Shopping Of The Eyes Of Consumption

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.

To be successful in a capitalistic government, you must be willing to step on the heads of those who are below you, and claim their successes as your own. Advertisements within our capitalistic culture act as a way to force the customer into buying what the corporate overlords want you to buy. Anne Norton, author of “The Signs of Shopping” is a heavily published author, and has earned many awards in her field. In her essay, she explains how businesses use advertisement techniques to increase the profits in a retail store. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of “The Science of Shopping” is a staff writer for the New Yorker. In his essay, he explains how Paco Underhill, a retail expert, taught many Forbes 500 companies how to create more opportunities to up-sale to their customers. Norton shows how malls and other shopping outlets only want one demographic to shop in their stores, and Gladwell shows how stores utilize their internal structure to make more money. Both utilize a negative tone toward the business practices shown in the articles, and demonstrate the manipulation of the consumer with the usage of imagery within advertisements to show that capitalism is unethical.

Malcolm Gladwell’s piece, “The Science of Shopping”, causes his audience to fear retail anthropologists such as Paco Underhill. On the surface, Gladwell appears to write a short documentary of sorts about the manipulation of businesses and stores. Venturing deeper into the story provides the reader with vision of the importance businesses place on their layouts and strategies. Gladwell continues to assure his point that consumers are not mindlessly obeying what retailors want them to do. Store owners are required to accommodate to how their customers behave, and what their target market wants. Gladwell refers to significant moments with Underhill by directly quoting Paco. He also vividly describes different aspects of Paco’s practice.

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,

Through the Cold War, America was transitioning in various ways such as the way messages were shared, consumerism, and the constant race against the Soviet Union. During the years 1959-1964, Rod Serling, a New York writer and playwright began using one of the newest inventions, the television, as a way to share his opinion about controversial topics. The rise of the television allowed Serling to access to a larger audience whom he could share his opinion in the form of science fictional episodes in the show The Twilight Zone. Although the show seems ominous and a horror related TV show, it allows us to understand the effects and feeling towards topics such as a possible nuclear war, consumerism, space exploration.

Malcolm Gladwell is currently a non-fiction writer for The New Yorker. After college, he took a journalism position in Indiana and later took a position in Washington. In 1996, he moved to New York, where he is today. He has written five books and each has been on the New York Times best seller list (Famous Authors). In his first year of working as a journalist for The New Yorker, he wrote, “The Science of Shopping.” In this piece, Gladwell objectively evaluates Paco Underhill’s research within the business industry. Underhill “would have from a hundred to five hundred pages and pages of carefully annotated tracking sheets and anywhere from a hundred to five hundred hours of films” for each experiment that he conducts (99). With Underhill’s determination and research, and Gladwell’s journalistic qualities, this report changes the way anyone views shopping.

Norton, Anne. “The Signs of Shopping.” Signs of Life in the U.S.A.: Readings on Popular

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.

Abercrombie & Fitch stores designs it retail stores from a multi-sensory point of view to get consumer’s to buy there products. Abercrombie & Fitch stores typically is known for its dim lighting, loud background music, and it ambient scents to enable a more youthful clientele and a fresher image. In the store, there are mannequins for both genders that usually runs from the storefront through the middle of the store, which showcases key trends and ideas for the current season. Also, there collections are merchandised to inspire the customer and showcase how pieces can be mixed together.

Is it actually us, as an individual, who chooses our identity? Perhaps marketers have jurisdiction over our character by selling us their creations. Anne Norton describes in her essay, “Signs of Shopping,” that shopping is the true passage way to one 's character. Similarly, in the essay “Commodify Your Dissent,” Thomas Frank discusses how these corporations allow one to flaunt their rebellious personality. Both Norton and Frank believe that one’s individuality is held in the hands of businesses. Each store can attract specific types of people while promoting laziness and rebellion.

For generations, Americans has been brainwashed by the media to believe that what is displayed on television is the ideal perception of what real beauty have manipulated American citizens of what style looks like. Furthermore, with their many brainwashing strategies, that means more and more consumers spending beyond their budget. Our perspectives have been heavily influenced by what they believe is nice, but can we afford it all? With unrealistic combination of goods in store, plazas, and mall, consuming has become a bad behavior of some. In support of my argument of the “Overspending”, author Gladwell’s article “The Science of Shopping” also argues that stores adjust to fit the needs and wants of the shopper are evidently presented. With that being said, we have no idea when we are being manipulated into unrealistic shopping behavior that is influenced by the way the advertisement is presented in visual sight. Author Gladwell gets a “retail anthropologist” and “urban geographer” named Paco Underhill to give breakdown points of how he helps brand name stores influence consumers into persuasion of buying more. However, most of us fall short of that discipline, while being persuaded to overspend during our store visits.

2. Gladwell’s tone in this selection was very informative and explained what retailers do to try to sell items as efficient has possible. By making there shops more appealing to customers. At first the author thought that it was scary but after spending time with Paco’s video, the less scary it seems. The thought of stores watching you and trying to manipulate is scary.

Consumerism is the center of American culture. Americans tend to confuse their wants with their needs. With new advances in technology, as well as the help of advertisers, people are provided with easy access to new products that seem essential to their everyday life, even though they have survived this long without them. People cannot live without food, clothing, and shelter. But realistically, according to people's different lifestyles, more than food, clothing, and shelter are needed. Most people need to work to survive. Unless a job is either in their own home, or within walking distance, a means of transportation is needed. Whether it be a vehicle, money for a taxi-cab, or a token for a ride on the subway, money must be spent

Shopping is an activity that has been around for years. Although it is not something that all people love to do, especially guys, it is kinda inevitable. Everyone will shop most likely at some point in one's life whether it's for him or herself or for others, because every year holidays and birthdays and many other events come around. Even though shopping is still big today and is only getting bigger, it is starting to become more popular to shop online from the inconvenience of your home especially for those who don't want to go out, but everyone has their own preferences on whether they would rather shop online or in stores or maybe both. I would consider myself a hybrid shopper because I shop both in stores and online and do both very often, but the products I get from physical store from online stores are different.

The arrangement and spacings of the furniture give Forever 21 a modern look to draw in their target customers. For example, their pieces of furniture. Customers who walk in the store will observe white furniture such as tables and shelves throughout the store, which makes the store look spacious for the items to look neat and presentable. Although the store has many pieces of furniture, the store does not provide benches or chairs throughout the store for the customers to sit on. Shopping in this store can be exhausting due to the numerous amount of products that are being sold in the store.