I thought it would be nearly impossible for MBAs to find positions in retail, but when a spot in the management-rotation program at Toys 'R' Us came up several months ago, it was something I just couldn't pass up. After several weeks of what can only be described as baptism by fire -- working as a manager for one of our largest stores -- I'm now an associate buyer for toddler items in the merchandising group. Among dozens of other things, I buy safety gates and bedrails for more than 800 stores in both the Toys 'R' Us (TOY ) and Babies 'R' Us chains. These items add up to several hundred million dollars in sales annually.

Products are what drive customers to a store, so merchandising is nearly always valued as the heart of a retailer. Merchandising divisions at all retail companies, from Home Depot (HD ) to Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBBY ), typically have two components.

First, you have the more creative merchandisers (or buyers, as they're often called) who decide what products go into the stores, how they'll be priced, and how those items will be stacked in our aisles and on our shelves. Planners, by contrast, run the analytical side of the business, deciding how much to order, when to send it to stores, and which stores to send the items to. Success in retail relies on both.

TYPICAL WORK DAY:

7:30 a.m. -- I'm usually in my car, switching between Bloomberg Radio and NPR, weaving my way through traffic from Hoboken to Wayne, N.J., where Toys 'R' Us' headquarters is located. Several colleagues live in New York City, but my husband and I figured Hoboken would be an easier commute for both of us -- he works in Midtown Manhattan, a quick ferry ride away.

8:15 a.m. -- At my desk, I respond to about a dozen e-mails and voice mails I've received overnight. I check sales in our centralized data system to make sure that the new child-safety gate we just began selling is performing as planned.

9:00 a.m. -- Time for our weekly meeting with the dot-com group to check inventory status and sales. We often use Toysrus.com and Babiesrus.com to test new items, new price points, and new fabrics and colors.

9:30 a.m. -- I call vendors about miscellaneous product issues (e.g., we need a new fabric on a baby bouncer, we're thinking about putting one of their items in an upcoming catalog, we need their thoughts on replacing underperforming items, etc.).

	Sucharita in front of Toys 'R' Us in New York City's Times Square

11:00 a.m. –- My first vendor meeting of the day, with one of our largest vendors. We talk about sales, new products in their pipeline, and updates from previous meetings. Usually, vendors have to give us several iterations of new products before we're entirely comfortable buying them.

12:30 p.m. -- I go downstairs for a quick bite to eat, usually some fruit and a latte from the coffee shop in our building.

1:00 p.m. -- I meet with our planners to make sure there are no problems this week with getting our product to stores, what we call "merchandise flow." Sometimes, products sell better in certain stores (e.g., pool toys in Florida), so we have to be sure that those regions are receiving more of those products.

2:00 p.m. -- Time for the second vendor meeting of the day. This time, we meet with a brand new vendor. We invite the vendor to participate in our annual line review, when we decide which products to add or cut from our store assortment.

3:30 p.m. -- I head to our "concept lab," where we lay out how we want the aisles in all of our stores to look. I have a box of new products I need to lay out to update our "planogram," a map of how the store should be laid out.

4:15 p.m. -- Back at my desk. My manager asked me to make an Excel spreadsheet on how some of my categories have been doing over the last month. I need to pull data first from Microsoft Access.

5:00 p.m. -- I return the day's voice mails and e-mails and read over a market research report that a vendor sent about one of their new products. The office gets quiet, so it's a great time to finish work without distractions.

7:00 p.m. -- I head home, but not before stopping at the Toys 'R' Us on Route 46 to check if an item I ordered last month is on shelves yet.

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