May 1, 2004
Merchants are born, not made, says Jennifer Anderson Benevides, merchandising manager at Sturbridge Yankee Workshop, a Portland, ME-based catalog of country-inspired home furnishings. A former apparel buyer for a retailer, Benevides is new to cataloging and is thriving on its multi-faceted challenges. She recently spoke with Alicia Orr Suman, freelance writer and the former editor in chief of Catalog Success. Catalog Success: How did you get involved in catalog merchandising? Benevides: I started at a retailer called Anderson-Little in Massachusetts right out of college. Though it’s no longer in business, it was a great training ground. It was a national company that sold
