Internship Spotlight: Carolina Rios, PetSmart

Carolina Rios '23 BSBA (Business Management) was a Buyer Intern at PetSmart in Phoenix, AZ.

What was your favorite part of the experience?

Other than being able to bring my dog to work, the best part of this internship was the people. PetSmart is such a big company with a small company feel because everyone knows each other. I enjoyed that everything in the company was a group effort and it was so much fun to collaborate with other departments and teams. I also established amazing relationships with the other interns and I am always going to cherish this summer!

If you worked on a big project, please describe it below:

I had the opportunity to work on two big projects! The first was a personal project focusing on my category, waste management. In this project, I proposed a total revamp of a service that we offer clients. I worked with customers, store associates, and several other departments to deliver new marketing, in-store signage, assortment, a loyalty program, and an updated online experience. My proposed recommendations will have an incremental increase of that category by 20%-30% or 1.2M - 1.6M annual sales! It was super exciting to see how much all my ideas could benefit my category, as well as, the overall business because it will drive more customers into the store. I cannot wait to see my project executed!

The second project was a group project working with the other interns on evaluating our company's pricing compared to competitors. We had to conduct research on our products and find the best matches that competitors had to offer. Then all of the product and pricing information was input into a program that then gave us a spreadsheet where we could adjust our prices accordingly. This was an incredibly nerve-wracking project because we knew that our findings will be used to make future decisions about product pricing and margins. 

Overall it was very exciting to put all of the skills I've learned through Eller to use in a real-world scenario. As real as it gets! 

What advice do you have for other students looking for a similar experience, or advice for future students to be successful?

Internships go by so fast, I wish I would've asked to be part of even more to make the most of my short time there. Don't be hesitant to ask to sit in on more meetings or even take on more work because this is a great opportunity to learn skills firsthand without having consequences. 

Networking with other departments is super important because it gives you the chance to learn about other positions that you may be interested in as well as learn from other people's experiences in both that company and other companies.