The Science of Shopping
9/26/2011
The Science of Shopping Everyday thousands of retail stores throughout the United States open up their stores in the morning for the sole purpose of attracting customers and selling them merchandise. For this assignment I decided to do a store analysis of the retail giant Wal-Mart. To begin with I will evaluate the store layout and design. Next I will explain the visual merchandising techniques used that Wal-Mart uses. Finally I will discuss the problems and recommendations that I have for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has continually been a leader in the retail industry, and it all starts with the layout of the store. From the second that you pull into the Wal-Mart parking lot you are already faced with an important decision, which part of the store you want to enter. The entrance on the left positions you by the groceries, while the right entrance places you by the home goods and school supplies. Wal-Mart utilizes a few different types of layouts, the main layout is a racetrack layout, which provides major aisles that loop around the store and guides customer traffic around different departments within the store. The grocery section of the Wal-Mart, which is on the left and takes up about a third of the store, has a grid layout. The Middle of the store is where Wal-Mart positioned its fashion and jewelry section. While this section fits within the overall race track layout of the store, the fashion/jewelry section has its own free form store layout. The electronics section is strategically located in the back middle of the store, since it is Wal-Marts most profitable section and it makes sure that their consumers have to navigate through the whole store and potentially browse other departments on their way to the electronics. The toy section of the store is sandwiched between the kitchen and home goods and the lawn & garden, in hopes that children shopping with their parents will be able to wonder off to the toy section while they shop for
The Science of Shopping Everyday thousands of retail stores throughout the United States open up their stores in the morning for the sole purpose of attracting customers and selling them merchandise. For this assignment I decided to do a store analysis of the retail giant Wal-Mart. To begin with I will evaluate the store layout and design. Next I will explain the visual merchandising techniques used that Wal-Mart uses. Finally I will discuss the problems and recommendations that I have for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has continually been a leader in the retail industry, and it all starts with the layout of the store. From the second that you pull into the Wal-Mart parking lot you are already faced with an important decision, which part of the store you want to enter. The entrance on the left positions you by the groceries, while the right entrance places you by the home goods and school supplies. Wal-Mart utilizes a few different types of layouts, the main layout is a racetrack layout, which provides major aisles that loop around the store and guides customer traffic around different departments within the store. The grocery section of the Wal-Mart, which is on the left and takes up about a third of the store, has a grid layout. The Middle of the store is where Wal-Mart positioned its fashion and jewelry section. While this section fits within the overall race track layout of the store, the fashion/jewelry section has its own free form store layout. The electronics section is strategically located in the back middle of the store, since it is Wal-Marts most profitable section and it makes sure that their consumers have to navigate through the whole store and potentially browse other departments on their way to the electronics. The toy section of the store is sandwiched between the kitchen and home goods and the lawn & garden, in hopes that children shopping with their parents will be able to wonder off to the toy section while they shop for