2. Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
BEFORE YOU ENTER THE STORE
Does the store draw you in? If so, how? This is a passenger terminal for bus and rail. Its design is very utilitarian, on purpose, I suspect, since
the designers could reasonably have expected very few people to wander in because they were
induced to by some sexy architecture. I arrived at the terminal aboard a bus from another city. On
the side where the buses arrive, a semi-circular portico protrudes from the building making it very
obvious where to enter.
Is the door open or closed? CLOSED. And except for one set of switch-activated disabled door, the doors are all manual.
How does this make you feel? FRUSTRATED: This is an immediate inconvenience for any one encumbered by baggage or behind
someone who is.
How big is the sign lettering? what font? NO SIGNS are visible from the buses arriving at the back of the terminal.
What does it tell you about the store? NOTHING, obviously.
3. ENVIRONMENT
What is the COLOR SCHEME of the
store? How does this affect you?
Dusty rose and pale yellow. Not especially glam but not especially oppressive, either. Maybe it’s
meant to fit in with the art deco vibe and especially to match the colours in the terrazzo floor which
seems to be left from the original 1930’s era building. The contrast between the yellow and pink
tones on the walls seems not modern, although the same yellow, or at least one similar, seems
quite fine in the pattern on the floor.
What type of FLOOR does the store
have? How does this affect the
environment?
The BOLD GEOMETRIC patterns in the TERRAZZO fit with the obvious ART DECO style of the largely
intact exterior and with the ticket windows but less well with the rest of the interior which seems
to have been badly bastardized in the intervening years.
How high is the CEILING? How does this
feel?
The ceiling is easily 20’. and there are no columns within what is a very large room. This makes the
space feel very open and gives a real sense of imposing – but not overbearing – importance, even
drama, to the terminal.
How BRIGHTLY LIT is the store? How
does this affect you?
The terminal is brightly lit by fluorescents but because of the second story railing where the
museum is located, the effect if of sunlight entering the space.
How LOUD is the environment?
What is causing the noise?
There is a constant low background sound of conversation, mostly transactions at the ticket wickets
plus a few groups of travellers. Occasionally, a train will rumble on the tracks above. In the
vestibule to the restrooms, the coke machine buzzes and hums amid the occasional sound of hand
dryers/
Is there MUSIC playing? If so, does it fit
the environment?
No music. But frequent PA announcements as buses and trains arrive and depart.
Is the store WARM OR COLD? The temperature is pleasant enough. No drafts.
Is the store crowded with
MERCHANDISE or is it sparse?
No merchandise. But there is a large, vinyl decal (8’ x 16’) stuck to the floor at the bottom of the
stairs coming from the train platforms. It’s advertising Appleby College, a local prep school to
thousands of disembarking daily commuters on their way back to their homes and lovely, educate-
able children.
Does the store have a distinctive SMELL? The terminal smells mildly of institutional cleaner and disinfectant.
Where is the CASH REGISTER located? At the ticket wickets, as one would expect.
How visible is the store SECURITY? None visible.
How long do you WANT TO STAY in this
store?
As short a time as possible, only long enough to catch my bus
Does the environment influence the
PERCEIVED VALUE of the merchandise?
It is utilitarian and its furnishings are fairly spartan but it’s easy to imagine that it was an impressive
building 80 years ago when it first opened. Now it looks like a clean, repurposed space common to
any big city.
PERSONNEL
How long does it take before a sales
person initiates contact?
n/a – the passengers queue for service
Does the salesperson have a script to
follow with each customer?
n/a
Does the salesperson treat different
customers differently?
no
What is the ratio of salespeople to
customers?
At 9:45 a.m., GO Transit wickets have two or three attendants for 10 – 15 passengers. Hamilton
Street Railway wickets have one or two staff for one or two passengers.
What age and gender are the
employees?
Male and female, ages thirty-ish to fifty-five-ish
4. Are the salespeople using the store
products?
n/a
Do the salespeople have a uniform? Yes
Do salespeople match store’s image? Yes
PRODUCTS n/a in the terminal
FIRST PRODUCT you notice? TRANSPORT in the form of buses and trains
CENTRAL DISPLAY with featured
products?
Not exactly. It can be hard to know exactly where within the terminal one must go to buy the
desired product. Four separate transit companies operate from the terminal and they sell tickets at
three separate unconnected wickets:
Hamilton Street Railway (1) sells local intra-city HSR bus tickets here.
GO Transit (2) sells commuter bus and rail tickets here for travel on its own network which serves
the greater Toronto; GO is also the local agent for Coach-Canada (3) a regional inter-city bus line
but can only sell C-C tickets at the middle GO wicket (that’s where the correct data connection is).
Greyhound (4) sells tickets from a wicket across the room that looks like a coat check counter.
Where are “for sale” items located? TICKETS are sold at the wickets, as described above. CANDY AND SODAS are sold from machines
outside the restrooms. TAXI rides are sold outside on Hunter Street. Presumably, SEX and DRUGS
are sold inside the terminal, but it wasn’t obvious where or when.
How are the products arranged? By
function? By price? By color?
Information about destinations and pricing is fragmented. Each carrier presents its own route
maps, fares, and arrival and departure notifications with varying degrees of articulation and
helpfulness. GO Transit has the clearest overall presentation
Are there free samples or
demonstrations?
No. However, national retail brands will sometimes stage displays in busy GO terminals like this
one, typically for a big, new-product launch (Ford, GM, Honda, etc.) or free giveaways when a new
US-retailer comes to Canada (Krispy Kreme, Papa Johns).
What products are at eye level? n/a
What items in the store are in the least
accessible locations?
In terms of in terminal queue length / wait time, the least accessible product seemed to be travel to
specific destinations within the GO commuter network.
Where are the most and least expensive
products located?
the candy and sodas are the cheapest and are in machines near the washrooms.
Are product prices easy to find? No. GO and Coach-Canada fares must be determined from the ticket attendant, after waiting on
line. Greyhound has posted a small notice about fares to some destinations but my first time in the
terminal, I didn’t even see the Greyhound window and so waited on line at the GO counter.
Are impulse items near the cash? no
CUSTOMERS
Are most customers alone or with
someone else? What is the relationship?
n/a – the passengers queue for service
What is the average age and gender of
the customers?
average age is 20-ish
average gender (?)
When a customer enters the store, do
they tend to walk in the same path or
direction? -
Yes: into the main hall, then either towards the seating, the washrooms or the wickets.
How long do customers stay in the store,
on average?
At 9:45 a.m., GO Transit wickets have two or three attendants for 10 – 15 passengers. Hamilton
Street Railway wickets have one or two staff for one or two passengers.
Do customer touch the products, etc.? n/a
Do most customers appear to be on a
mission or are they browsing?
Literally on a mission
What percent of customers buy? 100%
Are most customers alone Most are passengers travelling alone.
5. Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
The building draws me in insofar as the entrances to the Centre and to the hospital proper are architecturally distinct
and I can easily find my way to the building I want. There is a prominent sign labelling the centre but as it happens,
construction has caused all hospital access to be temporarily rerouted through the entrance to the Cancer Centre. The
sign is made of individual metal letters, maybe 18" high, in a clean, Swiss font, spelling out the name of the centre.
The doors are closed but they have sensors which open them automatically for me. This wing of the building is fairly
new and I am aware that the addition was funded mainly by a co-founder of RIM, the maker of the now passe
Blackberry. Despite RIM's woes, I feel confident the insitution is adequately funded and capably managed.
Immediately inside the entrance is an outlet of Tim Hortons, an iconic Canadian national brand coffee retailer. The
hospital lobby is in effect the seating area for the coffee shop which, together with the very long queue of patrons, gives
the impression upon first entering that the hospital institution is in fact just an over-large, mutant café.
The colour scheme is taupe, beige and off-white for the painted walls and the floors are 12" square ceramic tiles in
beige with a few pale-green-for-accent. Low fake wood dividers separate the seats from the entrance and foot traffic.
Further in, floor to ceiling blonde wood finishes define the elevator lobby. The neutral colours are subdued but more
orderly than exactly peaceful.
The environment is crowded and noisy. The sound has an unpleasant, shrill quality. It's loud but I can still hear the
HVAC. About 25 people sit talking, mostly families, in 2's and 3's. Three Old Order Mennonites sit together.
Not surprisingly, the whole space smells of coffee but not as strongly as I'd expect given that the space is almost all one
giant café. The air exchange must be prodigious.
There is no music. The temperature is comfortable, a bit cool near the construction.
6.
7. Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
The floor is laid in immense, alternating 4'x 10' slabs of vinyl in warm tan and steel grey. Underfoot, it has a satisfying
vertical "give" and horizontal "grab". The large sections of floor make the 16' x 20' semi-private room seem spacious
despite the lingering awareness of the closeness of death.
The walls are beige but for the pale mint of the one enclosing the bathroom. The overall colour scheme is harmonious.
The palette uses colours with very similar tonal values and complementary but unsaturated hues. This seems to lessen
my anxieties.
This wing is only a few years old so the furniture is all new. The beds have much less visible hardware so it looks less like
a sick bed. The blanket is light weight but warm. It has a modern-looking pattern of bold 4" squares woven into blue
cloth the colour of stone-washed denim. There is a white board for each patient, filled with eraseable communications
about conditions, treatments, routines and progress.
Down the hall from the patients’ rooms, is this family room:
8. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
The Starbucks coffee goddess logo outside tells me this is a place where tattooed baristas will dispense overpriced
coffee and free sarcasm and free wi-fi. I am not drawn in. I hate the big box retail format with its the endless seas of
parked cars. The door is closed. I feel indifferent about the closed door. It’s totally natural. Because: Sandy. Because: late
October + Canada.
Sandy looms and even this far from her landfall, the environment is dark. The clour scheme has a definite coffee tone
theme. Over the coffee bar, overhead joist-y things painted dark grey-brown mocha define the service area. The floor
tiles also define separate zones in the shop: display merch is arranged on fixtures within the bold, rigid triangular
geometric pattern; the entrance to the attached Chapters bookstore is almost as bold and very prominent; the blonde
tongue-and-groove wood flooring has a strong outline in contrasting redwood that points the way to the books; the
sugary treats are all lit up.
The HVAC is all exposed but it’s painted a very dark brown to match the ceiling which is also high up so everything seems
to disappear. The feeling is relaxed, almost sedate, cozy. The dark seating areas help create that mood. And it’s much
quieter here than the café in the Cancer centre even though there are about as many people here.
9. The shop looks congested because many boxes of product remain unpacked from a delivery much earlier in the day.
Maybe someone called in sick. The boxes block the view of other (pricey) merch, block traffic at the counter and
generally ruin the vibe.
There is a strong coffee smell.
Jazz is playing in the background but the muted trumpet solo is a bit too loud and shrill for the environment. It’s
Satchmo and the music fits despite the loud high end. Some different music spills in from the attached book store.
The cash is at the service counter. There is no security.
The appearance and atmosphere ( mainly the quality floor and wall finishes and the upscale stylish tables and chairs)
suit the value and higher price of the products on offer.
The staff are women, both of whom are attentive and friendly and appear able to think on their own and so don’t need
to rely on a canned script. One is twenty-ish, the other 40-ish. They wear billiard-table-green aprons over black shirts
and pants and serve a queue of maybe 6 - 8 patrons at a time.
The merch is arranged in displays on the shelves positioned on the bold, contrasting triangle tiles. Boxes block the
already hard to reach products, more expensive, coffee makers. Baskets full of packets of coffee sit on the floor along
the service queue. There apparently had been demonstrations and samples of the new Verisimo one-cup brewing
system, judging by the detritus on a table near the obstructed machines.
Prices are marked on some products and for others, the prices is printed on point-of-purchase displays in the cases and
on the shelves.
Café patrons are either on their cell phones or laptops, using the free wi-fi or are chatting with their tablemates, or
both. Most people stay in. Only two or three people have taken their orders “to go”.
10. Toronto, Ontario, Canada
On my journey to my eventual destination, Casa Loma, I encountered:
a subway train with all cars interconnecting
a cavernous subway station with a mural executed entirely with round, subway-token-sized ceramic tiles
clear bags in the recycling stations that seemed to be pretty well sorted by material type
a suicide-prevention program for track jumpers that uses specially-equipped payphones on the subway
platforms
A tree and utility line blown down by Sandy
A billboard ad campaign covering all the subway platforms in an entire station, paid for by McDonalds, that
asked among other things whether it was true that McDonalds’ food doesn’t rot
