Every quarter our Merchandising Group holds an Awards night at a local sports pub. It’s a lot of fun and we really, um, let our hair down, especially after several trips to the bar. The evening starts with general mixing, mingling and munching on hors d'oeuvres. Then around 5:30 we have the themed awards ceremony. The theme this time was “gangsters” and as people received their awards, pictures of their faces overlaid on gangster pictures were displayed on big flat panels. And we all cheer and clap like crazy! People are recognized for promotions, meeting and exceeding their sales plans, submitting suggestions and being superior contributors in other ways.

Next we have skits put on by the new people who have joined Merchandising in the last 3 months. The opening number was based on the story “Three Little Pigs.” Chanele, Jannel and Matt T. are huddling in their little huts (symbolizing 2 other online shoe companies and Zappos) bracing themselves for the arrival of the big bad Bling Gangsta wolf (symbolizing an online retail company that shares the name of a river and rain forest.)



That’s Matt W. our ace video guy on the right covering the events so there may be some video for you to see soon if our Legal dept gives the thumbs up. Still pics just don’t do the evening justice. The other 2 skits were video parodies done earlier and then replayed but with the cast members in costume to receive their deserved applause and cheers. The first was titled “Zappranos” complete with cheesy New Yawk accents. The second was a parody of a late night talk show intern interviewing people on the street. But this time the street was the Las Vegas strip and they were asked questions about Fashion icons who resemble people who work at Zappos. Both videos were brilliantly done with Flip! Video cameras. Winky wink.

One nice touch that was new last night, we had a caricature artist doing free drawings during the evening.
Here’s Team Comfort looking rather comfortable!