College Writing 1
Oct 10, 2018
In the case of Benihana restaurant, the surroundings, music, location and even the people have a massive impact on the image that the restaurant wants to portray. Big food chains use bright colors, loud music, and quick food service to get the desired results while other places prefer a different client base.
Benihana restaurant is a relatively traditional Japanese restaurant which is one of its kind. The restaurant is located at the side of a quiet little street in Anaheim with a small entrance that you may not notice if you don't know where you're headed. The entry is a traditional Japanese wooden door. The entire theme of the restaurant is rooted in Japanese culture. Upon entering the restaurant, the customers are greeted by a waitress dressed in a Kimono.
The restaurant is quaint, with just a few tables and dim lighting. It has no more than eighth tables, working well with the intimate environment of the restaurant. Classical Japanese music, also referred to as shōmyō plays slowly in the background as the customers take their seats. Despite the vast cultural differences, the place has a very homely feel. The restaurant has a sweet smell in the air. All the staff greets customers with huge smiles on their face making it a very welcoming environment. Each table is surrounded by wooden chairs; some are surrounded by two to accommodate couples, some with four and some with six to cater to slightly large groups. The wooden tables and chairs give a more rustic feel to the restaurant and work well with the design of the place.
At the back of the restaurant, there is a small window through which you can see the workings of the kitchen. It's a modest, but well-equipped kitchen with the staff dressed in white coats and chefs' hats. Here, you can see your order being freshly prepared. A soft bell is heard, and the waitress rushes to the window to receive the order.
On the other end of the restaurant, there is a fascinating sight, a line of benches, shaped into a square with a marbled table like surface in front of it. A man is standing in the middle in chefs clothing holding a spatula with a black hot plate in front of him. Here, he is surrounded by a group of people. If nothing else, this is enough to spark one's curiosity. Taking a closer look, it can be seen that the man is tossing vegetables and different kinds of meat onto the hot plate, using tricks to entertain the customers but with extreme precision. He flings the cooked food onto the customer's plates as they start eating.
On the outside, the restaurant seems like a modest one but looking at the clientele, it is apparent that first impressions can be wrong. The tables are filled with men in expensive suits discussing their day to day business. They sit at their tables sitting overprices sake, a traditional Japanese rice wine. The exclusivity of the place becomes apparent when a small bar is spotted. The bar is stocked with spirits that value at hundreds of .
This small electronics store aims to provide personalized service with their knowledgeable staff, but seems overwhelmed by the amount of product they stock in their limited space. Customers appear willing to wait to speak to the friendly male employees about cell phones and cameras. While the store tries to be a one-stop shop for consumer electronics, their specialty in phones and plans may be a better focus given the size of the store.
The document discusses the importance of interior design in restaurants. It notes that restaurant design impacts customer perception and psychology. Elements like lighting, seating, color, smell, and acoustics can influence how customers experience a restaurant and whether they order more, eat faster or stay longer. The ideal restaurant interior dedicates 60% of space to the dining area and 40% to the kitchen and other facilities. Restaurant design must also consider customer comfort factors like temperature, ventilation, lighting and noise levels.
This is a collective of informations of how different shopes and stores run their own business. What i feels about them,how i see them, how they manage and run their business and what their customers feels and thinks about them, together with their reactions.
The document discusses the design considerations for several recreational spaces, including a restaurant, coffee shop, movie theater, and art gallery. It provides details on elements like entrance design, interior layout, lighting, seating, and more for each of these spaces. The goal is to create comfortable and functional spaces that enhance the user experience for activities like dining, socializing, viewing art or films.
This document provides an overview of restaurants and food courts. It discusses the history and importance of restaurants, describing how they originated in Ancient Rome. It also outlines various types of restaurants like casual dining, fine dining, fast casual, cafes, pubs, and food courts. Food courts are described as communal areas in shopping malls that offer a variety of eateries. The document discusses factors to consider for food court locations like maintenance, serving styles, popular cuisines, and their history of originating in shopping malls in the 1970s.
Supermarkets strategically place fresh produce near entrances to take advantage of customers' focus on these items first and create a positive impression. They also pipe smells of baked goods to stimulate shopping and spending. Store layouts are frequently changed to force customers to pass high-margin snacks and items on their way to essentials in hopes they will add them to their carts. Music is played to influence moods and shopping speeds depending on the expected customer demographics for a given time period.
This document provides a description of a traditional market. It summarizes that the market is a place to buy and admire fresh goods from the sea, garden, and countryside. Visitors can purchase products and eat at the various bars and restaurants. The market has high ceilings, long corridors, and big windows to keep it brightly lit. It is crowded and noisy all morning, though the salespeople charm customers with their speech. The market plays an important social and economic role in the city as a source of fresh products and a landmark building worth visiting.
Report on Restaurant Design-converted.pptxBinisha Raut
This document provides an overview of restaurant design and layout considerations. It discusses types of restaurants including fast food, fast casual, fine dining, contemporary casual, and cafes. It covers anthropometric considerations, architectural elements like entrances, doors, windows, reception, circulation space, dining areas, bars, and restrooms. It also discusses kitchen layouts, components, and case studies of specific restaurant designs. The document is a comprehensive reference for planning and designing restaurant spaces.
This small electronics store aims to provide personalized service with their knowledgeable staff, but seems overwhelmed by the amount of product they stock in their limited space. Customers appear willing to wait to speak to the friendly male employees about cell phones and cameras. While the store tries to be a one-stop shop for consumer electronics, their specialty in phones and plans may be a better focus given the size of the store.
The document discusses the importance of interior design in restaurants. It notes that restaurant design impacts customer perception and psychology. Elements like lighting, seating, color, smell, and acoustics can influence how customers experience a restaurant and whether they order more, eat faster or stay longer. The ideal restaurant interior dedicates 60% of space to the dining area and 40% to the kitchen and other facilities. Restaurant design must also consider customer comfort factors like temperature, ventilation, lighting and noise levels.
This is a collective of informations of how different shopes and stores run their own business. What i feels about them,how i see them, how they manage and run their business and what their customers feels and thinks about them, together with their reactions.
The document discusses the design considerations for several recreational spaces, including a restaurant, coffee shop, movie theater, and art gallery. It provides details on elements like entrance design, interior layout, lighting, seating, and more for each of these spaces. The goal is to create comfortable and functional spaces that enhance the user experience for activities like dining, socializing, viewing art or films.
This document provides an overview of restaurants and food courts. It discusses the history and importance of restaurants, describing how they originated in Ancient Rome. It also outlines various types of restaurants like casual dining, fine dining, fast casual, cafes, pubs, and food courts. Food courts are described as communal areas in shopping malls that offer a variety of eateries. The document discusses factors to consider for food court locations like maintenance, serving styles, popular cuisines, and their history of originating in shopping malls in the 1970s.
Supermarkets strategically place fresh produce near entrances to take advantage of customers' focus on these items first and create a positive impression. They also pipe smells of baked goods to stimulate shopping and spending. Store layouts are frequently changed to force customers to pass high-margin snacks and items on their way to essentials in hopes they will add them to their carts. Music is played to influence moods and shopping speeds depending on the expected customer demographics for a given time period.
This document provides a description of a traditional market. It summarizes that the market is a place to buy and admire fresh goods from the sea, garden, and countryside. Visitors can purchase products and eat at the various bars and restaurants. The market has high ceilings, long corridors, and big windows to keep it brightly lit. It is crowded and noisy all morning, though the salespeople charm customers with their speech. The market plays an important social and economic role in the city as a source of fresh products and a landmark building worth visiting.
Report on Restaurant Design-converted.pptxBinisha Raut
This document provides an overview of restaurant design and layout considerations. It discusses types of restaurants including fast food, fast casual, fine dining, contemporary casual, and cafes. It covers anthropometric considerations, architectural elements like entrances, doors, windows, reception, circulation space, dining areas, bars, and restrooms. It also discusses kitchen layouts, components, and case studies of specific restaurant designs. The document is a comprehensive reference for planning and designing restaurant spaces.
The document summarizes research done on the target audience for a drinks menu for a restaurant. Some key points from customer feedback include a lack of drinks menus on tables and a need for more soft drink options for families. The target audience is described as older couples and retirees who dine out weekly and prioritize ambiance over pricing. Based on the upscale, romantic environment suggested by dark colors and candles, the summary recommends a formal drinks menu focusing on wine, beer, and spirits advertising to both males and females. Images should match the niche, old-fashioned interior to blend in visually.
- The C&A store in Iguatemi Mall has a visually attractive interior with welcoming illumination. The tropical clothing collection is inspired by Brazilian culture. The doors remain open as it is inside the upscale mall. Impulse products like fragrances are displayed near the cash register.
- Octavios Café provides a relaxing environment for meetings or leisure. It has a warm, coffee-inspired decor and offers specialty coffee blends. Customers can spend time working or socializing.
- The Havaianas store displays many colorful styles of flip flops. Customers can try products on comfortable seating provided. Products range from $35-55 and the staff wears the sandals. Disney licensed kids'
The document provides insights, surprises and opportunities observed from store visits. Some key insights include that open entrances invite customers inside, layouts that guide customers past merchandise to the cash register are effective, and warm colors and soft surfaces encourage longer browsing. It was surprising how stores engaged multiple senses to keep customers comfortable. Craft stores displayed raw materials and less expensive items before more expensive finished products. Opportunities include providing coat storage, an open work table for craft materials, editing merchandise displays, changing colors seasonally, and using appropriate scents.
This document summarizes observations of six different food stores made by a student for a class project. The stores observed were Caketini bakery, Starbucks, Chipotle, Jimmy John's, Five Guys, and Pizza Studio. For each store, the student describes details like layout, atmosphere, menu options, and notable features to get a sense of what each business is like. The purpose of the observations was for the student's interest in the food industry as a potential future business endeavor.
The document provides details about restaurants and food courts. It defines a restaurant as an establishment that prepares and serves food and drink for customers. It discusses the history of restaurants dating back to ancient Rome. It also outlines different types of restaurants including fine dining, fast food, cafes, pubs, and food courts. Food courts are described as consisting of multiple vendors located near large stores in shopping malls, airports, and parks that provide a variety of cuisine options for customers to purchase food.
The document discusses the design concept for an Italian-style coffee shop called "La Bottega del Caffè". Some key points:
1) The design aims to differentiate itself from typical UK coffee shops by bringing the friendly yet fashionable atmosphere of Italian coffee culture.
2) Materials may include marble, timber, steel as well as more innovative materials like composites and ceramics.
3) The bar area is a primary design element, intended to be visible from outside and allow customers to see food being prepared.
4) Layout needs to allow for high customer throughput while avoiding confusion. Multiple payment points and queuing systems are discussed.
5) Secondary functions like local art
The document provides details about a store environment. It describes the entrance drawing customers in with an open door. The sign uses normal-sized simple lettering indicating affordable products. The cream color scheme and mild surroundings make it feel comfortable. The tiled floor and painted walls complement the tall ceiling and mild lighting, creating a serene calm environment suited for customers. Products are arranged by variety, type, and price with centrally displayed featured items and prices easily found.
The entrance and structure of the building draw customers inside. The open door makes the customer feel welcome. Signage indicates affordable products. The cream color scheme and mild surroundings make the store attractive. The tiled floor and painted colors suit the store interior. Music and scents fill the environment while customers browse merchandise and make purchases.
The entrance and structure of the building draw customers inside. The open door makes the customer feel welcome. Signage indicates affordable products. The cream color scheme and mild surroundings make the customer comfortable. The store has tiled floors, painted walls, and mild brightness, creating a serene environment where the only noise is from customer interactions. Most customers purchase products after browsing for about an hour.
Assignment 2: Paying attention in food stores (Moscow, Russia)MsAnnaPich
The document summarizes the author's observations from visiting various food stores near her home in order to find the store that provides the best shopping experience. She visited two large supermarkets (Seventh Continent and Billa), two discount stores (Pyaterochka), a smaller supermarket (Magnolia), and two small unnamed grocery stores. Seventh Continent and Billa provided mostly positive experiences due to their clean and well-organized layouts without excessive branding, while the discount stores and small grocers had more negatives like dirty floors and poor product selection. Overall, Billa was found to be the most enjoyable store to shop at.
this ppt presentation is about the restaurant atmosphere that how should we enhance our restaurant beauty by following these simple steps..... things that affect our design, concept, theme and over all ambiance.....
The document summarizes the author's observations from visiting six different grocery stores in search of dinner inspiration. At Costco, the author found it to be a large warehouse-style store selling bulk items at low prices but requiring large minimum purchases. Piazza's was described as a higher-end store with abundant, high-quality displays and prepared food options that would entice the author to return. Trader Joe's offered samples, attractive displays, and a friendly atmosphere.
The document summarizes the author's observations from visiting 5 different stores in Dublin, Ireland. At a clothing store, the author notices natural light and families spending time together but a long wait for the women's bathroom. A coffee shop is busy but disorganized behind the counter. A market stall is run energetically with friendly banter. A department store has diverse products but feels disoriented; one area has beds crammed in. The author's favorite bookstore has good lighting and staff that blends in well.
The document summarizes research conducted on food stores along a hidden lane between two markets in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia called Chow Kit. The research observed the actions taken by three food store owners to attract customers: a hakka fried pork stall, a fishball noodle stall, and a noodle factory. The actions included exposing the kitchen, arranging food up front, using the space for dining, and displaying food preparation. The conclusion is that the lane has developed a customer environment through convenience and an pleasant atmosphere, helping to attract passersby and increase purchasing intent.
This document provides an overview of restaurants and food courts. It defines a restaurant as an establishment that prepares and serves food and drink to customers. Restaurants have existed since ancient Rome and have taken on various forms over time. When planning a new restaurant, considerations include population base, visibility, accessibility, parking, and cuisine type. Food courts are common in shopping malls and airports and consist of multiple vendors that share a communal dining area.
This document provides an overview of the restaurant and hotel industry. It discusses the history and evolution of restaurants from ancient times to modern day. It describes how the earliest forms of restaurants were roadside inns and street vendors selling cheap, precooked meals. Over time, restaurants became establishments that served meals within cities. The document outlines different types of modern restaurants including family restaurants, atmosphere restaurants, gourmet restaurants, fast food restaurants, cafeterias, and take-out restaurants. It discusses how restaurants today provide convenience and serve as economic drivers.
Coding NotesImproving Diagnosis By Jacquie zegan, CCS, w.docxmary772
Coding Notes
Improving
Diagnosis
By Jacquie zegan, CCS, wC
Specificity in ICD-IO Coding
VALID ICD-IO-CM/PCS (ICD-IO) codes have been required for claims reporting since October 1, 2015. But ICD-IO diagnosis coding to the correct level of specificity—a more recent requirement—continues to be a problem for many in the healthcare industry. While diagnosis code specificity has always been the goal, providers were granted a reprieve in order to facilitate implementation of ICD-IO. For the first 12 months of ICD-IO use, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) promised that Medicare review contractors would not deny claims "based solely on the specificity of the ICD-IO diagnosis code as long as the physician/practitioner used a valid code from the right family."l Commonly referred to as the "grace period," this flexibility was intended to help providers implement the ICD-IO-CM code set and was never intended to continue on in perpetuity. In fact, this CMS-granted grace period expired on October 1, 2016.2
Unfortunately, nonspecific documentation and coding persists. This is an ongoing problem, even though the official guidelines for coding and reporting require coding to the highest degree of specificity. Third-party payers are making payment determinations based on the specificity of reported codes, and payment reform efforts are formulating policies based on coded data. The significance of overreporting unspecified diagnosis codes cannot be understated. In the short term, it will increase claim denials, and in the long term it may adversely impact emerging payment models.3•4 Calculating and monitoring unspecified diagnosis code rates is critical to successfully leverage specificity
44/Journal of AHIMA April 18
in the ICD-IO-CM code set.
An ICD-IO-CM code is considered unspecified if either of the terms "unspecified" or "NOS" are used in the code description. The unspecified diagnosis code rate is calculated by dividing the number of unspecified diagnosis codes by the total number of diagnosis codes assigned. Health information management (HIM) professionals should be tracking and trending unspecified diagnosis code rates across the continuum of care.5
Acceptable use of Unspecified Diagnosis Codes Unspecified diagnosis codes have acceptable, even necessary, uses. The unspecified code rate is not an error rate, but rather an indicator of the quality of clinical documentation and a qualitative measure of coder performance and coding results. Even CMS explicitly recognizes that unspecified codes are sometimes necessary. "When sufficient clinical information is not known or available about a particular health condition to assign a more specific code, it is acceptable to report the appropriate unspecified code."6 It's also important that coding professionals use good judgment to avoid unnecessary queries for clarification of unspecified diagnoses. The official coding guidelines provide explicit guidance for appropriate uses of unspec.
CNL-521 Topic 3 Vargas Case StudyBob and Elizabeth arrive.docxmary772
CNL-521 Topic 3: Vargas Case Study
Bob and Elizabeth arrive together for the third session. As planned, you remind the couple that the goal of today’s session is to gather information about their families of origin. Bob begins by telling you about his older sister, Katie, who is 36 and lives nearby with her three children. Katie’s husband, Steve, died suddenly last year at the age of 40 when the car he was driving hit a block wall. Elizabeth speculates that Steve was intoxicated at the time, but Bob vehemently denies this allegation. He warns Elizabeth to “never again” suggest alcohol was involved. You note Bob’s strong response and learn that his own biological father, whom his mother divorced when Bob was 3 and Katie was 5, had been an alcoholic. When asked about his father, Bob says, “His name is Tim, and I haven’t seen him since the divorce.” Bob shares that he only remembers frequently hiding under the bed with Katie to stay safe from his violent rages. He adds that 5 years after the divorce, his mother, Linda, married Noel who has been “the only dad I’ve ever known.” He insists that his sister married “a devout Christian who never touched alcohol” and attributed the 3:00 a.m. tragedy to fatigue. He adds that a few days before the accident, Katie had complained to him that her husband had been working many late nights and “just wasn’t himself.” Bob speaks fondly of his sister and confirms that they have always been “very close.”
From Elizabeth, who is 31 years old, you learn that she was adopted by her parents, Rita and Gary, who were in their late 40s at the time. They were first generation immigrants who had no family in the United States. Their biological daughter, Susan, had died 10 years earlier after Rita accidentally ran over the 5 year old while backing out of the driveway. Elizabeth surmises that her mother never fully recovered from this traumatic incident and remained distant and withdrawn throughout Elizabeth’s life. Elizabeth describes her father, Gary, as “a hard worker, smart, and always serious.” She shares that most of her family memories were of times spent with her dad in his study, surrounded by books. She states, “He could find the answer to all of my questions in one his many books.” Elizabeth describes herself as the “quiet, bookish type” and attributes her love for books to her father. Like her father in his study, Elizabeth remembers spending most of her adolescence alone in her room, reading, so she would not upset her mother. Looking back, Elizabeth tells you she recognizes her mother’s struggle with depression, “but as a kid, I thought it was me.”
You comment on the vastly different childhood experiences and normalize the potential for relationship challenges under these circumstances. Acknowledging the differences, Elizabeth remarks that Bob’s relationship with his family was one of the things that she was attracted to early in their relationship. Bob agrees with her and comments that Katie and Elizabeth.
Cognitive and Language Development Milestones Picture Book[WLO .docxmary772
Cognitive and Language Development Milestones Picture Book
[WLO: 1] [CLO: 1]
Prior to beginning work on this assignment,
Review Chapters 6, 7, and 9 of your text.
Review the cognition and language development milestones from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the web page
Basic Information (Links to an external site.)
.
Identify one age-group that you will discuss:
Infancy: Birth to 12 months
Toddler: 1 to 3 years
Early childhood: 4 to 8 years
Review and download the
Cognitive and Language Development Milestones Picture Book Template.
The purpose of this assignment is to creatively demonstrate an understanding of developmental milestones as they pertain to cognition and language development.
Part 1:
Based on the required resources above, create a children’s picture book using
StoryJumper (Links to an external site.)
that tells a story about a child’s typical day. Your story must incorporate at least four cognitive and four language development milestones for the age-group you have selected. Your story can be about a fictional child or can be based on a real child. Watch the video,
StoryJumper Tutorial (Links to an external site.)
, for assistance in using StoryJumper.
To complete this assignment, you must
Create a children’s picture book using StoryJumper.
Identify at least four cognitive development milestones appropriate to the age-group selected.
Distinguish at least four language development milestones appropriate to the age-group selected.
Discuss a typical day appropriate to the age-group selected.
Part 2:
Open the
Cognitive and Language Development Milestones Picture Book Template
and complete the following items:
Provide the link to the StoryJumper picture book you created in Part 1.
Indicate which age-group your picture book will discuss.
List at least four cognitive development milestones that are included in your picture book.
List at least four language development milestones that are included in your picture book.
Submit your Word document to Waypoint.
The Cognitive and Language Development Milestones Picture Book:
Must be eight to 10 pages of text in length (not including title page, images, and references page) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s
APA Style (Links to an external site.)
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of picture book
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s
Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)
Must include a separate references page or slide that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the
Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.)
resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.
CHAPTER 6 SUMMARY
Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory.
Codes of (un)dress and gender constructs from the Greek to t.docxmary772
Codes of (un)dress and gender constructs
from the Greek to the Roman world
he
By 6th c. BC: Greek male and female dress codes firmly established
Archaic kouros
and kore statues
demonstrate how
the body was
used in the
naturalization of
gender
constructs
The naked male
body in the
classical period:
the Doryphoros as
a heroic athlete-
warrior citizen
Male sexuality: conditions by the patriarchal ideology of
domination, it restricted sexual expression and freedom
in homosexual
relations
and heterosexual
relations
In the classical
period,
while the naked
male body was
idealized and
heroized,
the female naked
body was always
sexualized and
objectified.
Centauromachy (late 5th c.
Bassae): the Greek female is
defenseless and sexualized
(must be defended by Greek
men).
Gendered
nakedness in
mythological
scenes:
the Greek
male is
always
heroized
Amazonomachy (4th c.
Halikarnassos): the non-
Greek female is wild and
sexualized (must be
dominated by Greek men).
Aphrodite (Roman Venus): at first fully dressed
The gradual disrobing of Aphrodite in monumental statues, late 5th to
4th c. BC (Roman copies)
“Venus Genetrix”,
original late 5th c. BC
“Venus of Capua”,
original 4th c. BC
Aphrodite of Knidos,
original 4th c. BC
Late 5th c. onwards: minor goddesses were also represented sexualized in
statues, but only Aphrodite appeared entirely naked by the 4th c. BC.
Nike (Victory), late
5th c., Olympia.
Aphrodite of Knidos by
Praxiteles, 4th c. (Roman copy)
Aphrodite “Beautiful
Buttocks”, Roman
copy (Greek ca. 300).
Doryphoros and
Aphrodite of Knidos
(Knidia or Knidian
Aphrodite), Roman
copies.
What main
differences do you
observe?
Was her nakedness
really threatening to
patriarchy (Andrew
Stewart)?
Or, in what ways
was her nakedness
aligned with
patriarchal ideology?
Could she have been
empowering for
women?
The traditional visual
presence of a divine
statue at the far end of
a rectangular temple
was very different
(Olympian Zeus)
Aphrodite of Knidos was displayed in an unusual temple (round plan), so as to
be seen from all sides, like a beautiful object.
The original
Aphrodite of
Knidos is lost.
Numerous
Roman copies
of the Knidian
Aphrodite exist
(with variations
in details).
“Colonna
Venus” Vatican
Museums.
“Ludovisi
Venus”,
Palazzo
Altemps, Rome
(only the torso
is ancient, the
rest is 17th-c,
restoration.)
Capitoline Venus, Rome
Medici Venus, Florence
Variations on the
“Venus pudica” type,
Greek Hellenistic
originals, Roman
copies.
Are they more modest
or also more shamed?
Latin pudore: modesty,
chastity, shame.
Greek aidos: shame,
modesty
(aidion=vagina)
There is no male “pudicus”
type in Greco-Roman
sculpture.
These unequal gender
constructs are still around
today,
to the detriment of all of us!
There is no male
“pudicus” type in Greco-
Roman sculpture.
An effec.
Coding Assignment 3CSC 330 Advanced Data Structures, Spri.docxmary772
Coding Assignment 3
CSC 330: Advanced Data Structures, Spring 2019
Released Monday, April 15, 2019
Due on Canvas on Wednesday, May 1, at 11:59pm
Overview
In this assignment, you’ll implement another variant of a height-balancing tree known as a
splay tree. The assignment will also give you an opportunity to work with Java inheritance;
in particular, the base code that you’ll amend is structured so that your SplayTree class
extends from an abstract class called HeightBalancingTree, which gives a general template
for how a height-balancing tree should be defined.
As always, please carefully read the entire write-up before you begin coding your submission.
Splay Trees
As mentioned above, a splay tree is another example of a height-balancing tree — a binary
search tree that, upon either an insertion or deletion, modifies the tree through a sequence
of rotations in order to reduce the overall height of the tree.
However, splay trees differ from the other height-balancing trees we’ve seen (AVL trees,
red-black trees) in terms of the type of guarantees that they provide. In particular, recall
that both AVL trees and red-black trees maintain the property that after any insertion or
deletion, the height of the tree is O(log n), where n is the number of elements in the tree.
Splay trees unfortunately do not provide this (fairly strong) guarantee; namely, it is possible
for the height of a splay tree to become greater than O(log n) over a sequence of insertions
and deletions.
Instead, splay trees provide a slightly weaker (though still meaningful) guarantee known as
an amortized bound, which is essentially just a bound on the average time of a single opera-
tion over the course of several operations. In the context of splay trees, one can show that
over the course of, say, n insertions to build a tree with n elements, the average time of each
of these operations is O(log n) (but again, keeping in mind it is possible for any single one
of these operations to take much longer than this).
Showing this guarantee is beyond the scope of this course (although the details of the analy-
sis can be found in your textbook). Instead, in this assignment, we will just be in interested
1
r splay:
N
root
root
2
1
1
2
l splay:
N
1
2
rr splay:
N
N
N
ll splay:
rl splay:
1
2
N
lr splay:
Figure 1: Illustration of the six possible cases for on a given step of a splay operation.
in writing an implementation of a splay tree in Java that is structured using inheritance.
Splay Tree Insertions and Deletions
To insert or delete an element from the tree, splay trees use the same approach as the other
height-balancing trees we’ve discussed in class — first we insert/deletion an element using
standard BST procedures, and then perform a “height-fixing” procedure that rebalances the
tree. Thus, what distinguishes each of these height-balancing trees from one another is how
they define their height-fixing procedures.
To fix the tree after both inser.
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The document summarizes research done on the target audience for a drinks menu for a restaurant. Some key points from customer feedback include a lack of drinks menus on tables and a need for more soft drink options for families. The target audience is described as older couples and retirees who dine out weekly and prioritize ambiance over pricing. Based on the upscale, romantic environment suggested by dark colors and candles, the summary recommends a formal drinks menu focusing on wine, beer, and spirits advertising to both males and females. Images should match the niche, old-fashioned interior to blend in visually.
- The C&A store in Iguatemi Mall has a visually attractive interior with welcoming illumination. The tropical clothing collection is inspired by Brazilian culture. The doors remain open as it is inside the upscale mall. Impulse products like fragrances are displayed near the cash register.
- Octavios Café provides a relaxing environment for meetings or leisure. It has a warm, coffee-inspired decor and offers specialty coffee blends. Customers can spend time working or socializing.
- The Havaianas store displays many colorful styles of flip flops. Customers can try products on comfortable seating provided. Products range from $35-55 and the staff wears the sandals. Disney licensed kids'
The document provides insights, surprises and opportunities observed from store visits. Some key insights include that open entrances invite customers inside, layouts that guide customers past merchandise to the cash register are effective, and warm colors and soft surfaces encourage longer browsing. It was surprising how stores engaged multiple senses to keep customers comfortable. Craft stores displayed raw materials and less expensive items before more expensive finished products. Opportunities include providing coat storage, an open work table for craft materials, editing merchandise displays, changing colors seasonally, and using appropriate scents.
This document summarizes observations of six different food stores made by a student for a class project. The stores observed were Caketini bakery, Starbucks, Chipotle, Jimmy John's, Five Guys, and Pizza Studio. For each store, the student describes details like layout, atmosphere, menu options, and notable features to get a sense of what each business is like. The purpose of the observations was for the student's interest in the food industry as a potential future business endeavor.
The document provides details about restaurants and food courts. It defines a restaurant as an establishment that prepares and serves food and drink for customers. It discusses the history of restaurants dating back to ancient Rome. It also outlines different types of restaurants including fine dining, fast food, cafes, pubs, and food courts. Food courts are described as consisting of multiple vendors located near large stores in shopping malls, airports, and parks that provide a variety of cuisine options for customers to purchase food.
The document discusses the design concept for an Italian-style coffee shop called "La Bottega del Caffè". Some key points:
1) The design aims to differentiate itself from typical UK coffee shops by bringing the friendly yet fashionable atmosphere of Italian coffee culture.
2) Materials may include marble, timber, steel as well as more innovative materials like composites and ceramics.
3) The bar area is a primary design element, intended to be visible from outside and allow customers to see food being prepared.
4) Layout needs to allow for high customer throughput while avoiding confusion. Multiple payment points and queuing systems are discussed.
5) Secondary functions like local art
The document provides details about a store environment. It describes the entrance drawing customers in with an open door. The sign uses normal-sized simple lettering indicating affordable products. The cream color scheme and mild surroundings make it feel comfortable. The tiled floor and painted walls complement the tall ceiling and mild lighting, creating a serene calm environment suited for customers. Products are arranged by variety, type, and price with centrally displayed featured items and prices easily found.
The entrance and structure of the building draw customers inside. The open door makes the customer feel welcome. Signage indicates affordable products. The cream color scheme and mild surroundings make the store attractive. The tiled floor and painted colors suit the store interior. Music and scents fill the environment while customers browse merchandise and make purchases.
The entrance and structure of the building draw customers inside. The open door makes the customer feel welcome. Signage indicates affordable products. The cream color scheme and mild surroundings make the customer comfortable. The store has tiled floors, painted walls, and mild brightness, creating a serene environment where the only noise is from customer interactions. Most customers purchase products after browsing for about an hour.
Assignment 2: Paying attention in food stores (Moscow, Russia)MsAnnaPich
The document summarizes the author's observations from visiting various food stores near her home in order to find the store that provides the best shopping experience. She visited two large supermarkets (Seventh Continent and Billa), two discount stores (Pyaterochka), a smaller supermarket (Magnolia), and two small unnamed grocery stores. Seventh Continent and Billa provided mostly positive experiences due to their clean and well-organized layouts without excessive branding, while the discount stores and small grocers had more negatives like dirty floors and poor product selection. Overall, Billa was found to be the most enjoyable store to shop at.
this ppt presentation is about the restaurant atmosphere that how should we enhance our restaurant beauty by following these simple steps..... things that affect our design, concept, theme and over all ambiance.....
The document summarizes the author's observations from visiting six different grocery stores in search of dinner inspiration. At Costco, the author found it to be a large warehouse-style store selling bulk items at low prices but requiring large minimum purchases. Piazza's was described as a higher-end store with abundant, high-quality displays and prepared food options that would entice the author to return. Trader Joe's offered samples, attractive displays, and a friendly atmosphere.
The document summarizes the author's observations from visiting 5 different stores in Dublin, Ireland. At a clothing store, the author notices natural light and families spending time together but a long wait for the women's bathroom. A coffee shop is busy but disorganized behind the counter. A market stall is run energetically with friendly banter. A department store has diverse products but feels disoriented; one area has beds crammed in. The author's favorite bookstore has good lighting and staff that blends in well.
The document summarizes research conducted on food stores along a hidden lane between two markets in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia called Chow Kit. The research observed the actions taken by three food store owners to attract customers: a hakka fried pork stall, a fishball noodle stall, and a noodle factory. The actions included exposing the kitchen, arranging food up front, using the space for dining, and displaying food preparation. The conclusion is that the lane has developed a customer environment through convenience and an pleasant atmosphere, helping to attract passersby and increase purchasing intent.
This document provides an overview of restaurants and food courts. It defines a restaurant as an establishment that prepares and serves food and drink to customers. Restaurants have existed since ancient Rome and have taken on various forms over time. When planning a new restaurant, considerations include population base, visibility, accessibility, parking, and cuisine type. Food courts are common in shopping malls and airports and consist of multiple vendors that share a communal dining area.
This document provides an overview of the restaurant and hotel industry. It discusses the history and evolution of restaurants from ancient times to modern day. It describes how the earliest forms of restaurants were roadside inns and street vendors selling cheap, precooked meals. Over time, restaurants became establishments that served meals within cities. The document outlines different types of modern restaurants including family restaurants, atmosphere restaurants, gourmet restaurants, fast food restaurants, cafeterias, and take-out restaurants. It discusses how restaurants today provide convenience and serve as economic drivers.
Similar to College Writing 1Oct 10, 2018In the case of Benihana restauran.docx (17)
Coding NotesImproving Diagnosis By Jacquie zegan, CCS, w.docxmary772
Coding Notes
Improving
Diagnosis
By Jacquie zegan, CCS, wC
Specificity in ICD-IO Coding
VALID ICD-IO-CM/PCS (ICD-IO) codes have been required for claims reporting since October 1, 2015. But ICD-IO diagnosis coding to the correct level of specificity—a more recent requirement—continues to be a problem for many in the healthcare industry. While diagnosis code specificity has always been the goal, providers were granted a reprieve in order to facilitate implementation of ICD-IO. For the first 12 months of ICD-IO use, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) promised that Medicare review contractors would not deny claims "based solely on the specificity of the ICD-IO diagnosis code as long as the physician/practitioner used a valid code from the right family."l Commonly referred to as the "grace period," this flexibility was intended to help providers implement the ICD-IO-CM code set and was never intended to continue on in perpetuity. In fact, this CMS-granted grace period expired on October 1, 2016.2
Unfortunately, nonspecific documentation and coding persists. This is an ongoing problem, even though the official guidelines for coding and reporting require coding to the highest degree of specificity. Third-party payers are making payment determinations based on the specificity of reported codes, and payment reform efforts are formulating policies based on coded data. The significance of overreporting unspecified diagnosis codes cannot be understated. In the short term, it will increase claim denials, and in the long term it may adversely impact emerging payment models.3•4 Calculating and monitoring unspecified diagnosis code rates is critical to successfully leverage specificity
44/Journal of AHIMA April 18
in the ICD-IO-CM code set.
An ICD-IO-CM code is considered unspecified if either of the terms "unspecified" or "NOS" are used in the code description. The unspecified diagnosis code rate is calculated by dividing the number of unspecified diagnosis codes by the total number of diagnosis codes assigned. Health information management (HIM) professionals should be tracking and trending unspecified diagnosis code rates across the continuum of care.5
Acceptable use of Unspecified Diagnosis Codes Unspecified diagnosis codes have acceptable, even necessary, uses. The unspecified code rate is not an error rate, but rather an indicator of the quality of clinical documentation and a qualitative measure of coder performance and coding results. Even CMS explicitly recognizes that unspecified codes are sometimes necessary. "When sufficient clinical information is not known or available about a particular health condition to assign a more specific code, it is acceptable to report the appropriate unspecified code."6 It's also important that coding professionals use good judgment to avoid unnecessary queries for clarification of unspecified diagnoses. The official coding guidelines provide explicit guidance for appropriate uses of unspec.
CNL-521 Topic 3 Vargas Case StudyBob and Elizabeth arrive.docxmary772
CNL-521 Topic 3: Vargas Case Study
Bob and Elizabeth arrive together for the third session. As planned, you remind the couple that the goal of today’s session is to gather information about their families of origin. Bob begins by telling you about his older sister, Katie, who is 36 and lives nearby with her three children. Katie’s husband, Steve, died suddenly last year at the age of 40 when the car he was driving hit a block wall. Elizabeth speculates that Steve was intoxicated at the time, but Bob vehemently denies this allegation. He warns Elizabeth to “never again” suggest alcohol was involved. You note Bob’s strong response and learn that his own biological father, whom his mother divorced when Bob was 3 and Katie was 5, had been an alcoholic. When asked about his father, Bob says, “His name is Tim, and I haven’t seen him since the divorce.” Bob shares that he only remembers frequently hiding under the bed with Katie to stay safe from his violent rages. He adds that 5 years after the divorce, his mother, Linda, married Noel who has been “the only dad I’ve ever known.” He insists that his sister married “a devout Christian who never touched alcohol” and attributed the 3:00 a.m. tragedy to fatigue. He adds that a few days before the accident, Katie had complained to him that her husband had been working many late nights and “just wasn’t himself.” Bob speaks fondly of his sister and confirms that they have always been “very close.”
From Elizabeth, who is 31 years old, you learn that she was adopted by her parents, Rita and Gary, who were in their late 40s at the time. They were first generation immigrants who had no family in the United States. Their biological daughter, Susan, had died 10 years earlier after Rita accidentally ran over the 5 year old while backing out of the driveway. Elizabeth surmises that her mother never fully recovered from this traumatic incident and remained distant and withdrawn throughout Elizabeth’s life. Elizabeth describes her father, Gary, as “a hard worker, smart, and always serious.” She shares that most of her family memories were of times spent with her dad in his study, surrounded by books. She states, “He could find the answer to all of my questions in one his many books.” Elizabeth describes herself as the “quiet, bookish type” and attributes her love for books to her father. Like her father in his study, Elizabeth remembers spending most of her adolescence alone in her room, reading, so she would not upset her mother. Looking back, Elizabeth tells you she recognizes her mother’s struggle with depression, “but as a kid, I thought it was me.”
You comment on the vastly different childhood experiences and normalize the potential for relationship challenges under these circumstances. Acknowledging the differences, Elizabeth remarks that Bob’s relationship with his family was one of the things that she was attracted to early in their relationship. Bob agrees with her and comments that Katie and Elizabeth.
Cognitive and Language Development Milestones Picture Book[WLO .docxmary772
Cognitive and Language Development Milestones Picture Book
[WLO: 1] [CLO: 1]
Prior to beginning work on this assignment,
Review Chapters 6, 7, and 9 of your text.
Review the cognition and language development milestones from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the web page
Basic Information (Links to an external site.)
.
Identify one age-group that you will discuss:
Infancy: Birth to 12 months
Toddler: 1 to 3 years
Early childhood: 4 to 8 years
Review and download the
Cognitive and Language Development Milestones Picture Book Template.
The purpose of this assignment is to creatively demonstrate an understanding of developmental milestones as they pertain to cognition and language development.
Part 1:
Based on the required resources above, create a children’s picture book using
StoryJumper (Links to an external site.)
that tells a story about a child’s typical day. Your story must incorporate at least four cognitive and four language development milestones for the age-group you have selected. Your story can be about a fictional child or can be based on a real child. Watch the video,
StoryJumper Tutorial (Links to an external site.)
, for assistance in using StoryJumper.
To complete this assignment, you must
Create a children’s picture book using StoryJumper.
Identify at least four cognitive development milestones appropriate to the age-group selected.
Distinguish at least four language development milestones appropriate to the age-group selected.
Discuss a typical day appropriate to the age-group selected.
Part 2:
Open the
Cognitive and Language Development Milestones Picture Book Template
and complete the following items:
Provide the link to the StoryJumper picture book you created in Part 1.
Indicate which age-group your picture book will discuss.
List at least four cognitive development milestones that are included in your picture book.
List at least four language development milestones that are included in your picture book.
Submit your Word document to Waypoint.
The Cognitive and Language Development Milestones Picture Book:
Must be eight to 10 pages of text in length (not including title page, images, and references page) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s
APA Style (Links to an external site.)
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of picture book
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s
Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)
Must include a separate references page or slide that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the
Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.)
resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.
CHAPTER 6 SUMMARY
Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory.
Codes of (un)dress and gender constructs from the Greek to t.docxmary772
Codes of (un)dress and gender constructs
from the Greek to the Roman world
he
By 6th c. BC: Greek male and female dress codes firmly established
Archaic kouros
and kore statues
demonstrate how
the body was
used in the
naturalization of
gender
constructs
The naked male
body in the
classical period:
the Doryphoros as
a heroic athlete-
warrior citizen
Male sexuality: conditions by the patriarchal ideology of
domination, it restricted sexual expression and freedom
in homosexual
relations
and heterosexual
relations
In the classical
period,
while the naked
male body was
idealized and
heroized,
the female naked
body was always
sexualized and
objectified.
Centauromachy (late 5th c.
Bassae): the Greek female is
defenseless and sexualized
(must be defended by Greek
men).
Gendered
nakedness in
mythological
scenes:
the Greek
male is
always
heroized
Amazonomachy (4th c.
Halikarnassos): the non-
Greek female is wild and
sexualized (must be
dominated by Greek men).
Aphrodite (Roman Venus): at first fully dressed
The gradual disrobing of Aphrodite in monumental statues, late 5th to
4th c. BC (Roman copies)
“Venus Genetrix”,
original late 5th c. BC
“Venus of Capua”,
original 4th c. BC
Aphrodite of Knidos,
original 4th c. BC
Late 5th c. onwards: minor goddesses were also represented sexualized in
statues, but only Aphrodite appeared entirely naked by the 4th c. BC.
Nike (Victory), late
5th c., Olympia.
Aphrodite of Knidos by
Praxiteles, 4th c. (Roman copy)
Aphrodite “Beautiful
Buttocks”, Roman
copy (Greek ca. 300).
Doryphoros and
Aphrodite of Knidos
(Knidia or Knidian
Aphrodite), Roman
copies.
What main
differences do you
observe?
Was her nakedness
really threatening to
patriarchy (Andrew
Stewart)?
Or, in what ways
was her nakedness
aligned with
patriarchal ideology?
Could she have been
empowering for
women?
The traditional visual
presence of a divine
statue at the far end of
a rectangular temple
was very different
(Olympian Zeus)
Aphrodite of Knidos was displayed in an unusual temple (round plan), so as to
be seen from all sides, like a beautiful object.
The original
Aphrodite of
Knidos is lost.
Numerous
Roman copies
of the Knidian
Aphrodite exist
(with variations
in details).
“Colonna
Venus” Vatican
Museums.
“Ludovisi
Venus”,
Palazzo
Altemps, Rome
(only the torso
is ancient, the
rest is 17th-c,
restoration.)
Capitoline Venus, Rome
Medici Venus, Florence
Variations on the
“Venus pudica” type,
Greek Hellenistic
originals, Roman
copies.
Are they more modest
or also more shamed?
Latin pudore: modesty,
chastity, shame.
Greek aidos: shame,
modesty
(aidion=vagina)
There is no male “pudicus”
type in Greco-Roman
sculpture.
These unequal gender
constructs are still around
today,
to the detriment of all of us!
There is no male
“pudicus” type in Greco-
Roman sculpture.
An effec.
Coding Assignment 3CSC 330 Advanced Data Structures, Spri.docxmary772
Coding Assignment 3
CSC 330: Advanced Data Structures, Spring 2019
Released Monday, April 15, 2019
Due on Canvas on Wednesday, May 1, at 11:59pm
Overview
In this assignment, you’ll implement another variant of a height-balancing tree known as a
splay tree. The assignment will also give you an opportunity to work with Java inheritance;
in particular, the base code that you’ll amend is structured so that your SplayTree class
extends from an abstract class called HeightBalancingTree, which gives a general template
for how a height-balancing tree should be defined.
As always, please carefully read the entire write-up before you begin coding your submission.
Splay Trees
As mentioned above, a splay tree is another example of a height-balancing tree — a binary
search tree that, upon either an insertion or deletion, modifies the tree through a sequence
of rotations in order to reduce the overall height of the tree.
However, splay trees differ from the other height-balancing trees we’ve seen (AVL trees,
red-black trees) in terms of the type of guarantees that they provide. In particular, recall
that both AVL trees and red-black trees maintain the property that after any insertion or
deletion, the height of the tree is O(log n), where n is the number of elements in the tree.
Splay trees unfortunately do not provide this (fairly strong) guarantee; namely, it is possible
for the height of a splay tree to become greater than O(log n) over a sequence of insertions
and deletions.
Instead, splay trees provide a slightly weaker (though still meaningful) guarantee known as
an amortized bound, which is essentially just a bound on the average time of a single opera-
tion over the course of several operations. In the context of splay trees, one can show that
over the course of, say, n insertions to build a tree with n elements, the average time of each
of these operations is O(log n) (but again, keeping in mind it is possible for any single one
of these operations to take much longer than this).
Showing this guarantee is beyond the scope of this course (although the details of the analy-
sis can be found in your textbook). Instead, in this assignment, we will just be in interested
1
r splay:
N
root
root
2
1
1
2
l splay:
N
1
2
rr splay:
N
N
N
ll splay:
rl splay:
1
2
N
lr splay:
Figure 1: Illustration of the six possible cases for on a given step of a splay operation.
in writing an implementation of a splay tree in Java that is structured using inheritance.
Splay Tree Insertions and Deletions
To insert or delete an element from the tree, splay trees use the same approach as the other
height-balancing trees we’ve discussed in class — first we insert/deletion an element using
standard BST procedures, and then perform a “height-fixing” procedure that rebalances the
tree. Thus, what distinguishes each of these height-balancing trees from one another is how
they define their height-fixing procedures.
To fix the tree after both inser.
CodeZipButtonDemo.javaCodeZipButtonDemo.java Demonstrate a p.docxmary772
CodeZip/ButtonDemo.javaCodeZip/ButtonDemo.java// Demonstrate a push button and handle action events.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
publicclassButtonDemoimplementsActionListener{
JLabel jlab;
JTextField jtf;
ButtonDemo(){
// Create a new JFrame container.
JFrame jfrm =newJFrame("A Button Example");
// Specify FlowLayout for the layout manager.
jfrm.setLayout(newFlowLayout());
// Give the frame an initial size.
jfrm.setSize(220,90);
// Terminate the program when the user closes the application.
jfrm.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
// Make two buttons.
JButton jbtnUp =newJButton("Up");
JButton jbtnDown =newJButton("Down");
// Create a text field.
jtf =newJTextField(10);
// Add action listeners.
jbtnUp.addActionListener(this);
jbtnDown.addActionListener(this);
// Add the buttons to the content pane.
jfrm.add(jbtnUp);
jfrm.add(jbtnDown);
jfrm.add(jtf);
// Create a label.
jlab =newJLabel("Press a button.");
// Add the label to the frame.
jfrm.add(jlab);
// Display the frame.
jfrm.setVisible(true);
}
// Handle button events.
publicvoid actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae){
if(ae.getActionCommand().equals("Up")){
jlab.setText("You pressed Up.");
FileClock clock1=newFileClock(jtf);
Thread thread1=newThread(clock1);
thread1.start();
}
else
jlab.setText("You pressed down. ");
}
publicstaticvoid main(String args[]){
// Create the frame on the event dispatching thread.
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(newRunnable(){
publicvoid run(){
newButtonDemo();
}
});
}
}
CodeZip/CBDemo.javaCodeZip/CBDemo.java// Demonstrate check boxes.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
publicclassCBDemoimplementsItemListener{
JLabel jlabSelected;
JLabel jlabChanged;
JCheckBox jcbAlpha;
JCheckBox jcbBeta;
JCheckBox jcbGamma;
CBDemo(){
// Create a new JFrame container.
JFrame jfrm =newJFrame("Demonstrate Check Boxes");
// Specify FlowLayout for the layout manager.
jfrm.setLayout(newFlowLayout());
// Give the frame an initial size.
jfrm.setSize(280,120);
// Terminate the program when the user closes the application.
jfrm.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
// Create empty labels.
jlabSelected =newJLabel("");
jlabChanged =newJLabel("");
// Make check boxes.
jcbAlpha =newJCheckBox("Alpha");
jcbBeta =newJCheckBox("Beta");
jcbGamma =newJCheckBox("Gamma");
// Events generated by the check boxes
// are handled in common by the itemStateChanged()
// method implemented by CBDemo.
jcbAlpha.addItemListener(this);
jcbBeta.addItemListener(this);
jcbGamma.addItemListener(this);
// Add checkboxes and labels to the content pane.
jfrm.add(jcbAlpha);
jfrm.add(jcbBeta);
jfrm.add(jcbGamma);
jfrm.add(jlabChanged);
jfrm.add(jlabSelected);
// Display the frame.
jfrm.setVisible(true);
}
// This is the handler for the check boxes..
CoevolutionOver the ages, many species have become irremediably .docxmary772
Coevolution
Over the ages, many species have become irremediably linked. Whether in the context of an arms race or cooperation to conquer new ecosystems, they have no choice but to evolve together . According to Paul Ehrlich and Peter Raven, who introduced the term in 1964, "Coevolution is the evolution of two or more entities caused by the action between these entities of reciprocal selective factors. Organizations must therefore influence each other (Thompson, 1989). Coevolution relates to this week’s theme by the how natural selection affects the ecosystem. The book compares coevolution to an ecological arm race (Bensel & Turk, 2014). One example is a case of bats as stated in the book and their use of echolocation to be able to find insects. One insect that tries to outsmart it is a tiger moth which blocks out and jam’s the bats signal with a high frequency clicks and the bat fly’s erratically to confuse the moth. This is important in adaptation and of evolution of any new biological species. There are two kinds of interactions that happen that can lead to competitive coevolution. One interactions is predation in which one organism kills another organism. The second one is parasitism in which one organism benefits by damaging but not killing another organism.
This term affects living things and the physical world because if we didn’t have the natural selection all our ecosystem who would be extinct including human beings. Many recent studies state that environmental changes have messed with the balance between interacting species and leading to their extinction. When we use the three models of coevolution such as competition, predation, mutualism in organizing and synthesizing ways to modify species interaction when there is climate change in favoring one species over another. Coevolution reduces the effects of climate change and leads to lowering chances in extinction. By getting an understanding of our nature of coevolution in how they interact with different species and our communities interact and respond to the changing climate.
We as human kind must take action and not let our natural system and ecosystem suffer because of our greed for economic growth (Cairns, 2007). We must also be careful of our matriac consumption and forget about ecological and sustainability ethics. (Cairns, 2007). Humans need to take action to better take care of our ecosystem and environment. Morowitz (1992) stated in this journal, “Sustained life is a property of an ecological system rather than a single organism or species.” There are no species that can exist without the ecological life support system even humans (Cairns, 2007). We need to put more effort in taking care of our environment by creating more organizations in getting our communities involved. In achieving sustainability they must guide through ecological and sustainability ethics. There are many challenges that will come but with achieving sustainable use of our planet our environment will .
Coding Component (50)Weve provided you with an implementation .docxmary772
Coding Component (50%)
We've provided you with an implementation of an unbalanced binary search tree. The tree implements an ordered dynamic set over a generic comparable type T. Supported operations include insertion, deletion, min, max, and testing whether a value is in the set (via the exists method). Because it's a set, duplicates are not allowed, and the insert operation will not insert a value if it is already present.
We have implemented the BST operations in a recursive style. For example, inserting a value into a tree recurses down the tree seeking the correct place to add a new leaf. Each recursive call returns the root of the subtree on which it was called, after making any modifications needed to the subtree to perform the insertion. Deletion is implemented similarly.
Your job is to add the functionality needed to keep the tree balanced using the AVL property. In particular, you will need to
· augment the tree to maintain the height of each of its subtrees, as discussed in Studio;
· compute the balance at the root of a subtree (which is the height of the root's left subtree minus that of its right subtree);
· implement the AVL rebalancing operation, along with the supporting rotation operations; and
· call the height maintenance and rebalancing operations at the appropriate times during insertion and deletion.
Code Outline
There are two main source code files you need to consider, both in the avl package:
· TreeNode.java implements a class TreeNode that represents a node of a binary search tree. It holds a value (the key of the node) along with child and parent pointers. It has a height data member that is currently not used for anything. You should not modify this file, but you need to understand its contents.
· AVLTree.java implements an ordered set as a binary search tree made out of TreeNode objects.
The AVLTree class provides an interface that includes element insertion and deletion, as well as an exists() method that tests whether a value is present in the set. It also offers min() and max() methods. These methods all work as given for (unbalanced) BSTs, using the algorithms we discussed in lecture.
To implement the AVL balancing method, you will need to fill in some missing code to maintain the height of each subtree and perform rebalancing. Look for the 'FIXME' tags in AVLTree.java to see which methods you must modify.
Height Maintenance
You'll need to set the height data member each time a new leaf is allocated in the tree. You can then maintain the height as part of insertion or deletion using the incremental updating strategy you worked out in Studio 10, Part C.
The update procedure updateHeight() takes in a node and updates its height using the heights of its two subtrees. It should run in constant time.
You'll need to call updateHeight() wherever it is needed – in insertion, deletion, and perhaps elsewhere.
Rebalancing
You must implement four methods as part of AVL rebalancing:
· getBalance() computes the balance fact.
Codes of Ethics Guides Not Prescriptions A set of rules and di.docxmary772
Codes of Ethics: Guides Not Prescriptions A set of rules and directives that would result in efficient and ethical professional practice would be something clearly welcomed by student and professional alike. However, as should be clear by now, such prescriptions or recipes for professional practice do not exist, nor does every client and every professional condition provide clear-cut avenues for progress. Professional practice is both complex and complicated. The issues presented are often confounded and conflicting. The process of making sense of the options available and engaging in the path that leads to effective, ethical practice cannot be preprogrammed but rather needs to be fluid, flexible, and responsive to the uniqueness of the client and the context of helping. The very dynamic and fluid nature of our work with clients prohibits the use of rigid, formulaic prescriptions or directions. Never is this so obvious as when first confronted with an ethical dilemma. Consider the subtle challenges to practice decisions presented in Case Illustration 7.1. The case reflects a decision regarding the release of information and the potential breach of confidentiality. The element confounding the decision, as you will see, is that the client was deceased and it was the executrix of the estate providing permission to release the information to a third party.
Case Illustration 7.1 Conditions for Maintaining Confidentiality While all clinicians have been schooled in the issue of confidentiality and the various conditions under which confidentiality must be breached (e.g., prevention of harm to self or another), the conditions of maintenance of confidentiality can be somewhat blurred when the material under consideration is that of a client who is now deceased. Consider the case of Dr. Martin Orne, MD, PhD. Dr. Orne was a psychotherapist who worked with Anne Sexton, a Pulitzer Prize winner. Following the death of Ms. Sexton, an author, Ms. Middlebrook, set out to write her biography. In doing her research, Ms. Middlebrook discovered that Dr. Orne had tape-recorded a number of sessions with Ms. Sexton in order to allow her to review the sessions, and he had not destroyed the tapes following her death. Ms. Middlebrook approached Linda Gray Sexton, the daughter of the client and the executrix of the estate, seeking permission to access these tapes of the confidential therapy sessions as an aid to her writing. The daughter granted permission for release of the therapeutic tapes. A number of questions could be raised around this case, including the ethics of tape-recording or the ethics of maintenance of the tapes following the death of the client. However, the most pressing issue involves the conditions under which confidentiality should be maintained. The challenge here is, should Dr. Orne release the tapes in response to the daughter’s granting of permission, or does his client have the right to confidentiality even beyond the grave? As noted, t.
Codecademy Monetizing a Movement 815-093 815-093 Codecademy.docxmary772
Codecademy: Monetizing a Movement? 815-093
815-093 Codecademy: Monetizing a Movement?
Codecademy: Monetizing a Movement? 815-093
9-815-093
RE V : OCT OB E R 1 4 , 2 0 1 5
JEFFREY J. BU SSGANG
LISA C. MA ZZANTI
Codecademy: Monetizing a Movement?
We’re a movement to make education more of a commodity. We’re not just a for-profit company. Our mission would get tainted if we charged consumers for content. We need to be authentic.
— Zach Sims, Cofounder and CEO
Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski sat in the Codecademy headquarters, an exposed-brick fourth-floor office near Madison Square Park in New York City. In 2011, while in their early twenties, the two had founded Codecademy, an open-platform, online community to teach users to code. By 2014, they had a total of 24 million unique users and a library of over 100,000 lessons. The company had raised a total of $12.5 million in funding and was, on many fronts, an overwhelming success. However, there were still no revenues. The company’s website stated, “Codecademy is free and always will be.”1
The founders, along with the board, had decided that 2014 would be a year of experimentation with different monetization strategies. By June, the cofounders had preliminarily tested two monetization models. The first charged companies for training employees offline on coding skills, a service that the training departments of these companies paid an annual fee to receive. The second monetization model focused on a labor marketplace to match Codecademy users with jobs that corporations and recruiters were seeking to fill.
But 2014 had also been busy in other arenas for the 25-employee company. In April, the company launched a redesign of its website, because, as the Codecademy blog announced, “it quickly became apparent that if we wanted to grow and mature as a brand, we required a thorough redesign of our entire product.”2 The next month, the company announced that they were opening an office in London to work with the British education system and also had forged partnerships with foundations and government bodies in Estonia, Argentina, and France.
As Sims and Bubinski huddled in their glass-walled conference room, they tried to focus on the task at hand—to narrow down their ideas and eventually decide on a viable business model. The two reviewed early results from both experiments to prepare for the upcoming board meeting where they planned to present their findings and propose next steps. The employee-training experiments had yielded promising initial results but would require hiring a sales force, offline instructors, and some content customization to scale. The labor marketplace model promised less friction in scaling but represented a more crowded market opportunity.
Senior Lecturer Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Case Researcher Lisa C. Mazzanti (Case Research & Writing Group) prepared this case. It was reviewed and approved before publication by a company designate. Funding for the develo.
Code switching involves using 1 language or nonstandard versions of .docxmary772
Code switching involves alternating between languages or language varieties based on context. The document asks for a 175+ word response about a personal experience with code switching, including why it was done and potential benefits and consequences, as well as the outcome.
Code of Ethics for the Nutrition and Dietetics Pr.docxmary772
This document presents the Code of Ethics for the Nutrition and Dietetics Profession, which establishes the principles and ethical standards that guide nutrition and dietetics practitioners. It contains 4 main principles: competence, integrity, professionalism, and social responsibility. The code applies general ethical guidelines and standards for common practice situations to protect clients, patients, and the public. It also requires practitioners to abide by the code and report any perceived violations.
Code of Ethics for Engineers 4. Engineers shall act .docxmary772
Code of Ethics for Engineers
4. Engineers shall act for each employer or client as faithful agents or
trustees.
a. Engineers shall disclose all known or potential conflicts of interest
that could influence or appear to influence their judgment or the
quality of their services.
b. Engineers shall not accept compensation, financial or otherwise,
from more than one party for services on the same project, or for
services pertaining to the same project, unless the circumstances are
fully disclosed and agreed to by all interested parties.
c. Engineers shall not solicit or accept financial or other valuable
consideration, directly or indirectly, from outside agents in
connection with the work for which they are responsible.
d. Engineers in public service as members, advisors, or employees
of a governmental or quasi-governmental body or department shall
not participate in decisions with respect to services solicited or
provided by them or their organizations in private or public
engineering practice.
e. Engineers shall not solicit or accept a contract from a governmental
body on which a principal or officer of their organization serves as
a member.
5. Engineers shall avoid deceptive acts.
a. Engineers shall not falsify their qualifications or permit
misrepresentation of their or their associates’ qualifications. They
shall not misrepresent or exaggerate their responsibility in or for the
subject matter of prior assignments. Brochures or other
presentations incident to the solicitation of employment shall not
misrepresent pertinent facts concerning employers, employees,
associates, joint venturers, or past accomplishments.
b. Engineers shall not offer, give, solicit, or receive, either directly or
indirectly, any contribution to influence the award of a contract by
public authority, or which may be reasonably construed by the
public as having the effect or intent of influencing the awarding of a
contract. They shall not offer any gift or other valuable
consideration in order to secure work. They shall not pay a
commission, percentage, or brokerage fee in order to secure work,
except to a bona fide employee or bona fide established commercial
or marketing agencies retained by them.
III. Professional Obligations
1. Engineers shall be guided in all their relations by the highest standards
of honesty and integrity.
a. Engineers shall acknowledge their errors and shall not distort or
alter the facts.
b. Engineers shall advise their clients or employers when they believe
a project will not be successful.
c. Engineers shall not accept outside employment to the detriment of
their regular work or interest. Before accepting any outside
engineering employment, they will notify their employers.
d. Engineers shall not attempt to attract an engineer from another
employer by false or misleading pretenses.
e. Engineers shall not promote their own interest at the expense of the
dignity and integr.
Coder Name: Rebecca Oquendo
Coding Categories:
Episode
Aggressive Behavior
Neutral Behavior
Virtuous Behavior
Aggressive Gaming
Neutral Gaming
Virtuous Gaming
An older peer began using slurs or derogatory language
An older peer suggested that the team should cheat
The child witnessed an older peer intentionally leave out another player
An older player suggested that they play a different game
The child lost the game with older players on their team
The child witnessed an older player curse every time a mistake was made
Index:
· In this case aggressive behavior would constitute as mimicking older members undesired behaviors or becoming especially angry or agitated in game. A neutral behavior would be playing as they usually would not mimicking older player’s behaviors or trying to fit in to their more aggressive styles. A virtuous behavior would be steering the game away from aggression, voicing an opinion about the excessive aggression, or finding a way to express their gaming experience in a positive way. The same can be applied for the similar categories in “gaming”.
· Each category can be scaled from 1-7 in which way the child’s dialogue tended to be behavior and gaming wise with a 1 indicating little to no effort in that direction and a 7 indicating extreme effort in that category.
1. What are the different types of attributes? Provide examples of each attribute.
2. Describe the components of a decision tree. Give an example problem and provide an example of each component in your decision making tree
3. Conduct research over the Internet and find an article on data mining. The article has to be less than 5 years old. Summarize the article in your own words. Make sure that you use APA formatting for this assignment.
Questions from attached files
1. Obtain one of the data sets available at the UCI Machine Learning Repository and apply as many of the different visualization techniques described in the chapter as possible. The bibliographic notes and book Web site provide pointers to visualization software.
2. Identify at least two advantages and two disadvantages of using color to visually represent information.
3. What are the arrangement issues that arise with respect to three-dimensional plots?
4. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using sampling to reduce the number of data objects that need to be displayed. Would simple random sampling (without replacement) be a good approach to sampling? Why or why not?
5. Describe how you would create visualizations to display information that describes the following types of systems.
a) Computer networks. Be sure to include both the static aspects of the network, such as connectivity, and the dynamic aspects, such as traffic.
b) The distribution of specific plant and animal species around the world fora specific moment in time.
c) The use of computer resources, such as processor time, main me.
Codes of Ethical Conduct A Bottom-Up ApproachRonald Paul .docxmary772
Codes of Ethical Conduct: A Bottom-Up Approach
Ronald Paul Hill • Justine M. Rapp
Received: 18 January 2013 / Accepted: 12 December 2013 / Published online: 1 January 2014
� Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Abstract Developing and implementing a meaningful
code of conduct by managers or consultants may require a
change in orientation that modifies the way these precepts
are determined. The position advocated herein is for a
different approach to understanding and organizing the
guiding parameters of the firm that requires individual
reflection and empowerment of the entire organization to
advance their shared values. The processes involved are
discussed using four discrete stages that move from the
personal to the work team and to the unit to the full
company, followed by the board of directors’ evaluation.
The hoped-for end product is dynamic, employee-driven,
codes of conduct that recognize the systemic and far-
reaching impact of organizational activities across internal
and external stakeholders. Operational details for and some
issues associated with its implementation are also provided.
Keywords Code of conduct � Employee-driven
approaches � Bottom-up development
Corporation, Be Good! Frederick (2006)
That managers and employees are capable of both ethical
and unethical behaviors due to individual and internal
corporate culture factors cannot be denied (Ashforth and
Anand 2003; Treviño and Weaver 2003; Treviño et al.
2006). Over the last decade, as diverse organizational
stakeholders began exerting more pressure on firms to
eliminate unethical conduct, the field of management has
witnessed a proliferation of research on ethics and ethical
behavior in organizations (Elango et al. 2010; Gopala-
krishnan et al. 2008; O’Fallon and Butterfield 2005; Tre-
viño et al. 2006).
However, recent ethical failures, as well as continuous
ethical challenges that organizations face, have led scholars
to conclude that predicting ethical dilemmas is difficult a
priori: ‘‘It is only, when we look back on our conduct over
the long run that we may find ourselves guilty of moral
laxity’’ (Geva 2006, p. 138). What underlies this particular
situation is the inability of organizational elites to monitor
and implement initiatives within today’s complex business
entities (Martin and Eisenhardt 2010; Uhl-Bien et al.
2007). Accordingly, more dynamic approaches to business
ethics is needed, one that spans ‘‘both the individual and
organizational levels’’ of concern (Gopalakrishnan et al.
2008, p. 757).
As a consequence and in reaction to neoclassical eco-
nomics, managers and their employees are expected to go
beyond dictates imposed by the law and marketplace to
fulfill larger responsibilities (Stark 1993). This expectation
is accomplished through adoption of a stakeholder per-
spective that is infused with empathy for people, groups,
and communities that may be impacted by the actions of
business.
Code#RE00200012002020MN2DGHEType of Service.docxmary772
Code#RE00200012002020MN2DGHE
*****************
Type of Service
Presentation task- Attack Vector
Solution
s Step 14: Submit the Presentation
Project Title/Subject
Attack Vector
.
CODE OF ETHICSReview the following case study and address the qu.docxmary772
CODE OF ETHICS
Review the following case study and address the questions that follow:
General Hospital’s staff aggregated its infection rate data for comparison purposes with four other hospitals in the community. The staff members were aware that the data was flawed. They presented a false perception that General Hospital’s postoperative infection rates were lower than those of peer hospitals. The comparison data was published in the local newspaper. The Jones family, believing the data to be correct and concerned about the number of deaths related to hospital-acquired infections, relied on the data in selecting General Hospital as their preferred hospital.
Tasks:
Describe how organizational and professional codes of ethics were violated in this case.
Describe what role an organization’s ethics committee could play in addressing this or similar issues.
400 words APA format
.
cocaine, conspiracy theories and the cia in central america by Craig.docxmary772
cocaine, conspiracy theories and the cia in central america by Craig Delaval
Delaval is a freelance writer and filmmaker and was a production assistant for "Drug Wars." This article was edited by Lowell Bergman, series reporter for "Drug Wars."
Since its creation in 1947 under President Harry Truman, the CIA has been credited with a number of far-fetched operations. While some were proven - the infamous LSD mind-control experiments of the 1950s - others, like the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the crash of the Savings and Loans industry, have little or no merit.
In 1996 the agency was accused of being a crack dealer.
A series of expose articles in the San Jose Mercury-News by reporter Gary Webb told tales of a drug triangle during the 1980s that linked CIA officials in Central America, a San Francisco drug ring and a Los Angeles drug dealer. According to the stories, the CIA and its operatives used crack cocaine--sold via the Los Angeles African-American community--to raise millions to support the agency's clandestine operations in Central America.
The CIA's suspect past made the sensational articles an easy sell. Talk radio switchboards lit up, as did African-American leaders like U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, who pointed to Webb's articles as proof of a mastermind plot to destroy inner-city black America.
One of the people who was accused in the San Jose Mercury-News of being in the midst of the CIA cocaine conspiracy is one of the most respected, now retired, veteran D.E.A. agents, Robert "Bobby" Nieves.
"You have to understand Central America at that time was a haven for the conspiracy theorists. Christic Institute, people like Gary Webb, others down there, looking to dig up some story for political advantage," Nieves said. "No sexier story than to create the notion in people's minds that these people are drug traffickers."
But in the weeks following publication, Webb's peers doubted the merit of the articles. Fellow journalists at the Washington Post, New York Times and Webb's own editor accused him of blowing a few truths up into a massive conspiracy.
Amongst Webb's fundamental problems was his implication that the CIA lit the crack cocaine fuse. It was conspiracy theory: a neat presentation of reality that simply didn't jibe with real life. Webb later agreed in an interview that there is no hard evidence that the CIA as an institution or any of its agent-employees carried out or profited from drug trafficking.
Still, the fantastic story of the CIA injecting crack into ghettos had taken hold. In response to the public outcry following Webb's allegations--which were ultimately published in book form under the title Dark Alliance--the CIA conducted an internal investigation of its role in Central America related to the drug trade. Frederick Hitz, as the CIA Inspector General-- an independent watchdog approved by Congress--conducted the investigation. In October 1998, the CIA released a declassifie.
How to Build a Module in Odoo 17 Using the Scaffold MethodCeline George
Odoo provides an option for creating a module by using a single line command. By using this command the user can make a whole structure of a module. It is very easy for a beginner to make a module. There is no need to make each file manually. This slide will show how to create a module using the scaffold method.
How to Add Chatter in the odoo 17 ERP ModuleCeline George
In Odoo, the chatter is like a chat tool that helps you work together on records. You can leave notes and track things, making it easier to talk with your team and partners. Inside chatter, all communication history, activity, and changes will be displayed.
it describes the bony anatomy including the femoral head , acetabulum, labrum . also discusses the capsule , ligaments . muscle that act on the hip joint and the range of motion are outlined. factors affecting hip joint stability and weight transmission through the joint are summarized.
How to Fix the Import Error in the Odoo 17Celine George
An import error occurs when a program fails to import a module or library, disrupting its execution. In languages like Python, this issue arises when the specified module cannot be found or accessed, hindering the program's functionality. Resolving import errors is crucial for maintaining smooth software operation and uninterrupted development processes.
This presentation includes basic of PCOS their pathology and treatment and also Ayurveda correlation of PCOS and Ayurvedic line of treatment mentioned in classics.
This presentation was provided by Steph Pollock of The American Psychological Association’s Journals Program, and Damita Snow, of The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), for the initial session of NISO's 2024 Training Series "DEIA in the Scholarly Landscape." Session One: 'Setting Expectations: a DEIA Primer,' was held June 6, 2024.
Physiology and chemistry of skin and pigmentation, hairs, scalp, lips and nail, Cleansing cream, Lotions, Face powders, Face packs, Lipsticks, Bath products, soaps and baby product,
Preparation and standardization of the following : Tonic, Bleaches, Dentifrices and Mouth washes & Tooth Pastes, Cosmetics for Nails.
College Writing 1Oct 10, 2018In the case of Benihana restauran.docx
1. College Writing 1
Oct 10, 2018
In the case of Benihana restaurant, the surroundings, music,
location and even the people have a massive impact on the
image that the restaurant wants to portray. Big food chains use
bright colors, loud music, and quick food service to get the
desired results while other places prefer a different client base.
Benihana restaurant is a relatively traditional Japanese
restaurant which is one of its kind. The restaurant is located at
the side of a quiet little street in Anaheim with a small entrance
that you may not notice if you don't know where you're headed.
The entry is a traditional Japanese wooden door. The entire
theme of the restaurant is rooted in Japanese culture. Upon
entering the restaurant, the customers are greeted by a waitress
dressed in a Kimono.
The restaurant is quaint, with just a few tables and dim lighting.
It has no more than eighth tables, working well with the
intimate environment of the restaurant. Classical Japanese
music, also referred to as shōmyō plays slowly in the
background as the customers take their seats. Despite the vast
cultural differences, the place has a very homely feel. The
restaurant has a sweet smell in the air. All the staff greets
customers with huge smiles on their face making it a very
welcoming environment. Each table is surrounded by wooden
chairs; some are surrounded by two to accommodate couples,
some with four and some with six to cater to slightly large
groups. The wooden tables and chairs give a more rustic feel to
the restaurant and work well with the design of the place.
At the back of the restaurant, there is a small window through
which you can see the workings of the kitchen. It's a modest,
but well-equipped kitchen with the staff dressed in white coats
and chefs' hats. Here, you can see your order being freshly
prepared. A soft bell is heard, and the waitress rushes to the
window to receive the order.
2. On the other end of the restaurant, there is a fascinating sight, a
line of benches, shaped into a square with a marbled table like
surface in front of it. A man is standing in the middle in chefs
clothing holding a spatula with a black hot plate in front of him.
Here, he is surrounded by a group of people. If nothing else,
this is enough to spark one's curiosity. Taking a closer look, it
can be seen that the man is tossing vegetables and different
kinds of meat onto the hot plate, using tricks to entertain the
customers but with extreme precision. He flings the cooked food
onto the customer's plates as they start eating.
On the outside, the restaurant seems like a modest one but
looking at the clientele, it is apparent that first impressions can
be wrong. The tables are filled with men in expensive suits
discussing their day to day business. They sit at their tables
sitting overprices sake, a traditional Japanese rice wine. The
exclusivity of the place becomes apparent when a small bar is
spotted. The bar is stocked with spirits that value at hundreds of
dollars per bottle and customers are happy to pay for them.
The modest demeanor of the restaurant can fool anyone but
most people who come to the restaurant are frequent visitors
and are aware of the prices and quality of everything that is
served thus knowing the exclusivity of the restaurant itself. The
fancy counter and the bar give the place an immersive feel
while the separate tables allow for more privacy thus
incorporating both aspects in a well-designed way.
The restaurant has a brilliant business model; it caters to all the
needs of its customers while ensuring that they make maximum
profit. This is done mainly by the bar in the corner. Customers
purchase exuberantly expensive bottles for their tables, bottles
that would be 1/3rd the price at any store. Incorporating the bar
into the restaurant also ensures that customers will purchase
more items as the consumption of alcohol makes people more
impulsive and willing to spend more money. If a customer
chooses to bring their bottle, they are prepared to pay a cover
charge that is more than the cost of the bottle thus discouraging
customers from bringing their own but making a huge profit
3. even if they do. The restaurant has also very cleverly worked
around the intake of the food with the free alcohol. It gives its
customers free alcohol shots where the customer bill is
amounted to a certain price, so customer becomes more driven
to achieve that amount to acquire the free liquor.
Since this place is so exclusive and the entry is very much
restricted to that customer who has the back to support the
massive bills it has become a sign for status by the rich people
and businesspeople who enjoy the Japanese food. Some
customer comes here so that they can flaunt their luxury
lifestyle. The restaurant is also a "consumer-oriented" It focuses
on the customer needs and adapts accordingly, such as if the
customer is looking for a particular type of beverage, the
restaurant will procure it on a bespoke basis to accommodate
the client.
The fancy counter also plays a huge role in the business model
of the restaurant as it becomes an attraction for people who
choose to visit the place with family and friends to have a good
time. The tricks performed by the chef at the counter fascinates
people thus giving the area an element of fun.
The restaurant covers most things needed to make a business
successful, from the homely feel to the factor of fun, exclusivity
all the while maintaining a calm demeanor.
from The New Yorker
November 4, 1996
A REPORTER AT LARGE
The Science of Shopping
The American shopper has never been so fickle.
4. What are stores, including the new flagship designer
boutiques, doing about it? Applying science.
by Malcolm Gladwell
1.
Human beings walk the way
they drive, which is to say
that Americans tend to keep
to the right when they stroll
down shopping-mall
concourses or city sidewalks.
This is why in a well-
designed airport travellers
drifting toward their gate
will always find the fast-food
restaurants on their left and
the gift shops on their right:
people will readily cross a
lane of pedestrian traffic to
satisfy their hunger but
rarely to make an impulse
buy of a T-shirt or a
magazine. This is also why
Paco Underhill tells his
retail clients to make sure
that their window displays
are canted, preferably to
both sides but especially to
the left, so that a potential
shopper approaching the
store on the inside of the
sidewalk-the shopper, that
is, with the least impeded
5. view of the store window-
can see the display from at
least twenty-five feet away.
Of course, a lot depends on
how fast the potential shopper
is walking. Paco, in his
previous life, as an urban
geographer in Manhattan,
spent a great deal of time
thinking about walking speeds
as he listened in on the great
debates of the nineteen-
seventies over whether the
traffic lights in midtown
should be timed to facilitate
the movement of cars or to
facilitate the movement of
pedestrians and so break up
the big platoons that move
down Manhattan sidewalks.
He knows that the faster you
walk the more your peripheral
vision narrows, so you become
unable to pick up visual cues
as quickly as someone who is
just ambling along. He knows,
too, that people who walk fast
take a surprising amount of
time to slow down-just as it
takes a good stretch of road to
change gears with a stick-shift
automobile. On the basis of
his research, Paco estimates
the human downshift period
to be anywhere from twelve to
6. twenty-five feet, so if you own
a store, he says, you never
want to be next door to a
bank: potential shoppers
speed up when they walk
past a bank (since there's
nothing to look at), and by
the time they slow down
they've walked right past
your business. The
downshift factor also means
that when potential
shoppers enter a store it's
going to take them from five
to fifteen paces to adjust to
the light and refocus and
gear down from walking
speed to shopping speed-
particularly if they've just
had to navigate a
treacherous parking lot or
hurry to make the light at
Fifty- seventh and Fifth.
Paco calls that area inside
the door the Decompression
Zone, and something he tells
clients over and over again is
never, ever put anything of
value in that zone- not
shopping baskets or tie
racks or big promotional
displays- because no one is
going to see it. Paco believes
that, as a rule of thumb,
7. customer interaction with
any product or promotional
display in the
Decompression Zone will
increase at least thirty per
cent once it's moved to the
back edge of the zone, and
even more if it's placed to
the right, because another of
the fundamental rules of
how human beings shop is
that upon entering a store-
whether it's Nordstrom or K
mart, Tiffany or the Gap-the
shopper invariably and
reflexively turns to the right.
Paco believes in the
existence of the Invariant
Right because he has
actually verified it. He has
put cameras in stores
trained directly on the
doorway, and if you go to his
office, just above Union
Square, where
videocassettes and boxes of
Super-eight film from all his
work over the years are
stacked in plastic
Tupperware containers
practically up to the ceiling,
he can show you reel upon
reel of grainy entryway
video-customers striding in
8. the door, downshifting,
refocussing, and then, again
and again, making that little
half turn.
Paco Underhill is a tall man
in his mid-forties, partly
bald, with a neatly trimmed
beard and an engaging,
almost goofy manner. He
wears baggy khakis and
shirts open at the collar, and
generally looks like the
academic he might have been
if he hadn't been captivated,
twenty years ago, by the ideas
of the urban anthropologist
William Whyte. It was Whyte
who pioneered the use of
time-lapse photography as a
tool of urban planning,
putting cameras in parks and
the plazas in front of office
buildings in midtown
Manhattan, in order to
determine what distinguished
a public space that worked
from one that didn't. As a
Columbia undergraduate, in
1974, Paco heard a lecture on
Whyte's work and, he recalls,
left the room "walking on air."
He immediately read
everything Whyte had written.
He emptied his bank account
9. to buy cameras and film and
make his own home movie,
about a pedestrian mall in
Poughkeepsie. He took his
"little exercise" to Whyte's
advocacy group, the Project
for Public Spaces, and was
offered a job. Soon, however,
it dawned on Paco that
Whyte's ideas could be taken a
step further-that the same
techniques he used to
establish why a plaza worked
or didn't work could also be
used to determine why a store
worked or didn't work. Thus
was born the field of retail
anthropology, and, not long
afterward, Paco founded
Envirosell, which in just over
fifteen years has counselled
some of the most familiar
names in American retailing,
from Levi Strauss to Kinney,
Starbucks, McDonald's,
Blockbuster, Apple
Computer, A.T. & T., and a
number of upscale retailers
that Paco would rather not
name. When Paco gets an
assignment, he and his staff
set up a series of video
cameras throughout the test
store and then back the
cameras up with Envirosell
10. staffers-trackers, as they're
known-armed with
clipboards. Where the
cameras go and how many
trackers Paco deploys
depends on exactly what the
store wants to know about
its shoppers. Typically,
though, he might use six
cameras and two or three
trackers, and let the study
run for two or three days, so
that at the end he would
have pages and pages of
carefully annotated tracking
sheets and anywhere from a
hundred to five hundred
hours of film. These days,
given the expansion of his
business, he might tape
fifteen thousand hours in a
year, and, given that he has
been in operation since the
late seventies, he now has
well over a hundred
thousand hours of tape in
his library. Even in the best
of times, this would be a
valuable archive. But today,
with the retail business in
crisis, it is a gold mine. The
time per visit that the
average American spends in
a shopping mall was sixty-
six minutes last year-down
from seventy-two minutes in
11. 1992-and is the lowest
number ever recorded. The
amount of selling space per
American shopper is now
more than double what it
was in the mid-seventies,
meaning that profit margins
have never been narrower,
and the costs of starting a
retail business-and of
failing-have never been
higher. In the past few years,
countless dazzling new
retailing temples have been
built along Fifth and
Madison Avenues- Barneys,
Calvin Klein, Armani,
Valentino, Banana Republic,
Prada, Chanel, Nike Town,
and on and on-but it is an
explosion of growth based
on no more than a hunch, a
hopeful multimillion-dollar
gamble that the way to break
through is to provide the
shopper with spectacle and
more spectacle. "The
arrogance is gone," Millard
Drexler, the president and
CEO of the Gap, told me.
"Arrogance makes failure.
Once you think you know
the answer, it's almost
12. always over." In such a
competitive environment,
retailers don't just want to
know how shoppers behave
in their stores. They have to
know. And who better to ask
than Paco Underhill, who in
the past decade and a half
has analyzed tens of
thousands of hours of
shopping videotape and, as a
result, probably knows more
about the strange habits and
quirks of the species Emptor
americanus than anyone else
alive?
2.
Paco is considered the
originator, for example, of
what is known in the trade as
the butt-brush theory-or, as
Paco calls it, more delicately,
le facteur bousculade-which
holds that the likelihood of a
woman's being converted
from a browser to a buyer is
inversely proportional to the
likelihood of her being
brushed on her behind while
she's examining merchandise.
Touch-or brush or bump or
jostle-a woman on the behind
when she has stopped to look
13. at an item, and she will bolt.
Actually, calling this a theory
is something of a misnomer,
because Paco doesn't offer any
explanation for why women
react that way, aside from
venturing that they are "more
sensitive back there." It's
really an observation, based
on repeated and close analysis
of his videotape library, that
Paco has transformed into a
retailing commandment: a
women's product that requires
extensive examination should
never be placed in a narrow
aisle.
Paco approaches the problem
of the Invariant Right the
same way. Some retail
thinkers see this as a subject
crying out for interpretation
and speculation. The design
guru Joseph Weishar, for
example, argues, in his
magisterial "Design for
Effective Selling Space," that
the Invariant Right is a
function of the fact that we
"absorb and digest
information in the left part
of the brain" and "assimilate
and logically use this
information in the right
14. half," the result being that
we scan the store from left to
right and then fix on an
object to the right
"essentially at a 45 degree
angle from the point that we
enter." When I asked Paco
about this interpretation, he
shrugged, and said he
thought the reason was
simply that most people are
right-handed. Uncovering
the fundamentals of "why" is
clearly not a pursuit that
engages him much. He is not
a theoretician but an
empiricist, and for him the
important thing is that in
amassing his huge library of
in- store time-lapse
photography he has gained
enough hard evidence to
know how often and under
what circumstances the
Invariant Right is expressed
and how to take advantage
of it.
What Paco likes are facts.
They come tumbling out
when he talks, and, because
he speaks with a slight
hesitation-lingering over the
first syllable in, for example,
"re-tail" or "de-sign"-he
draws you in, and you find
15. yourself truly hanging on his
words. "We have reached a
historic point in American
history," he told me in our
very first conversation.
"Men, for the first time, have
begun to buy their own
underwear." He then paused
to let the comment sink in,
so that I could absorb its
implications, before he
elaborated: "Which means
that we have to totally
rethink the way we sell that
product." In the parlance of
Hollywood scriptwriters, the
best endings must be
surprising and yet
inevitable; and the best of
Paco's pronouncements take
the same shape. It would
never have occurred to me
to wonder about the
increasingly critical role
played by touching-or, as
Paco calls it, petting- clothes
in the course of making the
decision to buy them. But
then I went to the Gap and
to Banana Republic and saw
people touching and
fondling and, one after
another, buying shirts and
16. sweaters laid out on big
wooden tables, and what
Paco told me-which was no
doubt based on what he had
seen on his videotapes-made
perfect sense: that the
reason the Gap and Banana
Republic have tables is not
merely that sweaters and
shirts look better there, or
that tables fit into the warm
and relaxing residential
feeling that the Gap and
Banana Republic are trying
to create in their stores, but
that tables invite-indeed,
symbolize-touching. "Where
do we eat?" Paco asks. "We
eat, we pick up food, on
tables."
Paco produces for his clients a
series of carefully detailed
studies, totalling forty to a
hundred and fifty pages, filled
with product-by-product
breakdowns and bright-
colored charts and graphs. In
one recent case, he was asked
by a major clothing retailer to
analyze the first of a new
chain of stores that the firm
planned to open. One of the
things the client wanted to
know was how successful the
17. store was in drawing people
into its depths, since the
chances that shoppers will buy
something are directly related
to how long they spend
shopping, and how long they
spend shopping is directly
related to how deep they get
pulled into the store. For this
reason, a supermarket will
often put dairy products on
one side, meat at the back,
and fresh produce on the
other side, so that the typical
shopper can't just do a drive-
by but has to make an entire
circuit of the store, and be
tempted by everything the
supermarket has to offer. In
the case of the new clothing
store, Paco found that ninety-
one per cent of all shoppers
penetrated as deep as what he
called Zone 4, meaning more
than three-quarters of the way
in, well past the accessories
and shirt racks and belts in
the front, and little short of
the far wall, with the
changing rooms and the
pants stacked on shelves.
Paco regarded this as an
extraordinary figure,
particularly for a long,
narrow store like this one,
18. where it is not unusual for
the rate of penetration past,
say, Zone 3 to be under fifty
per cent. But that didn't
mean the store was perfect-
far from it. For Paco, all
kinds of questions
remained.
Purchasers, for example,
spent an average of eleven
minutes and twenty-seven
seconds in the store,
nonpurchasers two minutes
and thirty-six seconds. It
wasn't that the
nonpurchasers just cruised
in and out: in those two
minutes and thirty-six
seconds, they went deep into
the store and examined an
average of 3.42 items. So
why didn't they buy? What,
exactly, happened to cause
some browsers to buy and
other browsers to walk out
the door?
Then, there was the issue of
the number of products
examined. The purchasers
were looking at an average
of 4.81 items but buying
only 1.33 items. Paco found
this statistic deeply
disturbing. As the retail
19. market grows more
cutthroat, store owners have
come to realize that it's all
but impossible to increase
the number of customers
coming in, and have
concentrated instead on
getting the customers they
do have to buy more. Paco
thinks that if you can sell
someone a pair of pants you
must also be able to sell that
person a belt, or a pair of
socks, or a pair of
underpants, or even do what
the Gap does so well: sell a
person a complete outfit. To
Paco, the figure 1.33
suggested that the store was
doing something very
wrong, and one day when I
visited him in his office he
sat me down in front of one
of his many VCRs to see how
he looked for the 1.33
culprit.
It should be said that sitting
next to Paco is a rather
strange experience. "My
mother says that I'm the
best-paid spy in America,"
he told me. He laughed, but
20. he wasn't entirely joking. As
a child, Paco had a nearly
debilitating stammer, and,
he says, "since I was never
that comfortable talking I
always relied on my eyes to
understand things." That
much is obvious from the
first moment you meet him:
Paco is one of those people
who look right at you,
soaking up every nuance and
detail. It isn't a hostile gaze,
because Paco isn't hostile at
all. He has a big smile, and
he'll call you "chief" and use
your first name a lot and
generally act as if he knew
you well. But that's the
awkward thing: he has looked
at you so closely that you're
sure he does know you well,
and you, meanwhile, hardly
know him at all. This kind of
asymmetry is even more
pronounced when you watch
his shopping videos with him,
because every movement or
gesture means something to
Paco-he has spent his adult
life deconstructing the
shopping experience-but
nothing to the outsider, or, at
least, not at first. Paco had to
keep stopping the video to get
21. me to see things through his
eyes before I began to
understand. In one sequence,
for example, a camera
mounted high on the wall
outside the changing rooms
documented a man and a
woman shopping for a pair of
pants for what appeared to be
their daughter, a girl in her
mid-teens. The tapes are
soundless, but the basic steps
of the shopping dance are so
familiar to Paco that, once I'd
grasped the general idea, he
was able to provide a running
commentary on what was
being said and thought. There
is the girl emerging from the
changing room wearing her
first pair. There she is
glancing at her reflection in
the mirror, then turning to see
herself from the back. There is
the mother looking on. There
is the father-or, as fathers are
known in the trade, the
"wallet carrier"-stepping
forward and pulling up the
jeans. There's the girl trying
on another pair. There's the
primp again. The twirl. The
mother. The wallet carrier.
And then again, with
another pair. The full
22. sequence lasted twenty
minutes, and at the end
came the take-home lesson,
for which Paco called in one
of his colleagues, Tom
Moseman, who had
supervised the project. "This
is a very critical moment,"
Tom, a young, intense man
wearing little round glasses,
said, and he pulled up a
chair next to mine. "She's
saying, 'I don't know
whether I should wear a
belt.' Now here's the
salesclerk. The girl says to
him, 'I need a belt,' and he
says, 'Take mine.' Now there
he is taking her back to the
full-length mirror." A
moment later, the girl
returns, clearly happy with
the purchase. She wants the
jeans. The wallet carrier
turns to her, and then
gestures to the salesclerk.
The wallet carrier is telling
his daughter to give back the
belt. The girl gives back the
belt. Tom stops the tape.
He's leaning forward now, a
finger jabbing at the screen.
Beside me, Paco is shaking
his head. I don't get it-at
least, not at first-and so Tom
replays that last segment.
23. The wallet carrier tells the
girl to give back the belt. She
gives back the belt. And
then, finally, it dawns on me
why this store has an
average purchase number of
only 1.33. "Don't you see?"
Tom said. "She wanted the
belt. A great opportunity to
make an add-on sale . . .
lost!"
3.
Should we be afraid of Paco
Underhill? One of the
fundamental anxieties of the
American consumer, after
all, has always been that
beneath the pleasure and the
frivolity of the shopping
experience runs an
undercurrent of
manipulation, and that
anxiety has rarely seemed
more justified than today.
The practice of prying into
the minds and habits of
American consumers is now
a multibillion-dollar
business. Every time a
product is pulled across a
supermarket checkout
24. scanner, information is
recorded, assembled, and
sold to a market-research
firm for analysis. There are
companies that put tiny
cameras inside frozen-food
cases in supermarket aisles;
market-research firms that
feed census data and
behavioral statistics into
algorithms and come out
with complicated maps of
the American consumer;
anthropologists who sift
through the garbage of
carefully targeted
households to analyze their
true consumption patterns;
and endless rounds of highly
organized focus groups and
questionnaire takers and
phone surveyors. That some
people are now tracking our
every shopping move with
video cameras seems in many
respects the last straw: Paco's
movies are, after all, creepy.
They look like the surveillance
videos taken during
convenience-store holdups-
hazy and soundless and
slightly warped by the angle of
the lens. When you watch
them, you find yourself
waiting for something bad to
25. happen, for someone to
shoplift or pull a gun on a
cashier.
The more time you spend with
Paco's videos, though, the less
scary they seem. After an hour
or so, it's no longer clear
whether simply by watching
people shop-and analyzing
their every move-you can
learn how to control them.
The shopper that emerges
from the videos is not pliable
or manipulable. The screen
shows people filtering in and
out of stores, petting and
moving on, abandoning their
merchandise because
checkout lines are too long, or
leaving a store empty-handed
because they couldn't fit their
stroller into the aisle between
two shirt racks. Paco's
shoppers are fickle and
headstrong, and are quite
unwilling to buy anything
unless conditions are perfect-
unless the belt is presented at
exactly the right moment. His
theories of the butt-brush and
petting and the
Decompression Zone and
the Invariant Right seek not
to make shoppers conform
26. to the desires of sellers but
to make sellers conform to
the desires of shoppers.
What Paco is teaching his
clients is a kind of slavish
devotion to the shopper's
every whim. He is teaching
them humility. Paco has
worked with supermarket
chains, and when you first
see one of his videos of
grocery aisles it looks as if
he really had- at least in this
instance-got one up on the
shopper. The clip he showed
me was of a father shopping
with a small child, and it was
an example of what is
known in the trade as
"advocacy," which basically
means what happens when
your four-year-old goes over
and grabs a bag of cookies
that the store has
conveniently put on the
bottom shelf, and demands
that it be purchased. In the
clip, the father takes what
the child offers him.
"Generally, dads are not as
good as moms at saying no,"
Paco said as we watched the
little boy approach his dad.
"Men tend to be more
impulse-driven than women
in grocery stores. We know
27. that they tend to shop less
often with a list. We know
that they tend to shop much
less frequently with
coupons, and we know,
simply by watching them
shop, that they can be
marching down the aisle and
something will catch their
eye and they will stop and
buy." This kind of weakness
on the part of fathers might
seem to give the
supermarket an advantage
in the cookie-selling wars,
particularly since more and
more men go grocery
shopping with their
children. But then Paco let
drop a hint about a study
he'd just done in which he
discovered, to his and
everyone else's amazement,
that shoppers had already
figured this out, that they
were already one step
ahead-that families were
avoiding the cookie aisle.
This may seem like a small
point. But it begins to
explain why, even though
retailers seem to know more
than ever about how
28. shoppers behave, even
though their efforts at
intelligence-gathering have
rarely seemed more
intrusive and more
formidable, the retail
business remains in crisis.
The reason is that shoppers
are a moving target. They
are becoming more and
more complicated, and
retailers need to know more
and more about them simply
to keep pace. This fall, for
example, Estée Lauder is
testing in a Toronto
shopping mall a new
concept in cosmetics
retailing. Gone is the
enclosed rectangular
counter, with the sales staff
on one side, customers on
the other, and the product
under glass in the middle. In
its place the company has
provided an assortment of
product-display, consultation,
and testing kiosks arranged in
a broken circle, with a service
desk and a cashier in the
middle. One of the kiosks is a
"makeup play area," which
allows customers to
experiment on their own with
a hundred and thirty different
29. shades of lipstick. There are
four self-service displays-for
perfumes, skin-care products,
and makeup-which are easily
accessible to customers who
have already made up their
minds. And, for those who
haven't, there is a semiprivate
booth for personal
consultations with beauty
advisers and makeup artists.
The redesign was prompted
by the realization that the
modern working woman no
longer had the time or the
inclination to ask a salesclerk
to assist her in every
purchase, that choosing
among shades of lipstick did
not require the same level of
service as, say, getting up to
speed on new developments
in skin care, that a shopper's
needs were now too diverse to
be adequately served by just
one kind of counter. "I was
going from store to store, and
the traffic just wasn't there,"
Robin Burns, the president
and C.E.O. of Estée Lauder
U.S.A. and Canada, told me.
"We had to get rid of the glass
barricade." The most
interesting thing about the
new venture, though, is what
30. it says about the shifting
balance of power between
buyer and seller. Around the
old rectangular counter, the
relationship of clerk to
customer was formal and
subtly paternalistic. If you
wanted to look at a lipstick,
you had to ask for it.
"Twenty years ago, the sales
staff would consult with you
and tell you what you
needed, as opposed to
asking and recommending,"
Burns said. "And in those
days people believed what
the salesperson told them."
Today, the old hierarchy has
been inverted. "Women
want to draw their own
conclusions," Burns said.
Even the architecture of the
consultation kiosk speaks to
the transformation: the
beauty adviser now sits
beside the customer, not
across from her.
4.
This doesn't mean that
marketers and retailers have
stopped trying to figure out
what goes on in the minds of
shoppers. One of the hottest
areas in market research, for
31. example, is something called
typing, which is a
sophisticated attempt to
predict the kinds of products
that people will buy or the
kind of promotional pitch
they will be susceptible to on
the basis of where they live
or how they score on short
standardized
questionnaires. One market-
research firm in Virginia,
Claritas, has divided the
entire country,
neighborhood by
neighborhood, into sixty-
two different categories-
Pools & Patios, Shotguns &
Pickups, Bohemia Mix, and
so on-using census data and
results from behavioral
surveys. On the basis of my
address in Greenwich
Village, Claritas classifies me
as Urban Gold Coast, which
means that I like Kellogg's
Special K, spend more than
two hundred and fifty
dollars on sports coats,
watch "Seinfeld," and buy
metal polish. Such typing
systems-and there are a
number of them- can be
32. scarily accurate. I actually
do buy Kellogg's Special K,
have spent more than two
hundred and fifty dollars on
a sports coat, and watch
"Seinfeld." (I don't buy
metal polish.) In fact, when I
was typed by a company
called Total Research, in
Princeton, the results were
so dead-on that I got the
same kind of creepy feeling
that I got when I first
watched Paco's videos. On
the basis of a seemingly
innocuous multiple-choice
test, I was scored as an
eighty-nine-per-cent
Intellect and a seven-per-
cent Relief Seeker (which I
thought was impressive until
John Morton, who
developed the system, told
me that virtually everyone
who reads The New Yorker is
an Intellect). When I asked
Morton to guess, on the basis
of my score, what kind of
razor I used, he riffed,
brilliantly, and without a
moment's hesitation. "If you
used an electric razor, it
would be a Braun," he began.
"But, if not, you're probably
shaving with Gillette, if only
33. because there really isn't an
Intellect safety-razor
positioning out there. Schick
and Bic are simply not logical
choices for you, although I'm
thinking, You're fairly young,
and you've got that Relief
Seeker side. It's possible you
would use Bic because you
don't like that all- American,
overly confident masculine
statement of Gillette. It's a
very, very conventional
positioning that Gillette uses.
But then they've got the
technological angle with the
Gillette Sensor. . . . I'm
thinking Gillette. It's Gillette."
He was right. I shave with
Gillette-though I didn't even
know that I do. I had to go
home and check. But
information about my own
predilections may be of
limited usefulness in
predicting how I shop. In the
past few years, market
researchers have paid growing
attention to the role in the
shopping experience of a type
of consumer known as a
Market Maven. "This is a
person you would go to for
advice on a car or a new
fashion," said Linda Price, a
34. marketing professor at the
University of South Florida,
who first came up with the
Market Maven concept, in
the late eighties. "This is a
person who has information
on a lot of different products
or prices or places to shop.
This is a person who likes to
initiate discussions with
consumers and respond to
requests. Market Mavens
like to be helpers in the
marketplace. They take you
shopping. They go shopping
for you, and it turns out they
are a lot more prevalent
than you would expect."
Mavens watch more
television than almost
anyone else does, and they
read more magazines and
open their junk mail and
look closely at
advertisements and have an
awful lot of influence on
everyone else. According to
Price, sixty per cent of
Americans claim to know a
Maven.
The key …
35. Images of Main Street:
Disney World and the American Adventure
Virginia A. Salamone
Frank A. Salamone
When Dean Koontz wishes to evoke an image of
innocence to contrast with the horror and dread in
Watchers, he introduces a shared love for Disney
characters between the intelligent and good dog,
Einstein, and his equally intelligent but evil nemesis,
the Outsider. In fact, this shared love for Mickey and
h i s f r i e n d s s a v e s E i n s t e i n f r o m t h e m u r d
e r o u s
Outsider, originally named “The Other,” when the
sight of a Disney home video box softens his heart
and leads him to show mercy on his intended victim
for the sake of their common memories. These memo-
ries were their only happy ones when they were
experimental animals in a National Security Agency
facility.
As schmaltzy and sentimental as this summary
may be, the use of Disney characters works in the
book just as i t does for t h e millions of people who
share the dream of Disney’s Main Street U.S.A. of a
pure innocence where the mischief of Huey, Dewey,
and Louie are boyish fun in contrast with the lurid
headlines that greet us daily. The entire Main Street
experience is designed to evoke nostalgia for an Age
of Innocence. In fact, there are a number of Main
Streets at the Disney properties, each tapping into a
different e r a and range of emotions: the colonial
period, the frontier, and “the future,” for example.
It is pointless to murmur that these depictions are
36. romantic fantasies, f o r that is indeed the point.
Moreover, this very fantasizing reveals a great deal
about the special relationship Americans have with
Disney and the manner in which Disney has managed
to bring American cultural fantasies to life, externaliz-
ing the almost inchoate romantic images of the
people. Indeed, at times this Disney-influenced ver-
sion of reality has resulted in criticisms from the right
as well as the left.
The action of the Southern Baptist Convention in
1997 resolving to boycott Disney “because the Walt
Disney Co. was providing health care benefits to com-
panions of gay employees” and its “hosting of homo-
sexual theme nights” is a case in point (Book o f t h e
Year 1997). Disney owns those people who bought
their image of America and then used that image
against them. It is instructive to examine some of
these various Main Streets in Disney World and com-
pare them with a British view of America’s Main
Street at the American Adventure amusement park in
Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England, near Robin Hood’s
Nottingham and Sherwood Forest.
Main Street, U.S.A., Disney World
“Disney occupies a special place in the American
landscape and culture,” states Michael Pollan;
Few companies are as skillful at making places, at shaping
the physical environment to affect our behavior. Disney’s
theme parks deserve credit for helping to keep alive not
only a large part of America’s vernacular architecture but,
on Main Street, the very experience of walkable streets and
pleasing public spaces-this at precisely the time when
37. Americans were abandoning real Main Streets for their cars
and suburban cul-de-sacs. (58)
Getting to Main Street U.S.A. for most visitors is
an adventure in itself. In addition to the months or
years of planning and dreaming to visit the secular
Mecca that Disney World has become, there is the trip
from the parking lot or ticket and transportation center
to enter the park itself. Others have written of t h e
park’s controlled environment and Walt Disney’s
determination not to have the area around Disney
World be spoiled by other commercial ventures. Part
of that plan is Disney’s desire to rouse the sense of a
journey from the mundane to the magic in their
“guests .”
For most guests, there are two choices in reaching
the park from the ticket and transportation area: the
monorail or the steamboat. Experienced guests, many
of whom have gotten tired of the time it takes to leave
the mundane and experience the magic, look quickly
at the lines to the monorail and then t o t h e steam
boat’s dock to note whether the boat has just left or is
85
86 . Journal of American Culture
arriving. They are eager to get to the magic of the
Magic Kingdom without undue delay. Truly savvy
guests know that staying in one of Disney’s properties
enables you to by-pass one of Walt Disney’s objec-
tives by taking a Disney bus directly to the front gate.
Evidently, those wishing to get to Epcot don’t require
38. a special escape from reality. They can simply drive
there and, usually, park close to the entrance.
Once the hurdles that delay arrival are overcome,
including the lines to pass through the gate and a
clumsy identification system for pass holders, requir-
ing knuckle prints, the guest is finally allowed to enter
the magic realm. The petty annoyances of the journey
are quickly forgotten and soon most visitors have
willingly surrendered their imagination to a merger
with Disney ’s. The experience is certainly different
for a child and an adult, but most American children
have their childhood shaped by Disney, and most
adults fondly recall the part Disney played in their
youth. Our first movie memories are often of a Disney
film our parents took us to, and years later we claim to
recall every detail and try to share those memories
with our own children.
Main Street U.S.A. transports us back to those
early memories and is an animated film brought to
life. Adults recognize that we never saw such a street
in our lives outside a movie lot, much less lived on
one. However, even many cynical adults soon lose
their determination not to be moved and see their own
Main Street through Disney glasses. Perhaps the fire-
house did not look quite so photogenic as Disney’s
and there were no carriages drawn by magnificent
horses weighing at least one ton each traversing the
avenues of the old hometown. Nevertheless, there are
many things that have changed, things we may wish
had not. Certainly, we adults have changed in ways
we often yearn we had not, and Main Street reminds
us that at least in memory and at least for a day the
old still lives somewhere within ourselves.
39. The evocation of a cleaner, more innocent, and
better America is continually reinforced all along
Main Street. From the City Hall, the Penny Arcade, to
the Ice Cream Shoppe and the City Square, everything
is the way we wish we remembered it, complete with
a jolly mayor who greets everyone in his orbit. The
Main Street Cinema is playing nothing but G-rated
animated films, featuring Steamboat Willie, Mickey’s
and Minnie’s debut sound film, and M i c k e y ’ s B i g
Break. Each building, business, and square inch is
carefully planned to evoke sanitized memories of an
America that never was but that many wish would be
again.
Richard Francaviglia has called Main Street
U.S.A. “a revered environmental icon” (141) and
noted that its influence has reached far beyond the
Disney parks to influence town planning and our per-
ceptions of what Main Street was actually like.
Disney appeared to understand the impact his view of
Main Street had on the American public. Not only did
he spend hours at Disneyland viewing his guests enter
the park, he arranged the park so that every guest had
to enter by way of Main Street. The Victorian railroad
station and “memorable public square” (141), as
Francaviglia notes, are the first impressions received
of the park.
Amazingly, even the more radical among us
responds to the image in a generally positive manner.
The psychological and cultural strings are carefully
pulled; only on those rare occasions when they fail are
they revealed for a brief time.
Generally, the backstage is carefully hidden. The
guest is exposed to the frontstage and left to absorb
40. the almost subliminal message of the setting. Only on
reflection does one notice the absence of certain ele-
ments that should be present. The streets are clean.
The usual mess that accompanied horse-drawn car-
riages is missing. Rudeness is generally absent. When
it is present, it is jarring, matter out of place (Douglas)
and thus dirty somehow. The crowds tend to be polite
and generally good-natured. The Penny Arcade is dif-
ferent somehow from the ones many of us haunted.
Only on reflection do we note the lack of the neigh-
borhood toughs who made each trip an adventure.
There is no gambling and, not unimportantly, every-
thing generally works.
Occasionally, however, glimpses of the backstage
intrude into the frontstage realm. Recently, our family
noted the dressing room behind a makeshift stage. The
sight of nearly naked youth preparing to go frontstage
was humorous and brought us back to reality, the real-
ity that is usually hidden. Moreover, the increasing
subversion of the text taking place at Disney is an
interesting development. The Jungle Ride is notorious
for its campy behavior, but even service people have
begun to assert their independence from their assigned
roles through a more careless attitude, one that is
quickly corrected by managerial staff.
In sum, everything functions the way we wish it
did in our own youths. It is cleaner than anything we
really experienced. There is a lack of the messiness of
real life. The labor of keeping things clean is always
conspicuous by its absence or camouflaging. Often
the cleaners are part of the act, performers in their
own right who entertain those who watch them clean.
41. Images of Main Street ’ 87
It is a kind of whistle-while-you work exhibition that
delights the guests while getting the job done.
Sanitized reality is the key phrase to describe the
other “Main Streets” in the World. Nevertheless,
while this absence is there and is important, as in
music it serves to dramatize what is stated through
contrasting with it. The American colonial section, for
example, provides neat and clean shops, always fully
stocked and in air-conditioned comfort, a welcome
treat in Florida’s steamy months. The stocks provide
their expected humor, concealing their once humiliat-
ing use. The food smells as we feel it should, basic
and wholesome.
This image of America being basic, wholesome
and a fresh start is essential to its self-perception. This
fresh start, however, retains overtones of a return to
origins, a New Eden. Although the religious overtones
are essentially muted, there is a good deal of Bellah’s
secular religion present. The colonial buildings are
pristine in their gleaming whiteness, portending great
things to come. Since the audience knows that these
g r e a t t h i n g s have i n d e e d come to pass, we a r e
expected to be elated to be in on the origin, according
to Disney.
For example, there is a great deal of nostalgia
attached to the Golden Era of Hollywood, a nostalgia
Disney has tapped in its MGM Theme Park with its
own Main Street of Hollywood and Vine circa 1940.
Ironically, the only production company “still making
’em the way they used to” is Disney. Beginning with
42. 1989’s Little Mermaid, and continuing with Beauty
and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and the under-
rated Hercules, Disney has consistently produced
classic Hollywood musicals. It is not a new insight
that Disney ’s classic animated films, like Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, The Jungle Book,
and others were really Hollywood musicals in cartoon
form.
Certainly, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was a logi-
cal extension of Gene Kelly’s dancing with Hanna and
Barbera’s Tom and Jerry or Uncle Remus singing with
that Mr. Bluebird on his shoulder. Disney, in fact, had
almost made a version of Alice in Wonderland with
Mary Pickford long before he made Snow White. It
would have featured animation and live action. The
classic Hollywood films seemed to defy the laws of
nature and leap over and through the screen. Perhaps
only animation can preserve their memory. In any
case, Disney has brought t h e images of the old silver
screen to its various Main Streets.
Walt Disney, himself, was aware that his animated
films were musicals when he began the tradition with
Snow White. His trademark touches are seen in his
insistence that, unlike the Grimms’ fairy tale, each
dwarf must have a separate personality. This decision
presented the animators with numerous headaches and
helps explain why the “Heigh-ho” sequence took six
months to film. That six months, however, has more
than paid for itself in profits and in images preserved
in Disney’s parks.
The picture has an unusual pace and rhythm. The
control is uncommon. Unlike most films, everything
43. contributes to the total effect. The narrative is simple
and straightforward, as befits a fairy tale. Good is
truly good, and evil is clearly evil. There is a gentle
humor that permeates the film.
The animal sketches are among Disney’s best and
are rarely matched in the later films, even with
advanced technology. The dwarfs, of course, provide
plenty of human emotion-slapstick, pathos, and joy.
The love story has been under attack i n our more
politically correct day, but the success of t h e video
release and the constant movie re-releases makes one
pause to wonder at the meaning of the film
The frightening sequences, involving the witch,
have long been under attack. Some countries origi-
nally banned young children from attending the
movie. And yet, kids still tug on their parents to see it
again. Fairy tales, after all, are supposed to scare and
then reassure us. There is little argument regarding the
film’s music. It has lasted since 1937 and one can still
hear new versions of the old “Whistle While You
Work,” “Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, It’s Off to Work We
Go,” “Someday My Prince Will Come,” and “With a
Smile and a Song.”
It provided the model which Disney’s other works
have sought to achieve. Certainly, its themes permeate
Disney World and the other parks as well as the films.
Stories are rewritten to have happy endings, as The
Little Mermaid demonstrates. Danger is part of the
world but the Big Bad Wolf or Wicked Queen is des-
tined to lose if we just keep up our spirits and work
hard. Each of Disney’s many Main Streets reinforces
this theme in different settings. According to Max
F r a n k e l , Disney u s e s “ a s t o u n d i n g t e c h n o l o
44. g y ”
throughout Disney World to reiterate the theme of
“birth, death, and renewal” (24). Frankel notes that
this message is, however, delivered with a high cost
attached.
That cost, according to Frankel, is the worship of
technology itself.
It writes its own spectacular plots. It beguiles us with its
dazzling promise, frightens us with menacing malfunctions
but usually, magically, rescues by producing its own tech-
nological f i x . Birth, death, resurrections. Who could possi-
bly improve on that story line? (Frankel 24)
88 Journal of American Culture
Frankel indicates that the danger is summed up in
“ H o n e y , I S h r u n k t h e A u d i e n c e ” and “Alien
Encounters,” where technology runs amuck but rights
itself finally to rescue the “endangered” audience. The
final line of the Alien Encounters experience is “Life
forms, thank you for your submission.” He sees this
as a dangerous indication of the future. Others, how-
ever, may see it as a warning, stretching back at least
to Disney’s The Sorcerer j. Apprentice, about the dan-
gers of the abuse of “secrets,” technological or magi-
cal.
EPCOT (Experimental Prototypical Community
of Tomorrow), however, does raise its own questions
for many people. Walt Disney, himself, envisioned
Epcot as a planned community bringing the world of
tomorrow a bit closer to reality. It has evolved into the
45. most didactic of Disney’s parks. It has another type of
Main Street, the World Showcase. The Showcase is
another type of American Main Street, a type of
American view of the world in a sanitized setting. The
folklorist Frank de Car0 has indicated its importance
to students of mass culture.
World Showcase attempts to present culture and cultural
performances to an audience. Folklorists have become
increasingly interested in how culture is presented-via
film, museum displays and at folklife festivals, for exam-
ple .... EPCOT presents an almost totally artificial re-config-
uring of culture, yet as such provides an alternative vision of
cultural presentation which can be instructive. (de Car0 27)
D e Car0 notes that Disney manages to control the
impressions of “guests” through illusion and fantasy
and attention to detail. Disney’s desire to control
every aspect of the environment is well known. De
Car0 calls this the careful editing of cultural forms.
He quotes E. L . Doctorow’s (289) statement that
Disney has mastered “a technique of abbreviated
shorthand culture.” De Car0 admirably presents the
bits and pieces that evoke the various settings: the
Moroccan courtyard house that isn’t a house; the
Sicilian peasant’s cart; the strolling players that
a p p e a r in different c o s t u m e s at different World
Showcase pavilions; the Mexican pavilion with its
enchanting mystery; the national foods that are some-
how denatured; and Mickey Mouse T-shirts portraying
Mickey in various national costumes.
Together, these bits of architecture, food, images,
costumes, and other artifacts form what d e Caro,
extending Alan Dundes’s (22-24) concept, terms a
folk idea (de Car0 35). De Car0 suggests that Disney
46. may offer insight into both the nature of packaged
tours and the presentation that folklorists who seek to
reconstruct culture at festivals present. He even sug-
gests that Disney magic does many things better and
more honestly than those who present “real” culture.
There is, after all, a great deal of packaging of culture
at museums, folk festivals, and cultural tours. The real
is often mixed in with the reconstructed and the
hastily constructed to present a kind of illusion.
Disney is a past master at the art of creating illusion
and suggesting existing by reference to essence (de
Car0 37, Cantwell 161).
If Disney’s original plan for EPCOT was never
realized, the building of Celebration is an attempt to
recapture his dream in a different setting. Celebration
is a planned community in which Disney magic seeks
to develop an ideal town that has previously only
existed in Disney films and theme parks.
On the first anniversary of its opening, Craig
Wilson (3 July 1997, D1) wrote,
Walking the streets of Celebration is a bit like walking onto
a movie set. Everything is perfect. Market Street, the
town’s main thoroughfare, is lined with colon-coordinated
buildings, fully-grown perfectly shaped palm trees and
spotless sidewalks. There is even a man whose job it is to
hose down those walks.
It is a continuation of the Magic Kingdom’s Main
Street with real inhabitants. As in other Disney Main
Streets, bits and pieces are used to suggest a whole.
The real is mixed with the artificial. Plastic represents
real fruits. Dormers suggest second stories in homes
47. that have no second floor. The image is of a commu-
nity of people with shared “traditional” values, the
Kingdom’s Main Street come to life.
The streets of Celebration are indeed in the spirit
of the mythical Main Street. They are meant to be
used by pedestrians and the traffic pattern is set up to
facilitate that. Stop signs are placed to slow traffic and
streets are narrow. Houses are pulled close to the
streets and feature porches meant to be used. The
trees, especially planted by Disney, the porches, the
house fronts, the pedestrian-friendly sidewalks and
streets are meant to bring back the old-fashioned con-
tact between people that marked earlier communities,
at least in nostalgic recollection. Moreover, class
diversity, not ethnic, is a goal of Celebration, one fos-
tered by its architecture.
Pollan writes,
During my walk, I strolled down a street of million-dollar
homes facing the golf course, and then turned to find a lane
of model cottages that sell for a fifth as much; walking
another block or two, I came to a broad crescent of town-
Images of Main Street . 89
house apartments that rent for as little as $600 a month ....
This is, of course, a very old utopian idea with deep roots in
the American landscape .... In the mid-60s Walt Disney
decided he had something to add to this tradition. He origi-
nally conceived Epcot ... not as a theme park but as a high-
tech model city of 20,000 residents. (58-59)
48. It is too soon for empirical studies of the planned
community of Celebration to appear. There are, of
course, suggestions of problems in paradise. There
were problems with the school, which many parents
and staff members felt was too “progressive.” There
have been problems with governance and Disney con-
trol in general. Pollan has written a generally critical
article about Celebration. He views t h e heart of the
problem as too much Disney control.
the covenants guarantee that [the homeowners’ association]
will remain a creature of Disney’s for as long as the com-
pany wishes .... Evan McKenzie, a lawyer and expert on
homeowners’ associations [said] ...“ I can’t imagine any-
thing more undemocratic.” (Pollan 80)
Pollan does admit that many people have come to
Disney precisely because of Disney’s involvement in
Celebration.
He sees two forces at work. One force is willing
to surrender old notions of democracy in all its rough-
and-tumble messiness for a newer ’90s notion of con-
sumer democracy in which a benevolent paternalistic
corporation will listen and respond to its consumers,
This latter group trusts that any problems will be fixed
to avoid negative impressions. The first group sees
power, voting, and decision-making as the essence of
democracy. Pollan predicts a future explosion when,
according to Alexis de Tocqueville’s insight, people
learn that social associations can be turned to political
purposes.
The American Adventure
In contrast with Disney’s various Main Streets,
49. the American Adventure theme park employs a mar-
itime theme to much greater effect. There is a sense of
viewing America from a distance. It is equally roman-
tic a view a s Disney’s. However, where Disney’s
images are nostalgic and hark back to an America that
never was, the view expressed in the American
Adventure is of an England that could have been.
There is a feeling that the Americans have taken
British culture with them and developed it in a recog-
nizable but new direction.
Among the first sights that greet a visitor is the
New England Mall. It is a representation of a New
England village, with restaurants and shopping areas.
It features a reproduction of the Liberty Bell near its
e n t r a n c e , t h e bell h a v i n g been m o v e d f r o m
Pennsylvania to the New England area. In common
with other theme parks, including Disney ’s, geogra-
phy is no barrier to a straightforward presentation. In
fact, Madison Square is the first area the visitor
encounters, featuring a Fifth Avenue section that is
itself a mixture of historical periods.
The New England Mall offers typically American
fare from a British perspective: namely, hot dogs, fish
fries, and French fries, and, of course, hamburgers.
The buildings are all white and the maritime theme
prevails. The English beer sold alongside Budweiser
provides an interesting contrast but the omnipresence
of Coke provides an American ambience. There are
numerous decks from which the patrons can imagine
ships sailing into port. Masts provide a good share of
the decoration,
In addition to the maritime theme found in New
50. E n g l a n d , t h e r e a r e t h e F r i s c o W h a r f , Fort S
t .
Lawrence, Niagara Falls, and other areas that empha-
size the importance of waterways to the United States.
Granted, these themes provide opportunities for
attractions. The souvenir brochure boasts, for exam-
ple,
The world’s highest triple drop Log Flume with three
breath-taking descents and a disorienting 360-degree turn
tunnel, Nightmare Niagara is the ultimate wet white
knuckle ride. The final drop takes you to a height of 60 feet
(that’s 4 double Decker buses!) to drop like a stone at over
40 m.p.h. and a force of 3G.
Nevertheless, the water serves as more than a prop for
attractions. It also serves as a metaphor of distance
and cleaning that repeats throughout the park.
In addition to the presence of so much water and
its use to provide t h e visitor with a distance from
America as well as a lens through which to view it,
there is the presence of other aspects of American life
that differ from those of Disney. Both parks, for
example, have a section devoted to the Old West. The
American Adventure, however, in addition to the
expected staged gunfights, has a gambling hall in
which the visitors can try their hands at beating the
one-armed bandits and other slot machines. Although
this gambling hall serves to amuse the adults and is
probably a truer depiction of the Wild West, it is hard
to imagine Disney providing a place to gamble at
Disney World.
There are, predictably, bows to Disney throughout
the American Adventure. There is a Lazy Lil’s saloon,
51. 90 ’ Journal of American Culture
hillbilly-style bears in one of the outdoor squares, car-
toon drawings of Mickey and Minnie as well as other
characters, and architecture with bows to Disney.
Disney has come to be a shorthand way of represent-
ing America. However, again we stress that the differ-
ences from Disney’s various Main Streets are the
more interesting elements of the American Adventure.
Thus, in place of Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson,
and Theodore Roosevelt, the American Adventure
substitutes its own American pantheon on Mount
Rushmore. It consists of Native Americans looking
down on the public. There are also more references to
World War I1 and American GIs than are found in
Disney properties. In fact, we cannot recall one men-
tion of World War I1 other than in the American
Pavilion. The non-Disney shopping malls referring to
Fifth Ave., for example, are a reminder of an America
that is not all Disney. There is also throughout the
American Adventure an attention to the present that is
absent from Disney. At Disney there is great attention
to a nostalgic past and an optimistic focus on the
future. These elements are not lacking at the American
Adventure. It is a theme park after all. However, there
is also a willingness to look at the present. Astronauts
are exciting, as are American gladiators and roller
coasters that do loops.
Although the American Adventure is clean and
well laid out, there are touches of untidiness that
would cause Uncle Walt to turn in his grave. There are
52. concessions that are closed and look it. There are
areas that seem empty and unused. There are also
occasional discarded papers and other debris that the
Disney guest is not allowed to see. Although t h e
workers at the American Adventure are generally
polite, there is the frequent touch of individuality in
their manner and tone that is often lacking at the
World. There is less of a programmed script present,
although the staged gunfight and other events demon-
strate that there is a movement in that direction.
Currently, there is great evidence of Disney influ-
ence on the American Adventure. There are areas in
which it differs from Disney. However, the trend
appears to be of greater imitation, of general Disney
sway in the future. Nonetheless it is interesting to note
the manner in which British interpretation of America
differs from that of Disney. It is a somewhat messier,
more contemporary and far more human version of
America than that of Disney.
Conclusion
The movie Marvin ’s Room (1997) has a sequence
that illustrates as much as the Dean Koontz example
from Watchers just how much Disney has come to
represent innocence and security to Americans, with
perhaps a tack of naivete. Diane Keaton’s character is
awakening in a strange bed from a blackout she suf-
fers in Disney World. She is reassured when Leonard0
di Caprio’s Marvin tells her that she is in Mickey’s
bed. She asks how she got there, and is only slightly
bemused and highly amused to discover that Goofy
carried her into Mickey’s bed. T h e experience is
clearly meant to be amusing, innocent, and therapeu-
53. tic. In a nutshell, it sums up the intended Disney expe-
rience.
In c o n t r a s t , w h i l e s i m i l a r l y r o m a n t i c , t h e
American Adventure presents an image of America
that has an intended dark side. There are aspects of
America that are ignored or hidden at Disney that are
p r e s e n t e d a n d e v e n g l o r i f i e d a t t h e A m e r
i c a n
Adventure. There is, for example, much more open …
In your paper, consider the following questions:
- Arrangement and Encouraged Habits. What is the general
layout of the place (think about where tables are in
proximity of the door, etc)? What considerations might staff
have make when arranging the furniture to fit within the
layout? How does the structure/arrangement of the space
influence how people move/know where to do/how to behave?
Do they create “spaces” or “stations” within the larger space
that encourage different actions (ex: the counter at Starbucks
vs. that island where you add creamer)? How do they
differentiate these spaces?
- “Point of View.” In Gladwell’s terms, this just means
“Image.” What kind of “feeling” is the place trying to
establish?
Consider how they ‘set the mood’ with decor and sensory
aspects (lighting, music, smells, etc). What message are they
trying to give off about the space, or what the company
represents? How do these choices influence how people
act/feel?
- Influencing Purchase. What ways do they, literally, influence
54. people to buy more, or more of certain items? Consider the
marketing around the product and placement.
- Customer focus. What relationship does the space have with
the customer? Is it immersive, or user-oriented?
- Tensions. How does the space deal with tension—this can be
anything from bad press, a noisy street, a smelly product,
unethical practices (with the product or the employees), or
historical issues?
The Orange Essay: The Marketplace
Description Similar to your Cognitive Map, you’ll be analyzing
a space you frequent, but one you have not had a role in
constructing—for this essay, you’ll choose a commercial space
to describe, focusing on the ways this store or
restaurant attempts to influence customers, cultivate habits, and
evoke particular moods/associations with
their product. Additionally, you’ll discuss how the company
attempts to distract customers from the aspects of
tension, such as means of production, material ethics, or
employee issues, and different perspectives of the
space (tensions). This 3-4 pg. essay will need to:
a. Use the questions on the prompt to investigate the methods of
persuasion used by the company to
form a thesis-driven argument with a logical, connected
structure
b. Use a detached, third person perspective
c. Use thick description
d. Use some of the terminology from our critical sources to aid
your arguments (ex: “petting,” or
“hyperreality”)
55. e. Use at least three quotes from to support your argument from
our critical sources
Process
Work
Rough Draft: 10/3 @midnight
Final Draft 10/15 @midnight
Good, Bad,
+ Ugly
10/24 @midnight
from The New Yorker
November 4, 1996
A REPORTER AT LARGE
The Science of Shopping
The American shopper has never been so fickle.
What are stores, including the new flagship designer
boutiques, doing about it? Applying science.
by Malcolm Gladwell
1.
56. Human beings walk the way
they drive, which is to say
that Americans tend to keep
to the right when they stroll
down shopping-mall
concourses or city sidewalks.
This is why in a well-
designed airport travellers
drifting toward their gate
will always find the fast-food
restaurants on their left and
the gift shops on their right:
people will readily cross a
lane of pedestrian traffic to
satisfy their hunger but
rarely to make an impulse
buy of a T-shirt or a
magazine. This is also why
Paco Underhill tells his
retail clients to make sure
that their window displays
are canted, preferably to
both sides but especially to
the left, so that a potential
shopper approaching the
store on the inside of the
sidewalk-the shopper, that
is, with the least impeded
view of the store window-
can see the display from at
least twenty-five feet away.
Of course, a lot depends on
how fast the potential shopper
is walking. Paco, in his
previous life, as an urban
57. geographer in Manhattan,
spent a great deal of time
thinking about walking speeds
as he listened in on the great
debates of the nineteen-
seventies over whether the
traffic lights in midtown
should be timed to facilitate
the movement of cars or to
facilitate the movement of
pedestrians and so break up
the big platoons that move
down Manhattan sidewalks.
He knows that the faster you
walk the more your peripheral
vision narrows, so you become
unable to pick up visual cues
as quickly as someone who is
just ambling along. He knows,
too, that people who walk fast
take a surprising amount of
time to slow down-just as it
takes a good stretch of road to
change gears with a stick-shift
automobile. On the basis of
his research, Paco estimates
the human downshift period
to be anywhere from twelve to
twenty-five feet, so if you own
a store, he says, you never
want to be next door to a
bank: potential shoppers
speed up when they walk
past a bank (since there's
nothing to look at), and by
58. the time they slow down
they've walked right past
your business. The
downshift factor also means
that when potential
shoppers enter a store it's
going to take them from five
to fifteen paces to adjust to
the light and refocus and
gear down from walking
speed to shopping speed-
particularly if they've just
had to navigate a
treacherous parking lot or
hurry to make the light at
Fifty- seventh and Fifth.
Paco calls that area inside
the door the Decompression
Zone, and something he tells
clients over and over again is
never, ever put anything of
value in that zone- not
shopping baskets or tie
racks or big promotional
displays- because no one is
going to see it. Paco believes
that, as a rule of thumb,
customer interaction with
any product or promotional
display in the
Decompression Zone will
increase at least thirty per
cent once it's moved to the
59. back edge of the zone, and
even more if it's placed to
the right, because another of
the fundamental rules of
how human beings shop is
that upon entering a store-
whether it's Nordstrom or K
mart, Tiffany or the Gap-the
shopper invariably and
reflexively turns to the right.
Paco believes in the
existence of the Invariant
Right because he has
actually verified it. He has
put cameras in stores
trained directly on the
doorway, and if you go to his
office, just above Union
Square, where
videocassettes and boxes of
Super-eight film from all his
work over the years are
stacked in plastic
Tupperware containers
practically up to the ceiling,
he can show you reel upon
reel of grainy entryway
video-customers striding in
the door, downshifting,
refocussing, and then, again
and again, making that little
half turn.
Paco Underhill is a tall man
in his mid-forties, partly
bald, with a neatly trimmed
60. beard and an engaging,
almost goofy manner. He
wears baggy khakis and
shirts open at the collar, and
generally looks like the
academic he might have been
if he hadn't been captivated,
twenty years ago, by the ideas
of the urban anthropologist
William Whyte. It was Whyte
who pioneered the use of
time-lapse photography as a
tool of urban planning,
putting cameras in parks and
the plazas in front of office
buildings in midtown
Manhattan, in order to
determine what distinguished
a public space that worked
from one that didn't. As a
Columbia undergraduate, in
1974, Paco heard a lecture on
Whyte's work and, he recalls,
left the room "walking on air."
He immediately read
everything Whyte had written.
He emptied his bank account
to buy cameras and film and
make his own home movie,
about a pedestrian mall in
Poughkeepsie. He took his
"little exercise" to Whyte's
advocacy group, the Project
for Public Spaces, and was
offered a job. Soon, however,
61. it dawned on Paco that
Whyte's ideas could be taken a
step further-that the same
techniques he used to
establish why a plaza worked
or didn't work could also be
used to determine why a store
worked or didn't work. Thus
was born the field of retail
anthropology, and, not long
afterward, Paco founded
Envirosell, which in just over
fifteen years has counselled
some of the most familiar
names in American retailing,
from Levi Strauss to Kinney,
Starbucks, McDonald's,
Blockbuster, Apple
Computer, A.T. & T., and a
number of upscale retailers
that Paco would rather not
name. When Paco gets an
assignment, he and his staff
set up a series of video
cameras throughout the test
store and then back the
cameras up with Envirosell
staffers-trackers, as they're
known-armed with
clipboards. Where the
cameras go and how many
trackers Paco deploys
depends on exactly what the
store wants to know about
its shoppers. Typically,
62. though, he might use six
cameras and two or three
trackers, and let the study
run for two or three days, so
that at the end he would
have pages and pages of
carefully annotated tracking
sheets and anywhere from a
hundred to five hundred
hours of film. These days,
given the expansion of his
business, he might tape
fifteen thousand hours in a
year, and, given that he has
been in operation since the
late seventies, he now has
well over a hundred
thousand hours of tape in
his library. Even in the best
of times, this would be a
valuable archive. But today,
with the retail business in
crisis, it is a gold mine. The
time per visit that the
average American spends in
a shopping mall was sixty-
six minutes last year-down
from seventy-two minutes in
1992-and is the lowest
number ever recorded. The
amount of selling space per
American shopper is now
more than double what it
63. was in the mid-seventies,
meaning that profit margins
have never been narrower,
and the costs of starting a
retail business-and of
failing-have never been
higher. In the past few years,
countless dazzling new
retailing temples have been
built along Fifth and
Madison Avenues- Barneys,
Calvin Klein, Armani,
Valentino, Banana Republic,
Prada, Chanel, Nike Town,
and on and on-but it is an
explosion of growth based
on no more than a hunch, a
hopeful multimillion-dollar
gamble that the way to break
through is to provide the
shopper with spectacle and
more spectacle. "The
arrogance is gone," Millard
Drexler, the president and
CEO of the Gap, told me.
"Arrogance makes failure.
Once you think you know
the answer, it's almost
always over." In such a
competitive environment,
retailers don't just want to
know how shoppers behave
in their stores. They have to
know. And who better to ask
than Paco Underhill, who in
the past decade and a half
64. has analyzed tens of
thousands of hours of
shopping videotape and, as a
result, probably knows more
about the strange habits and
quirks of the species Emptor
americanus than anyone else
alive?
2.
Paco is considered the
originator, for example, of
what is known in the trade as
the butt-brush theory-or, as
Paco calls it, more delicately,
le facteur bousculade-which
holds that the likelihood of a
woman's being converted
from a browser to a buyer is
inversely proportional to the
likelihood of her being
brushed on her behind while
she's examining merchandise.
Touch-or brush or bump or
jostle-a woman on the behind
when she has stopped to look
at an item, and she will bolt.
Actually, calling this a theory
is something of a misnomer,
because Paco doesn't offer any
explanation for why women
react that way, aside from
venturing that they are "more
sensitive back there." It's
65. really an observation, based
on repeated and close analysis
of his videotape library, that
Paco has transformed into a
retailing commandment: a
women's product that requires
extensive examination should
never be placed in a narrow
aisle.
Paco approaches the problem
of the Invariant Right the
same way. Some retail
thinkers see this as a subject
crying out for interpretation
and speculation. The design
guru Joseph Weishar, for
example, argues, in his
magisterial "Design for
Effective Selling Space," that
the Invariant Right is a
function of the fact that we
"absorb and digest
information in the left part
of the brain" and "assimilate
and logically use this
information in the right
half," the result being that
we scan the store from left to
right and then fix on an
object to the right
"essentially at a 45 degree
angle from the point that we
enter." When I asked Paco
about this interpretation, he
66. shrugged, and said he
thought the reason was
simply that most people are
right-handed. Uncovering
the fundamentals of "why" is
clearly not a pursuit that
engages him much. He is not
a theoretician but an
empiricist, and for him the
important thing is that in
amassing his huge library of
in- store time-lapse
photography he has gained
enough hard evidence to
know how often and under
what circumstances the
Invariant Right is expressed
and how to take advantage
of it.
What Paco likes are facts.
They come tumbling out
when he talks, and, because
he speaks with a slight
hesitation-lingering over the
first syllable in, for example,
"re-tail" or "de-sign"-he
draws you in, and you find
yourself truly hanging on his
words. "We have reached a
historic point in American
history," he told me in our
very first conversation.
67. "Men, for the first time, have
begun to buy their own
underwear." He then paused
to let the comment sink in,
so that I could absorb its
implications, before he
elaborated: "Which means
that we have to totally
rethink the way we sell that
product." In the parlance of
Hollywood scriptwriters, the
best endings must be
surprising and yet
inevitable; and the best of
Paco's pronouncements take
the same shape. It would
never have occurred to me
to wonder about the
increasingly critical role
played by touching-or, as
Paco calls it, petting- clothes
in the course of making the
decision to buy them. But
then I went to the Gap and
to Banana Republic and saw
people touching and
fondling and, one after
another, buying shirts and
sweaters laid out on big
wooden tables, and what
Paco told me-which was no
doubt based on what he had
seen on his videotapes-made
perfect sense: that the
reason the Gap and Banana
Republic have tables is not
68. merely that sweaters and
shirts look better there, or
that tables fit into the warm
and relaxing residential
feeling that the Gap and
Banana Republic are trying
to create in their stores, but
that tables invite-indeed,
symbolize-touching. "Where
do we eat?" Paco asks. "We
eat, we pick up food, on
tables."
Paco produces for his clients a
series of carefully detailed
studies, totalling forty to a
hundred and fifty pages, filled
with product-by-product
breakdowns and bright-
colored charts and graphs. In
one recent case, he was asked
by a major clothing retailer to
analyze the first of a new
chain of stores that the firm
planned to open. One of the
things the client wanted to
know was how successful the
store was in drawing people
into its depths, since the
chances that shoppers will buy
something are directly related
to how long they spend
shopping, and how long they
spend shopping is directly
related to how deep they get
69. pulled into the store. For this
reason, a supermarket will
often put dairy products on
one side, meat at the back,
and fresh produce on the
other side, so that the typical
shopper can't just do a drive-
by but has to make an entire
circuit of the store, and be
tempted by everything the
supermarket has to offer. In
the case of the new clothing
store, Paco found that ninety-
one per cent of all shoppers
penetrated as deep as what he
called Zone 4, meaning more
than three-quarters of the way
in, well past the accessories
and shirt racks and belts in
the front, and little short of
the far wall, with the
changing rooms and the
pants stacked on shelves.
Paco regarded this as an
extraordinary figure,
particularly for a long,
narrow store like this one,
where it is not unusual for
the rate of penetration past,
say, Zone 3 to be under fifty
per cent. But that didn't
mean the store was perfect-
far from it. For Paco, all
kinds of questions
remained.
70. Purchasers, for example,
spent an average of eleven
minutes and twenty-seven
seconds in the store,
nonpurchasers two minutes
and thirty-six seconds. It
wasn't that the
nonpurchasers just cruised
in and out: in those two
minutes and thirty-six
seconds, they went deep into
the store and examined an
average of 3.42 items. So
why didn't they buy? What,
exactly, happened to cause
some browsers to buy and
other browsers to walk out
the door?
Then, there was the issue of
the number of products
examined. The purchasers
were looking at an average
of 4.81 items but buying
only 1.33 items. Paco found
this statistic deeply
disturbing. As the retail
market grows more
cutthroat, store owners have
come to realize that it's all
but impossible to increase
the number of customers
71. coming in, and have
concentrated instead on
getting the customers they
do have to buy more. Paco
thinks that if you can sell
someone a pair of pants you
must also be able to sell that
person a belt, or a pair of
socks, or a pair of
underpants, or even do what
the Gap does so well: sell a
person a complete outfit. To
Paco, the figure 1.33
suggested that the store was
doing something very
wrong, and one day when I
visited him in his office he
sat me down in front of one
of his many VCRs to see how
he looked for the 1.33
culprit.
It should be said that sitting
next to Paco is a rather
strange experience. "My
mother says that I'm the
best-paid spy in America,"
he told me. He laughed, but
he wasn't entirely joking. As
a child, Paco had a nearly
debilitating stammer, and,
he says, "since I was never
that comfortable talking I
always relied on my eyes to
understand things." That
much is obvious from the
72. first moment you meet him:
Paco is one of those people
who look right at you,
soaking up every nuance and
detail. It isn't a hostile gaze,
because Paco isn't hostile at
all. He has a big smile, and
he'll call you "chief" and use
your first name a lot and
generally act as if he knew
you well. But that's the
awkward thing: he has looked
at you so closely that you're
sure he does know you well,
and you, meanwhile, hardly
know him at all. This kind of
asymmetry is even more
pronounced when you watch
his shopping videos with him,
because every movement or
gesture means something to
Paco-he has spent his adult
life deconstructing the
shopping experience-but
nothing to the outsider, or, at
least, not at first. Paco had to
keep stopping the video to get
me to see things through his
eyes before I began to
understand. In one sequence,
for example, a camera
mounted high on the wall
outside the changing rooms
documented a man and a
woman shopping for a pair of
73. pants for what appeared to be
their daughter, a girl in her
mid-teens. The tapes are
soundless, but the basic steps
of the shopping dance are so
familiar to Paco that, once I'd
grasped the general idea, he
was able to provide a running
commentary on what was
being said and thought. There
is the girl emerging from the
changing room wearing her
first pair. There she is
glancing at her reflection in
the mirror, then turning to see
herself from the back. There is
the mother looking on. There
is the father-or, as fathers are
known in the trade, the
"wallet carrier"-stepping
forward and pulling up the
jeans. There's the girl trying
on another pair. There's the
primp again. The twirl. The
mother. The wallet carrier.
And then again, with
another pair. The full
sequence lasted twenty
minutes, and at the end
came the take-home lesson,
for which Paco called in one
of his colleagues, Tom
Moseman, who had
supervised the project. "This
is a very critical moment,"
74. Tom, a young, intense man
wearing little round glasses,
said, and he pulled up a
chair next to mine. "She's
saying, 'I don't know
whether I should wear a
belt.' Now here's the
salesclerk. The girl says to
him, 'I need a belt,' and he
says, 'Take mine.' Now there
he is taking her back to the
full-length mirror." A
moment later, the girl
returns, clearly happy with
the purchase. She wants the
jeans. The wallet carrier
turns to her, and then
gestures to the salesclerk.
The wallet carrier is telling
his daughter to give back the
belt. The girl gives back the
belt. Tom stops the tape.
He's leaning forward now, a
finger jabbing at the screen.
Beside me, Paco is shaking
his head. I don't get it-at
least, not at first-and so Tom
replays that last segment.
The wallet carrier tells the
girl to give back the belt. She
gives back the belt. And
then, finally, it dawns on me
why this store has an
average purchase number of
75. only 1.33. "Don't you see?"
Tom said. "She wanted the
belt. A great opportunity to
make an add-on sale . . .
lost!"
3.
Should we be afraid of Paco
Underhill? One of the
fundamental anxieties of the
American consumer, after
all, has always been that
beneath the pleasure and the
frivolity of the shopping
experience runs an
undercurrent of
manipulation, and that
anxiety has rarely seemed
more justified than today.
The practice of prying into
the minds and habits of
American consumers is now
a multibillion-dollar
business. Every time a
product is pulled across a
supermarket checkout
scanner, information is
recorded, assembled, and
sold to a market-research
firm for analysis. There are
companies that put tiny
cameras inside frozen-food
cases in supermarket aisles;
market-research firms that
76. feed census data and
behavioral statistics into
algorithms and come out
with complicated maps of
the American consumer;
anthropologists who sift
through the garbage of
carefully targeted
households to analyze their
true consumption patterns;
and endless rounds of highly
organized focus groups and
questionnaire takers and
phone surveyors. That some
people are now tracking our
every shopping move with
video cameras seems in many
respects the last straw: Paco's
movies are, after all, creepy.
They look like the surveillance
videos taken during
convenience-store holdups-
hazy and soundless and
slightly warped by the angle of
the lens. When you watch
them, you find yourself
waiting for something bad to
happen, for someone to
shoplift or pull a gun on a
cashier.
The more time you spend with
Paco's videos, though, the less
scary they seem. After an hour
or so, it's no longer clear
77. whether simply by watching
people shop-and analyzing
their every move-you can
learn how to control them.
The shopper that emerges
from the videos is not pliable
or manipulable. The screen
shows people filtering in and
out of stores, petting and
moving on, abandoning their
merchandise because
checkout lines are too long, or
leaving a store empty-handed
because they couldn't fit their
stroller into the aisle between
two shirt racks. Paco's
shoppers are fickle and
headstrong, and are quite
unwilling to buy anything
unless conditions are perfect-
unless the belt is presented at
exactly the right moment. His
theories of the butt-brush and
petting and the
Decompression Zone and
the Invariant Right seek not
to make shoppers conform
to the desires of sellers but
to make sellers conform to
the desires of shoppers.
What Paco is teaching his
clients is a kind of slavish
devotion to the shopper's
every whim. He is teaching
them humility. Paco has
78. worked with supermarket
chains, and when you first
see one of his videos of
grocery aisles it looks as if
he really had- at least in this
instance-got one up on the
shopper. The clip he showed
me was of a father shopping
with a small child, and it was
an example of what is
known in the trade as
"advocacy," which basically
means what happens when
your four-year-old goes over
and grabs a bag of cookies
that the store has
conveniently put on the
bottom shelf, and demands
that it be purchased. In the
clip, the father takes what
the child offers him.
"Generally, dads are not as
good as moms at saying no,"
Paco said as we watched the
little boy approach his dad.
"Men tend to be more
impulse-driven than women
in grocery stores. We know
that they tend to shop less
often with a list. We know
that they tend to shop much
less frequently with
coupons, and we know,
simply by watching them
shop, that they can be
marching down the aisle and
79. something will catch their
eye and they will stop and
buy." This kind of weakness
on the part of fathers might
seem to give the
supermarket an advantage
in the cookie-selling wars,
particularly since more and
more men go grocery
shopping with their
children. But then Paco let
drop a hint about a study
he'd just done in which he
discovered, to his and
everyone else's amazement,
that shoppers had already
figured this out, that they
were already one step
ahead-that families were
avoiding the cookie aisle.
This may seem like a small
point. But it begins to
explain why, even though
retailers seem to know more
than ever about how
shoppers behave, even
though their efforts at
intelligence-gathering have
rarely seemed more
intrusive and more
formidable, the retail
business remains in crisis.
The reason is that shoppers
80. are a moving target. They
are becoming more and
more complicated, and
retailers need to know more
and more about them simply
to keep pace. This fall, for
example, Estée Lauder is
testing in a Toronto
shopping mall a new
concept in cosmetics
retailing. Gone is the
enclosed rectangular
counter, with the sales staff
on one side, customers on
the other, and the product
under glass in the middle. In
its place the company has
provided an assortment of
product-display, consultation,
and testing kiosks arranged in
a broken circle, with a service
desk and a cashier in the
middle. One of the kiosks is a
"makeup play area," which
allows customers to
experiment on their own with
a hundred and thirty different
shades of lipstick. There are
four self-service displays-for
perfumes, skin-care products,
and makeup-which are easily
accessible to customers who
have already made up their
minds. And, for those who
haven't, there is a semiprivate
81. booth for personal
consultations with beauty
advisers and makeup artists.
The redesign was prompted
by the realization that the
modern working woman no
longer had the time or the
inclination to ask a salesclerk
to assist her in every
purchase, that choosing
among shades of lipstick did
not require the same level of
service as, say, getting up to
speed on new developments
in skin care, that a shopper's
needs were now too diverse to
be adequately served by just
one kind of counter. "I was
going from store to store, and
the traffic just wasn't there,"
Robin Burns, the president
and C.E.O. of Estée Lauder
U.S.A. and Canada, told me.
"We had to get rid of the glass
barricade." The most
interesting thing about the
new venture, though, is what
it says about the shifting
balance of power between
buyer and seller. Around the
old rectangular counter, the
relationship of clerk to
customer was formal and
subtly paternalistic. If you
wanted to look at a lipstick,
82. you had to ask for it.
"Twenty years ago, the sales
staff would consult with you
and tell you what you
needed, as opposed to
asking and recommending,"
Burns said. "And in those
days people believed what
the salesperson told them."
Today, the old hierarchy has
been inverted. "Women
want to draw their own
conclusions," Burns said.
Even the architecture of the
consultation kiosk speaks to
the transformation: the
beauty adviser now sits
beside the customer, not
across from her.
4.
This doesn't mean that
marketers and retailers have
stopped trying to figure out
what goes on in the minds of
shoppers. One of the hottest
areas in market research, for
example, is something called
typing, which is a
sophisticated attempt to
predict the kinds of products
that people will buy or the
kind of promotional pitch
they will be susceptible to on
the basis of where they live
83. or how they score on short
standardized
questionnaires. One market-
research firm in Virginia,
Claritas, has divided the
entire country,
neighborhood by
neighborhood, into sixty-
two different categories-
Pools & Patios, Shotguns &
Pickups, Bohemia Mix, and
so on-using census data and
results from behavioral
surveys. On the basis of my
address in Greenwich
Village, Claritas classifies me
as Urban Gold Coast, which
means that I like Kellogg's
Special K, spend more than
two hundred and fifty
dollars on sports coats,
watch "Seinfeld," and buy
metal polish. Such typing
systems-and there are a
number of them- can be
scarily accurate. I actually
do buy Kellogg's Special K,
have spent more than two
hundred and fifty dollars on
a sports coat, and watch
"Seinfeld." (I don't buy
metal polish.) In fact, when I
was typed by a company
84. called Total Research, in
Princeton, the results were
so dead-on that I got the
same kind of creepy feeling
that I got when I first
watched Paco's videos. On
the basis of a seemingly
innocuous multiple-choice
test, I was scored as an
eighty-nine-per-cent
Intellect and a seven-per-
cent Relief Seeker (which I
thought was impressive until
John Morton, who
developed the system, told
me that virtually everyone
who reads The New Yorker is
an Intellect). When I asked
Morton to guess, on the basis
of my score, what kind of
razor I used, he riffed,
brilliantly, and without a
moment's hesitation. "If you
used an electric razor, it
would be a Braun," he began.
"But, if not, you're probably
shaving with Gillette, if only
because there really isn't an
Intellect safety-razor
positioning out there. Schick
and Bic are simply not logical
choices for you, although I'm
thinking, You're fairly young,
and you've got that Relief
Seeker side. It's possible you
85. would use Bic because you
don't like that all- American,
overly confident masculine
statement of Gillette. It's a
very, very conventional
positioning that Gillette uses.
But then they've got the
technological angle with the
Gillette Sensor. . . . I'm
thinking Gillette. It's Gillette."
He was right. I shave with
Gillette-though I didn't even
know that I do. I had to go
home and check. But
information about my own
predilections may be of
limited usefulness in
predicting how I shop. In the
past few years, market
researchers have paid growing
attention to the role in the
shopping experience of a type
of consumer known as a
Market Maven. "This is a
person you would go to for
advice on a car or a new
fashion," said Linda Price, a
marketing professor at the
University of South Florida,
who first came up with the
Market Maven concept, in
the late eighties. "This is a
person who has information
on a lot of different products
86. or prices or places to shop.
This is a person who likes to
initiate discussions with
consumers and respond to
requests. Market Mavens
like to be helpers in the
marketplace. They take you
shopping. They go shopping
for you, and it turns out they
are a lot more prevalent
than you would expect."
Mavens watch more
television than almost
anyone else does, and they
read more magazines and
open their junk mail and
look closely at
advertisements and have an
awful lot of influence on
everyone else. According to
Price, sixty per cent of
Americans claim to know a
Maven.
The key …