Store layout / Design and Visual Merchandising

  1. One of the fastest growing sectors of the population is over-60 age group. But these customers may have limitations in their vision, hearing, and movement. How can retailers develop stores designs with the older population’s needs in mind?
  2. Assume you have been hired as a consultant to assess a local discount store’s floor plan and space productivity. Look back to Chapters 6 and 12 and decide which analytical tools and ratios you would use to assess the situation?
  3. Generally speaking, departments located near entrances, on major aisles, on the main level of multilevel stores have the best profit-generating potential. What additional factors help to determine the location of departments? Give examples of each factor.
  4. Consider a situation in which you received poor customer service in a retail store or from a customer service provider. Did you make the store’s management aware of your experience? Whom did you relay this experience to? Have you returned to this retailer? For each of this questions, explain why you did what you did.
  5. Assume you’re the department manager for menswear in a local department store that emphasizes empowering its managers. A customer returns a dress shirt that’s no longer in the package in which it sold. The customer has no receipt, says that when he opened the package he found that the shirt was torn, and wants cash back for the price at which the shirt is being sold now. The shirt was on sale last week when the customer claims to have bought it. What would you do?
  6. Give an example of how a retailer would resolve a customer complaint through procedural fairness. Does the resolution depend on the channel or store format? Explain your reasoning.