Visiting retail stores: my biggest surprises

Alain AlbertObservation exercise

Stanford creativity course

Men’s clothing

My biggest surprise: to observe the difference between the look and the youth of the models in the windows and the physical characteristics (age, weight) of the customers. As it is not possible to adapt the look of the models to that of the customers, the store’s owner should think about adapting the model look to that of the representative customer

Body careMy biggest surprise: the mixture of aromas from various body oils, foam baths, soaps, etc., a mixture which is not always pleasant. My suggestion: why not advertise the aroma (fragrance) of the day and make Monday the lavender day, Tuesday the Lily-of-the Valley day, Wednesday the chocolate cosmos day, etc. There are certainly enough good smelling plants on earth to make every day of the year a particular fragrance day

Chocolate

My biggest surprise: to see very little (true) dark chocolate at Laura Secord (a Canadian chocolate and ice cream company) while consumption is rising sharply on this market segment. In 2013 Laura Secord will celebrate its hundredth anniversary . Why not make 2013 the year in which Laura Secord will make its dark turn?

Shoe storeMy biggest surpise: more sales people (2) than customers (myself) during the 15 minutes I spent in and in front of the store. May be a bad time ? Or a bad day? My suggestion to the sales people: buy patience games if you do not have already done so

DrugstoreMy biggest surprise: see a portrait of a black Lady Gaga (advertising her new black perfume) in a store whose primary purpose is to sell drugs. Who would have thought that Lady Gaga perfume could cure better than drugs? Or maybe the intoxicating properties of the perfume make us forget about our aches and pains. If this is the case Pharmaprix would do well adding wine and alcohol to the huge variety of merchandises it sells

Bookstore

My biggest surprise : not having access to a Wi-Fi zone that would allow Reflexion’s customers to browse pages of a book or of a magazine before buying it

My dream product

After visiting these six stores I dreamed of a product whose main characteristics would be linked to some of my biggest surprises

It would be dark, slim, edible, smell good and could be tested by customers before they decide to buy it. And this product is….

A chocolate sculpture of Lady Gaga…… that could sell in any of the six stores I visited together with the famous dark Belgian chocolate Lady Gaga shoe decorated with sugar crystals.