The bridge into downtown Louisville! I forgot my camera, so unfortunately all I have to share is pics from my Blackberry!

Last week I had the great fortune of attending the Zappos vendor appreciation day in Louisville, KY.  First off, let me extend a big thank you to Mike Normart for the invite! I felt like the guest of honor! Honestly, I knew I was going to have a great time, but in traditional Zappos style, they far exceeded my expectations and thanks to them, I will always think fondly of that little town!  I don’t know of one other company that invites their vendors to get together with all their buyers and company execs for a day of fun and bonding! What a great concept!

ZFC (Zappos Fulfillment Center)

The day began at the Zappos warehouse where we had a tour and got the chance to see how it all works! It was quite facsinating actually…..it’s not at all how I imagined, especially since nothing was organized by brand or by size like you would think. Every item is stored according to a liscense plate number and when an order is made the system knows exactly where it is. Then the shoe begins its journey from its home to the packaging station where one of the Zappos peeps boxes and stickers it then puts it on a belt to head out the door. As you walk through the warehouse you will notice, that there are a few bright yellow smiley boxes which are randomly used so that some of their lucky customers not only get their shoes, but also a little reminder to smile! I love it!  I got to help package a pair of shoes, so thanks to me, someone got that special yellow box…  The other thing I noticed is that everyone we encountered seemed to enjoy their job. The energy in that place was light, fun and you could tell people were truly happy to be working there. This is RARE for any warehouse I am quite sure! 

Me and a couple Zappos crew getting ready to ship an order.

The tour lasted a couple of hours and we were able to visit all the stations including fitting, testing, returns, photography, video etc….where at each stop the working zappos employee would tell us all about what they do. When the tour ended it was almost lunch time and how fun is it that there is a stage with mics for karaoke which happens every day! I am a horrible singer, so you wouldn’t see me up there, but I definitely love the concept and the fact that it is just a completely normal part of the day around there. Hilarious…

The lunch area with the stage for singing…

The events organizer, Mica Morales and Mike Normart chatting after the tour.

After the tour we headed to a big park for a picnic where I got to  spend some quality time with Richard Hsieh (Tony’s dad) and after meeting him and seeing him interact with the people of Zappos, it is no wonder that he produced a son like Tony. Richard is kind, generous, caring, funny and just an overall happy guy and when you are around him, you cannot help but smile. He is going to be running the NY marathon in November, so if you are in the city, please let me know so we can all cheer him on together! I promised him I would recruit a fan club, which I don’t think will be hard!

The picnic….which was followed by a trip to the go-cart track before the baseball game…all fun things!

The day was topped off by a good old fashioned summer baseball game with the yummiest burgers and hot dogs…..and of course beer! During this time, every one was mingling and having fun. I met so many wonderful people I can’t even possibly remember all their names, but they were great. All of the brands that I talked to told me that Zappos was hands down their favorite account and that they loved their buyers (probably a good thing I don’t share their names anyway, because their other accounts might not like that! haha). I can only imagine why…..Zappos buyers understand that business is about building relationships and they are great at it! They have friendships with their reps and when this happens it is only natural that they think of each other’s businesses as their own and truly try to establish a partnership that contributes to success for both parties.  It’s the way it should be!

Prime spot to watch the game from the Zappos VIP box…

Overall, my trip was just so much fun and I truly learned a lot about the importance of having happy employees. I don’t understand why more companies don’t work to achieve this, but if they would you would see productivity go up and turnover go down across the board! I can’t wait until next year when we get to do it all over again and you have the opportunity to go, I suggest you do it! Thank you again to the Zappos team for the great experience! You guys rock!!!