1. Luke Cummings
KNH 103
Ms. Matuzsak
05/05/2015
Job Shadow: Nutrition Business
For my job title I shadowed a GNC Retail Manager Mike Sheilds. I chose this
because I am a big fan of nutritional supplements and especially ones that deal with
building muscle mass and strength, which is a lot of what GNC sells. The Retail
Manager is responsible for running a retail outlet, setting goals for the retail branch,
analyzes sales and helps in predicting in future sales. The retail manager also takes
care of the products quality and health/safety issues, along with taking care of
costumers and complaints.
When it came to the mangers educational background he had a bachelors of
science and minor in nutrition. Although a degree is not required to fill the position
the person I shadowed did indeed have a degree. He had worked their throughout
most of his college degree and moved to the retail manager position after a year of
being there. The manager had little previous work experience except for cooking at
a mid-class restaurant for two years, and would personally train people at this local
gym. He said the main requirement for getting the job was to know the products
backgrounds and being able to sell products.
As for what he liked about the job was being able to test the new products
along with getting people to try and them getting feedback from their results. He
said that getting the customers opinions really helped him get to know what

2. products were efficient and which were average. Something’s that he disliked about
the job was he had to know just about every ingredient in every product along with
knowing the effects of each product. GNC sells thousands of different types of
products so you have to have an extensive amount of knowledge about the products.
Another thing that was a bare was dealing with upset costumers with products not
showing results, or customers that use a product and have side effects they didn’t
want to have.
He said the main parts of his education that helps in his career was the
nutrition classes she took that helped him analyze different types of products and
the effects that products would have on customers. He said if he had taken more
nutrient based classes then it would have helped him, but he didn’t have much
trouble learning about products and ingredients since they all have similar
structures when it comes to ingredients.
Mike said he could make his job better by moving up a position or two so he
could make more money since he was making about thirty grand per year. Trends in
the field revolve around fitness. Many of the clientele buy GNC’s products because
they want to improve their nutritional and fitness type lifestyles.
There weren’t many specialty certifications for the job but if he continued his
education in business and sales, he could move up sales promotions and marketing
manager, or even a regional loss prevention manager as well. Throughout this I
learned that being a manager at GNC doesn’t take a whole lot of qualifications or
education, but takes extensive knowledge of nutritional products and the effects
they have on the body.