Marina Del Monte

I went to school at Purdue University and majored in Retail Management. I distinctly remember one class that is kind of what led me to what I do today - it was a buying of merchandise class. The reason I really loved it is because with buying, you get to combine that mixture of your creative mind, but also your analytical mind. I was always really good at math and data analysis growing up. When I graduated, I looked specifically for roles in buying and merchandising. I started off working for a kid's retailer working with children's toys, doing buying assistant work. I really loved it and learned a lot in that company. Unfortunately, that company laid everyone off, so I had to find a new role. I got more assistant buying experience for a wide variety of products - it was toys, seasonal decor, electronics, pet products - which helped really expand my knowledge in buying and product development. I worked for Hammacher Schlemmer, which is a catalog retailer, and that's where I got a lot of really in-depth experience in the seasonal decor industry. I traveled to factories with our vice president and got a lot of hands-on experience with seasonal decor and product development. My next company was more of an e-commerce role, which I was only there for a short period of time, but then that led me to where I'm at today at Best Choice Products. Today, I'm kind of leading the product org of the seasonal department. I've really been able to work hand-in-hand with our CEO to help grow the department, meet new vendors, grow the team, and really help overall grow the seasonal department and work in product development. When I first started at my current company, our seasonal department was one of the smallest super departments within the company - it was only about an $18 million department. Now today, throughout the past almost 8 years, it's the largest department within the company. Last year we hit just over $118 million. Being able to work with so many people at my company internally, and then also working with vendors to really grow the catalog has been really exciting. It took a village and a team, but it's been exciting to see all of that come to fruition.