Crash course on Creativity, assignment 2

1. Marijke Tiemensma
Assignment 2
My insights, and hidden
opportunities
How the similarities and differences
between stores led me there

2. The similarities
• Salespeople don’t approach customers to ask if they can help them.
• It was the end of the morning on a weekday, so only middle-aged and older people were
visiting the shops.
• Only a few people were working in the stores; 1 or 2 salespeople, 1 or 2 stacking the sales
racks.

3. The differences between stores
• Cheaper stores: more crowded-looking, with narrow aisles.
• Cheaper stores: More customers
• Only the supermarket played (pop)music, at a very low volume. It gave the store a nice
feeling.
• The floors in the cheaper stores and supermarket gave it a kind of shabby and cheap feeling.
• Some stores had low sales racks, which means you have a better overview over the store.
Others had high sales racks, which made me feel kind of lost.
• All the stores had dark colours, except for one. That one store had a more chique feeling.

4. High sales racks
More crowded-looking cheap ‘Dark’ store
store with different floor
Low sales racks

5. Insights and opportunities
• Low sales racks means you get a better overview over the store which makes you feel less
‘lost’ and the store more accessible. I suggest every store starts using low sales racks.
• One store had the cashregister in the middle of the store. I had one product in my hand and
was passing the register to visit the other side of the store, when the salesperson was looking
at me expectantly. Somehow in that moment I made the choice to checkout that one product
instead of visiting the rest of the store. A cash register at the front (especially in one of the
messier stores) also didn’t encourage me to visit the whole store. So, a cash register’s best
place would be at the back of the store. (Or the aisles should lead you through the whole
store to get to the register (kind of like a maze) but that always annoys me.)
• The cheaper stores had a more crowded-look (narrow aisles, overflowing racks) and less
fancy floors than the other stores, and had more customers. Maybe customers associate
crowded-looking stores with cheap stores (which is what Dutch people like).
• The supermarket has a sliding door, which makes it feel like you’re about to do something
significent. The other stores were open, without doors, which makes it easy to just walk in
and out without feeling like you have to cross a certain barrier.
• Music (at a low volume) gives a homey effect. Silent stores felt a bit uncomfortable en
rushed. I suggest every store should play music at a low volume.