2. Frys Marketplace
• First look from outside I notice the warm welcome with
some product such as flowers and seasonal items out
front.
• As I walked in one thing I have noticed while looking
deeper at the décor is the warm tones and wood look
that make it seem welcoming.
• I found this was also accommodated by the great lighting
like in the picture of the fruit you see its well lit up which
makes it glisten.
• Walking through the store I noticed how the product
selection is growing from just food. Frys now also has a
clothing section and the newest edition I saw that they
added was a Bed Bath and Beyond section where they
now sell small appliances and cooking supplies.
• While my time at the store I found it to be a little busy
and I didn’t see that many employees even at the register
as they were all pretty much self checkouts that were
open.
3. Dicks Sporting Goods
• Next store I went to was Dick’s SportingGoods. I like the entrance of the
store as it gave off and industrial feel.They also had different sporting balls
that were made of metal on the corners of the building which further
supported what they sell.
• When I first stepped inside, I saw how big it was as I was welcomed by tall
ceilings with two escalators going to upstairs.
• With so much room inside the building I like how they segmented it into
sections based on the sports that they carry.A big thing that stood out out
me was for the baseball section they had a whole batting cage to try out
the different bats that they offer.
• I found two negatives from this store.The first being that there seemed to
have too much product in the store which was overwhelming and If I was
there trying to find something I wouldn’t have an idea where to look.
• This leads to the second negative. During my time at the store I didn’t find
many workers ready to help. It wasn’t till I went upstairs when I saw about
5 of them talking.
• However, I did see a place to press a button for assistance which had me
wondering if it works and someone would come to help. During my time I
didn’t have a reason to press it and didn’t want to waste their time.
4. Dillard’s
• One of the most interesting stores I did an observation on was
Dillard’s.
• First look at the store from the outside it felt very underwhelming and
boring as it looks like a box with little uniqueness to it.
• As I stepped in the thing I noticed first was the tile floor pathways that
led through the store.
• This leads to what the most interesting aspect I noticed about the
store.This had to do with how it was laid out.As we see in the pictures
there is different sections to it.These sections are broken out by two
different aspects.The first having to do with the style of clothing or
product and the second is the brand of clothing.
• On top of the layout of the store as term of product I also found it to
have an interesting model as to how the checkouts work. Each section
of the store has its own checkout station buried within it.This makes
me as the customer feel like I am in a store that has multiple stores
within it.
• My last observation here is that I didn’t notice many workers at this
store however I believe this is because the workers that I did see just
wore normal clothes with just a name badge showing they work there.
So I find that I just couldn’t identify all the workers that were there at
the time.
5. The Home Depot
• First look outside there a a few things I notice. The first
being all the products they have out front from grills, tool
chest, and flowers. All which bring the shopping
experience to customers even before they make it in the
store. The second thing I've noticed was the American
flags that are out front which I know they are proud of
being an American company.
• As I walked in, I noticed how bright and airy it felt in the
store. I saw this to be the case because of the tall ceiling
and bright lights which I also noticed there were skylights
which also brought in natural light.
• While browsing the store I had multiple workers ask me if
I was finding everything all right. This was the case as a
saw employees everywhere in their bright orange
aprons. Or because I looked lost.
• Something else I noticed was how early the seasons and
sales within the stores are happening as they already had
the Christmas section set up along with the tool sales.
• Something interesting I thought of was how orange was
their color and this caused all the décor and beams to be
orange. I see this can also benefit them as it can also
work as a safety color so customers don’t trip or run into
things.
• Lastly and a sort of sad thing to see was how many things
they use to prevent theft in the store, and we hear theft
in every store is going up.
6. Target
• When first arriving at target something that
surprised me was how we all know this is
target however the building didn't have the
word target on it and rather it was just their
symbol.
• This would be interesting as to if it was a
foreigner visiting, I don’t know if they would
know what this store is or what they sell.
• As I walked around, I saw plenty of associates working around the
store however they all seemed focus on stocking the shelves rather
than looking or helping people around the store.
• I also saw kiosks around the stores that grabbed my interest.As
seen in the picture it is meant to get help by scanning product for
prices, call an associate, or help find things in the store by searching
an item up.
• A few smaller observations are how the store segments are broken
up. An instance of this is the section for the “guy” products. For this
section they changed up the décor by adding a different type of
flowing with modern fixtures to hold product and plenty of displays.
• The last thing which I believe is something newer that target added
was the introduction of groceries in the stores. It interesting to me
how grocery stores are adding more target type items and target
adding more grocery store items.
7. Circle K
• For the last spot I went was a convivence store known
as Circle K.
• The outside of the store was very clean and had a
modern design that was very inviting.
• However, as I went inside, I notice the door was very
still and hard to open as it felt broken.
• Once inside I saw it to be very clean with polished
floors and modern design.
• As with most gas stations this tends to be a self
service with just cashiers to check out.
• This particularCircle K also had a food station where
they made some pre prepared food. Food given how
clean it was inside I would actually eat from.
• Something else that caught my eye was the beer
cave because I see it as a little touch as people
especially in Arizona kind of find it fun to walk back
into their fridge and grab your beverages.
• Lastly as I went to checkout with my drink a found a
cool way to checkout.This was called smart checkout
where you set whatever you want down on the dots
and it knows what the product is and charges you.
• This is was a interesting feature to a self checkout
that I've seen recently.
