Club lets Columbians indulge their inner shopaholics

Students scrounge, beg, and plead for the perfect summer internship, but perhaps more undergraduates should consider a job in plain old retail. The Columbia Business School’s Retail & Luxury Goods Club proposes that retail is a worthwhile—not to mention fun—pursuit.

Tien-San Yang, Business ’11 and a first-year member of the club, said, “28-year-old MBA students trying to get jobs wish that they could say they folded sweaters at the Gap.” Luckily for said 28-year-olds at Columbia, the RLG club fills that gap. The business school’s Retail Fundamentals class, instated this year at the club’s behest, and “field trips,” like last semester’s to The Limited, give students applicable retail knowledge—stint at the Gap aside. According to Jennifer Mak, MBA ’10 and co-president of the RLG club, retail may soon be an official business school area of specialization.

Not all of the RLG club’s 200 members focus on retail-oriented courses, though. Over half of the club consists of “career-switchers.” Yang, for example, spent two years in the heart of the finance industry at Deutsche Bank before ever considering the RLG club.

The club’s sole propulsion isn’t career advancement, though. It’s an outlet for those who simply enjoy clothes. “When you go to b[usiness] school, they tell you you should do what you love, and I like two things—basketball and apparel,” Yang said. “I knew I wasn’t going to be in the NBA, so I thought working with clothes would be pretty cool.”

Though few on campus even know that a retail club exists, the RLG club has already garnered plenty of off-campus attention. First, the club brings big-wig alumni, such as Chairman and CEO of Bloomingdale’s Michael Gould, Business ’68, back to campus for breakfast panels. Campus recruiting is also another major bonus for club members. “Retail as an industry don’t traditionally recruit with business schools,” Mak said. “So a lot of internship opportunities come through the club.”

The biggest RLG club happening is its annual conference. This year’s “Back to Black”-themed event took place last month at Low Library. “We sold out two days in advance to 50 percent industry professionals, 50 percent students,” Aaron Sim, Business ’10 and conference co-chair, said.

The conference focused on how retail and luxury industries can cope with the current economic environment to get “back to black.” With keynote speakers like Christine Beauchamp, president of Ann Taylor Stores, and Daniel Lalonde, president and CEO of Louis Vuitton USA on the roster, though, it’s clear that this was no cut-and-dry numbers discussion. And while the club itself is only open for business school students, the annual conference is open to anyone. “Historically undergrads do come, and I think they should come,” Mak said.

The club is opening campus eyes to the appeal of retail and luxury-good industries, fields that Ivy-League-educated students might not traditionally look to. “People who are aesthetically inclined like to work with beautiful products,” Mak said. “It’s a fast-paced, fun industry.”