Steve Teffenhardt 10/31/2012

The class assignment was to view 6 stores; I live in a very small rural town and was only able to get to five stores. So to make up for that deficit, I will be defining a store that I would like to shop at, and hopefully so will others. The five small town stores were these; A small town grocery store called Kohl's Grocery McDonald's restaurant Rite Aid pharmacy Shell gasoline station Wal-Mart supermarket Here are some observations. Before you enter the store I noticed in the three local companies, the entrances were not as well executed as the national brands. The Wal-Mart and Rite Aid had very imposing, solid, white lit up letters that were huge compared to the surroundings. I noticed that many of the local companies had pertinent information displayed on their signs but they certainly did not do a good job of drawing you in. McDonalds was the best at drawing people into the facility. Large, bright letters and nice yellow awnings calling your eye to the entrance. The local stores had awnings that were over the entrances but they were poorly designed and dark in color and didn't beckon you in. Environment was important in that I did notice the national companies did a better job. Overall. The environment was more open and airy in the bigger stores. I will say there was one exception to the experience, in the ladies makeup section in Wal-Mart. That particular aisle was well lit, had overhanging shelves with lights installed. They changed the light in that particular aisle to a more advantageous color light, a warmer quality than the regular bright white florescent bulbs stark light. Also the shelves were made lower. I would think their main clientele would be younger woman, who are shorter on average. I noted that my daughter, who is 5 foot tall, could easily reach the top shelf. That was not the case with 98% of the other top shelves in the other parts of the store. One thing I never noticed before was the background music in all of the stores. I noticed that all of the stores were playing a low to medium level of country music in the stores. We are in a rural area and I think it is naturally assumed that our population would like country music. Only one of the stores, a local store, was playing a Christian based country music. One other exception was the Wal-Mart, with very high ceilings had a louder volume of music, but then when they would insert store advertising, the volume would go up much higher, it was hard to ignore the volume level.

I did notice one stand out on the visibility of surveillance security cameras. There was usually minimal security visible at all locations but with one exception. Wal-Mart that had very obvious cameras everywhere. Just on the front of the building alone in the parking lot there were over 12 large cameras pointing in every direction in the parking lot. I find it a bit unnerving the amount of cameras. But I am certain it is used as a deterrent to theft. As I am not a thief and have a real problem with people stealing anything that does not belong to them, it just feels uninviting to me. One of the biggest insights that I found was when I was analyzing the system for shelf setups at Wal-Mart. I noticed that if you were to be looking at eye level and there were several products in the same type, such as crackers, generic crackers, higher priced crackers. The pricing was repeated over and over. From the centerline left would be the most expensive product, if you go to the left and right of the most expensive product you will find the middle pricing products. Then strictly to the far right is the cheapest product. This was repeated time and again. If there were size or quantity differential, the largest and usually cheapest unit cost was on the bottom shelf often with a generic product. The most expensive was eye level. All of the stores that I visited had a close to 100% customer purchase rate. This is due to the fact that the companies we have are more utilitarian than most due to the very limited customer base in this small rural town. Some insights are that my town is small and not very adventurous. People don't seem to just shop for shopping's sake. They are much more utilitarian. If someone wants to go shopping to just look they usually go to a large city within about 100 miles from here. Also they might go so far as 300 miles to much larger urban areas. Some opportunities are for locals. Is taking some cues from the larger chain stores or restaurants and keep the lights in the entrance brighter and more vivid. Light draws you in.

My favorite store: I would drive up and the parking lot would be lit with a bright light at night, the light would have a warm quality but still bright. As I walk into the store, the awning over the store front would be bright and clean. There would be wide open doors and some wide steps going up to the front enterance. As I walk in the store there is bright blue carpet with a friendly people coming up to you. The first thing they ask is how is your day going? You have the opportunity to communicate with them if you wish. But you can also just ask where your product is available. The greeter person escorts you directly to the product you need and want. The music is playing softly, just perceivable. When the brightly colored and lit room is used to display the products, it puts me into a great mood, when I am in a great mood I am likely to buy more. On the way out with your product, you pay to a smiling attendant and they tell you to have a good day. Congeniality is something that is missing these days and I would like more of it.