First day at Kohl's

Today marked the first day of my Store Management Internship at Kohl's Department stores. For those who don't know, I am doing my internship at the Draper location. It is a 10-week program, and it's meant to give interns a look into retail management. I've never worked retail, and I've never worked management, so it'll be a great opportunity for me to learn some things.

Summary: I had to go to the West Jordan store today, which was a bit of a drive, but that's okay. We started with the standard first-day-on-the-job lineup: watching some videos, talking about company policy, etc. Then I got to meet many of the other managers, attend a manager's meeting, and then look through the training booklet for the internship and plan out the things I'll need to do during the next week (I am going to be very busy). After orientation, training, getting to know the store and the people (all during the first half of the program), I will eventually be doing the following for the second half of the program:

1. Being part of a rotating crew of on-duty sales floor managers for some of my shifts.
2. Picking an Impact Project--that is, I will select a specific area of the store that I would like to focus my efforts on (e.g., shoes, accessories, etc.) , and then do everything I can during 1 month to make improvements in that area.
3. Presenting my experience to the store and district leadership at the end of the program.
   

Impressions: I think it's going to be a lot of fun, and I think I'm going to learn a lot. The people that I've met so far are great, and the program is really structured and provides a great opportunity for getting some great experience and education. I'm really looking forward to it, and I think it'll be fun to be involved in some decision-making and analysis (instead of just grunt-work).

Downside: The only thing that stinks is how much I'll have to be away from my cute and wonderful wife (with travel time, about 10 hours/day, 5 days a week).

Request: If any of you out there have retail experience, be sure to give me your best advice by commenting on this post. Please don't share negative experiences or complain about how much you hated your high school retail job--that won't help me :) But if you have advice that could help me, I'd love it.