Gained a few pounds? Here's how to return (almost) anything

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While many of your friends have known you well enough to give appropriate presents, some become overexcited at bulk sales or simply expect you will love their radical gift idea. Whatever the reason, most holiday celebrators can expect to receive a gift or two they simply wouldn’t keep. Returning the present to the giver is considered rude, while returning it to the store for cash is impossible. Assuming the giver did not include a gift receipt, here are two other ways you can get something you like out of the present you don’t:


Swap it for an item of the same price


You may not have liked the piece you were given, but chances are you’ll find something that suits you in the store’s other collections. Have the cashier determine the cost of your present and find an item you like that costs the same or a little bit more. If there’s an item you’ve been eyeing, now is the time to give it to yourself on behalf of a friend.

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Ask for store credit


If you receive a gift from a store you would simply never shop at, have the value of your item exchanged for store credit. Most major retail outlets allow this and replace the item with a plastic store card. So many shoppers have been in this predicament that third-party gift card websites actually exist to swap or sell store credit. You might want to save the card for a time you’ll need to buy something new– like when you lose all your holiday weight from jogging all summer.


Gift giving can be a tricky process, but it doesn’t have to bog you down. If you’re thinking about returning or replacing an unwanted gift, ConsumerWorld.org has published a list of major store policies to help you get started.

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While working at Levi Strauss, David Bergen made sure customers could shop and return their purchases with ease. Read more about his innovative ideas on this blog.

Dad jeans: David Bergen and denims for working men

David Bergen is the former Senior Vice President and Global CIO of Levi Strauss & Co. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems degree from the University of Nevada and is currently the Managing Director of the global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal.

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Fashion seems to cater favorably to women. Magazines offer hundreds of suggestions for a lady’s seasonal wardrobe. Runways feature more than twice as many designs for the female form as they do men. Retail outlets have created a woman-specific jean cut known commonly as "mom jeans." Men, on the other hand, receive no special mention.


David Bergen was responsible for redesigning Levi Strauss & Co.’s supply chain and deploying new distribution channels that efficiently supported customers like Target and Walmart.

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Men’s fashion seems to conform to a tradition. They are expected to wear pants and shirts, varying only in fit – tight or baggy – and in color trend. Recently, however, clothes makers have began to shift the retail spotlight to the untapped market of men. In the last few years, masculine equivalents of products that were deemed solely for female use have found their way into the shelves, including men’s vanity and hygiene products. Where department stores sold mom jeans, they now sell the dad equivalent.

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Famed actor Ryan Gosling is often quoted in his role as Jacob Palmer, the dating guru in the hit romantic comedy, Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011). In the film, Palmer recites the mantra, "Be better than The Gap." Jeans can and have been made to cater to and flatter the male form. They can be worn with office tops to a regular work day, or on the corporate “casual Friday.” Despite traditional usage, jeans are no longer solely for casual wear.

To read more about David Bergen, visit this website.

David Bergen: Global brands, earth crammed in a pair of jeans

The perils of being a global jeans brand are first world pains. First of all, being a global brand is precisely the non-problem information officers of global brands, like David Bergen, would love to handle. More so in fashion retail, where success in the flagship country is indubitably success in the knockoffs sector. This could only signify brand recognition anywhere in the world, including peasant-capitalist hybrid economy Mongolia, and the 3-for-200-baht-jeans of Bangkok side streets.

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The biggest worry in expanding is banalization. The jeans industry is as susceptible as fast food chains to cloyed markets, and the former doesn’t even benefit from addictive food seasoning. But if product dispersal reaches as far as developing countries, advertising budgets are necessarily lower, and sales are rattled off simply by word of mouth.

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If Levi’s arrived in the shores of, say, the Philippines, it wouldn’t need evangelizing missions like the islands’ Spanish conquistadores did in the 16th century. David Bergen and his ilk only ever need to cut ribbons on branch opening day with the help of a local VIP or two. Globalization dictates that a brand name touches base before the product ever does, and with the advent of social media, Kim Kardashian tweeting a photo of herself wearing the product is a better and faster proposition.

David Bergen Levi Strauss. Image credit: Deviceone.eu

Back to banalization: there isn’t much by way of curtailing imitations and market saturation. Fortunately, jeans are starting to resemble a Veblen good, again, thanks to Kim Kardashian and peerless trends. An original pair of Levi’s, despite and because of the price, fetches more demand from the target market than a Chinese factory imitation.

David Bergen is former information chief of Levi Strauss. Read more about the jeans industry on this Facebook page.

David Bergen: The scars of sandblasting

Information officers for top brands like David Bergen, formerly of Levi Strauss, would know how bad corporate practices generate toxic publicity. In a related vein, the denim industry is realizing the drawbacks of hazardous methods as value-adding measures to jeans.

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Sandblasting does not ring a standard-issue idea of exploitative labor practices, but it reportedly does its dark work. The process is quite singular and disproportionate to its frivolous purpose: making jeans look more bespoke as they age. Global brands like Levi Strauss, H&M, New Look, and Marks & Spencer have condemned the practice, even banning it from their production. These stakeholders have since decried other jeans’ producers’ failure to follow suit.

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Sandblasting exposes workers to silica dust derived from sand, causing severe respiratory ailments. Jeans prepped with this method have been thereafter known as “killer jeans.”

David Bergen was part of Levi Strauss & Co. at a time it had established its lead in the industry. In 2010, the pioneering jeans company issued a strong, unequivocal message on sandblasting: No.

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Initially, as sandblasting was gaining an insidious global reputation as a health hazard to jeans workers, the plan was merely to intensify safety practices and health programs. However, Levi Strauss Chief Supply Chain Officer David Love pronounced the practice wholly untenable, and the company most averse to the smallest risks that sandblasting may inflict upon its employees.

Go to this David Bergen Facebook page for an insider’s look at the business of making jeans.

David Bergen and the oldest pair of Levi Strauss jeans in the world

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David Bergen has fronted famous jeans brand Levi Strauss as its Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President. His experience with the brand derives his ideas on the link between the information age and connecting with trends in the millennium.

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As timeless clothing pieces go, Levi Strauss jeans have been considered one of the most durable, spanning generations of patronage. True, the brand may have fizzled in presence in the new millennium outbreak of high street alternatives, but by then it has already established itself as a household name. Revivalist trends have seen today’s 20-somethings borrowing their parents’ Levi Strauss bell-bottom denims.

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Last year, the oldest pair of Levi’s was unveiled during Paris fashion week looking like most of the distressed jeans en vogue these days. David Bergen’s years of ushering Levi Strauss towards wider markets were marked by fleeting and classic designs, but some pieces managed to retain their relevance after some years. It also has to do with the brand’s control of its marketing campaigns—of pinging back to the retro in good time.

The said pair, which looked like sandblasted, rugged sophistication, was bought back by the company over eBay for a whopping $46,532. Slightly browned by age, the pair also carries the faded streaks of today’s expensive jeans. The chalked-up look has been undyingly popular among celebrities and socialites.

For more of David Bergen’s time as CIO of Levi Strauss, visit this Twitter page.

Fishboat sails and fashion craze: David Bergen of Levi Strauss on the history of jeans

David Bergen, having worked as the chief information officer and senior vice president of Levi Strauss, is aware of the popularity of jeans today. The timeless blue pants, however, were not always as esteemed as they are now. From ship sails to fashion classics, this post takes a look at the history of jeans.

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The word “jean” came from Genoa, Italy, and pertained to a heavyweight fabric made in the area and worn by its sailors. Weavers from the city of Nimes, France tried to imitate the fabric, but instead developed a different twill cloth that came to be known as denim, its name taken from “Serge de Nimes.”

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It would take years before David Bergen’s former company, Levi Strauss, would be established. While Christopher Columbus was reported to have come to America in ships with denim sails, the fabric did not arrive and garner popularity until the late 18th century, when its durability made it an ideal attire for manual laborers like miners, railroad workers, and cowboys.

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The prevalence of westerns and celebrity cowboys during the late 19th and early 20th centuries sealed the jeans’ role as an American symbol. The blue pants came to represent the American West, and the so-called rugged individualism that characterizes its culture.

The 1950s opened the greater public to the use of jeans, although at the time, wearing the garment was regarded as a symbol of rebellion. Growing acceptance ensured that by the 1970s, jeans were general fashion for casual wear in the U.S. During the last few decades, the popularity of jeans had gone beyond American boundaries, and the garment is now worn in almost every part of the world.

For more details about David Bergen and his work at Levi Strauss, visit this Facebook page.

David Bergen of Levi Strauss: Profiling an effective IT leader

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David Bergen, former Levi Strauss & Co. global CIO and senior vice president, is a recognized IT professional and management leader currently working as a management advisory consultant at Alvarez & Marsal.

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Before joining the leading consultancy firm, he was a distinguished chief information officer at various Fortune 500 companies including Duty Free Shoppers, Esprit Holdings, and The Gap. Working at Esprit Holdings for four years, he was able to streamline its key functions by developing highly efficient technologies suited for the company’s retail management and wholesale manufacturing systems. In Duty Free Shoppers, he led a team of over 250 employees in nine countries, redesigned the company’s IT infrastructure, and developed IT platforms to simplify the maintenance and management of its technological network.

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David Bergen from Levi Strauss proceeded to share his IT expertise at CarStation.com before working at the premier American jeans and casual wear manufacturer. The world recognized the IT professional at a time when Levi’s was in a period of difficulty and needing a crucial revamp for its corporate technology. Bergen put his expertise at work in overseeing that the company’s IT solutions supported its operations, ensuring that SAP was implemented efficiently at a global level, and expanding the company’s distribution channels that later on led to a revenue growth of $2 billion.

Adding to the impressive career of IT leader David Bergen from Levi Strauss is his work at Bay Area CIO Forum, an organization which he co-founded. The firm helps technology service providers and users maximize the efficiency of IT. View his career portfolio at www.visualcv.com.