How to Apply to Williams-Sonoma, Inc.

14 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 46 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is a multi-brand holding company. Apply to a specific brand and a specific function, not to the parent company as a whole.
  • All applications flow through Oracle Recruiting Cloud at ehac.fa.us6.oraclecloud.com, not through any ADP or Workday portal. One Oracle account works across all WSI brands.
  • The canonical careers entry point is williams-sonomainc.com/careers/jobs/, which segments into Corporate, Stores, Supply Chain, Care Centers, and Internships. All five paths land in the same Oracle system.
  • The single largest hiring engine is the distribution center network in Memphis, Olive Branch, and Columbus. These roles move fastest from application to offer, especially leading into the holiday quarter.
  • San Francisco is the corporate and Williams Sonoma hub; Brooklyn is West Elm; Portland is Rejuvenation. Most corporate roles are not remote.
  • Expect panel interviews and expect at least one cross-functional partner in the loop. Partner endorsement frequently decides close calls.
  • The home furnishings industry is cyclical and currently softer than the pandemic peak. Headcount is leaner, internal mobility slower, and time-to-hire sometimes longer for non-critical roles.
  • The April 2024 FTC Made in USA settlement ($3.175M civil penalty) is a real item of public record. Be prepared to speak thoughtfully about claims discipline if you interview for any role touching copy, marketing, sourcing, or compliance.
  • Tailor your resume to the specific posting and mirror its terminology. Oracle Recruiting Cloud's parser rewards discipline; it punishes scattergun applications.
  • Bring a developed point of view about the brand and a portfolio of concrete, quantified work. The company values specificity over volume.

About Williams-Sonoma, Inc.

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE: WSM) is the largest digital-first, design-led, and sustainable home retailer in the United States. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company operates a portfolio of roughly a dozen brands that reach consumers across nearly every life stage and price point: the flagship Williams Sonoma brand (kitchen, cookware, and culinary), Pottery Barn (core home furnishings), Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen (children's and adolescent rooms), West Elm (modern and contemporary, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York), Rejuvenation (classic American lighting and hardware, based in Portland, Oregon), Mark & Graham (personalized gifts), GreenRow (sustainability-forward apparel and home), Williams Sonoma Home (luxury furnishings), and the growing Williams-Sonoma Business to Business division, which includes Pro (trade programs) and Contract (commercial projects, hospitality, senior living, and multifamily). The company employs approximately 19,000 people globally and generates roughly $8 billion in annual net revenue, with somewhere around two-thirds of that revenue originating in e-commerce, making Williams-Sonoma one of the most digitally penetrated multi-brand retailers in North America. President and Chief Executive Officer Laura Alber has led the company since 2010 and is widely recognized for steering it through the 2008 housing downturn, the pandemic-era home goods boom, and the subsequent post-pandemic normalization of demand. For job seekers, two structural details matter more than any marketing description. First, Williams-Sonoma is a holding company: each brand operates with its own creative leadership, buying team, store district, and, in many cases, its own office location. Williams Sonoma (the namesake culinary brand) is run from the San Francisco corporate campus. West Elm has its own headquarters in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn. Rejuvenation is based in Portland. Pottery Barn's creative and buying functions are in San Francisco. When you apply to Williams-Sonoma, Inc., you are almost always applying to a specific brand, a specific function, and a specific city, and cross-brand mobility is neither automatic nor promised. Second, the business is deeply cyclical. Home furnishings demand tracks the housing market, interest rates, and consumer discretionary spending. After an unprecedented run-up during the pandemic, the industry has contracted since 2023 as consumers delay large home purchases and existing home sales remain near multi-decade lows. Williams-Sonoma has responded with cost discipline, fewer store openings, and a heavier focus on B2B, Pro, and international expansion, but the hiring environment reflects the slower top line. Understanding this context will help you set realistic expectations about timing, headcount, and internal mobility. On the operations side, the company runs a distribution network anchored by major facilities in Memphis, Tennessee and Olive Branch, Mississippi (the massive Olive Branch campus is one of the largest furniture distribution operations in the country), with additional centers in Columbus, Ohio and other locations supporting furniture delivery, last-mile operations, and upholstery manufacturing. The company has also invested in domestic upholstery operations in North Carolina and Mississippi. These sites are the single largest hiring engine in the company, consistently recruiting for warehouse associates, shift supervisors, industrial engineers, safety managers, and transportation and logistics leadership. Finally, prospective candidates should know that in April 2024 Williams-Sonoma agreed to pay a record $3.175 million civil penalty to the Federal Trade Commission for violating a 2020 order by marketing multiple products as "Made in USA" when they were in fact manufactured in China and other countries. The settlement covered items across the Goldtouch, Rejuvenation, Pottery Barn Teen, and Pottery Barn Kids brands and required the company to submit annual compliance certifications. This is a real item of public record; if you interview for any role touching marketing, product copy, sourcing, quality, compliance, legal, or brand communications, expect the company to be especially rigorous about claims substantiation and country-of-origin accuracy, and be prepared to speak thoughtfully about how you would treat sourcing representations.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Start at the canonical careers portal: navigate to williams-sonomainc

    Start at the canonical careers portal: navigate to williams-sonomainc.com and follow the Careers link, which routes to www.williams-sonomainc.com/careers/jobs/. The landing page is organized into five categories — Corporate, Stores, Supply Chain, Care Centers, and Internships — each linking to the same underlying Oracle Recruiting Cloud search.

  2. 2
    All applications flow through Oracle Recruiting Cloud, hosted at ehac

    All applications flow through Oracle Recruiting Cloud, hosted at ehac.fa.us6.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1. The site is branded "Williams-Sonoma Careers," supports keyword and location search, and allows you to upload a resume for machine-generated role recommendations. You will need to create an Oracle candidate account the first time you apply; keep those credentials, because the same account is reused across all WSI brands.

  3. 3
    Identify the specific brand and function before searching

    Identify the specific brand and function before searching. A copywriter role at West Elm in Brooklyn is a completely different team, hiring manager, and interview loop than a copywriter role at Williams Sonoma in San Francisco. Filter by location, then by brand name in the job title or description. Do not submit identical applications to five brands; recruiters share notes, and a scattergun pattern signals weak fit.

  4. 4
    For retail store roles, you can also walk into a store during a stated hiring wi

    For retail store roles, you can also walk into a store during a stated hiring window and ask an associate to point you to the store leader. Store-level applications still flow through Oracle, but in-person conversation often shortens the gap between application and phone screen. Seasonal hiring peaks in August through October for the critical November–December holiday period.

  5. 5
    For distribution center roles in Memphis, Olive Branch, or Columbus, monitor the

    For distribution center roles in Memphis, Olive Branch, or Columbus, monitor the Supply Chain filter and watch for on-site hiring events. DC jobs often have rolling start dates and can move from application to offer in as little as one to two weeks when demand is high.

  6. 6
    Tailor your resume to the specific job description

    Tailor your resume to the specific job description. Oracle Recruiting Cloud parses uploaded resumes into structured profile fields (work history, education, skills) and surfaces keyword matches to recruiters. Mirror terminology used in the posting — for example, if the posting says "allocation planning," do not write "inventory distribution."

  7. 7
    Submit a cover letter when the application offers the field, especially for crea

    Submit a cover letter when the application offers the field, especially for creative, design, merchant, and planning roles. A single focused paragraph on why you want to work at that specific brand, at that specific function, carries real weight in taste-driven teams.

  8. 8
    Expect an acknowledgement email from the Oracle system within a few minutes

    Expect an acknowledgement email from the Oracle system within a few minutes. After that, silence is normal for one to three weeks. Do not re-apply to the same requisition; it resets your position in the queue and does not help.

  9. 9
    If a recruiter reaches out, they will typically schedule a 20–30 minute phone sc

    If a recruiter reaches out, they will typically schedule a 20–30 minute phone screen covering your background, motivations, compensation expectations, and logistical fit (location, start date, visa status). Be ready to answer why this brand rather than a competitor. "I love your products" is not enough; you need a specific point of view on the brand's aesthetic, assortment, or customer.

  10. 10
    Brand-fit rounds and portfolio reviews come next for design, creative, merchant,

    Brand-fit rounds and portfolio reviews come next for design, creative, merchant, buying, and planning roles. Expect a panel of three to five interviewers spread across one or two days. Technology, engineering, and analytics roles follow a more conventional loop with a technical screen followed by a full panel.

  11. 11
    Final interviews often include a cross-functional partner (for example, a mercha

    Final interviews often include a cross-functional partner (for example, a merchant interviewing a copywriter, or a visual merchandiser interviewing a photo stylist) because the brands operate as tightly integrated creative teams. A strong partner endorsement is frequently decisive.

  12. 12
    References are typically requested after a verbal offer intent

    References are typically requested after a verbal offer intent. Background checks are standard for corporate and DC roles, and may include employment verification, criminal history, and, for certain warehouse and driving roles, drug screening and motor vehicle records.

Resume Tips for Williams-Sonoma, Inc.

recommended

Lead with the brand and function, not the parent company

Lead with the brand and function, not the parent company. If you are targeting West Elm, say "West Elm" not "Williams-Sonoma, Inc." in your cover letter and objective. The parent company hires into brand teams, and hiring managers are proud of their specific brand.

recommended

Quantify commercial impact in retail terms the merchants and planners recognize:

Quantify commercial impact in retail terms the merchants and planners recognize: comparable store sales percentage change, gross margin basis points, sell-through rate, weeks of supply, inventory turn, unit economics per SKU, AUR (average unit retail), UPT (units per transaction), and conversion rate. Vague statements like "improved sales performance" will not survive the Oracle keyword match or a merchant's read.

recommended

For design, creative, and visual roles, include a portfolio URL in the header of

For design, creative, and visual roles, include a portfolio URL in the header of the resume — not just in the application form. Oracle Recruiting Cloud reliably surfaces URLs in the parsed profile. A Behance, Cargo, or personal site with 6 to 12 high-signal projects beats a 40-project dump.

recommended

For e-commerce, digital product, and technology roles, name the platforms explic

For e-commerce, digital product, and technology roles, name the platforms explicitly. Salesforce Commerce Cloud, SAP, Manhattan WMS, Snowflake, Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics 4, GraphQL, React, and Java are all common in the WSI stack. If you have hands-on experience with any, put it in the skills block and again in the relevant role bullet.

recommended

For supply chain and distribution center leadership, foreground safety metrics (

For supply chain and distribution center leadership, foreground safety metrics (TRIR, DART rate, near-miss reporting cadence), throughput (units per hour, cases picked per hour), and cost per unit metrics. Indicate headcount managed, shift structure, and whether the facility was union-represented.

recommended

For merchant and buying roles, structure bullets around the four-part assortment

For merchant and buying roles, structure bullets around the four-part assortment cycle: plan, source, buy, sell through. Show open-to-buy management, vendor negotiations, and a specific category or classification you owned. Hiring managers want to see depth in a category, not shallow breadth.

recommended

Avoid the generic phrase "passionate about design" and substitute a specific ref

Avoid the generic phrase "passionate about design" and substitute a specific reference point — a designer you admire, a decade of design history you study, a material or technique you have worked in. Taste is a signal, and generic signals read as absence of taste.

recommended

Keep the resume to one page for under ten years of experience and two pages for

Keep the resume to one page for under ten years of experience and two pages for senior roles. The Oracle parser handles both formats, but human reviewers strongly prefer concision and hiring managers on design-led teams prefer a restrained, well-typeset document.

recommended

Use a simple single-column layout with standard section headings (Experience, Ed

Use a simple single-column layout with standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills). Avoid tables, text in image form, and multi-column formats that confuse resume parsers and reduce keyword match accuracy.

recommended

Save and upload as PDF unless the posting explicitly requests Word

Save and upload as PDF unless the posting explicitly requests Word. PDF preserves typography, which matters for design-sensitive teams.

ATS System: Oracle Recruiting Cloud (Oracle HCM Cloud)

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. uses Oracle Recruiting Cloud, part of Oracle HCM Cloud, as the single applicant tracking system across all brands (Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids and Teen, West Elm, Rejuvenation, Mark & Graham, GreenRow, Williams Sonoma Home, and B2B) and all functions (corporate, stores, supply chain, care centers, internships). The candidate experience is hosted at ehac.fa.us6.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1 and branded as "Williams-Sonoma Careers." Candidates create a single Oracle account used across brands. The system parses uploaded resumes into structured profile fields, supports saved searches and alerts, and is tightly integrated with the rest of Oracle HCM for downstream onboarding and employee data. Note: the older recruiting.adp.com URL returns a server error page and is deprecated; the legitimate career portal is Oracle Recruiting Cloud.

  • Create your Oracle candidate account on a laptop or desktop, not a phone. The mobile upload flow sometimes truncates long work history entries and drops custom fields.
  • Upload your resume first, then review every parsed field — Oracle frequently mis-parses dates, job titles that contain slashes, and employers with ampersands in the name. Correct the parse; do not rely on the resume alone.
  • Use standard section headings ("Experience," "Education," "Skills") so the parser can map each section cleanly. Creative headings like "Where I've been" break the parse.
  • Put skills as a comma-separated list in a dedicated Skills section. Oracle matches against a skills taxonomy; one list of discrete terms performs much better than skills embedded in narrative bullets.
  • Mirror the posting's phrasing for key responsibilities and tools. If the requisition names a specific system (for example, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Manhattan WMS, or Oracle Retail Planning), use the exact term rather than a synonym.
  • Complete every optional field, including voluntary self-identification. The fields are voluntary and do not affect selection, but a complete profile reads as a complete candidate.
  • Set up a saved search with your criteria and enable email alerts. New requisitions are posted daily across brands, and first-mover advantage is real.
  • Do not submit the same requisition twice. Oracle prevents duplicate applications on an open requisition, and an attempted duplicate looks like a flag rather than enthusiasm.
  • When applying to a new requisition, always re-review your resume upload — the default is to carry forward your prior file, which may not be tailored to the new posting.

Interview Culture

Interviewing at Williams-Sonoma, Inc.

reflects the structure of the company itself: brand-led, taste-conscious, commercial, and cross-functional. You should expect a multi-round process that nearly always includes a panel element, and you should expect every interviewer to evaluate you against two parallel standards — technical and functional capability, and brand fit. For corporate, design, creative, and merchant roles the typical arc is: a 20 to 30 minute recruiter phone screen, a 30 to 45 minute conversation with the hiring manager, and then a panel day (virtual or on-site) with three to five additional interviewers drawn from the direct team and cross-functional partners. Expect at least one interviewer you would not directly work for — a partner from merchandising interviewing a marketing candidate, a photographer interviewing a copywriter, a planner interviewing a buyer. This is deliberate; the brands operate as integrated creative units, and partner endorsement carries weight in final decisions. Questions lean behavioral in the STAR format (situation, task, action, result) with a heavy emphasis on specific examples. Generic answers like "I am collaborative" do not land. Be prepared to talk about a specific project, a specific decision, a specific tradeoff, and a specific outcome with numbers when you have them. For design and creative roles, a portfolio review is nearly always part of the loop. Come with six to twelve projects, be prepared to walk through your process (brief, research, iteration, rationale for the final choice), and be prepared to discuss work that did not succeed and what you learned. The brands care about taste, but they also care about resilience and judgment under constraint. For merchant, planning, and allocation roles, expect a commercial case — a small exercise on a hypothetical category, assortment, or markdown scenario. Practice walking through your reasoning out loud; the decision matters less than the quality of the reasoning. For technology and engineering roles, the loop is more conventional: technical screen with a hiring manager or senior engineer, followed by a panel that may include a coding exercise, a system design conversation, and a behavioral round. For supply chain and distribution center leadership roles, expect site tours, conversations with both direct reports and peers, and pointed questions on safety culture, throughput improvement, and union environment experience if relevant. For retail store roles, interviewing is faster and more conversational — typically one conversation with the store manager and sometimes a second with a district or regional leader. Scheduling tends to be tight around peak periods. Timelines vary by function. Retail and DC can move from application to offer in one to three weeks. Corporate and creative roles typically take four to eight weeks, sometimes longer for senior or newly defined roles. Ask the recruiter for an honest timeline estimate on the phone screen, and ask again after each round.

What Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Looks For

  • Brand literacy. You should be able to articulate, in your own words, what distinguishes the specific brand you are applying to from its sisters and from competitors — West Elm's modern sensibility and partnership with independent makers, Pottery Barn's classic American aesthetic, Williams Sonoma's culinary authority, Rejuvenation's period-correct restoration mindset, and so on.
  • Commercial fluency. Every role touches the P&L. Design decisions are sell-through decisions. Marketing decisions are margin decisions. Candidates who can connect their craft to gross margin, turns, and customer lifetime value consistently advance further than candidates who frame their work as purely aesthetic or technical.
  • Taste and judgment. The brands are design-led and the company invests heavily in creative quality. Hiring managers are looking for a developed point of view — not agreement with theirs, but evidence that you have thought seriously about what is good and why.
  • Customer obsession. The company speaks often about designing for the way people actually live. Interviewers probe whether you think about the end customer as an abstract demographic or as a specific person with a specific life.
  • Cross-functional partnership. Because the brands run as tightly integrated teams, candidates who treat partners as collaborators rather than as stakeholders to be managed are consistently preferred.
  • Operational rigor. Behind the aesthetic front-of-house is an exacting supply chain, allocation, and forecasting operation. Even in creative roles, the company values candidates who can count, plan, and deliver on a calendar.
  • Resilience through cycles. The home furnishings industry is cyclical, and the company is currently operating in a slower post-pandemic environment. Hiring managers respect candidates who can speak honestly about performance during difficult market conditions.
  • Integrity on claims. Given the April 2024 FTC settlement over Made in USA representations, every role that touches copy, marketing, sourcing, or quality will be scrutinized for claims discipline. Be able to speak to how you think about substantiation, documentation, and escalation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What applicant tracking system does Williams-Sonoma, Inc. use?
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. uses Oracle Recruiting Cloud, part of the Oracle HCM Cloud suite. The candidate site is hosted at ehac.fa.us6.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1 and is branded as "Williams-Sonoma Careers." A single Oracle candidate account covers all WSI brands (Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids and Teen, West Elm, Rejuvenation, Mark & Graham, GreenRow, Williams Sonoma Home, and the B2B divisions) and all functions (corporate, stores, supply chain, care centers, internships).
Is williams-sonomainc.com/careers the right URL? It sometimes shows an ADP error page.
The canonical careers entry point is www.williams-sonomainc.com/careers/jobs/ (the hyphenated 'jobs' path). The older direct 'careers' URL on williams-sonomainc.com currently redirects to a deprecated ADP recruiting error page, which is a legacy remnant and not used for current requisitions. From the canonical page, the 'See All Job Opportunities' button routes to Oracle Recruiting Cloud, which is the live system.
Should I apply to multiple brands at once to improve my chances?
No. Apply to one brand at a time with a tailored resume and, where possible, a brand-specific cover letter. Recruiters across WSI brands can see your application history in the shared Oracle system, and a pattern of identical applications to five brands reads as weak fit rather than strong interest. If you are genuinely brand-agnostic, pick your strongest fit first and wait for a response before trying another.
Does Williams-Sonoma, Inc. offer remote work?
Remote work varies significantly by function. Technology, digital product, and some care center roles can be remote or hybrid. Most corporate merchant, creative, design, and marketing roles are either on-site or hybrid, anchored to the San Francisco, Brooklyn (West Elm), or Portland (Rejuvenation) offices. Distribution center and retail roles are always on-site. The job posting will state the work arrangement explicitly; if it does not, ask the recruiter on the phone screen.
What does the Williams-Sonoma internship program look like?
The Internships filter on the careers page surfaces summer and rotational programs across merchandising, design, marketing, finance, supply chain, and technology. Timing tracks the academic calendar, with most requisitions opening in the late fall for the following summer and closing in late winter or early spring. Competition is meaningful; prepare a portfolio for any creative program and strong coursework references for analytical programs.
How should I prepare for a portfolio review at West Elm or Pottery Barn?
Bring six to twelve projects, not forty. Be prepared to walk through the brief, your research, the iterations you considered, and the reasoning behind your final choice. Include at least one project that did not succeed and be honest about what you learned. The brands care about taste, but they also care about judgment under constraint — showing only polished wins without context reads as thin.
What should I know about the 2024 Made in USA settlement before interviewing?
In April 2024, Williams-Sonoma agreed to pay a record $3.175 million civil penalty to the Federal Trade Commission for violating a 2020 FTC order. The FTC found the company had marketed certain Goldtouch, Rejuvenation, Pottery Barn Teen, and Pottery Barn Kids products as 'Made in USA' when they were actually manufactured in China and other countries. The settlement requires annual compliance certifications. You do not need to raise this in an interview, but if you are interviewing for any role touching marketing copy, product labeling, sourcing, quality, compliance, legal, or brand communications, be prepared to speak thoughtfully about how you approach claims substantiation, documentation, and escalation.
How cyclical is the home furnishings business, and how does that affect hiring?
Home furnishings demand is tightly correlated with the housing market, interest rates, and consumer discretionary spending. After an unprecedented pandemic-era surge, the industry has been in a slower period since 2023 as existing home sales remain near multi-decade lows and large discretionary home purchases are deferred. Williams-Sonoma has responded with cost discipline, fewer store openings, and heavier investment in B2B and Pro. Practically, this means fewer new corporate requisitions than during the peak, longer time-to-hire for non-critical roles, and leaner teams. Distribution center and holiday seasonal hiring remain active.
What are the biggest hiring locations outside of corporate headquarters?
Memphis, Tennessee and Olive Branch, Mississippi are the largest operations footprints, with the Olive Branch campus being one of the biggest furniture distribution operations in the country. Columbus, Ohio hosts additional supply chain operations. North Carolina and Mississippi host domestic upholstery manufacturing. Retail stores operate across all major U.S. markets. Brooklyn, New York is the West Elm headquarters; Portland, Oregon is the Rejuvenation headquarters. Stores hire continuously, with heavier volume August through October for holiday peak.
How long does the hiring process usually take?
Retail store and distribution center roles can move from application to offer in one to three weeks when demand is active. Corporate, creative, and merchant roles typically run four to eight weeks with multiple panel rounds. Senior, newly defined, or cross-functional roles can take longer. Ask the recruiter for a specific timeline estimate on the phone screen and again after each round; a good recruiter will give you a concrete window.
Does Williams-Sonoma use AI-based resume screening?
Oracle Recruiting Cloud includes automated resume parsing that maps uploaded resumes into structured profile fields and surfaces keyword and skills matches against the requisition. Final selection decisions are made by human recruiters and hiring managers, but the parser does influence which candidates a recruiter sees first. This is why tailoring your resume to the posting's specific terminology and using standard section headings matters in practice, not just in theory.
Can I transfer between brands once I'm hired?
Cross-brand mobility exists but is not automatic. Each brand has its own creative leadership, buying team, and in some cases its own office, and internal transfers require an open requisition and the sponsoring manager's endorsement. Plan your first role as the role you actually want, not as a stepping stone; mobility in a softer market environment is slower than it was during the pandemic peak.

Open Positions

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. currently has 46 open positions.

Check Your Resume Before Applying → View 46 open positions at Williams-Sonoma, Inc.

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Sources

  1. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Careers —
  2. Williams-Sonoma Careers Candidate Experience (Oracle Recruiting Cloud) —
  3. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Corporate Site —
  4. Williams-Sonoma Will Pay Record $3.17 Million Civil Penalty for Violating FTC Made in USA Order —
  5. Williams-Sonoma Ordered to Pay Record Civil Penalty for Violating Administrative Order (U.S. Department of Justice) —
  6. Williams Sonoma - Federal Trade Commission Case File —
  7. Some home truths about Williams-Sonoma's deceptive Made in USA claims (FTC Business Blog) —
  8. Williams-Sonoma to pay $3.2M for violating FTC's Made in USA order (Retail Dive) —