Undercover Boss (2010) s05e02 Episode Script
Loehmann's
(Male announcer) Since the premiere of Undercover Boss, more than 60 bosses have given away nearly $6 million I have a check for $250,000.
Oh, my God.
(Announcer) and implemented sweeping companywide changes As a company, we're actually gonna restore the 401(K).
It's a $1 million expense.
(Announcer) to benefit the lives of more than 40 million employees.
Whoo! (Announcer) But not everyone deserved to be rewarded.
I know how to grow some really good weed.
Maybe I dropped the [.]
-bomb.
Sorry.
God [.]
forbid me, seriously.
(Announcer) Tonight, the first openly-gay executive in the history of the show, Steven Newman Voila.
Oh, my God.
(Announcer) goes undercover for Loehmann's, one of the most popular discount department stores in the country.
(Steven) Excuse me.
Do you know where Catherine is? I'm Henry.
Nice to meet you, Henry.
Nice to meet you, too.
(Announcer) By joining his employees on the front lines Something new for you to learn.
So I'm gonna give you that.
This is very new.
[Laughs.]
(Announcer) this CEO discovers the people who make his brand fashion forward.
It just feels delicious.
Isn't it? Isn't is so yummy? Delicious? Can I use that word? Yeah, of course.
I don't like how they're running things.
We have no corporate structure.
Mm.
And that's really sad.
(Announcer) What happens when this fashion-obsessed boss finds out his business isn't making the cut? It's almost like we want to look like Bloomingdale's.
We want to look like Macy's.
However, there's thrift stores that look better.
Frieda Loehmann would probably be turning over in her grave if she saw the stuff that was going on now.
(Announcer) Find out next on Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss 5x02 - Loehmann's Original air date October 4, 2013 (Announcer) With a base of operations in New York City and 40 locations throughout the United States, Loehmann's Department Stores are one of the oldest retail fashion operations in the country.
Overseeing this $300 million a year company and it's 2,000 employees is one man.
Hi, I'm Steven Newman.
I'm the CEO of Loehmann's, based here in New York.
We consider ourselves the fashion off-price retailer.
We are a department store.
We carry everything that you might need but at a reduced cost.
I didn't really know much about Loehmann's before I joined.
But when I walked into Loehmann's, I go, "oh, my God; How did I not know this existed?" Loehmann's was founded 92 years ago by a woman named Frieda Loehmann.
She would go down 7th Avenue to all the shops that sold designer clothing and take their leftovers or their overruns.
And she's put them in her store and offer them at a reduced cost.
Today we scour the United States and other countries for the best available unique products that we can offer to our customers at the best prices.
Not a lot of American companies, especially in the clothing world, that can still say that after 92 years, they're still here and around.
But a few years ago, Loehmann's lost its way.
They lost their focus on who their true customer was.
And Loehmann's was a culture of "open the doors", "and if they come, they come.
" "And if they show up, then they show up," which caused it to go into bankruptcy.
And there was just a lot of complacency.
What excited me about coming to Loehmann's was taking this iconic brand and making it relevant today.
I was born and raised in New York City.
My parents loved to shop.
My sister loved to shop.
We always went shopping.
"Where do you want to go tonight?" "Let's go shopping.
" Hello there.
You finding everything okay? - Yes.
- Good.
I went to school for marketing.
And I started sending out resumes, started to go on interviews.
And I said, "you know what, I love to shop.
" So I sent a resume to Macy's New York.
Lo and behold, Macy's called me up, and I joined their executive training program, which lasted for three months.
And I worked for Brooks Brothers, rising to become president of Brooks Brothers and after that, joined Loehmann's.
Hi, everybody.
How is everyone? We're good.
Everyone good today? The first thing I did as CEO was If I go online and I find a store that doesn't have a site that you could actually purchase on, the relevance for that brand goes right out the window for me.
How many of these can we get? And how fast can we get these? Which, to me, is so irrelevant in this world, because, to me, that's, like, so 1994.
This is a fashion business.
And you know, if you wait two minutes, it's old news.
It's a pretty book, but I don't think it's what we're looking for today.
There's no second place.
There's no third place.
For me, winning is the prize.
I don't think you get to the place where I am at without being able to make the tough decisions.
You know, one thing people would say about me is I'm me.
I'm Steve Newman whether I'm here or whether I'm home.
Put your umbrella up.
I think it's raining, huh? It is pouring.
So I have a partner for the last 12 years.
His name is Steve.
And, yes, we do both have the same first name.
Come on.
Jump.
Good boy, Dyl.
I have two mini schnauzers, Dylan and Jacob, who we love very much and who are our children.
Come on, Jake.
You're doing good.
For me, I've always known I was gay.
It is who I am.
It's who I will always be.
(Steve) So what advice could you give to me doing this, since you know me better than anybody? Be nice.
[Laughs.]
I think parts of it's gonna be hard for me not to try and react.
My story is I'm a straight man with a wife and two kids.
Her name's gonna be Stephanie.
And my two sons' names are Dylan and Jacob, which is what our boys' names are, so I'm glad you're doing it, and not me.
[Laughter.]
People say to me, "how is it being a gay CEO?" I would say to them, being gay does not define me.
It's a big part of me, but it's not what defines me as a human being or as a successful businessperson.
Hi, how are you? Good.
Are you ready for your new look? Honestly? No.
Do I have a choice? I have been working really hard to try and create this new culture for Loehmann's.
We are going to win in everything that we do.
And now I want to understand has that culture been able to permeate through the organization so that if you get down to a sales associate in the store, they also want to win.
This tickles.
Throughout my undercover journey, I'll be posing as Henry Johnson, an aspiring entrepreneur.
Oh, my God.
Where are those scissors? My employees have been told they're on a different reality show.
They have no idea this is actually Undercover Boss.
It looks so different.
If I am undercover, and I am witnessing something that I think is the wrong attitude, rest assured, I'm gonna be all over you.
Voila.
Oh, my God.
Who is this impostor in our house? I wear a piece of clothing on my lip, Steve.
I'm glad you don't have a mustache in real life, because it's not good on you.
When all this is said and done, the buck stops with me.
- Love you.
- Love you too.
And I need to make sure that I'm making the corrections to make Loehmann's successful.
How you doing? Today I'm in our Costa Mesa, California, store, and I'll be working with our lingerie specialist.
That one's cute.
Do you have this one in orange? When it comes to lingerie, I'm like, "whoa, that's not my expertise.
" I'm not familiar with the bra world in my personal life, so it's gonna be an interesting challenge.
Hi, how are you? Excuse me.
Do you know where Catherine is? That's me.
Hi, Catherine.
I'm Henry.
Nice to meet you, Henry.
Nice to meet you too.
I'm here to work with you today.
Oh, good, good, good.
Yeah.
Clearly, Henry has not worked in fashion, because I don't consider the mustache a fashionable statement.
I think mustaches are a little bit on the passe time, I think.
I don't know.
Do I look that old? [Laughs.]
I'm the specialist.
And I try to help women really to find the right bra.
Well, be patient with me, because I don't know a lot about bras for lots of reasons, just don't know.
But do you have somebody that that you may buy something for? Well, my wife wears, obviously, bras, but I don't necessarily buy them for her.
Oh, of course.
And then I have two boys.
Well, something new for you to learn.
[Laughs.]
So well, you know, some people like a push-up bra.
Some people don't.
And they're all different, too, right? They're what are all different? Well, yeah, we're all different there.
This is gonna maybe show bumps.
And, you know, for T-shirts, you don't want that.
This one's more pointy, and this one's more round.
So that's just a preference of it's a preference.
I think I'm gonna learn a lot today.
Yeah, I think so.
[Laughs.]
As far as panties go Hi.
How are you today? I'm fine.
Good.
What can I help you with? I'm looking for a good push-up bra.
So what size do you think you are? I think I'm a 34C.
Do you mind if I just measure your rib cage? - Yeah, sure.
- Okay, sure.
It's a very odd thing to see Henry, a tall gentleman with mustache, in the lingerie department.
So right now - if you want to look.
- Let me see, yeah.
So she's at 31.
I didn't know where to look, because they don't know who I am.
And they think, who's this dirty old man looking at them? So it was a little bit awkward.
- Isn't that pretty? - I like that one.
Yeah, that's nice.
We can go try those on.
Definitely.
Okay.
Working with bras was just not in my comfort zone.
So the terms being used with Catherine were a little bit foreign to me.
Why don't you come out this way.
All right, so you want to check the tension, okay? From cup size and molded and how it fit, and bend down.
This feels good, but you're spilling out of it.
So I think it's a little bit too small for you.
It was just so much to learn.
It was, like, almost aerodynamic.
[Laughs.]
This size is a 32.
And look, you've got it on the last hook.
Is that important that it's on the last hook? Yeah.
The reason is because with time, the bra is going to lose its elasticity.
Did you ever know that? No, I didn't.
I certainly didn't.
You're learning along with me.
Catherine is just so customer-focused, and she just has that way that just puts everybody at ease.
It was overwhelmingly great to see.
Did you want to wait for me to get you another size? Want me to try and see if I can find something while you stay with her? I don't think you'll be able to find it.
I'm sorry.
Oh, there goes that vote of confidence.
Oh, dear, I'm sorry.
That's all right.
[Laughs.]
So do you feel comfortable with selling bras now? We'll see.
They're not gonna be used to having a man in the lingerie department.
So that might be a little difficult for you.
- But use your charm.
- Okay.
[Laughs.]
I have that.
Okay, good.
You're gonna be over in that fitting room, right, in case I need you? Yes, I am.
Mm-hmm.
How are you today? Can I help you with anything? A push-up bra.
Do you know what your size around? - Sure.
- Do you mind if I measure? Sure, that would be great.
It should be, like, right under your breast line, I guess.
That's right I get 32A.
Okay.
Let's have some fun with this one.
I'm gonna give you a "B" and a "C.
" - That's pretty sexy.
- Yes.
I like that one too.
Henry is learning quickly and was able to make the customers more relaxed - That's not you.
- No.
[Laughs.]
Even though he was a gentleman with a mustache.
[Laughing.]
I hate that mustache.
Wow.
Yeah, no, it looks really nice on you.
He should shave it off.
- You did good.
- Thank you.
- You did really good.
- I'm trying.
It looks like we've got some more merchandise.
Let's try to take it out and put some things away while we're waiting for more customers out there.
And so just take the plastic off.
Not that I really knew much about lingerie before today, but how did you become so passionate about it? You know, I went to school for fashion design.
So I know how to make patterns.
I know how to make everything you see.
I even know how to make these.
- No way.
- I do.
- Seriously? - Yes.
So you really know a lot.
With all my knowledge that I have here, I shouldn't even be here.
Because? Not that I don't like it here.
I love it here.
But the reason I'm here is to have security.
My husband and I had a restaurant.
And with the economy, it almost killed us.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
We made the mistake of putting all our money in the business, yeah.
Yeah.
Can I ask how much you invested? It was a lot of money.
[Chuckles.]
And now we're starting all over, 'cause we had to sell our house.
Wow.
It looks like we're gonna be working till we're 70 at least.
How do you get through that? When things go really rock bottom, and you're still standing there, then you know that you can make it.
So here's this great, wonderful woman.
And to be as strong Catherine is is commendable.
And I just wanted to reach over and give her a hug and say, "what can we do?" This rack looks, like, pretty full.
Wrong item.
(Announcer) Steven discovers that the fashion world isn't that glamorous after all.
It looks okay to me.
(Announcer) And later We're looking a lot like the dump store.
I mean, I think there's thrift stores that look better.
(Announcer) the boss is shocked to find one store that's less than picture-perfect.
Frieda Loehmann would probably be turning over in her grave if she saw the stuff that was going on now.
Today I'm in Rutherford, New Jersey, at the Loehmann's distribution center.
When I joined Loehmann's two years ago, it was so hard to believe that in the year 2011, you cannot shop online to buy clothing at Loehmann's.
It became my baby to make sure that we got the e-commerce business up and running.
Today I'm gonna be working as assistant manager to see how our e-commerce business operates.
- Is Robert around? - Yes, this is him.
- Hi, Robert.
- How you doing, sir? Henry Johnson.
Nice to meet you.
Same here.
How you doing? - I'm good.
You? - I'm pretty good.
You know, I'm gonna teach you a little about e-comm and how we run things around here.
You ready to learn? Yeah, I'm here to learn as much as I can.
If I had to guess what Henry did before he decided to start his own business, just by appearance-wise, I would think he was some sort of businessman.
- Let's do it.
- Great.
I definitely don't think he was blue-collar, more white-collar.
E-commerce is becoming a huge way to shop for people.
What I'm gonna show you now And that's the fulfillment.
And you got 500 orders a day.
You want to make sure that at the end of the day, you've gotten every single order out.
So what I'm gonna do now is scan the cart.
Now this card belongs to me.
I'm picking.
I look at this.
It's sending me to location three.
Each item is marked with a SKU.
Your scanner is gonna tell you exactly where to go, what to pick.
And let's say a person scanned this.
The scanner's gonna say, "no, no, no.
Wrong item"" Oh, the gun will tell you? The gun is gonna tell you, "wrong item".
You scan this, right item.
So now I'm gonna assign you a batch.
- Okay.
- Okay? And I want to see how fast you can get it done.
Okay.
Beep! Wrong item.
Beep! I'm not the biggest tech nerd there is out there.
So as I was running around, I knew I was on this time crunch, and I really wanted to be successful.
And I had to prove that I can do it.
Beep! All right, let me check and see how the new guy is doing.
Yes.
He's only picked one piece so far.
I keep hearing his scanner goes off.
But I don't see nothing new that he's picked.
Where would I find E011? Oh, you get it in this.
- That way? - Yes.
Henry was really, really slow.
If we pick anything less than 300, that's a slow day for us.
- How're you making out? - I'm doing okay.
Your 15 minutes is actually up.
All right, Henry, we have another area in e-comm that's just as important, and that's the return department.
We're gonna look at the order, verify if the items are correct.
- Just by the SKU number? - Yes.
Now the merchandise has to be thoroughly checked.
So now we're looking for stains, damages, holes, anything.
No odd smell.
The zipper's still functional.
This is good to go.
All right, Henry, see what you got.
[Sniffing.]
When I woke up this morning, I had no thought that I was gonna be sniffing ladies dresses or anything else.
It looks okay to me.
Okay.
Okay, Henry, so now this is the stack of credits that I have to do today.
Oh, my God.
And remember, I'm a supervisor of a lot of workers here.
I can't devote my time exclusively to this until mostly the end of the day, so it ends up making me have to work overtime almost every day.
You know, I live in New York.
So when I stay late, I leave here, let's say 5:30, 6:00.
I don't get home till 8:30, 9:00.
Wow.
And beautiful family.
Do you see the kids in the morning? No, when I leave, they're not even up yet.
- And when you get home? - No.
To sit and listen to Robert tell how hard he works and what he goes through on a daily basis, it's humbling.
But I feel terrible that he has to stay late every night and do returns.
I think the process that he's going through can be streamlined, and that's something I am going to look into right away.
Well, the day has ended for most of the building.
It's almost just getting started for me.
Well, for we, so let's get to it.
Today I'm in Washington, D.
C.
And I'll be working with one of our supervisors, learning how to do visual merchandising.
Visual merchandising really did not exist at Loehmann's before I joined.
Being good at visual merchandising helps separate us from the rest of our competition, and it's what the customer's first perception is when they come through the door.
Hello, sir.
Hey, how are you? Welcome to Loehmann's.
Thank you.
The last time I visited this store, about a year ago, I was not happy with the team.
Since that time, I've made a lot of changes.
So if I see someone with the wrong attitude, it's gonna be very hard for me to keep my mouth shut.
- Keisha? - Yes.
- Hi, Keisha.
- Hello.
- How are you today? - Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
Okay, so visual merchandising overall is just to make things look pretty through color, sizing, and merchandising.
We're gonna start with this rack here.
We have five different designers but the same label.
So it's Joe provocative, Joe booty cut, Joe everything, Chelsea fit.
So we're gonna go through this rack, and we're gonna make it right.
- Okay? - Okay.
- Yeah, yeah.
- All right.
So we need to start grabbing some stuff.
So let's get the sizing.
So if you turn over the back of these pants, what do they say? They say cigarette.
Okay, so now you want to put it out on the rack.
So I have to first find where the cigarette arm would be? You can make a cigarette arm, 'cause these are all the same brand jeans.
Okay.
When I first meet Keisha, I felt that we were very rushed, and she was very quick to give me orders of what to do.
God, there's so many.
I've just found four more pair of cigarettes.
No, I just put them there.
No, I'm talking about over there.
- Oh, okay.
- Yeah, no, no, no.
Are you doing it, or am I doing it? Pay attention.
No, we're doing it together, 'cause I want you to learn.
I thought you said to me that I was going to do it.
You have to learn.
You got to give me a chance to learn, though.
I had never done it.
I didn't even know the brands.
I didn't know how many styles there were.
And she was already telling me that I was doing it wrong within 30 seconds.
I'm just trying to sort the names out first and get them all together.
Okay.
In my head, that's what I thought would be a good way to do it.
Okay.
You're trying to teach me how to do this, right? Right, but at the same time, we got to move fast, 'cause we're in an eight-hour shift.
- And that's all we have.
- I know.
I get that.
All right.
As a supervisor, it is Keisha's responsibility to train, supervise, motivate, and teach every associate that's in the store.
And it was more like, "do this, do this, do that.
" We're gonna do the display window, okay? You could do a tie off the body.
Well, I have three boys.
- Oh, you do? - Mm-hmm.
How many kids do you have? I have two, also, two boys.
Oh.
How old mine are probably older.
We rock.
The only thing about working here is that I am paid by the hour.
About three weeks ago, I fell out on the floor.
Here? Yeah, because of my sickness.
I have kidney disease, and I have lupus.
And I've had a stroke, too, last August.
Oh, my.
So I missed days from work.
So when you miss days from work, where's your check? And a single mother.
- Yes.
- Wow.
You hear the stories that some people have in their life.
And it's like, "oh, my God.
How would I do that?" Would I be able to do that?" If we had a mannequin, we could probably put that whole outfit on a mannequin.
- Be great, right? - Yeah.
But we're limited on mannequins.
- Nothing to work with.
- No.
We have them.
And it's a total of five for this whole store.
So I have to pick and choose what I put on a mannequin.
We want to look like Bloomingdale's.
We want to look like Macy's.
We want to compare ourselves to Lord and Taylor.
However, we're looking a lot like the dump store.
I mean, I think there's thrift stores that look better.
And that's really sad.
I don't like how they're running things.
We have no corporate structure.
Mm.
Frieda Loehmann would probably be turning over in her grave if she saw the stuff that was going on now.
And that's kind of my biggest concern, is that being a visual merchandise supervisor, is that I don't have my resources.
Did you say anything to anybody? [Sighs.]
This is exactly what I was hoping I was not gonna find.
And it is driving me crazy.
It's almost like a sinking ship as far as I'm concerned.
Her attitude is very negative and not the winning one we need every employee to have.
So, you know, what do you do with somebody like Keisha? Work with her? Or just really decide that she isn't the right fit for Loehmann's? So there's a lot for me to think about right now.
Now we're gonna set up a display in the window.
Okay.
Hi, there.
I'm here for a manicure and a pedicure.
The time that was brought into Loehmann's was a very transitional time.
And I always knew I wanted people to work at Loehmann's who wanted to work at Loehmann's.
Right? Yeah.
This is a treat.
Mm-hmm.
Working with Robert and Catherine was just so uplifting and so motivating.
And then working with Keisha I think Keisha's attitude is "what about Keisha?" "What about Keisha? What about Keisha?" Versus "how does Keisha work for Loehmann's" "and make Loehmann's better?" Very nice.
I did not expect this experience to be as challenging, thought-provoking, eye-opening.
So there's a lot on my mind right now.
It just feels delicious.
Isn't it? Isn't is so yummy? Delicious? Can I use that word? Yeah, of course.
(Announcer) The boss finds the ultimate fashionista.
Yay.
(Announcer) And later I'm being misconstrued.
But even now, you're not you just want to get out your point.
(Announcer) the gloves come off.
My experience working with you was not a great experience.
Don't ever think I don't do my job.
I do my damndest.
I'd serve fries like they were filet mignon.
(Announcer) Steven Newman, the CEO of Loehmann's Department Stores is a boss undercover in his own company.
They're not gonna be used to having a man in the lingerie department.
(Announcer) His employees think he's a contestant on a reality show, hoping to win money to start his own business.
Frieda Loehmann would probably be turning over in her grave if she saw the stuff that was going on now.
Today I'm in San Francisco, California, and I'm going to be working with a personal shopper.
The personal shopper's role is really to work with our customers to help them put their wardrobe together.
We'll order that definitely in the small.
As an off-pricer, being able to offer this experience for our customers is a great advantage and differentiator for us.
Is Alesandra here? Third floor? I am a true believer in the role of personal shoppers at Loehmann's.
When I started at Loehmann's, we had three stores with personal shoppers and we're currently up to ten.
So going undercover today is gonna allow me to see how the program is working and what they need to be better at their job.
Alesandra? - Yes.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- Henry.
Hi, Henry.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
So you're my contestant? I think so.
When I first met Henry Um, wow.
Fashion's not his thing.
- Let's go in my office.
- Okay.
I definitely want to update Henry's wardrobe for sure.
Yes.
That must be you.
[Laughs.]
Yeah.
So my clients come in here.
And I have a private dressing room right in here.
I have a closet in here where I put all their holds.
I'm constantly thinking about my clients - Wow, that's great.
- and their lifestyles.
So I can show you some of the new stuff that we have.
Yeah, sure.
We get a lot of high-end brands, like Helmut Lang.
We have Rachel Zoe.
She's a very popular stylist.
Is that a skirt or a dress? I'm not sure.
It's a dress.
It's very tiny.
That was, like, ten years ago for me.
Me too.
[Laughs.]
Would I hire Henry here to work with me? No.
I don't think I would.
My wife would love that.
It's silk, yeah.
But when you touch it, it just feels delicious.
Isn't it? Isn't is so yummy? Delicious? Can I use that word? Yeah, of course.
Why not? Okay, it looks delicious.
Hi.
How are you? Nice to see you.
- Hi, I'm Henry.
- This is Henry.
Hi, Henry.
Very nice to meet you.
- Patricia.
- Patricia, nice to meet you.
She's one of my fabulous clients.
Okay, you look delicious.
[Laughter.]
Yeah, so we got a bunch of new stuff.
Okay.
This came in.
That's brand-new, and all these great flats.
And they're 25% off.
So also, we need to make sure that we tell our clients, like, what's on sale.
Let's do some shopping.
Okay? This black one would be gorgeous.
- It lays beautifully.
- Okay.
Love it.
Leather skirt.
What about leather? You know, I think it's just too heavy.
No, it's lamb.
Can we have fun? Can we just try it on? I'll try it, just for you.
Okay.
Good.
Let me get you all set up.
- And try these on.
- Okay.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
I love that you were able to, like, pick and choose for her before she, like, could even say anything, you already knew.
Okay, stop.
'Cause I actually I love it.
[Laughs.]
I do.
I told you! It's actually it's really so me.
See how that worked? You didn't want to put it on at all.
She didn't want to try it on.
- Perfect.
- Yay.
Lo and behold, Patricia put on the leather skirt, and she couldn't wait to, like, go home with it and wear it.
And I will see you shortly.
- Have a good day.
- You, too.
- Thank you.
- Bye, doll.
Have a good one.
I love it.
Yay.
Alesandra really knows her clients very well.
[Gasps.]
I got the purse for you.
Wow.
How do I duplicate her? [Gasps.]
Lookit.
This is perfect.
Okay, let's try it on.
And she's, like, all over the place.
"Oh, I'm gonna get your shoes.
" "I'm gonna get your belt.
I'm gonna get your hat.
" You know, whatever it takes to really create the sale and the multiple looks, she was amazing.
- Wow.
- Heaven.
All right, have a good day, Lynn.
Thank you.
Bye.
[Laughs.]
Yay.
Alesandra did make a lot of sales today.
The next thing I want to do is, I want to talk to you about how I do outreach.
I do emails to my 620 clients.
- Wow.
- Loehmann's does emails daily.
But I customize mine.
So I take my phone with me, and I walk around the store, and I take pictures of things.
Now it's kind of a no-no, 'cause we're not supposed to use our personal cell phones to contact our customers.
But it's very, very crucial and critical for me.
And how often do you send it? Once or twice a week.
With these new handbags, we needed to send an email out, letting my customers know about these new handbags that just came in.
Are you technically savvy? I think I can take a picture.
It's frustrating to me that Alesandra might not have all the tools that she needs to get her job done.
Okay.
And it's my job to make sure that she gets them.
- I love this idea.
- Right? I think the sky's the limit with her.
I love fashion.
You know, if I do it with passion, I know I'll succeed.
And that's so true.
I mean, my husband and I had, like, really great-paying jobs when we first got married.
And we both quit our jobs 'cause we realized we weren't doing what we were loving and really wanting to do.
But then the market crashed.
And it was really difficult.
And then we found out on our honeymoon we were pregnant.
Wow.
So it was really hard.
Do you have family? Do you have family here that Well, my parents were retired and lived in Mexico.
And because of the whole situation with the violence and, you know, in Mexico, they just moved back.
So my family of, you know, three is now a family of five.
But I'm so grateful for those really hard years, because, you know, if you do what you love, you'll succeed in life no matter what.
No, it's great.
And I feel the same way you do, that you have to love what you do in order to be successful.
Working with someone like Alesandra today was so uplifting and so exciting.
She has a lot on her plate.
She takes care of a lot of people and always with the utmost attitude.
I admire that in anybody that could separate their work issues from their personal issues and just come in and have a great attitude, 'cause it's what they love.
Now let's get back to the emails.
I met a lot of great people throughout this journey.
It was amazing to me to be able to get them to open up and tell me about their lives.
Not everything I saw was satisfying to me or made me happy.
[Sighs.]
It's time.
What's exciting is, I've seen where some of the breakdowns are.
It's coming right off by itself.
And while Henry cannot solve all of these problems, Steve Newman can, and I'm looking forward to being able to make the changes that need to be done, to make sure things get fixed.
Oh, that's a relief.
(Announcer) The employees are summoned to Los Angeles to give feedback on Henry's performance.
How will they react when he reveals that he's really the boss? I'm really Steven Newman, the CEO of Loehmann's.
Oh.
My week undercover has finally come to an end.
I'm in Los Angeles, in the heart of the fashion district, so I can tell my employees who I really am.
All the people that I worked with think they have been called here to give feedback on whether or not I deserve to win the money to start my own business.
They have no idea why they are really here.
Hello, there.
Hello.
- How are you? - I'm fine.
So we're here to talk about Henry.
Uh-huh.
How did Henry do? I think Henry did good.
Why are you smiling? 'Cause you look a little like Henry.
So I was playing Henry.
- You were playing Henry? - I was playing Henry.
I'm really Steven Newman, the CEO of Loehmann's.
Oh.
Okay.
I am so in shock right now.
And you're on Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss, the show? - Mm-hmm.
- The real show? The real show.
I don't believe it.
The real show? Yeah, you're on it.
Wow.
[Laughs.]
Keisha, I'm conflicted.
I saw a lot of things that I was not happy about working with you in the store.
The minute I walked in the store, you didn't even say hello to me.
You just said, "go do that.
Go do that.
" You're trying to teach me how to do this, right? Right, but at the same time, we got to move fast, 'cause we're in an eight-hour shift.
- And that's all we have.
- I know.
I get that.
In the beginning, you did a lot of talking over me.
And I was saying, "today we're gonna" "visual merchandise this area" you never heard me.
No, I did hear you.
But see what you're You started to talk What you're doing again What you're doing again is, you're trying to put the blame on No, no, no, I'm not blaming you.
I'm just pointing out a couple of things.
But at this point, it doesn't matter, though, Keisha.
It really doesn't matter.
I'm being misconstrued, sir.
But even now, you're not you just want to get out your point, instead of listening to what I'm saying to you.
I'm trying you know, as a supervisor in the store, you need to just make sure that you're listening and taking control.
Don't ever think I don't do my job.
I've been working in retail for over 15 to 20 years.
I've never heard that anybody was disappointed in who I am.
I do my damndest, every place I work.
I'd serve fries like they were filet mignon.
You understand? That's just who I am.
Keisha, you have to take personal responsibility for your actions.
You can't blame other people.
You own it.
On the flip side, I saw a lot of good things.
The fact that you come in when you're not feeling well, the fact that you show up, fact that you get it's all great stuff.
Mm-hmm.
I'm not negating that.
I think that you can merchandise.
I saw the passion that you had in merchandising.
I do want you to stay.
But I want you to make a commitment to me and to Loehmann's that you're gonna do everything you can to make this opportunity a successful one for everyone.
- We both committed? - Yes.
So, Keisha, one of your concerns was is that the store would look a little dated.
And I agree with you 100%.
And I just want you to know your store is due to be renovated early next spring.
You'll get everything that you want.
Okay.
We also got to spend some time talking about personal things.
Mm-hmm.
And I know that there has been some issues for you in your personal life.
Yes, the lupus and the IG nephropathy, that's the bulk of my worries and stuff.
I know you have some hardships.
And I'd like to give you $10,000 to help you pay off some of those medical bills that I know weigh so heavy on you.
Thank you.
A lot of times, you give and give and give and get nothing back.
So when you get to the lowest of low, and there's nobody there for you, this definitely renews my faith in people.
It was great to meet you.
You look great, Henry.
[Laughter.]
Let's again another hug for that.
Life definitely has its ups and downs.
And this would definitely be an up.
[Laughs.]
This would definitely be an up.
Alesandra, I had a great experience working with you.
You customer service, your knowledge of the product, your energy level, without being undercover, I would never have got to be able to see somebody like you, working in the Loehmann's store and every day, making it what it needs to be.
I do emails.
But I customize mine.
So I take my phone with me.
And I take pictures of things.
You use your own, personal cell phone in order to drive your business, which is really commendable.
So we're going to make sure that you and every other stylist in the company get their own cell phone and iPad.
Yay.
That's so exciting.
I love it.
Now I can do, like, little videos too.
- Oh, videos.
- Wouldn't that be fun? - That's great.
- Yeah, yeah.
One of the other things that impressed me about you, Alesandra, is you shared with me that your parents were living in Mexico.
And there was some violence in their town.
And that they moved back to San Francisco to live with you and your husband.
It was just so inspiring.
And I want to give you $25,000 for you to use any way you see fit to help you and your family.
Are you kidding me? Oh, my God.
It's okay.
Thank you so much.
I felt like this is a dream.
I really do.
You deserve it.
I just feel like I want to, like, scream.
I just wish, like, my clients were here.
We could be like, "oh, my God, guess what happened.
" Thank you so much.
Thank you.
We've gone through so much as a family, like, my husband and I.
And I'm just like this is gonna be huge.
Like, huge.
Catherine, the second that I met you, I just felt so comfortable and so at ease, because you had so much knowledge.
With time, the bra is going to lose its elasticity.
- Did you ever know that? - No.
I actually don't really need to know about this in my personal life.
I'm not married.
Oh, you're not? Okay.
I'm not married.
I have a partner.
And I have two wonderful dogs named Dylan and Jacob.
I am shocked.
You threw me way off.
Oh, my God.
Just watching you and how you treated and handled and gave respect to every customer that came through the door was so moving for me as the CEO of the company.
I know that things have not been easy.
And I'm going to give you $100,000 No, you're not.
to recoup some of your loss between your house and your business.
Are you no, it can't.
That's too much.
Are you really serious? You're not saying that seriously, are you? You are? For real? [Gasps.]
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
[Sobbing.]
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
Oh, I don't believe this.
Oh, my God.
Oh, I don't believe this.
Really? Oh, that's so generous of you.
Oh, my God.
I feel like like someone has put their arms around me and said, "everything's gonna be okay now.
" I don't know what to do.
I don't know what to do.
- It's okay.
Here.
- Oh, my God.
This is all because of what you do.
You understand that? This is because if what you do.
I don't believe this.
This happens to everybody else.
I can't believe it's happening to me.
Working with you, Robert, was such a great experience.
One of the best things was your attitude.
It was just such a breath of fresh air.
And everything was just so positive.
And how do we make things better? I appreciate it.
And the fact that I saw you working late, that makes me, as the CEO of the company, so proud.
And because of that conversation that we had, we're going to make sure that there is a person there that can help you in e-commerce, that takes care of returns that keep you there later at night.
That will help me tremendously.
Just being able to leave on time means I would get home on time.
I've had a lot of jobs in my life, but the most important job is being a father to my kids.
So I take that very seriously.
Because family is so important to you, and the time that you've missed away from your family, we're gonna send you on an all expense paid trip for your family, so that you can spend time with them.
You do not have to worry about the airfare.
You don't have to worry about the food.
You don't have to worry about any of the transportation.
I want you to spend some time with your family.
Thanks.
That's I really appreciate it.
I really appreciate it.
And we talked about the commute that you have every day.
Yeah.
You know, I live in New York.
So when I stay late, I leave here, let's say 5:30, 6:00.
I don't get home till 8:30, 9:00.
Wow.
With that, we'd like to give you $20,000 to purchase a car.
$20,000? Yes.
$20,000 to buy a vehicle? I mean, what do you say to something like that other than thank you? I mean, thank you.
You're most welcome.
When we were talking, you were telling me about your kids.
We're going to start a college fund for each of your kids starting at $10,000 each.
There's an old phrase that says "hard work pays off", sometimes it pays off indirectly, in a way that you don't see coming.
And this is oh, wow.
This is a walking example of how just do right and great things will happen to you.
I wish you the best.
Congratulations.
You deserve it.
Thank you for everything you do for us.
It doesn't go unnoticed.
I appreciate it.
I'm sorry I don't have a lot to say.
For the first time in my life, I'm speechless.
I usually got a lot to say.
But this is really, really out of left field.
Didn't see this coming.
[Phone line ringing.]
(Woman) Hello? Baby.
(Woman) What happened? It was Undercover Boss.
(Woman) It was not.
I'm serious.
I'm on they're taping me right now, talking to you right now.
(Woman) No, you're lying.
I'm not lying.
They're starting a college fund for Ari and Mari $10,000 apiece.
(Woman) What? They're giving me $20,000 to buy a vehicle.
(Woman) Oh, my God.
And they're sending us on a all expense paid trip for all of us to go anywhere we want.
(Woman) Oh, my God.
I'm shaking right now.
Who would have ever thought just being me would result in something like this?
Oh, my God.
(Announcer) and implemented sweeping companywide changes As a company, we're actually gonna restore the 401(K).
It's a $1 million expense.
(Announcer) to benefit the lives of more than 40 million employees.
Whoo! (Announcer) But not everyone deserved to be rewarded.
I know how to grow some really good weed.
Maybe I dropped the [.]
-bomb.
Sorry.
God [.]
forbid me, seriously.
(Announcer) Tonight, the first openly-gay executive in the history of the show, Steven Newman Voila.
Oh, my God.
(Announcer) goes undercover for Loehmann's, one of the most popular discount department stores in the country.
(Steven) Excuse me.
Do you know where Catherine is? I'm Henry.
Nice to meet you, Henry.
Nice to meet you, too.
(Announcer) By joining his employees on the front lines Something new for you to learn.
So I'm gonna give you that.
This is very new.
[Laughs.]
(Announcer) this CEO discovers the people who make his brand fashion forward.
It just feels delicious.
Isn't it? Isn't is so yummy? Delicious? Can I use that word? Yeah, of course.
I don't like how they're running things.
We have no corporate structure.
Mm.
And that's really sad.
(Announcer) What happens when this fashion-obsessed boss finds out his business isn't making the cut? It's almost like we want to look like Bloomingdale's.
We want to look like Macy's.
However, there's thrift stores that look better.
Frieda Loehmann would probably be turning over in her grave if she saw the stuff that was going on now.
(Announcer) Find out next on Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss 5x02 - Loehmann's Original air date October 4, 2013 (Announcer) With a base of operations in New York City and 40 locations throughout the United States, Loehmann's Department Stores are one of the oldest retail fashion operations in the country.
Overseeing this $300 million a year company and it's 2,000 employees is one man.
Hi, I'm Steven Newman.
I'm the CEO of Loehmann's, based here in New York.
We consider ourselves the fashion off-price retailer.
We are a department store.
We carry everything that you might need but at a reduced cost.
I didn't really know much about Loehmann's before I joined.
But when I walked into Loehmann's, I go, "oh, my God; How did I not know this existed?" Loehmann's was founded 92 years ago by a woman named Frieda Loehmann.
She would go down 7th Avenue to all the shops that sold designer clothing and take their leftovers or their overruns.
And she's put them in her store and offer them at a reduced cost.
Today we scour the United States and other countries for the best available unique products that we can offer to our customers at the best prices.
Not a lot of American companies, especially in the clothing world, that can still say that after 92 years, they're still here and around.
But a few years ago, Loehmann's lost its way.
They lost their focus on who their true customer was.
And Loehmann's was a culture of "open the doors", "and if they come, they come.
" "And if they show up, then they show up," which caused it to go into bankruptcy.
And there was just a lot of complacency.
What excited me about coming to Loehmann's was taking this iconic brand and making it relevant today.
I was born and raised in New York City.
My parents loved to shop.
My sister loved to shop.
We always went shopping.
"Where do you want to go tonight?" "Let's go shopping.
" Hello there.
You finding everything okay? - Yes.
- Good.
I went to school for marketing.
And I started sending out resumes, started to go on interviews.
And I said, "you know what, I love to shop.
" So I sent a resume to Macy's New York.
Lo and behold, Macy's called me up, and I joined their executive training program, which lasted for three months.
And I worked for Brooks Brothers, rising to become president of Brooks Brothers and after that, joined Loehmann's.
Hi, everybody.
How is everyone? We're good.
Everyone good today? The first thing I did as CEO was If I go online and I find a store that doesn't have a site that you could actually purchase on, the relevance for that brand goes right out the window for me.
How many of these can we get? And how fast can we get these? Which, to me, is so irrelevant in this world, because, to me, that's, like, so 1994.
This is a fashion business.
And you know, if you wait two minutes, it's old news.
It's a pretty book, but I don't think it's what we're looking for today.
There's no second place.
There's no third place.
For me, winning is the prize.
I don't think you get to the place where I am at without being able to make the tough decisions.
You know, one thing people would say about me is I'm me.
I'm Steve Newman whether I'm here or whether I'm home.
Put your umbrella up.
I think it's raining, huh? It is pouring.
So I have a partner for the last 12 years.
His name is Steve.
And, yes, we do both have the same first name.
Come on.
Jump.
Good boy, Dyl.
I have two mini schnauzers, Dylan and Jacob, who we love very much and who are our children.
Come on, Jake.
You're doing good.
For me, I've always known I was gay.
It is who I am.
It's who I will always be.
(Steve) So what advice could you give to me doing this, since you know me better than anybody? Be nice.
[Laughs.]
I think parts of it's gonna be hard for me not to try and react.
My story is I'm a straight man with a wife and two kids.
Her name's gonna be Stephanie.
And my two sons' names are Dylan and Jacob, which is what our boys' names are, so I'm glad you're doing it, and not me.
[Laughter.]
People say to me, "how is it being a gay CEO?" I would say to them, being gay does not define me.
It's a big part of me, but it's not what defines me as a human being or as a successful businessperson.
Hi, how are you? Good.
Are you ready for your new look? Honestly? No.
Do I have a choice? I have been working really hard to try and create this new culture for Loehmann's.
We are going to win in everything that we do.
And now I want to understand has that culture been able to permeate through the organization so that if you get down to a sales associate in the store, they also want to win.
This tickles.
Throughout my undercover journey, I'll be posing as Henry Johnson, an aspiring entrepreneur.
Oh, my God.
Where are those scissors? My employees have been told they're on a different reality show.
They have no idea this is actually Undercover Boss.
It looks so different.
If I am undercover, and I am witnessing something that I think is the wrong attitude, rest assured, I'm gonna be all over you.
Voila.
Oh, my God.
Who is this impostor in our house? I wear a piece of clothing on my lip, Steve.
I'm glad you don't have a mustache in real life, because it's not good on you.
When all this is said and done, the buck stops with me.
- Love you.
- Love you too.
And I need to make sure that I'm making the corrections to make Loehmann's successful.
How you doing? Today I'm in our Costa Mesa, California, store, and I'll be working with our lingerie specialist.
That one's cute.
Do you have this one in orange? When it comes to lingerie, I'm like, "whoa, that's not my expertise.
" I'm not familiar with the bra world in my personal life, so it's gonna be an interesting challenge.
Hi, how are you? Excuse me.
Do you know where Catherine is? That's me.
Hi, Catherine.
I'm Henry.
Nice to meet you, Henry.
Nice to meet you too.
I'm here to work with you today.
Oh, good, good, good.
Yeah.
Clearly, Henry has not worked in fashion, because I don't consider the mustache a fashionable statement.
I think mustaches are a little bit on the passe time, I think.
I don't know.
Do I look that old? [Laughs.]
I'm the specialist.
And I try to help women really to find the right bra.
Well, be patient with me, because I don't know a lot about bras for lots of reasons, just don't know.
But do you have somebody that that you may buy something for? Well, my wife wears, obviously, bras, but I don't necessarily buy them for her.
Oh, of course.
And then I have two boys.
Well, something new for you to learn.
[Laughs.]
So well, you know, some people like a push-up bra.
Some people don't.
And they're all different, too, right? They're what are all different? Well, yeah, we're all different there.
This is gonna maybe show bumps.
And, you know, for T-shirts, you don't want that.
This one's more pointy, and this one's more round.
So that's just a preference of it's a preference.
I think I'm gonna learn a lot today.
Yeah, I think so.
[Laughs.]
As far as panties go Hi.
How are you today? I'm fine.
Good.
What can I help you with? I'm looking for a good push-up bra.
So what size do you think you are? I think I'm a 34C.
Do you mind if I just measure your rib cage? - Yeah, sure.
- Okay, sure.
It's a very odd thing to see Henry, a tall gentleman with mustache, in the lingerie department.
So right now - if you want to look.
- Let me see, yeah.
So she's at 31.
I didn't know where to look, because they don't know who I am.
And they think, who's this dirty old man looking at them? So it was a little bit awkward.
- Isn't that pretty? - I like that one.
Yeah, that's nice.
We can go try those on.
Definitely.
Okay.
Working with bras was just not in my comfort zone.
So the terms being used with Catherine were a little bit foreign to me.
Why don't you come out this way.
All right, so you want to check the tension, okay? From cup size and molded and how it fit, and bend down.
This feels good, but you're spilling out of it.
So I think it's a little bit too small for you.
It was just so much to learn.
It was, like, almost aerodynamic.
[Laughs.]
This size is a 32.
And look, you've got it on the last hook.
Is that important that it's on the last hook? Yeah.
The reason is because with time, the bra is going to lose its elasticity.
Did you ever know that? No, I didn't.
I certainly didn't.
You're learning along with me.
Catherine is just so customer-focused, and she just has that way that just puts everybody at ease.
It was overwhelmingly great to see.
Did you want to wait for me to get you another size? Want me to try and see if I can find something while you stay with her? I don't think you'll be able to find it.
I'm sorry.
Oh, there goes that vote of confidence.
Oh, dear, I'm sorry.
That's all right.
[Laughs.]
So do you feel comfortable with selling bras now? We'll see.
They're not gonna be used to having a man in the lingerie department.
So that might be a little difficult for you.
- But use your charm.
- Okay.
[Laughs.]
I have that.
Okay, good.
You're gonna be over in that fitting room, right, in case I need you? Yes, I am.
Mm-hmm.
How are you today? Can I help you with anything? A push-up bra.
Do you know what your size around? - Sure.
- Do you mind if I measure? Sure, that would be great.
It should be, like, right under your breast line, I guess.
That's right I get 32A.
Okay.
Let's have some fun with this one.
I'm gonna give you a "B" and a "C.
" - That's pretty sexy.
- Yes.
I like that one too.
Henry is learning quickly and was able to make the customers more relaxed - That's not you.
- No.
[Laughs.]
Even though he was a gentleman with a mustache.
[Laughing.]
I hate that mustache.
Wow.
Yeah, no, it looks really nice on you.
He should shave it off.
- You did good.
- Thank you.
- You did really good.
- I'm trying.
It looks like we've got some more merchandise.
Let's try to take it out and put some things away while we're waiting for more customers out there.
And so just take the plastic off.
Not that I really knew much about lingerie before today, but how did you become so passionate about it? You know, I went to school for fashion design.
So I know how to make patterns.
I know how to make everything you see.
I even know how to make these.
- No way.
- I do.
- Seriously? - Yes.
So you really know a lot.
With all my knowledge that I have here, I shouldn't even be here.
Because? Not that I don't like it here.
I love it here.
But the reason I'm here is to have security.
My husband and I had a restaurant.
And with the economy, it almost killed us.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
We made the mistake of putting all our money in the business, yeah.
Yeah.
Can I ask how much you invested? It was a lot of money.
[Chuckles.]
And now we're starting all over, 'cause we had to sell our house.
Wow.
It looks like we're gonna be working till we're 70 at least.
How do you get through that? When things go really rock bottom, and you're still standing there, then you know that you can make it.
So here's this great, wonderful woman.
And to be as strong Catherine is is commendable.
And I just wanted to reach over and give her a hug and say, "what can we do?" This rack looks, like, pretty full.
Wrong item.
(Announcer) Steven discovers that the fashion world isn't that glamorous after all.
It looks okay to me.
(Announcer) And later We're looking a lot like the dump store.
I mean, I think there's thrift stores that look better.
(Announcer) the boss is shocked to find one store that's less than picture-perfect.
Frieda Loehmann would probably be turning over in her grave if she saw the stuff that was going on now.
Today I'm in Rutherford, New Jersey, at the Loehmann's distribution center.
When I joined Loehmann's two years ago, it was so hard to believe that in the year 2011, you cannot shop online to buy clothing at Loehmann's.
It became my baby to make sure that we got the e-commerce business up and running.
Today I'm gonna be working as assistant manager to see how our e-commerce business operates.
- Is Robert around? - Yes, this is him.
- Hi, Robert.
- How you doing, sir? Henry Johnson.
Nice to meet you.
Same here.
How you doing? - I'm good.
You? - I'm pretty good.
You know, I'm gonna teach you a little about e-comm and how we run things around here.
You ready to learn? Yeah, I'm here to learn as much as I can.
If I had to guess what Henry did before he decided to start his own business, just by appearance-wise, I would think he was some sort of businessman.
- Let's do it.
- Great.
I definitely don't think he was blue-collar, more white-collar.
E-commerce is becoming a huge way to shop for people.
What I'm gonna show you now And that's the fulfillment.
And you got 500 orders a day.
You want to make sure that at the end of the day, you've gotten every single order out.
So what I'm gonna do now is scan the cart.
Now this card belongs to me.
I'm picking.
I look at this.
It's sending me to location three.
Each item is marked with a SKU.
Your scanner is gonna tell you exactly where to go, what to pick.
And let's say a person scanned this.
The scanner's gonna say, "no, no, no.
Wrong item"" Oh, the gun will tell you? The gun is gonna tell you, "wrong item".
You scan this, right item.
So now I'm gonna assign you a batch.
- Okay.
- Okay? And I want to see how fast you can get it done.
Okay.
Beep! Wrong item.
Beep! I'm not the biggest tech nerd there is out there.
So as I was running around, I knew I was on this time crunch, and I really wanted to be successful.
And I had to prove that I can do it.
Beep! All right, let me check and see how the new guy is doing.
Yes.
He's only picked one piece so far.
I keep hearing his scanner goes off.
But I don't see nothing new that he's picked.
Where would I find E011? Oh, you get it in this.
- That way? - Yes.
Henry was really, really slow.
If we pick anything less than 300, that's a slow day for us.
- How're you making out? - I'm doing okay.
Your 15 minutes is actually up.
All right, Henry, we have another area in e-comm that's just as important, and that's the return department.
We're gonna look at the order, verify if the items are correct.
- Just by the SKU number? - Yes.
Now the merchandise has to be thoroughly checked.
So now we're looking for stains, damages, holes, anything.
No odd smell.
The zipper's still functional.
This is good to go.
All right, Henry, see what you got.
[Sniffing.]
When I woke up this morning, I had no thought that I was gonna be sniffing ladies dresses or anything else.
It looks okay to me.
Okay.
Okay, Henry, so now this is the stack of credits that I have to do today.
Oh, my God.
And remember, I'm a supervisor of a lot of workers here.
I can't devote my time exclusively to this until mostly the end of the day, so it ends up making me have to work overtime almost every day.
You know, I live in New York.
So when I stay late, I leave here, let's say 5:30, 6:00.
I don't get home till 8:30, 9:00.
Wow.
And beautiful family.
Do you see the kids in the morning? No, when I leave, they're not even up yet.
- And when you get home? - No.
To sit and listen to Robert tell how hard he works and what he goes through on a daily basis, it's humbling.
But I feel terrible that he has to stay late every night and do returns.
I think the process that he's going through can be streamlined, and that's something I am going to look into right away.
Well, the day has ended for most of the building.
It's almost just getting started for me.
Well, for we, so let's get to it.
Today I'm in Washington, D.
C.
And I'll be working with one of our supervisors, learning how to do visual merchandising.
Visual merchandising really did not exist at Loehmann's before I joined.
Being good at visual merchandising helps separate us from the rest of our competition, and it's what the customer's first perception is when they come through the door.
Hello, sir.
Hey, how are you? Welcome to Loehmann's.
Thank you.
The last time I visited this store, about a year ago, I was not happy with the team.
Since that time, I've made a lot of changes.
So if I see someone with the wrong attitude, it's gonna be very hard for me to keep my mouth shut.
- Keisha? - Yes.
- Hi, Keisha.
- Hello.
- How are you today? - Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
Okay, so visual merchandising overall is just to make things look pretty through color, sizing, and merchandising.
We're gonna start with this rack here.
We have five different designers but the same label.
So it's Joe provocative, Joe booty cut, Joe everything, Chelsea fit.
So we're gonna go through this rack, and we're gonna make it right.
- Okay? - Okay.
- Yeah, yeah.
- All right.
So we need to start grabbing some stuff.
So let's get the sizing.
So if you turn over the back of these pants, what do they say? They say cigarette.
Okay, so now you want to put it out on the rack.
So I have to first find where the cigarette arm would be? You can make a cigarette arm, 'cause these are all the same brand jeans.
Okay.
When I first meet Keisha, I felt that we were very rushed, and she was very quick to give me orders of what to do.
God, there's so many.
I've just found four more pair of cigarettes.
No, I just put them there.
No, I'm talking about over there.
- Oh, okay.
- Yeah, no, no, no.
Are you doing it, or am I doing it? Pay attention.
No, we're doing it together, 'cause I want you to learn.
I thought you said to me that I was going to do it.
You have to learn.
You got to give me a chance to learn, though.
I had never done it.
I didn't even know the brands.
I didn't know how many styles there were.
And she was already telling me that I was doing it wrong within 30 seconds.
I'm just trying to sort the names out first and get them all together.
Okay.
In my head, that's what I thought would be a good way to do it.
Okay.
You're trying to teach me how to do this, right? Right, but at the same time, we got to move fast, 'cause we're in an eight-hour shift.
- And that's all we have.
- I know.
I get that.
All right.
As a supervisor, it is Keisha's responsibility to train, supervise, motivate, and teach every associate that's in the store.
And it was more like, "do this, do this, do that.
" We're gonna do the display window, okay? You could do a tie off the body.
Well, I have three boys.
- Oh, you do? - Mm-hmm.
How many kids do you have? I have two, also, two boys.
Oh.
How old mine are probably older.
We rock.
The only thing about working here is that I am paid by the hour.
About three weeks ago, I fell out on the floor.
Here? Yeah, because of my sickness.
I have kidney disease, and I have lupus.
And I've had a stroke, too, last August.
Oh, my.
So I missed days from work.
So when you miss days from work, where's your check? And a single mother.
- Yes.
- Wow.
You hear the stories that some people have in their life.
And it's like, "oh, my God.
How would I do that?" Would I be able to do that?" If we had a mannequin, we could probably put that whole outfit on a mannequin.
- Be great, right? - Yeah.
But we're limited on mannequins.
- Nothing to work with.
- No.
We have them.
And it's a total of five for this whole store.
So I have to pick and choose what I put on a mannequin.
We want to look like Bloomingdale's.
We want to look like Macy's.
We want to compare ourselves to Lord and Taylor.
However, we're looking a lot like the dump store.
I mean, I think there's thrift stores that look better.
And that's really sad.
I don't like how they're running things.
We have no corporate structure.
Mm.
Frieda Loehmann would probably be turning over in her grave if she saw the stuff that was going on now.
And that's kind of my biggest concern, is that being a visual merchandise supervisor, is that I don't have my resources.
Did you say anything to anybody? [Sighs.]
This is exactly what I was hoping I was not gonna find.
And it is driving me crazy.
It's almost like a sinking ship as far as I'm concerned.
Her attitude is very negative and not the winning one we need every employee to have.
So, you know, what do you do with somebody like Keisha? Work with her? Or just really decide that she isn't the right fit for Loehmann's? So there's a lot for me to think about right now.
Now we're gonna set up a display in the window.
Okay.
Hi, there.
I'm here for a manicure and a pedicure.
The time that was brought into Loehmann's was a very transitional time.
And I always knew I wanted people to work at Loehmann's who wanted to work at Loehmann's.
Right? Yeah.
This is a treat.
Mm-hmm.
Working with Robert and Catherine was just so uplifting and so motivating.
And then working with Keisha I think Keisha's attitude is "what about Keisha?" "What about Keisha? What about Keisha?" Versus "how does Keisha work for Loehmann's" "and make Loehmann's better?" Very nice.
I did not expect this experience to be as challenging, thought-provoking, eye-opening.
So there's a lot on my mind right now.
It just feels delicious.
Isn't it? Isn't is so yummy? Delicious? Can I use that word? Yeah, of course.
(Announcer) The boss finds the ultimate fashionista.
Yay.
(Announcer) And later I'm being misconstrued.
But even now, you're not you just want to get out your point.
(Announcer) the gloves come off.
My experience working with you was not a great experience.
Don't ever think I don't do my job.
I do my damndest.
I'd serve fries like they were filet mignon.
(Announcer) Steven Newman, the CEO of Loehmann's Department Stores is a boss undercover in his own company.
They're not gonna be used to having a man in the lingerie department.
(Announcer) His employees think he's a contestant on a reality show, hoping to win money to start his own business.
Frieda Loehmann would probably be turning over in her grave if she saw the stuff that was going on now.
Today I'm in San Francisco, California, and I'm going to be working with a personal shopper.
The personal shopper's role is really to work with our customers to help them put their wardrobe together.
We'll order that definitely in the small.
As an off-pricer, being able to offer this experience for our customers is a great advantage and differentiator for us.
Is Alesandra here? Third floor? I am a true believer in the role of personal shoppers at Loehmann's.
When I started at Loehmann's, we had three stores with personal shoppers and we're currently up to ten.
So going undercover today is gonna allow me to see how the program is working and what they need to be better at their job.
Alesandra? - Yes.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- Henry.
Hi, Henry.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
So you're my contestant? I think so.
When I first met Henry Um, wow.
Fashion's not his thing.
- Let's go in my office.
- Okay.
I definitely want to update Henry's wardrobe for sure.
Yes.
That must be you.
[Laughs.]
Yeah.
So my clients come in here.
And I have a private dressing room right in here.
I have a closet in here where I put all their holds.
I'm constantly thinking about my clients - Wow, that's great.
- and their lifestyles.
So I can show you some of the new stuff that we have.
Yeah, sure.
We get a lot of high-end brands, like Helmut Lang.
We have Rachel Zoe.
She's a very popular stylist.
Is that a skirt or a dress? I'm not sure.
It's a dress.
It's very tiny.
That was, like, ten years ago for me.
Me too.
[Laughs.]
Would I hire Henry here to work with me? No.
I don't think I would.
My wife would love that.
It's silk, yeah.
But when you touch it, it just feels delicious.
Isn't it? Isn't is so yummy? Delicious? Can I use that word? Yeah, of course.
Why not? Okay, it looks delicious.
Hi.
How are you? Nice to see you.
- Hi, I'm Henry.
- This is Henry.
Hi, Henry.
Very nice to meet you.
- Patricia.
- Patricia, nice to meet you.
She's one of my fabulous clients.
Okay, you look delicious.
[Laughter.]
Yeah, so we got a bunch of new stuff.
Okay.
This came in.
That's brand-new, and all these great flats.
And they're 25% off.
So also, we need to make sure that we tell our clients, like, what's on sale.
Let's do some shopping.
Okay? This black one would be gorgeous.
- It lays beautifully.
- Okay.
Love it.
Leather skirt.
What about leather? You know, I think it's just too heavy.
No, it's lamb.
Can we have fun? Can we just try it on? I'll try it, just for you.
Okay.
Good.
Let me get you all set up.
- And try these on.
- Okay.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
I love that you were able to, like, pick and choose for her before she, like, could even say anything, you already knew.
Okay, stop.
'Cause I actually I love it.
[Laughs.]
I do.
I told you! It's actually it's really so me.
See how that worked? You didn't want to put it on at all.
She didn't want to try it on.
- Perfect.
- Yay.
Lo and behold, Patricia put on the leather skirt, and she couldn't wait to, like, go home with it and wear it.
And I will see you shortly.
- Have a good day.
- You, too.
- Thank you.
- Bye, doll.
Have a good one.
I love it.
Yay.
Alesandra really knows her clients very well.
[Gasps.]
I got the purse for you.
Wow.
How do I duplicate her? [Gasps.]
Lookit.
This is perfect.
Okay, let's try it on.
And she's, like, all over the place.
"Oh, I'm gonna get your shoes.
" "I'm gonna get your belt.
I'm gonna get your hat.
" You know, whatever it takes to really create the sale and the multiple looks, she was amazing.
- Wow.
- Heaven.
All right, have a good day, Lynn.
Thank you.
Bye.
[Laughs.]
Yay.
Alesandra did make a lot of sales today.
The next thing I want to do is, I want to talk to you about how I do outreach.
I do emails to my 620 clients.
- Wow.
- Loehmann's does emails daily.
But I customize mine.
So I take my phone with me, and I walk around the store, and I take pictures of things.
Now it's kind of a no-no, 'cause we're not supposed to use our personal cell phones to contact our customers.
But it's very, very crucial and critical for me.
And how often do you send it? Once or twice a week.
With these new handbags, we needed to send an email out, letting my customers know about these new handbags that just came in.
Are you technically savvy? I think I can take a picture.
It's frustrating to me that Alesandra might not have all the tools that she needs to get her job done.
Okay.
And it's my job to make sure that she gets them.
- I love this idea.
- Right? I think the sky's the limit with her.
I love fashion.
You know, if I do it with passion, I know I'll succeed.
And that's so true.
I mean, my husband and I had, like, really great-paying jobs when we first got married.
And we both quit our jobs 'cause we realized we weren't doing what we were loving and really wanting to do.
But then the market crashed.
And it was really difficult.
And then we found out on our honeymoon we were pregnant.
Wow.
So it was really hard.
Do you have family? Do you have family here that Well, my parents were retired and lived in Mexico.
And because of the whole situation with the violence and, you know, in Mexico, they just moved back.
So my family of, you know, three is now a family of five.
But I'm so grateful for those really hard years, because, you know, if you do what you love, you'll succeed in life no matter what.
No, it's great.
And I feel the same way you do, that you have to love what you do in order to be successful.
Working with someone like Alesandra today was so uplifting and so exciting.
She has a lot on her plate.
She takes care of a lot of people and always with the utmost attitude.
I admire that in anybody that could separate their work issues from their personal issues and just come in and have a great attitude, 'cause it's what they love.
Now let's get back to the emails.
I met a lot of great people throughout this journey.
It was amazing to me to be able to get them to open up and tell me about their lives.
Not everything I saw was satisfying to me or made me happy.
[Sighs.]
It's time.
What's exciting is, I've seen where some of the breakdowns are.
It's coming right off by itself.
And while Henry cannot solve all of these problems, Steve Newman can, and I'm looking forward to being able to make the changes that need to be done, to make sure things get fixed.
Oh, that's a relief.
(Announcer) The employees are summoned to Los Angeles to give feedback on Henry's performance.
How will they react when he reveals that he's really the boss? I'm really Steven Newman, the CEO of Loehmann's.
Oh.
My week undercover has finally come to an end.
I'm in Los Angeles, in the heart of the fashion district, so I can tell my employees who I really am.
All the people that I worked with think they have been called here to give feedback on whether or not I deserve to win the money to start my own business.
They have no idea why they are really here.
Hello, there.
Hello.
- How are you? - I'm fine.
So we're here to talk about Henry.
Uh-huh.
How did Henry do? I think Henry did good.
Why are you smiling? 'Cause you look a little like Henry.
So I was playing Henry.
- You were playing Henry? - I was playing Henry.
I'm really Steven Newman, the CEO of Loehmann's.
Oh.
Okay.
I am so in shock right now.
And you're on Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss, the show? - Mm-hmm.
- The real show? The real show.
I don't believe it.
The real show? Yeah, you're on it.
Wow.
[Laughs.]
Keisha, I'm conflicted.
I saw a lot of things that I was not happy about working with you in the store.
The minute I walked in the store, you didn't even say hello to me.
You just said, "go do that.
Go do that.
" You're trying to teach me how to do this, right? Right, but at the same time, we got to move fast, 'cause we're in an eight-hour shift.
- And that's all we have.
- I know.
I get that.
In the beginning, you did a lot of talking over me.
And I was saying, "today we're gonna" "visual merchandise this area" you never heard me.
No, I did hear you.
But see what you're You started to talk What you're doing again What you're doing again is, you're trying to put the blame on No, no, no, I'm not blaming you.
I'm just pointing out a couple of things.
But at this point, it doesn't matter, though, Keisha.
It really doesn't matter.
I'm being misconstrued, sir.
But even now, you're not you just want to get out your point, instead of listening to what I'm saying to you.
I'm trying you know, as a supervisor in the store, you need to just make sure that you're listening and taking control.
Don't ever think I don't do my job.
I've been working in retail for over 15 to 20 years.
I've never heard that anybody was disappointed in who I am.
I do my damndest, every place I work.
I'd serve fries like they were filet mignon.
You understand? That's just who I am.
Keisha, you have to take personal responsibility for your actions.
You can't blame other people.
You own it.
On the flip side, I saw a lot of good things.
The fact that you come in when you're not feeling well, the fact that you show up, fact that you get it's all great stuff.
Mm-hmm.
I'm not negating that.
I think that you can merchandise.
I saw the passion that you had in merchandising.
I do want you to stay.
But I want you to make a commitment to me and to Loehmann's that you're gonna do everything you can to make this opportunity a successful one for everyone.
- We both committed? - Yes.
So, Keisha, one of your concerns was is that the store would look a little dated.
And I agree with you 100%.
And I just want you to know your store is due to be renovated early next spring.
You'll get everything that you want.
Okay.
We also got to spend some time talking about personal things.
Mm-hmm.
And I know that there has been some issues for you in your personal life.
Yes, the lupus and the IG nephropathy, that's the bulk of my worries and stuff.
I know you have some hardships.
And I'd like to give you $10,000 to help you pay off some of those medical bills that I know weigh so heavy on you.
Thank you.
A lot of times, you give and give and give and get nothing back.
So when you get to the lowest of low, and there's nobody there for you, this definitely renews my faith in people.
It was great to meet you.
You look great, Henry.
[Laughter.]
Let's again another hug for that.
Life definitely has its ups and downs.
And this would definitely be an up.
[Laughs.]
This would definitely be an up.
Alesandra, I had a great experience working with you.
You customer service, your knowledge of the product, your energy level, without being undercover, I would never have got to be able to see somebody like you, working in the Loehmann's store and every day, making it what it needs to be.
I do emails.
But I customize mine.
So I take my phone with me.
And I take pictures of things.
You use your own, personal cell phone in order to drive your business, which is really commendable.
So we're going to make sure that you and every other stylist in the company get their own cell phone and iPad.
Yay.
That's so exciting.
I love it.
Now I can do, like, little videos too.
- Oh, videos.
- Wouldn't that be fun? - That's great.
- Yeah, yeah.
One of the other things that impressed me about you, Alesandra, is you shared with me that your parents were living in Mexico.
And there was some violence in their town.
And that they moved back to San Francisco to live with you and your husband.
It was just so inspiring.
And I want to give you $25,000 for you to use any way you see fit to help you and your family.
Are you kidding me? Oh, my God.
It's okay.
Thank you so much.
I felt like this is a dream.
I really do.
You deserve it.
I just feel like I want to, like, scream.
I just wish, like, my clients were here.
We could be like, "oh, my God, guess what happened.
" Thank you so much.
Thank you.
We've gone through so much as a family, like, my husband and I.
And I'm just like this is gonna be huge.
Like, huge.
Catherine, the second that I met you, I just felt so comfortable and so at ease, because you had so much knowledge.
With time, the bra is going to lose its elasticity.
- Did you ever know that? - No.
I actually don't really need to know about this in my personal life.
I'm not married.
Oh, you're not? Okay.
I'm not married.
I have a partner.
And I have two wonderful dogs named Dylan and Jacob.
I am shocked.
You threw me way off.
Oh, my God.
Just watching you and how you treated and handled and gave respect to every customer that came through the door was so moving for me as the CEO of the company.
I know that things have not been easy.
And I'm going to give you $100,000 No, you're not.
to recoup some of your loss between your house and your business.
Are you no, it can't.
That's too much.
Are you really serious? You're not saying that seriously, are you? You are? For real? [Gasps.]
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
[Sobbing.]
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
Oh, I don't believe this.
Oh, my God.
Oh, I don't believe this.
Really? Oh, that's so generous of you.
Oh, my God.
I feel like like someone has put their arms around me and said, "everything's gonna be okay now.
" I don't know what to do.
I don't know what to do.
- It's okay.
Here.
- Oh, my God.
This is all because of what you do.
You understand that? This is because if what you do.
I don't believe this.
This happens to everybody else.
I can't believe it's happening to me.
Working with you, Robert, was such a great experience.
One of the best things was your attitude.
It was just such a breath of fresh air.
And everything was just so positive.
And how do we make things better? I appreciate it.
And the fact that I saw you working late, that makes me, as the CEO of the company, so proud.
And because of that conversation that we had, we're going to make sure that there is a person there that can help you in e-commerce, that takes care of returns that keep you there later at night.
That will help me tremendously.
Just being able to leave on time means I would get home on time.
I've had a lot of jobs in my life, but the most important job is being a father to my kids.
So I take that very seriously.
Because family is so important to you, and the time that you've missed away from your family, we're gonna send you on an all expense paid trip for your family, so that you can spend time with them.
You do not have to worry about the airfare.
You don't have to worry about the food.
You don't have to worry about any of the transportation.
I want you to spend some time with your family.
Thanks.
That's I really appreciate it.
I really appreciate it.
And we talked about the commute that you have every day.
Yeah.
You know, I live in New York.
So when I stay late, I leave here, let's say 5:30, 6:00.
I don't get home till 8:30, 9:00.
Wow.
With that, we'd like to give you $20,000 to purchase a car.
$20,000? Yes.
$20,000 to buy a vehicle? I mean, what do you say to something like that other than thank you? I mean, thank you.
You're most welcome.
When we were talking, you were telling me about your kids.
We're going to start a college fund for each of your kids starting at $10,000 each.
There's an old phrase that says "hard work pays off", sometimes it pays off indirectly, in a way that you don't see coming.
And this is oh, wow.
This is a walking example of how just do right and great things will happen to you.
I wish you the best.
Congratulations.
You deserve it.
Thank you for everything you do for us.
It doesn't go unnoticed.
I appreciate it.
I'm sorry I don't have a lot to say.
For the first time in my life, I'm speechless.
I usually got a lot to say.
But this is really, really out of left field.
Didn't see this coming.
[Phone line ringing.]
(Woman) Hello? Baby.
(Woman) What happened? It was Undercover Boss.
(Woman) It was not.
I'm serious.
I'm on they're taping me right now, talking to you right now.
(Woman) No, you're lying.
I'm not lying.
They're starting a college fund for Ari and Mari $10,000 apiece.
(Woman) What? They're giving me $20,000 to buy a vehicle.
(Woman) Oh, my God.
And they're sending us on a all expense paid trip for all of us to go anywhere we want.
(Woman) Oh, my God.
I'm shaking right now.
Who would have ever thought just being me would result in something like this?