Assignment 2 for a Crash Course on Creativity

2. It all started here
The shopping mall

3. Six stores to observe
Mac store
Fashion cloths and bags
Trendy casual and sports
clothes, shoes and accessories Retail and departmental store

4. This is going to be tough, we
better get happy

5. Before You enter the store
83% of the stores invite me to go in
67% don't have (visible) doors. 33% Had doors and opened. 17% had a
narrow door, still opened
83% of the stores feel good with opened doors. 17% with the narrower
door didn't felt that good
50% of the stores had a medium size sign. And 50% had a larger sign.
Although all seem to follow a size standard within the mall.
All signs gave me a filling about the content of the store. Young, Minimalist,
Exclusive, Expensive, Conservative, Retail

6. Environment
Young stores have vivid colors. Exclusive/Expensive/Mature people
stores have dark/browns colors. Retail store has generic colors
(neutral). Apple has classic tuxedo colors.
Exclusive/Expensive stores use dark color floors or matte.
Young/All/Innovative stores use high gloss floors
83% of the stores have ceilings 4 meters and above. Some of them feel
like big houses. Others you just needed because is more crowded.
Most of the stores (67%) have a quiet ambiance. The rest (33%) is more
than quiet. The more quiet being Sunglass Hut and Adolfo Dominguez
Almost all stores (83%) had music. From runway like songs at Sunglass
Hut, to local radio station like music on Sanborns
All stores are cold. Malls are always cold. Like no emotions
50% of the stores feel very well distributed. Retail store is the more
crowded but still organized. More expensive store is crowded but feels
like don't touch anything big mansion room. Exclusive/Minimalist stores
are the more sparse.

7. continue…Environment
Sunglass Hut, confirms the runway sensation with the perfume. Mixup, iShop
smell to electronics. Retail store has no particular smell (everything in it is like
"generic"). Adolfo Dominguez even though I would have expected it to smell to
heavy perfume. It had a greasy smell. Weird
Mixup, having a bigger volume and wider audience has the cashier at the exit. Low
volume stores have it on the back. High volume, departmental store has one on
each department. More elitist store had it in a corner sort of hidden
The departmental store had more security but was less visible. More exclusive
stores had non visible security. Store with a wider audience and small
merchandise had more visible security
83% of the stores feel like wanting to stay from 0-15 minutes. If not buying
anything. The less being Adolfo Dominguez store. And the winner was the
departmental. 'Cause it has all sort of books to browse, and toys.
On 87% of the stores you can tell the prices from the environment 'cause the
merchandise is exclusive to the store or the store lets you perceive the prices.

8. Personnel
You can perceive the feeling when salesperson are watching you, want to help, or just don't
feel like you are a valuable asset
Most of the sales person just do the introductory question. "May I help you?". No store did
offer a particular product or service.
More expensive/exclusive tend to make difference between clients. Have studied profiles
Bigger stores, wider range of audience have smaller radio salesperson to customer. More
specific or expensive products stores have more salesperson per client
Most of the salesperson are in the mid-late 20's. Fashion related stores go with
women, mostly. Where there is technology or things to lift/carry there are more men.
Retail is square on everything (half and half). Retail store would be the one with higher age
range at most early 30’s.
On 33% of the cases salesperson were using products of the store. They were young people
on trendy stores. I would say they buy the products ‘cause they like it personally.
Half of the stores don't use any kind of uniform (50%). Two stores (33%) use a matching t-
shirt. And Sanborns (retail nation wide store ) is all about store identity and squareness.
No personal identity
Most of the stores either identify personnel with either young or fashion. Retail store
makes everybody look the same.

9. Products
All the stores put featured products, new arrivals, or most wanted items at the
entrance. Puma puts featured in the same table as sales
Only the most expensive fashion store didn't have a central display.
50% of the stores didn't have any "for sale" easy to find products. 33% had "for
sale" or discount items on their regular place with small signs. 33% of the stores
had a specific table with "for sale" products. Both at the entrance left side.
When it fits, the first arrangement is men/woman. Then function or category.
Only 33% of the stores had "interactive" material. Interactive material engages
potential clients.
Learned that kids products are at kids eye level. In Sanborns (departmental),
things like TVs are at kids eye level with kid’s movie playing on them.

10. continue…Products
More expensive items are found on displays, under lock. Other least accessible
items might not be that expensive, but seems like an option that once you ask
you might get them, just because you asked.
Most expensive fashion stores don't have visible prices. You have to look for the
tag or ask in some cases. Expensive electronics always have easy to find prices.
Wider audience stores (music and retail) have always easy to find prices except
on display items.
83% of the store have impulse items near the cashier. Of them 60% is for women
or children.

11. Customers
Almost everybody gets in pairs or more. I guess is because is a shopping mall. Young
people get with friends to music or trendy stores. Couples get to expensive accessories
stores
Most expensive clothes or accessories stores get more people above 35 or even 40. Music,
fancy electronics get more young people in their 20-30's. Retail stores gets everybody.
Electronics get more men, fashion/accessories get more women. Retail get everybody
Retail store is where people stay the most. Followed by music store. Clothes stores get
from 5-10min. Gadgets store gets 10 min average.
Most expensive clothes or accessories do not encourage people to touch things. IShop has
sample gadgets you can play with. Mixup has sample music and movies. Retail, you can
read magazines, try on some stuff, but expensive items are under lock
Gadgets (Ishop) and music stores, most people is not in a mission. A lot are just browsing.
Sanborns, most come with a mission but stay longer. Sunglass Hut and Adolfo Rodriguez, is
not that confortable just to be looking around. Puma, most people just browsing.
3 stores out of 6 get a 5% purchases relative to visitors. The higher rate is achieved by
the Retail (80%), followed by music store (30%). The least is the Fashion clothes store.

12. Conclusions:
Aside from the gelato and books. I don’t think I like much shopping malls
nowadays.
Sales and security people would stare at us worried. Like afraid of analytic
observation.
After a while, going in and out of that many stores was sort of stressful
I’ve been to shopping malls in more exclusive areas in the US and doesn’t feel
as dense as in this mall. The elitism was in the air.
Great experience of getting to observe and feel. Wouldn’t have done it just on
my own.