Sebastian 1

Abigail Sebastian

Professor Turner

Eng 114B

15 May 2017

The Tactics in Shopping

In 2010, a Financial Planning Company,LearnVest conducted a study of 6,000

individuals to see their average shopping per week. Studies concluded that the average person

shopped 3.5 hours a week. This included shopping for fashion, gadgets, and groceries. Today

people can spend all day at a mall shopping for clothes, gadgets or gifts. However, why is it that

most of us can spend so much time in the same place for long periods of time without getting

bored and continue shopping on unnecessary and luxurious purchases? Is it because we simply

love shopping, and cannot stop the shopping monster inside of most of us? To the common mind

whenever we hear the word store we think of clothes and shopping, and so forth. However, in

the article Science Of Shopping by Malcolm Gladwell, he tells the readers how store

advertisement has much more thought put into it than we think. I am adding to the Gladwell's

thoughts, the geographic area, as well as factors in how we choose to shop and use our money.

To some it may seem unethical to use tactics for advertising, however I believe that a business

purpose is to grow and expand, and the use of such tactics are ethical in their case.

Reading Gladwell, and the urban geographers studies, I was able to put more attention to

the blueprints of stores, and if this had any effect on myself, and those around me. For instance,

H&M, a multinational clothing-company sets their ON SALE merchandise were placed on the
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right side of the store as well spread out so that it is easy for a person to see or acknowledge

when shopping around the store. Some of the new clothing was placed towards the front of the

store to be displayed however most of the new fashion was was in the middle of the store,

making it the center of attention. In Gladwell's writing he mentioned that Paco Underhill the

Urban Geographer studies showed,The downshift factor also means that when potential

shoppers enter' a store it's going to take them from five to fifteen paces to adjust to the light and

refocus and gear down to shopping speed to shopping speed(Gladwell p.98) Using the

information given, we can see a connection between the layout Ive provided about H&Ms

blueprints and how theyre placed using the suggestions by Underhill.

In addition to the geography of a store, color scheme also play a role in affecting the

attention of shoppers. In Shades of Meaning: The Effect of Color and Flavor Names in

Consumer Choice by Elizabeth G. Miller and Barbara E. Khan, they conducted various

experiments trying to see whether names and color played a role in the consumer choice. Their

experiments consisted of 100 undergraduates, following H. Paul Grices theory of

Conversational Implicature, or in other words, a indirect speech act....if the name is

uninformative because it is atypical, consumers will search for the reason the particular adjective

was selected as described by incongruency theory. The result of this additional elaboration is

increased satisfaction with the product...(Miller and Khan .91) This means that when

consumers pass by, and let's say they see a large red square they will most likely notice it and

become interested in what its purpose is. Therefore vibrant sale sign capture the eyes of

consumers and draw more attention to stores. Following Millers and Khans, results, we can see

how colors and names also affect how we shop. For example, when you walk by a store, and see
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huge red poster up with the letter SALE on it, itll make you come inside to see whats on sale

and whether you can buy it.

Furthermore, another key factor in shopping, is space and place. In the article, The

Power of Place and Space by Robert D. Sack, he tells us People are natural beings, social

beings and intellectual beings. How these are connected by self depends on how they are

connected by places...People are always in a place, and places constrain and enable(329).Let

us connect this to a place like the mall, it is like a huge box that draws most of us in at one point,

with a bunch of tiny little boxes inside that we are intrigued to go inside of whenever we see

something we may like. However this mall contains us, yet we feel it enables us to relax while

shopping, as well as spend more money on stores,I think this move is particularly smart and

ethical for businesses to make, allowing consumers to relax and let go of stress while they shop.

Newer places like The Village, are the same thing like a mall, but they have used space to make

it more open. They also have places with chairs and beautiful decor throughout the shopping

center so that one can feel relaxed as well as enjoy the fresh air. Ive noticed that they try to

make their decors very outdoor and natural, for example if youve ever been to the village in

Topanga CA, you may have noticed the little pond with a pretty little bridge, as well as the fires

set up through the village almost giving it a camping sensation. In addition it has jungle

playground for the kids, to get their play time, allowing parents to relax and enjoy the made up

scenery of the Village.

Some people may begin to think that we are being manipulated into buying things, and

stores are using tactics that make consumers buy their products, not out of the consumers will.

Stores place their products in places where you will most likely see them, and will use bright
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colors and titles to intrigue the buyer to come inside or buy the product.In addition malls make it

a comfortable and easy going environment so that people are able to spend more time there

without even noticing how much time their are spending inside a mall. Almost like casinos in

Las Vegas, there are no clocks inside the mall, and you never really can tell when it turns night

inside a mall, the lights will always be the same just to almost make it look like time stopped and

one has all the time in the world to shop. In Milton Friedmans"The Social Responsibility of

Business Is To Increase Its Profits" he states, that business are ...-preaching pure and

unadulterated socialism. Businessmen who talk this way are unwitting puppets of the intellectual

forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society these past decades. (175) People

may believe that companies and business are controlling how society is working, and are taking

over our lives as well as our wallets, yet this is not the case. Friedman quote, helps us understand

that the companies are not controlling us but rather we are controlling them, it us our tastes that

companies must stay on top in order to manufacture products as well as our dilemmas that they

must tend to.

Despite all the alluring tactics companies use to make us spend more times in their stores,

none of them are point a gun at our heads to make us buy their products. The whole purpose of

stores is to sell, and none of the tactics they use force you to buy anything you don't want to buy,

they're simply trying to persuade you a bit more. These tactics work on the majority, yet not all

people don't fall for these merchandising tactics, especially when they have things set in mind to

buy and don't look anywhere else. There are always ways to avoid spending too much money in

stores, like setting a budget and not getting side tracked when entering a mall, simply going to

buy what you need and not what you want.

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Geography,colors,names,space, and place, all play a role in how shoppers, shop. Most of

us never pay attention to this, but it is something that is there, and does affect how we choose to

spend our money and also our time. Do not think of it as manipulation because it is not, it is

simply another way of persuasion for the buyer, a store is simply doing what will make their

profit grow, and as a buyer you must do what benefits you more. The ethics of advertising are

not against the consumers, but rather for the consumers, to take and interpret in our own way.It is

fine to shop and have fun in the mall with friends and family, as well as to fall for the tactics

used in stores or for stores. However, one must shop smart and not shop until you drop.
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Bibliography

Friedman, Milton. The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits. N.p.: New

York Time, 1970. 173-74. Print.

Gladwell, Malcolm. "The Science of Shopping." (1996): 97-103. Print.

Kane, Libby. "Do You Shop More Than The Average Person?" LearnVest. N/A, 17 Nov. 2010.

Web. 30 Mar. 2017.

Kahn, Barbara E., and Elizabeth G. Miller. "Shades of Meaning: The Effect of Color and Flavor

Names on Consumer Choice." Journal of Consumer Research. Vol. 32. N.p.: Oxford UP,

2005. 86-92. Print.

Sack, Robert D. The Power of Place and Space. Vol. 83. New York: American Geographical

Society, 1993. 326-29. Print.

Underhill, Paco. "Why We Buy." The New York Times. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 30 Mar.

2017.