The Wharton Graduate Retail & Consumer Club (WGRC) brings together a community of individuals passionate about retail and consumer. The club connects companies seeking top retail talent with outstanding MBA students. We engage executives, alumni, professors and students passionate about retail through our annual conference, panels and speaker events, company visits, community building events, and more. WGRC provides information and guidance to MBA students seeking careers across retail sectors.

WGRC was founded as an expression of Wharton students’ passion for careers in retail and as a response to demand for top MBA talent in the retail space. Today, WGRC has over 650 members, including both current students and alumni.

In 2024, we rebranded from the Wharton Graduate Retail Club (WGRC) to the Wharton Graduate Retail & Consumer Club (WGRC Club) to encompass a broader share of consumer facing industries.

Current Wharton graduate students can join WGRC through CampusGroups at any point during their MBA program. Alumni and other community members can engage with WGRC by contacting wgretailclub@wharton.UPenn.edu.

WGRC Club welcomes members with a variety of backgrounds. The club includes MBA students with experience working in the retail industry as well as career switchers.

WGRC Club hosts an annual conference each Spring, and organizes multiple speaker events, company visits, and community building events throughout the academic year. WGRC Club also offers educational and recruiting-focused programming in concert with the Baker Retailing Center and the Wharton MBA Career Management (MBACM) office. Learn more about upcoming events HERE.

In addition to the events and programming described above, WGRC Club also offers points of connection with Wharton Alumni working in retail spaces, tools for recruiting, a buddy program that connects first and second year students, and more.

Wharton’s curriculum includes one of the most robust sets of classes related to retail and consumer across top MBA programs. Examples of classes include Retail Merchandising, Retail Supply Chain Management, and Consumer behavior. A list of these classes is available here.

Past club members have been recruited across business functions by top retailers, consulting firms, and other companies in the retail space. Examples of companies that Wharton alumni have gone on to work at include Amazon, Estée Lauder Companies, Nike, Nordstrom, and Wayfair.