Target
I am in Target on almost a daily basis and ever since I read the article on Paco Underhill I have not been able to look at the layout of any store the same way or think the same way when I shop as I used to. I look at how everything is placed, I look at where it is place, how closely together, I watch how the customers shop, I watch what they put in the cart, I watch the children beg their parents for something to buy. All these articles we read on shopping really made me think a lot differently about a store than I used to.
My first store I visited was Target. A major retail chain located at 7100 Santa Monica Blvd in a shopping center. The store is a major discount chain and Target has an international presence being based out of Minneapolis, MN. It sells everything from food to clothing to electronics to beauty supplies and a pharmacy. Their clothing is not upscale it is more for the price conscious shopper. The food is discounted and is a competitor of major food chains. Their electronics are mid-range as well as mid-priced.
Target has had a presence since its inception in 1902 as Dayton’s which later changed its name to the current name Target. Target has 1,788 locations in the United States and operates 82 in Canada as of September, 2013. It also is a major employer with over 300,000 employees. Their revenue according to Wikipedia is $73.301 Billion.
Target’s main shopper is one that is looking for a good deal and something cheaper in price than say Rite-Aid or CVS. They are major competitors with Wal-Mart for shoppers. When you enter the store from the 2nd level of the shopping center on Santa Monica Blvd and La Brea, the first thing you see to your left is their bargain, discounted bins with things very cheap for sale. That is mainly their decompression zone. The lighting when you enter is in contrast to the lighting outside, much brighter, and shinier. Directly after walking through the decompression zone of miscellaneous trinkets and bargain prices. The next thing you see right in front of you to the right (remember American shoppers tend to shop to the right) is their jewelry and sunglasses, which appeal to the women shoppers, who seem to be the biggest shoppers. As we continue to the right of the store, like Underhill points out, we find the women’s and children’s clothing as well as shoes. We find the clothes in the store placed on racks closely together, you cannot help but butt-brushing as Underhill called it against something and looking at it. I was cutting through the children’s section to get to the Electronics section when I butt-brushed a bunch of little girls dresses and knocked them off the rack. As I picked them up, I thought to myself, if I knew a little girl or had a niece I would love to buy her that. That’s where I see Underhill’s butt-brushing and petting really coming into play. Because I picked up the dresses and felt the material and thought it was nice.
Continuing through the store I see how things are placed, the more expensive items are in the back so you must go through the entire store to get to something in the electronics, which makes you think that you need to buy something you necessarily don’t need to buy. I can never go to Target for just one thing without ending up with a cartload of stuff when I only went to the store to buy cat food, which also is conviently placed in the back of the store also, so I have to go through the entire store and see things I think I need. Most of the people I observed in the store could navigate the layout of the store as easily as me, making me think that they had shopped there before. Target is a place that a lot of people do come to more than just once or twice, since it’s not really a specialty store and has everything. I observed people doing the same actions as me, butt-brushing, petting, saying things like “Oh, I need one of these too.” I say that all the time when I am in there. I think Target utilizes Underhill’s strategies extremely well. They get the shopper to buy more than what they came for.
I am in Target on almost a daily basis and ever since I read the article on Paco Underhill I have not been able to look at the layout of any store the same way or think the same way when I shop as I used to. I look at how everything is placed, I look at where it is place, how closely together, I watch how the customers shop, I watch what they put in the cart, I watch the children beg their parents for something to buy. All these articles we read on shopping really made me think a lot differently about a store than I used to.
My first store I visited was Target. A major retail chain located at 7100 Santa Monica Blvd in a shopping center. The store is a major discount chain and Target has an international presence being based out of Minneapolis, MN. It sells everything from food to clothing to electronics to beauty supplies and a pharmacy. Their clothing is not upscale it is more for the price conscious shopper. The food is discounted and is a competitor of major food chains. Their electronics are mid-range as well as mid-priced.
Target has had a presence since its inception in 1902 as Dayton’s which later changed its name to the current name Target. Target has 1,788 locations in the United States and operates 82 in Canada as of September, 2013. It also is a major employer with over 300,000 employees. Their revenue according to Wikipedia is $73.301 Billion.
Target’s main shopper is one that is looking for a good deal and something cheaper in price than say Rite-Aid or CVS. They are major competitors with Wal-Mart for shoppers. When you enter the store from the 2nd level of the shopping center on Santa Monica Blvd and La Brea, the first thing you see to your left is their bargain, discounted bins with things very cheap for sale. That is mainly their decompression zone. The lighting when you enter is in contrast to the lighting outside, much brighter, and shinier. Directly after walking through the decompression zone of miscellaneous trinkets and bargain prices. The next thing you see right in front of you to the right (remember American shoppers tend to shop to the right) is their jewelry and sunglasses, which appeal to the women shoppers, who seem to be the biggest shoppers. As we continue to the right of the store, like Underhill points out, we find the women’s and children’s clothing as well as shoes. We find the clothes in the store placed on racks closely together, you cannot help but butt-brushing as Underhill called it against something and looking at it. I was cutting through the children’s section to get to the Electronics section when I butt-brushed a bunch of little girls dresses and knocked them off the rack. As I picked them up, I thought to myself, if I knew a little girl or had a niece I would love to buy her that. That’s where I see Underhill’s butt-brushing and petting really coming into play. Because I picked up the dresses and felt the material and thought it was nice.
Continuing through the store I see how things are placed, the more expensive items are in the back so you must go through the entire store to get to something in the electronics, which makes you think that you need to buy something you necessarily don’t need to buy. I can never go to Target for just one thing without ending up with a cartload of stuff when I only went to the store to buy cat food, which also is conviently placed in the back of the store also, so I have to go through the entire store and see things I think I need. Most of the people I observed in the store could navigate the layout of the store as easily as me, making me think that they had shopped there before. Target is a place that a lot of people do come to more than just once or twice, since it’s not really a specialty store and has everything. I observed people doing the same actions as me, butt-brushing, petting, saying things like “Oh, I need one of these too.” I say that all the time when I am in there. I think Target utilizes Underhill’s strategies extremely well. They get the shopper to buy more than what they came for.
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