Retail Buyer
George Washington's Mount VernonRetail Buyer
Mount Vernon, the former home of George and Martha Washington, is owned and maintained by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, the oldest national historic preservation organization in the United States. Today, the Association works to preserve, restore, and manage the Mount Vernon estate to the highest standards while educating visitors and people around the world abou
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t the life and legacies of George Washington.
Position Summary
The Retail Buyer supports Mount Vernon's mission by planning, purchasing, and maintaining the merchandise assortment for assigned categories. This position manages inventory levels, executes replenishment strategies, and maintains vendor relationships to support retail sales and an engaging visitor experience. The Buyer ensures merchandise reflects Mount Vernon's educational priorities, including George Washington, his family, estate life, business ventures, military and political leadership, and 18th-century history relevant to Washington, D.C., Alexandria, and Virginia. Working across Retail, Library, Warehouse, Finance, Events, and Marketing, the Buyer coordinates merchandise flow, supports book signings and special events, and maintains a well-curated product mix.
Essential Duties
Merchandise Planning and Purchasing
• Plan and maintain a balanced assortment for assigned categories that supports Mount Vernon's mission, customer interests, sales goals, and approved budgets.
• Monitor sales trends, forecasts, seasonality, and stock requirements to guide purchasing decisions and generate timely, accurate purchase orders within approved authority.
• Maintain current knowledge of relevant publications and merchandise; share product information and historical context with staff.
• Develop book merchandising plans with input from Library, Events, and Retail leadership; identify assortment gaps and recommend new titles and products.
• Track open orders, backorders, quantities, ship dates, cancel dates, and delivery details; adjust orders as demand and operational needs change.
• Provide updates to the Director of Retail every two weeks on open orders, inventory concerns, and purchasing priorities.
Inventory Management and Replenishment
• Maintain appropriate stock levels and replenishment schedules to support product availability while limiting excess and aged inventory.
• Review category performance, inventory turns, days on hand, gross margins, and SKU productivity; plan reorders, markdowns, and product discontinuations.
• Coordinate replenishment and merchandise transfers with Retail and Warehouse teams.
• Partner with Warehouse to confirm deliveries, address quality concerns, and resolve receiving discrepancies.
• Participate in annual physical inventory preparation and counts, including review and cleanup of category records.
Vendor Relationships and Issue Resolution
• Maintain productive vendor and publisher relationships that support reliable, timely, and cost-efficient delivery.
• Coordinate pricing, purchasing terms, product availability, and delivery schedules; evaluate vendor performance and follow through on concerns.
• Resolve pricing changes, delays, shortages, damages, and invoicing discrepancies with vendors and the appropriate internal teams.
• Coordinate vendor returns, replacements, and credit requests, and track them through resolution.
Systems and Data Accuracy
• Maintain accurate purchasing, SKU, vendor, cost, retail price, and replenishment information in Cin7 Core as the inventory management system of record.
• Coordinate with the appropriate system owners to resolve product, pricing, or inventory discrepancies affecting Shopify POS and maintain consistency with Cin7 Core.
• Produce regular reports on inventory performance, category needs, open orders, vendor issues, and replenishment activity.
• Work with the Retail Office Manager to support invoice accuracy and timely processing; maintain organized purchasing records for continuity and audit readin