of how she's polished,
what she thinks about the customer...
About customer service overall.
She was a ten out of a ten today.
All right, so what we're gonna do...
now that we have gone over marketing,
we're gonna go out and help you get more comfortable
- talking to customers. - Okay.
- Okay? - Okay, all right.
Really, it's just like talking to your best friend.
- That's what you got to think of. - Well, it's easy to talk to you.
Just... you just have to be calm.
Coming up...
Brett finds a store in disarray.
Is there a store manager?
She is out on maternity leave.
And later...
We have to find a $5 sign.
So it'll be back there on that cart.
The boss sees signs
of a problem.
This is so hard to find.
Today, we're in Fayetteville, North Carolina,
and I'm gonna be working with a stock person.
Stock people play an important role for New York & Company
in terms of... they have to ensure that our stock room
is completely organized,
at the same time, get shipment processed quickly,
and on the floor to sell it as fast as we can.
My first impression of the store today,
uh, was not a great one.
There were empty fixtures, clothes not folded correctly,
jewelry fixtures empty...
and as I walked into the stock room,
I saw the disarray everywhere.
This is your worst nightmare.
And going through my mind is, "What's the cause,
and how did we get here?"
- Hi. - Hi.
- I'm Panya. - I'm Brett, how are you?
- Hi, Brett. I'm fine. - Good.
I work in freight department
in New York & Company,
taking the clothes out of the boxes,
bringing them to the table,
and putting sensors on each of them...
And put them up in the proper place.
We have to go through all of those boxes,
and we cannot leave any clothing in this box.
- Okay. - Now, this right here...
- Yeah. - Determines how fast
you should be able to go through that box.
They're saying you should go through this box
- in nine minutes. - Nine minutes.
We're gonna put all of these in here.
Okay.
So we wheel it over to the table,
take it out the bag, we open it up...
We put the sensor on the inside on the crease.
Okay.
And that's it.
Let's fold it back up.
- Okay, let me see you. - Okay.
All of the jeans are the same way.
- Fold that over. - Mm-hmm.
Put that in there.
Yes.
You're gonna get it.
Oh, no.
You got it? Okay.
- There you go. - All right.
So we can hang it up right here for now.
All right.
So they're saying you should go through this box in nine minutes.
Nine minutes, okay.
And what I'm gonna do...
I'm gonna put this stuff up.
- Okay. - It's 12:27.
Let's see how fast you can get through that box.
Okay.
Take the inside...
outside...
inside...
going fast.
Inside...
I think Brett is slower than a tortoise.
I wouldn't give him a snail.
I'd give him a tortoise.
- Okay. - You have seven minutes left.
- Seven minutes. - Yes.
- Am I gonna make it? - Um, no.
Wait, Panya. Ow.
- You can't mess it up. - All right.
Then I have to come behind you and fix it.
- Okay. - So think about that, okay?
- Okay. - Try not to do it so high.
- Okay, okay. - Just do it a little bit...
Lower?
Brett is definitely slowing me down.
I'm having to look over his shoulder
to make sure he's doing it right
or putting the sensors in the right place.
So I think Brett needs to speed up the pace a little bit.
- Oof. - Oh, you did it.
- Yay. - High five.
Now let me check and see.
_
Oh.
So now what we're gonna do is put this stuff up, okay?
- So I'm gonna give you half. - All right.
I'm gonna show you how to put these up.
Okay... who taught you how to do this?
Um, I've only been here for two and half months.
Got it.
So the lady who taught me is no longer here anymore.
Oh, and there's... what, is there a store manager, or...?
Yes, she is actually out now on maternity leave.
So what we're doing is, we're looking for skinny...
Average.
So here's skinny average.
Panya has amazing intentions
to do a great job.
She was correcting me,
which I really liked,
because that meant to me,
Panya has a high standard.
Somebody messed up and put that six up there.
Yeah.
- You could take it down. - Okay.
And we'll fix it and put it right here.
All right.
But when she said the store manager
happened to be out on leave right now,
the light bulb went off for me.
- This says four. - It could... oh.
That goes down too.
- And this says eight. - Eight?
Who did that?
They don't do the right thing.
What we're lacking is leadership
in terms of directing Panya and the team
to excel.
Why did you start doing this?
Well, I had been out of work for a while.
Yeah?
This is my first job in, like, five years,
'cause my daughter was sick.
My oldest son had to stay home and keep her.
Is your daughter okay now?
Yes, she's in remission now. She had leukemia.
- I'ma get you some more hangers. - Okay.
So my husband in the military,
and we were stationed in Germany.
So we had to move back here, because when my baby got sick,
we got a compassionate reassignment.
- That was good, then, right? - It was great.
- You needed that, right? - Yes.
Did you ever think you'd marry somebody in the military?
No, 'cause my father was military,
and I thought I'd never do that.
It has its good days and its bad days.
I mean, like, he stays gone a lot.
He just got back from Kuwait.
But he's leaving again for a year.
Oh, wow.
Is that scary?
And so... yes, it is.
It is.
The issue for me today
is not Panya.
She likes New York & Company,
and she likes to work.
We need people like that.
I'm focused on the leadership
while our store manager's out on leave,
because without great leadership,
nothing'll happen.
That's something I need to deal with.
You remember how to sensor the tops?
I think so. What do... wheel it over?
So we wheel it over to the table.
All right.
Today, we're in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
And I'm gonna be working with an assistant store manager,
one of the key roles in our store.
- Hi. - Hi.
- How are you? - I'm looking for Eva.
- Hi I'm Eva, how are you doing? - Eva!
We're gonna do a store opening.
Something I think is one of the hardest things
we do in our stores
I wanna make sure our process is efficient.
Because that's one way we can improve profitability.
- Nice to finally meet you. - Nice to meet you.
- How are you? - I'm good.
- I'm the assistant manager here. - Great.
Today, we'll be going through some processes
to open the store... You ready?
I've never done this, so I'm nervous.
- That's okay. - Okay.
- I'll get you through it. - Got it.
My contestant is very California.
I don't think he's somebody that I would see
working at New York & Company.
I see Brett as more of a, like, surfer type.
This is one of the things we're gonna be doing today.
We're gonna be opening up this register.
So now we're just gonna count the money.
So basically, we just count it just like one, two, three.
I usually count in fives, which makes it easier for me.
- You want me to count ones? - Sure.
Okay.
All right.
Brett is counting, like, one... two... three...
four... five.
And you have to go at a little bit faster pace.
Brett is on California time.
- And that is it. - Okay.
So now we're about to do these promo changes.
You ready?
- I guess. - Don't be nervous.
- Okay, yes. - Don't be nervous.
- You got this. - All right, all right.
Come on. All right, let's do these promo changes.
So basically, what we're gonna do...
So, see 7th Ave signature fit?
- Four-inch shorts. - Yes.
- We got to change it to $12. - Yes.
So we're gonna come back here.
- This is our stock room. - Wow.
This is where we hold everything.
So we have to find the $12 sign up in here.
How do you find that?
We just got to look.
And is it a color?
We do have colors.
Finding the sign was just a complete mess.
I want the same number, right?
Yup.
We, in our home office,
have made so many different signs
and sign packages
that it's confusing
and hard to locate.
- There we go. - Got it.
Bam... all right, so now we're gonna go out here
and put these in.
- Okay. - There you go.
So the Bermuda shorts... So they're $16.99.
So we'll grab this $16.99 sign.
- And there is that for that. - Okay.
So basically, we want to find $5 signs.
So it'll be back there on that cart.
We got ten minutes to store open,
so I need you to hurry up.
- Okay, okay. - Fast.
I need you to hurry up.
Brett reminds me of a sloth.
He's just very slow,
and he's always just...
doing this.
So we need $19.99.
- Okay. - Two of 'em.
They should be on the same cart.
- Okay, okay. - Store opens in five minutes.
Hurry up.
It is clear
that changing promos and signs in our store
is a process that has to be fixed.
This is so hard to find.
And I can't... it's super heavy.
- Two minutes! Fast! - Wow.
The amount of time we're spending
changing prices and finding signs
is taking away from doing what we're here to do,
and that's make the customer have a great experience
and sell some product.
- And that is it. - Wow. Yay.
That took... that was a long time.
All right, so now what we're gonna do is,
we're gonna go ahead and get that gate opened up,
'cause we don't want to be late.
- Okay, that I can do. - Right? 10:00.
We got to be open.
Put the key in... Open, close.
If you want to open it... bam.
So what do you like to do when you're not working?
I have kids.
Okay, how many kids do you have?
- Three. - Wow.
- I have a 20-year-old. - Wow.
- Yeah. - Wow.
But I have an 18-year-old, and I have a 13-year-old.
So they keep me busy doing the mom thing.
Right, so what else do you like to do?
Um, I love to roller-skate.
Where do you roller-skate?
At the roller rink.
Do they all skate with you?
My daughter does.
I'd love to see you skate.
I have my skates. I keep 'em in my car.
You're not... You're kidding.
No. We have a break, anyways.
So I'ma go grab my skates, and then we can do this.
Oh, I can't wait.
I would never expect someone's going to skate for me
or skate around, but it was amazing seeing her.
When she was on the skates, it was like, wow.
That was great.
Where are we?
We're in the hallway of the mall.
Oh, okay.
That's so cool.
Yeah, this is what makes me fun.
- That is really, really fun. - Yeah.
And your daughter does it with you?
Yup, she has her own too.
And you have, you said, three kids?
Three, yup.
Do you raise them yourself?
Yes, I've been married for two years.
But before that, I had... All three of them
got raised on my own.
And retail was my way to raise my family.
Wow, that's hard.
And there were struggles.
But we made it.
- And they're good kids. - That's amazing.
Like, my little one... He wants to be, like,
a aerospace engineer.
He already, like, picked out...
He picked out two schools,
which makes me glad.
One of them is too expensive,
so he picked out another one, 'cause I couldn't afford it.
Hearing about my employees' lives
and their children and their parents
made me think about how dedicated my dad was
when my parents divorced.
There was such a connection there.
You wouldn't think I've been through what I've been through.
No, no.
But, you know, I take it at, like one day at a time.
And I'm, like, okay. It... it'll get better.
But...
So what do you have to do? To become a manager?
I'm just gonna work my way up.
I'm just gonna work so hard
till I get to where I want to be.
Eva is really the type of person
that I want in the brand.
She is passionate.
She represents the brand well.
She embodies somebody we want to keep.
We have a role for Eva in our company.
We just need to give her that path and that development.
Well, our break's over,
so we got to get back to our orders, all right?
- Let's go. - Okay.
Coming up, the boss reveals his true identity.
- I'm Brett. - Oh, my God, no, you're not.
What?
And changes their lives forever.
This don't happen to me.
It's happening.
My time undercover has ended.
And now it's time to get back to work
as the CEO of New York & Company.
Working on the front lines with our employees,
I discovered more than I ever thought I would.
I'm bringing the employees to New York City
to our flagship store
so that I can reveal my true identity
and to reward them.
- Hey, Anthony. - Hello, there, how are you?
- Good, how are you? - I'm good.
Tell me about Brett.
He needed a little bit of guidance.
Now, do I look familiar?
Not necessarily, no.
You kind of look like Brett.
Are you Brett?
I'm Brett.
Oh, my God, no, you're not.
And I'm also Greg Scott, the CEO of New York & Company.
What?
Have you ever heard of the show
Undercover Boss?
- Yeah. - You're on it.
- This is ridiculous. - No, you're on it right now.
This don't happen to me. Okay.
Panya, you were so poised
and in control of the situation.
And I said, "Okay, Panya knows what's going on"
- That was impressive to me. - Okay.
But unfortunately,
I thought the store looked pretty rough.
It did, yes.
Somebody messed up and put that six up there.
- Yeah. - You can take it down.
- Okay. - And we'll fix it.
When I got there, it was very unorganized,
and I almost quit, like, twice.
- Really? - Yes.
Because I asked, "Where's your manager"
And what did you say?
She's on maternity leave.
And I want to make sure we have...
Somebody have to be in there.
- A plan... - Exactly.
To keep the store running
like New York & Company needs to be running,
because people have to go out on maternity leave.
- Exactly. - You know?
So I will personally make sure
that store has a new leadership team in place
and it gets organized, so please don't quit.
- Okay. - We went to the cartons.
Like, that seemed to take a long time.
That certainly do.
I was thinking we should
sensor the product in the factory.
I think that's great.
Then all you have to do is take it out of the box,
hang it up, and put it out.
- Yes. - That's easy.
Yes, yes.
I think that is a big fix for me
and the company.
Okay.
So, but when you told me about your story,
you know, the first thing was
the military background.
- Yes. - I mean, you grew up military.
Grew up military.
And you married military.
Yes.
So I'm gonna make a donation
in your name to Our Military Kids for $5,000.
- Good. - Yes.
This organization provides support
to kids in military families,
and it's a great organization.
That's great. They need that, yeah.
- They do, right? - Yes.
That's great.
And your daughter's story...
Obviously, that was,
- I'm betting, incredibly hard. - Yes.
And you were like, "We're gonna get through this"
Oh, yeah.
So one of the things we're gonna do is
give a $5,000 donation to St. Jude...
- Oh, good, yeah. - In your name.
Yes, I love St. Jude. Thank you.
And then finally, for helping the company,
I'm gonna give you $20,000.
Shut up.
- Are you serious? - I'm serious.
This don't happen to me. Okay.
It's happening.
Thank you. I got to give you a hug.
I got to. Thank you so much.
I'm so overwhelmed.
Oh, God.
I feel like I'm gonna pass out. It just feels so...
I never had this much money at one time
in my life.
You're awesome.
We have to send three kids to college,
and they're going to college.
So... this is a lot.
So, Amber, I loved working with you.
- Oh, thank you. - Loved it.
The big thing that you taught me is about,
"Well, some people think this is a store for old people"
Oh, I hate that.
- We rarely have younger girls come in. - Okay.
They all think that it's an old lady store.
Because of what you know about our customer,
and how to continue to track, like, the twentysomethings as well,
I'm gonna have you come to our home office
to help them address this younger consumer.
Oh, my gosh. That's insane.
Because I respect your opinion,
and any other thing that you can think of
that can help us from a marketing perspective,
I really want to hear that feedback as well.
- Thank you. That means a lot. - It was super valid.
And we're gonna give you a consulting fee
of $5,000 for that.
Oh, my God, no.
- You don't have to do that. - We're doing it.
Oh, my gosh.
That's really... That's awesome.
So, you know, when you talked about your daughter, right?
And then you talked about your fiancé.
And you had to put the wedding on hold,
so I'm gonna give you $40,000.
Okay.
For what?
For what you want to do with it.
Oh, my God...
I can move out of my mom's house.
- Exactly. - Oh, my God.
- So... - Oh, my gosh.
This is extremely life-changing.
It is definitely gonna jump-start everything for me.
The coming in for the buyers...
It's... it means a lot,
because I'm gonna be able to make an impact,
and it's... it's crazy.
Anthony, what I loved about you, really,
was, like, that you were bringing a sense of style
- and fashion to the store. - Oh, thank you.
I'm wearing some of the clothing.
- Oh, you are? - Yes.
I do try to wear some of the clothing while I'm here.
I would, because people will see it...
- Yes, exactly. - And go, "Okay."
I had, like, great experience
learning about coupons, the tablet,
and the male dress code.
I mean, think how many things
- that we went through. - Yeah.
You know, we talk a lot about coupons.
Yes, I feel like that's a very big
miscommunication between customers and associates.
But meeting with you,
I know I need to work on it even harder,
and we're gonna simplify it as fast as we can.
- That's so great. - Yes.
That's so... thank you.
The other thing which was really interesting is,
the company has just spent a lot of money
on our new POS tablets.
Yes.
And we talked about that tablet...
And how, like, no one uses it.
Yeah, yeah.
For me, it said
we need to do a lot better training...
Yes.
Or education on what do we do with that?
Yes.
And then the other thing that was really interesting...
We spent time talking about the dress code for men.
Yes.
I think you're right... We probably have not given men
the same consideration that we have for women
in terms of the dress code.
- Quickly, we can change that. - That's awesome.
Oh, my God.
- Thank you. - For sure.
We talked about, like, what you really want to do.
- I would love to go to FIT. - So,
because you have such a passion for design,
I want you to spend a couple days
with our dress designer here in New York City,
all expenses paid,
and at the same time,
I want to give you $20,000
for your future education in design.
You're joking.
Okay, I'm crying.
You're kidding me.
You were talking about
looking for a place for your grandmother.
I want to give you $40,000
to get that apartment or place for you and your grandmother
for a couple years.
So...
Thank you.
That's, like, all I want,
because I just want to make sure that she's always taken care of.
So thank you for that.
Like, I'm so happy, and, like,
overwhelmed with emotion, as you can see.
Before meeting Greg and this experience
and all that, it wasn't really in the stars for me
to really go to fashion school.
But now, with this opportunity,
the sky is the limit.
Eva, you're so caring.
You're nurturing.
- You knew what to do. - Mm-hmm.
And you were trying to make it easy for Brett.
Yeah.
So we need... they need to say $19.99.
- Okay. - Two of 'em.
They should be in the same... On the same cart.
Okay.
- A lot of things I need to fix. - Mm-hmm.
And it started with the promos.
Yes.
It's very overwhelming.
I need to make the promo tool
so much easier.
Yes.
It could be so much simpler.
For you to spend your time having to find everything
and locate everything. I was like,
"I can fix this quickly""
And then the next thing... That sign box.
Yes.
You couldn't find anything.
I was freaking out back there,
like, "Oh, my gosh, I cannot find the sign".
And I couldn't barely find anything either.
I don't want someone like you
having to spend half your morning...
finding a sign.
I sent an email right after that that said,
"I want these ten people to go to a store
"and figure out how we're gonna clean those sign boxes up quickly."
Mm-hmm.
Because of your passion
and what you talked to me about, raising the three kids,
I mean...
I think it spoke
to a lot of strength.
- It did. - And it said,
how do I keep doing a better job
for the company, and we get our stores right,
so I can keep people like you employed, quite frankly?
And what we're gonna is make sure that you're trained
to become that store manager.
I want you to be a store manager for us,
'cause you have that passion.
Thank you so much.
Getting back to what you've done,
you've raised your kids.
- Yeah. - Amazing.
They are.
And you said something about your youngest wants to go to...
- Aerospace engineering. - Aerospace engineering?
He tries so hard.
I and New York & Company are gonna give you $70,000
to do that.
Oh.
Thank you so much.
You so deserve it...
you so deserve it, you know?
I can't believe this is happening.
I feel like I just won the lottery.
It just means so much.
You know, my kids have had a rough road, and...
I never thought something like this would happen to me.
Opportunities are endless.
And you just... you never know.
Sync and correction by ~LittleDuck~ www.addic7ed.com