Classification Of Shoppers

Shopping, a common activity conducted by almost everyone at least once a month, is such a normal subject in our everyday life, one barely puts any thoughts into the potential semiotic explanations behind it. According to the two essays, “The Signs of Shopping” and “The Science of Shopping,” Shopping has significant impacts on one’s self-identification. It is a two way straight, the consumers’ shopping styles can also influence the economic status of the retails businesses.

A famous writer for the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell has written an article, “The Science of Shopping”, which is based on Paco Underhill’s study of retail anthropology. The intention of a retail store is obvious- that is to attract customers and convince them to perchance as much as they can. There is so much knowledge that we can study, such that how the environment affects people’s thinking. These are tiny details that we don’t usually think about. The reason of how Paco Underhill success is because he notices these details. Details determine success or failure. Paco Undnerhill—a talent and passion environmental psychologist, provides us a new point of view of the science of displaying products,

* Knowing this about my daughter is going to give you the most information about her actual shopping behavior:

It is believed that about 6% of Americans have a shopping addiction; of the 6% 90% are women. To a shopping addict trips to the mall become the main way to cope with stress, even when it is having a negative impact on the rest of their life. The addiction will affect their relationships and finances. (Omniomania: Shopping Addiction, 2010) It is a never ending merry-go-round; the stress from relationships and finances just reinforces the urge to shop more in order to feel better.

Shopping has become a daily activity which happens a billion times in America and around the world. We cannot imagine how our lives would be affected if shopping was suddenly stopped. Malcolm Gladwell and Anne Norton both write articles about two sides of modern day shopping: how consumers have impacted the retail industry and how the industry influences consumers. In the article " The Science of Shopping," Malcolm Gladwell, a well-known writer and journalist, analyzes the shopping behaviors of customers and how retailers can lure customers; while Anne Norton, a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, in

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.

We see many people when shopping. In public, we are able to see what they are wearing, how they act, their attitude, and their personality. These people can range from many different stereotypes such as: the Cheapskate, the Impulsive Buyer, and the Hater. Even though these people have different attitudes toward shopping, they all have the same goal: which is to to shop. Coupons, sales, rewards, and memberships are the holy grail to a shopping Cheapskate.

I will open up a few tabs with some of my favorite stores and merely browse around. After hours upon hours of browsing, I will sometimes purchase something small and cheap to assure myself that I did not just waste my time. Lappe says that “buying thing seems to be a common human strategy to ease feelings of insecurity and fear” (Lappe 47). In many movies and TV shoes, you hear about those rich women who shop all day. Although these women do have the resources to do so, it can also be said that they need to shop to make themselves feel better. The typical rich, trophy wife type of woman is typically insecure with their personal relationships with others. The most common is that their husband is not around, therefore, they believe that if they can purchase things, it will fix all their problems in their relationships. In this case, their consumerism directly effects their personal relationships. As well as effecting their direct relationships, the shopping sprees also make these women feel empowered and effect how the other shoppers are perceiving them. I know the feeling of walking around a crowded mall with multiple bags on your shoulders. You feel like you are on a whole different level than those with one or two. As humans, “we focus more on money, image, and status” (Lapee 47). When these trophy wives walk through the malls, on the surface they feel proud and more superior than others when in fact, they are

Tires squeal across the hot asphalt; exhaust fumes fill the air. Innocent shoppers leap to safety as cars circle the neighborhood grocery store lot in search of the ideal parking spot. Engines revving. Adrenaline rushing. The driver's sole mission is to obtain a white lined rectangle of pavement before entering the race known as shopping. As a safety precaution, competent and considerate shoppers should be aware of the distinct character traits of the three annoying types of shoppers: Hurry Harry, Suburban Sally, and Picky Pete. Knowledge of their parking-lot-to-checkout-stand habits increases the chance of avoiding a head-on collision.

When comparing two different ways of shopping most people do not even think about the difference, they do both and not even realize it. In today's society people shop while at work, after work and on the weekends, whenever time permits. Stop and think how can I get more time in the day for family or just myself? The best way to figure that out with all the recourses we have is to go into a store and spend time looking through racks and waiting in endless lines to just purchase something. I compared going into a store verses online shopping; to see which one will save you time and money.

Consumers have certain behavioral tendencies when faced in certain situations. In Why We Buy, the author Paco Underhill details certain behavioral characteristics people tend to have in different types of retail stores. Many consumers don’t think about what their actions mean when checking out or buying products. But to Mr. Underhill, the gender of the person, the people they’re with, the amount of times the person touches an object, the amount of time spent on checking a particular product, the time they came in, and the time they leave, all factor into a database to determine different behavioral trend consumers have. It is these trends that they find in order to correct a problem a store or retailer didn’t know they have to increase sales and create a better flow in the store environment.

The purpose of this paper was to observe the consumers of a retail store of my choice; I chose to observe Victoria’s Secret and Targets consumers, because I myself am consumers of those stores quite often, then to analyze the behavior of the consumers of Victoria’s Secret and Target. Victoria’s Secret and Target consumers differ because of the difference in type of retail they offer and sell. Victoria’s Secret consumers know what they are going to be shopping for women and certain needs or wants they are looking to satisfy. Target consumers shop for any age and any gender,

The behavior was observed from a large sample of people. This included twenty people shopping alone and twenty people shopping in a group, for a total of forty subjects, each ranging in ages from approximately 19 to 40 years old. The subjects were observed from the time they entered the store until the time they left. The reasoning behind this was to see the buying behavior differences for the whole experience and figure out which areas of the store could be improved in order to appeal to groups of people shopping. The behaviors observed included the amount of time spent inside the store, the amount of money spent, the interactions with associates, and the areas of the stores that were navigated.

Trade marketing is the marketing role that focuses on selling and supplying to distributors, retailers, wholesalers, and other supply chain businesses instead of the consumer. So for the producer the objective of trade marketing is to increase demand for products/services supplied within the supply chain. Through effective trade marketing there is an increased likelihood that the product will end up in front of the final consumer. Trade marketing is not an alternative to brand and consumer marketing, but rather acts as a support to traditional consumer-focussed marketing strategies and helps ensure effective establishment of place in the marketing mix. Trade marketing will include price discounts, promotional support, special offers (two for one), point of sale display provision and even competitions.

Inside the front doors of a grocery store, customers are presented with a diverse, vibrant display of fresh fruits and vegetables. With its inviting rainbow of bright colors, the produce section leads past the wafting, sweets smells of bread and pastries in the bakery and through winding aisles stocked with an assortment of goods. Linings the aisles and fillings shelves are rows and rows of boxes of pasta, pre-made meals, processed foods, and more snacks and sweets than one would know what to do with. Grocery stores present shoppers with a myriad of choices. The shelves and displays are filled with a variety of different brands and options to choose from, which offers customers a tough and potentially stressful decision when shopping. However, before a customer decides upon a specific brand or item, whether that happens to be a name-brand product, competitor, or store-brand, they are faced with an even more important choice; they must first make a decision on whether they want to buy whole foods and produce, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthy choices, or more processed “junk” foods like sugary drinks and snacks or enriched breads and pasta. Not only must costumers decide between specific brands and deals, but they must also choose which of these types of food is best for them and their interests. Consumers must constantly weigh the different factors that are presented when comparing foods; between price, ingredients, health, availability, and overall