S8 E7: Introducing... The Buyers Club

0:00Hello and welcome to Buying and Beyond, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of Retail Buying. We're Kate and Lens and we are talking all things retail buying and beyond with real people in retail. So grab your drink of choice and come and have a giggle with us. Before we start, we just wanted to tell you that we've created a club and we'd love for you to join. The Buyers Club has been created for buyers by buyers. If you work in retail buying, you'll know that this role is unlike any other. It's creative, commercial, fast moving and incredibly rewarding and our stories are outrageous and sometimes even unhinged. Built from feedback from over 400 buyers, it's

1:02a dedicated community designed to help you grow, connect and thrive in your career. We've got curated trend edits, retail insights, learning and sport tools and a few exclusive perks too. Plus our networking events, monthly online catch-ups and calendar highlights and recommendations. If you want to feel more connected, more confident and more supported in your buying career, head to our homepage for more information on how to join our club, www.jointhebuyersclub.co.uk. We cannot wait for you to join us. Now, let's get into today's episode. This week on the podcast, it's us. We are making a little break from all of our fabulous guests to talk through buying and also what we've been working on recently and why we've created it. So, drum roll please. Let's get into it. I mean, it is all consuming for us

2:04right now, isn't it? Yes, it is and it has been something that's been a long time in the making, isn't it? I think that's what's so like, crazy exciting that we've got this over the lot, that we've got to this point definitely and I think, I mean, we'll get into it but I don't think we quite realised how ambitious our plans were and are and there's still so much more to come that we haven't been able to do yet because of, I guess, slight limitations in terms of time, functionality and also just when you're building something like this, you are all the hats and we have very much worked in large businesses where you've often either had a team around you that thought and do things and even when we've worked in businesses because we both have that have been kind of more in their infancy or they've been in kind of more of a kind of a fast-growing sort of stage and we've had to wear more hats. We still haven't had to wear all the hats, yeah, definitely but it's been like a really

3:05nice introduction in, isn't it? Because we have worked in these businesses so we've sort of dipped our toe in to marketing and like the kind of real back-end end-to-end supply chain journey, you know, and I think that's just like set us up for this so well but you're totally right, like I think the amount of finding out and learning on the job has been explosive, isn't it? And I don't know, I think I, I don't know but I'm sure you feel the same, like learning on the job has always been something that has actually been really exciting, really nice. I think it's just been so great that we've learned so much over the last like 18 months really about ourselves and about other things out there. Definitely, it's all about learning on the job. I always learn through doing, I find it so hard when someone just tells me something for it just to go in to do it, I always have to then do it in practice. And I think as far as we used to juggling so many different plates, right? So we're doing one IT piece here where we're

4:08writing some copy here, we are brainstorming something over here and then we're also trying to like get back to an email and keep things on track and it's been a lot. But should we go back to where it kind of all started? And I mean I don't think it's going to be a surprise to anybody because I think we've talked about this quite a few times. So without repeating ourselves too much, we are obviously loved our roles in buying. We both worked for 15 plus years working our way all the way up from BA to head of buying and really, really enjoyed it. Yes, there were definitely some tough times, but we loved it. But we did notice, you know, it got harder and harder and there were a lot of things being thrown. And I think while we did as much as we could within our roles and motivating our teams and trying to kind of address maybe issues as they came along, we would always be trying to kind of remain positive. And I think definitely like energy is a big thing for us, right?

5:11You know, keeping that energy going and energy feeds energy. So, you know, you go in feeling like, okay, today's going to be a good day and you meet, you know, someone that's particularly down on things, it sucks the energy out and you all start to feel quite perflated. And I think we felt like we'd done so much within our roles, but our reach actually within those roles was quite limited. And we wanted to do more, I guess, we wanted to reach more people, which is why we originally started the podcast, you know, it was, we had so many conversations and we were like, this could be really interesting to think someone else would like to hear this. Yeah, yeah. No, it was, it was an organic journey really for us, wasn't it? And I think because we'd bonded so much at the beginning of our careers where we'd started life, I think you're right, it was like a really amazing, amazing induction into buying where we were and where we'd land from and the people that we were surrounded by that a lot of us are still in contact, aren't we? And, you know, I think I asked you and I

6:13probably saved the closest, but I don't think I could quite honestly say I could have done my career as well without having you there in the background, just helping me through some moments that are wobbly, really positive as well, like really amazing moments, like just like having that person that's, that's not in the organisation, like I said, that isn't, isn't affected by some of the toxic culture and is giving such an open perspective, you know, I think that's what we gave to each other and we really boosted each other along the way and also just none of our other friends who aren't in this industry, understood it, like they're sort of saying what, this is madness that what you have to do to get an interview, what you have to do in an interview, what you have to do in a day-to-day basis, the problem solving, the like pivoting because strategies are changing, like it is such an eclectic role, isn't it? You know, so you need someone that gets it, but you also

7:13need someone that's not properly in your in your lane to give you that open perspective and I think that's what we really enjoy so much about our friendship to each other and let you say, yeah, I just remember those like endless ventures, often when we were driving, weren't we because we were sort of late in our last career as we were having to commute by a driving and just helping each other through some of the madness. Yeah and I think as you say it's somebody that's removed from the situation so hasn't been in the day-to-day that isn't kind of personally affected and I remember us having some quite awkward conversations at time where like you know we'd kind of give maybe reality checks or or not even reality checks sometimes just like what is it the not-devil worst product although that's very very but you know almost like that kind of not to be a what is it when you give that opposite opposing opinion not to play devil's advocate that's it and or devil one of my bias is Paulic devil's avocado yeah not to play devil's advocate but actually have

8:18you thought about it from this perspective and when you're removed from the emotion sometimes you can have those conversations and and even if the it's not received in the best way you're not having to work with that person all day every day and you can just give it a break and reflect and then be like actually I think they had something you know and it helps to have somebody with like another perspective I think whatever level you're in I think we felt it more and more the higher up the triangle you go because the fewer you fewer there are at that level as a BA we were all doing the same thing at the same time it was amazing but as you kind of go up you start you know people go off to do different careers or they might different people moving at different levels and there's less and less and less of you and within your business but also across all retail so you become naturally a little bit more isolated the higher up you go the more you're exposed to but the less you can share yeah yeah it's quite a wait to carry yeah and just on that

9:25note as well okay you know it's it wasn't I think a lot of our industry is so guarded and we've often talked about you know how this the CEO round table dinners that they all Katie and they're not sharing they're not sharing confidential information not sharing stats or like you know figures that are incredibly confidential or like pricing or anything like that and neither are we like that's not what we want to share with each other and we're very mindful of the fact that you know we're not allowed to share that kind of information with each other but that's not this information that we needed support on I don't need to know what your suppliers cost prices are that that's not in you know that's not knowledge that I need or I'm going to benefit from it was more like the how do you navigate yourself through this hypothetical situation or you know you're having like a bit of a difficult time with burnout like and you're you can't see the word for the trees what do you do or how do you manage down or how do you just deal with a difficult colleague or someone that you're particularly close to or you don't agree with something some of these

10:28down or you really want to champion someone but you don't want to let overstep the mark like there's so many situations like that exactly like buying is notoriously gatekeeping we've talked about it before even within brands teams within brands like everybody kind of keeps things very very close to themselves but when you think about other areas that are so much more open about things right yeah also can we just say sorry also when we were chatting we were not working on the same categories so I did not care what cost prices your suppliers were doing because they were completely different categories they had no relevance whatsoever at some points like I'm sorry you're buying barbecues and I'm buying jewelry like you know exactly what it was at one point not comparable right so it's not at information necessarily and it just shows goes to show that so many of the

11:30principles are shared across all these different types of categories it's not necessarily about just surrounding yourself with fashion or accessories or food or barbecues or gardening like yeah definitely they all have their specialities and they're all going to have their slight quirks which is why we have always said firms like notice respect you're very very clever but firms like people like bwc coming in trying to streamline everything doesn't work because you're all very different teams working in very different ways and very different product categories but the principles of buying remain the same yeah yeah exactly exactly and I think we've been so lucky to buy such a wide range of categories between us like it is incredible how many categories we've touched now and you're totally right I think there's so much to be learned from other people and the other way the other way we're working and why why not open that up to conversation you

12:32can see that these other industries you know world of marketing world of PR everybody has their own little club and own little sort of forum support level but they're sharing information like this and it's only helping them grow stronger and you know with the world the world that we're entering into and the challenges of retail at the moment we have to get together and learn from each other and support one another to keep these businesses open keep the doors open keep the jobs there yeah definitely I know sharing ideas and you know how to create things or hot topics or you know trends like useful tools and not all of these things are going to be applicable for each business you know depending on your your values as we always talk about and you know what does your brand mean but but sharing things that will just help you to excel so you look at all these different like huge huge marketing brands that are more than willing to go and tell them about a campaign that they ran that was particularly successful because they know that no one and I think marketing

13:37know that better than anyone so let's let's listen to them like no one is going to do it like you've done it because every brand is different every brand has a usp so what work for somebody may not work for you in the same way but you could take those learnings and those ideas and spark something totally new for yourself and I think I'm so excited and and feel very privileged and lucky to be able to use this to do all that research for a buyer because if you think about it you know we've got a couple of friends at the moment they're just completely bogged down with trying to get things done and job roles are now you know amalgamating into one person buying 50 million categories they just don't have the time to go and actually think outside the books look for new suppliers and I'm generalising I'm sure there's lots of people that do but there are a lot of people out there that the part the fun parts of the job that are what makes you get into it the first place

14:37there's becoming less time for that and what we really want to help with is all of that all those amazing fun parts of the job in a place but you can access it and you can find out and you can start to be sparked and inspired and go off and find new ways of of improving your categories and it's it's such a shame that it's got to this point in the role where there's not much time for that but we're you know we're very much talking about like you said the tools that you can use to help sort of your processes and your efficiencies get better so you can get back to doing those things and you know it's not just about recommending shops to look at and trends to follow but it's like what podcasts are there to listen to what events are there to go to what what documentaries are there to watch you know we we are doing all that research for them to help them see that there are some massively inspirational tools out there but it's just really hard

15:38to find the time to find them yeah and time to get out I think that's one of the biggest one yeah right please you say like I've seen it throughout I remember being like and this this years ago we know well I can't get out I am tied to my desk I've got orders to raise I've got prices to negotiate I've got a launch that's about to go and I remember my buy is saying it before me I remember seeing it as a buyer to my team I remember seeing it you know as I head off to all my teams like get out of the office yeah please can you just go into store go into your store go and look at other stores just get out like have a fresh pair of eyes on things because otherwise you get very blinkered very siloed very much just looking at what you're doing yeah it's nothing better than looking at what other people doing but we get it time strapped you know and especially when it comes to seasonal events like did you know Valentine's day that came I completely missed it and day came and went but we've done it we've gone out we've got the pictures for you and honestly just one snapshot of what the shops look like and what were some of the key

16:40messages that were coming out so easy to look at yeah you might be all looking at the same thing but you're all going to take different things from it and that's important as well it's not like oh yeah but if they're looking at and they're looking at and they're looking at will do the same do not copy but you should know that from the beginning what does every design brief say inspiration only please do not copy it is like just don't copy someone's already done it's boring it's old yeah then move it on so take it to know what people were doing what was it looking like what were people focusing on but what are you going to do to make yourself look different next year yeah exactly exactly so as you talked about you know retail is changing times are changing right so everybody is like pretty much time strapped your stocks you'd ask it's really hard to get out and that's totally understandable you know and there's so many things going on I mean we can't not talk about some of the more like geopolitical issues that we've got and the pressure that is coming down like you're you know you think you're having a fine ride and there's something out there

17:43which is absolute awful catastrophic happens but it massively impacts your day to day yeah and I'm not taking any light off what's happened in the situations that are going on which are just absolutely terrifying but it does impact your day to day so as you talked about you know retail is changing times are changing right and AI is hot on our heels as well you know what is the future of retail buying you know we kind of need to be at the forefront of shaping that and I think learning and developing is kind of and looking for that support as you kind of mentioned earlier lens like it's so important like we one of the biggest topics that comes up time and time and time again is about wanting support and I think people are much more open to investing in themselves now I think we're much more aware about burnout as you've mentioned about you know pushing ourselves too far about having that balance and we put out a survey with life of a buyer and

18:43one of the biggest topics that came back was you know 70% of people struggling with burnout and managing workload like that is huge massive and one of the biggest areas that people wanted from a membership club such as this was learning and support it's a huge topic I think what's really important to note is like we are stronger together right so if we want to make change we see change happening let's not let change happen to us let's speak up and speak out you know life of buyers created this incredible community you know an amazing platform where people could share information and it's really kind of like unlocked quite a lot of that communication between knowing what's going on behind these closed doors as we talk about you know retail being quite gatekeeping but it's still so anonymous and actually really to make a difference we need to be you know and we need to we need to be the ones that are all coming together as as a group and

19:44you know I get it not everybody wants to have their face out there totally get that we're happy to be the faces we're happy to put forward for that change you know what what is it going to be but we need those voices with us to help make the change be the change yeah down like I'm on a protest rally now which I'm not quite getting my placards out yet but I think the president I'm definitely stronger in numbers and there is so much you know discontent in in retail buying that actually let's speak up and let's make a difference and let's make a change let's just not not just moan let's make a difference and I've gone off on a little bit of a tangent there because we were talking about learning and sport but I think that's where it kind of comes from learning and sport and the sport being the the biggest one of actually how am I going to do this what tools are there out to kind of out there to help me in my day to day but also learning because I think as it said AI can't ignore it you know whether it's been built with mail bias whether a female's built it depending on which platform you're using it is being integrated into almost

20:48every part of our lives and it's not going away so how can we redefine what our roles are going to be yeah yeah exactly and we want we want to give that kind of information on on the site don't we you know that it's going to be incredibly supportive to every level of role really and you know our our top tips anything any information and knowledge that we've found that we can pass on to some bite size way it's it's going to be an empowering section of tools tips blocks and we've got own a little section on there where you can have a one-to-one with us as well can't you so and if you want to have it a little catch up and interesting one that one isn't it because it feels a bit like you know putting yourself on a pedestal being like um you can come and speak to us if you like it's not like that at all here's a turn about whether we're you know we put ourselves up there we are not coaches we are not trained coaches we are buyers we are retail buyers who've been there and lived it and we also love to chat and we've also chatted too so many people that we have learned

21:55so much just through talking to people and we know what it's like just to get a bit of advice and it was actually something that a couple of people have fed back to us that we have met independently and that's what's interesting both independently had feedback from people that we've met through our careers that we still stay in touch with that will call us with a quick hey what would you do in this situation or this has come up how would you approach this and often them a retail-based kind of questions but also about how you might speak with them you know a colleague whether that's managing up or managing down or whether it's how do you present a set of figures that you want to say it's certain to tell a certain story and it was a couple of people that we chatting to and we told them what we were doing that all sort of suggested that this could be a really good benefit as part of the club is just to speak to people that have worked in retail that are not in your day-to-day business that understand and experienced a lot of this and just

23:01to have a bit of a second opinion and a bounce it around so we have opened up five slots a month in total so they will go quick but it's just a really casual chat with us tell us what you problem is let's talk it through and it's just a quick 30 minute one to one yeah yeah super we're super excited to do that because we just we do really we don't want to you know start a membership club where we don't get to talk to you as well we want to hear from you you are the ones helping to build and shape this and I think that is such a big part of what we do with our podcast as well and our socials and you know our events that we started last year I mean the events side of the membership is is so important to us and I think it gets you out there gets you meeting people gets you talking to people gets you learning new things that is a massive part of the membership as in the whole section which we've care we've sort of carefully crafted to be you know in person

24:03online and what else is out there so there's not just about coming to our networking events it's about what else is out there for you to do wherever you are in the UK and whatever time you have you know there's suggestions for webinars on there as well which I think is just incredibly helpful now because like I mentioned before you just sometimes don't have time to research all this or you missed adverts on LinkedIn or you miss finding out information that on things that are on we want to just create a space where we can put all that knowledge and all that information for you so you can pick and choose what you go to what you've got time for what you're really interested in like there's some incredible webinars out there that you know I didn't I didn't realize existed and again it's to encourage you to go to not just the ones about your category but you're the ones about other categories as well I think there's a really good one on there this month about pets and and pet food and and the future of it but there's some other really interesting and processes and ideas around that subject that is just really exciting and

25:07interesting to to learn about so yeah putting them on your radar because so often as you say you just miss them you don't know they're happening like I just happen to be on LinkedIn yesterday and suddenly I got a oh fashion snoops are doing a spring summer 28 colors and I was like oh interesting I love that kind of stuff yeah I'll play that if I hadn't been there at that time I would never have noticed it yeah so it's pulling these things together WGSN often do the trend talks as well or there are as you say just like mental do things like that it's like statistics and telling you all it's fashion exhibitions which often I find out two weeks before they're about to end so Shaparelli is just opened at the V&A and it started uh end of starting end of March and it's one of those ones but I probably in the summer be like oh Shaparelli I really like oh oh god oh it finishes I can't go to September it finishes end of August it doesn't by the way just saying that but as an example of those events is just so it's there and it's your fingertips

26:07you don't have to search for it because often those are just like word of mouth or you're just right place right time exactly and you know like even sort of really niche trade shows like we've all heard of the really big ones like spring fair talk draw you know or whatever's really specific to your category you've got them in your diary you've got them in your calendar you go over a year you know what you're going to get but some other really tiny little nichey ones are incredible to go and find the emerging brands and talent and again some of them have some really great talks so you know it's really important to go to these and not just go to find new brands but go to go to the talks go meet people and you know we're only finding these because like Kate said we're doing the research for you we're sat on LinkedIn quite a lot of the day I would never have been on LinkedIn as a liar in my role like I have no time between having to go back to like 100 emails a day after a show and appointment planning a trip you know pulling together my strategy pack

27:08and the sign off pack ready actually laying out a sign off you know going to a hundred million meetings I'm never actually at my desk when have I got time to go and find out all this information so I think for me this section would be so valuable you know in industry yeah that's your little baby that bit isn't it and I can I I totally see the value in it so the events that we're doing as you said they're going to be in person which we are so excited to do again because it's just nice to get out and see people and people that like feel the same and have the same ideas and and just sharing experiences is lovely and so we're taking them further so not just London we're going to Edinburgh on Wednesday the 25th which is actually going to be the day that this goes out yes and then we're going to be doing London in April and then we're going to Manchester which we are so excited about if you support any of our retail reflections back in the summer well I don't think we went a week without talking about something that was going on in Manchester whether it

28:11being a flagship opening or some event that was going on that was retail relevant a new brand that was launching Manchester was on the map and we had quite a lot of feedback as well from our events in the summer can you come to Leeds can you come to Derby can you come to Nottingham can you come to Liverpool can you come to Bristol lots of great areas and we can't go everywhere yet but we're expanding we're expanding out and you know they'll be next on the list 2027 will be there but in person's really nice to to be able to just have a little bit of a break from the day to day but be surrounded by people that get it yeah but also we're going to be offering them online because we can't go to all those different places and there's nothing better than still having a chat with people that get it so we're going to be doing our retail therapy Tuesdays because after you've done your Monday and you choose day and you're just exhausted you just want to have a laugh really about something that's happened or you need a bit of a pick me up if it's been a tough week or you just want to celebrate with others and again it's not bringing your

29:15figures no one cares but yes if you've got a bestseller woohoo I'm championing you I'm so excited for you if you've got a bit of a sticky situation where you've got too much stock and you're not sure what to do talk it out you don't need to tell us what the product is but you can brainstorm it have a bit of a bounce it off with people um yeah you don't have to talk shop at all yeah just come and and just like bring your passion like so many of us just we love product like let's talk about the best product that we've seen out there at the moment you know funny things funny fines or exciting things and and it's fun meeting people right I think that's we're real people people anyway but I think a lot of buyers are you know and and through our podcasts we've met so many people and we've heard from so many listeners and you know we all we all really enjoy the job you know and we we all make each other laugh with the things that have happened and it's really nice to be part of a club where we all just bounce off each other yeah exactly exactly and you know we can't

30:16we can't sort of skim over the podcast because the podcast is kind of what Scott us to this point is that as you know we've mentioned before we've always wanted to have this sort of membership available to our industry but we started our journey through our podcast and that's how we've learned and listened and found you know all the pain points and the the similar the similar just frustrations and the similar in like loves of buying like every episode that we start with some of our podcast guests everybody just says the same thing about why they love it don't they they love it because they love product and when they first discovered buying they was sort of all all have this similar like oh my gosh you can get paid to buy stuff you know it's it was all the same similar like you week a moment and all just like creatives that love design and designing products but also really interested in people and why people buy things and what would make them buy or not buy things but from being involved in those products and creating things and doing a bit of the kind of price

31:18engineering and being really commercial in in kind of your mindset yeah yeah exactly so we've got a whole amazing section on the membership all dedicated to the podcast and some extra kinds of scenes content with some of the guests that we'll have on that month you get a sneak peek as to who's coming who's going to be on the podcast that month and lots of deep dive as well into some of the top x just say that again a deep dive in some of the topics yep exactly and also you know just a preview on all the incredible guests that we've had on you know which episode you can go back to listen to who's been on there might be a certain thing that your topic that's really on your mind you know that we've we've talked about sustainability we had the heterosexuality of primalcon the podcast give few weeks ago probably a few months ago now there's you know we had a technologist done we've had designers on we've had so many different people on that touch different parts

32:19the industry different different product categories so we've had a plant buyer we've had a wine buyer we've had a buyer films and windows we've got coming up like FMCG buyers like everybody it's such an incredible multi mix of categories that that we've touched on and we really just wanted to make sure that everyone kind of understood that they could they can tap into that as well like you may I was just going to say and I was offering a lot you know with one of our guests every month so you can actually log on and ask the questions that you want to because you know sometimes when you listen to a podcast you're like oh I wonder if they know about this or I wonder if they know about that or if you don't want to speak you can send your questions ahead and we'll ask them but yeah we want to make sure that you have a bit more interaction with our guests because they are all incredible people and give you that you know spotlight to ask your questions really and I always feel like I leave the podcast still with so many questions because with time limited you can't I could talk for hours and they always still have so many things that I want to ask them

33:19and I see it as a great opportunity as well to get them back and ask them some more things yeah yeah exactly exactly we also started in the summer as I mentioned just earlier the retail reflections which has been just our opinion really on things that are happening in the world of retail each week now we paused that because we've had so much going on but we are bringing it back but under the membership so that is a membership perk that you not only get an update every single week on a quick 20-minute download on your way to work but also we'll make sure that it lands straight in your inbox as well so you can see the top five things that we think are important across retail because as we're really kind of stressing just because it's happened in food doesn't mean that it's not relevant to you if you're buying toys or just you know all pet foods on the app because we all know people only have a certain amount of wallet so where is that going to

34:20go so if there is a particular trend in one area more than likely you're going to see a decline in another area that we're not saying that definitely you're going to be buying pet food therefore you're not going to buy food for yourself I'm only in baked beans because my pet dog is having gourmet beef every day but there definitely is you know the trends that will happen that will therefore directly or indirectly impact and while we're on what we're sending to your inbox we just give you a monthly inbox we don't want to be filling you up my inbox is way way busy and I can't see the word for the tree sometime so we don't want to inundate you with emails but we do think it's quite important to just give you a quick heads up on some of the things that are going on some of the things that we are spotlighting for that particular month so two newsletters and lots of events to join in lots of blogs lots of information lots of tools and we cannot forget the last thing which is the week so we have teamed up with a few different products and services for our buyers and to give you guys a little bit of a perk you know we all

35:27love a perk as a buyer and so we're giving some really GC discounts on products that we love and we think could be really topical for you and we want to give you some services that will help you with wellbeing help you to relax help you to switch off from the job because it can become really all-consuming content in a in a in an exit and a positive way because you're so passionate about what you're doing sometimes it is really hard to switch off so we want to offer some services that will help you with that so yeah so if you want to check it out it's www.jointhebuyersclub.co.uk and I think we're giving you a really good insight into what is there at the moment the little taster of what we're launching with we've got big ideas and we think there's so much more to offer and we think that the industry deserves so much more and so there is a lot still to come so what is this space but as we said we're wearing all the hats so we're only going as fast as our

36:30two little feet or four little feet between us can and yeah so there will be lots more to come and we're really excited for you all to join us on our journey I honestly I wonder sometimes if you counted up the number of times that we say journey in our pockets because everything is a journey it's not about the destination it's about the journey how you get there and if you go on a buying trip the journey is the biggest part of the trip yeah you spend most of the time traveling then actually at your destination anyway total tangent again this has been a long time coming and it's been so many ups and downs so many late night phone calls so many voice notes that we have to listen to double speed and although then you have to slow it down to 1.5 to like no I miss that miss that bit completely they were way too excited and then I had it playing on double speed and I miss completely what they said but it's been lots of conversations meeting lots of people we've oh honestly met so many incredible people in retail and we will continue to

37:35shine the light on these people in retail and share all of our learnings and our knowledge because that is one of the biggest things for us it's all about collaborating and I think we talked about it a little bit before about how so many other careers have got these spaces where people share information and share ideas and share their love for what they do and that's what we want to do make it fun make it fun so there's so much still to come and we're so excited to bring this to you and we love feedback I think we've said this so many times feedback is a gift whether it's good or bad take it on the chin we just want to make this for you for retail buyers for the whole retail community whether you're a category buyer or whatever your title you might be a category manager you might be a retail buyer you might be an assistant buyer you might be a buyer's clerk you might be a buyer's admin assistant but ultimately it's for the retail buying community and if you've got any questions at all please do contact us we've got a section on our website you know why join

38:40and there's a few FAQs on there but if there's anything you want to know feel free to fill in the form and that comes straight to us or of course you can email us at hello at jointhebuyersclub.co.uk or you can DM us on join the buyers club Instagram we're also obviously always on buying and beyond but we want to put a bit more kind of about our events so I think we've talked for enough time now I hope we've given a really good overview as to kind of what it is and what it includes and why we started it and what the benefits are but yeah we of course could talk or I definitely could talk for hours and hours now as so I think it's best to to stop us now Lindsay give me a little time check yeah it's time to sign off so we will be back next week with a really exciting entrepreneur I mean absolutely phenomenal she started her own brand at such a young age and I think it's incredible to see the entrepreneurship and also it's just who

39:43feels very very aptly timed because it will be into April can you believe it honestly these months are flying by so yeah join us next week where we speak with our next guest thanks for listening guys and we really hope to see you in our club and one of our events soon bye

40:51you okay are you a drama queen no drama just makes things interesting that's true all these thoughts and opinions are our own and based on our own experiences working for a wide variety of retailers these are all in the hope to entertain and educate and not to reflect negatively on any place we currently or have previously worked you