Shopping Anthropology-Gap
The Gap store was founded by Donald and Doris Fisher in 1969.
The first store that they opened was on Ocean Avenue, in San
Francisco, California, U.S. August 21. Its presence in the market is for the public. This
retail company is served worldwide. Its headquarters are located in San
Francisco, California. The founders had saved 63 thousand to open the store and
made 2 million dollars in sails within the first year of opening. In 2012 the
stores revenue was up in the 15.7 billion. Also Gap has 3,263 locations and 132
thousand employees worldwide at 2012. Gap was aiming to target the younger
generation in the beginning. After a few years they then started expanding for
the women, men and children. There products start form blue jeans, accessories
and different styles of clothing.
The first store that they opened was on Ocean Avenue, in San
Francisco, California, U.S. August 21. Its presence in the market is for the public. This
retail company is served worldwide. Its headquarters are located in San
Francisco, California. The founders had saved 63 thousand to open the store and
made 2 million dollars in sails within the first year of opening. In 2012 the
stores revenue was up in the 15.7 billion. Also Gap has 3,263 locations and 132
thousand employees worldwide at 2012. Gap was aiming to target the younger
generation in the beginning. After a few years they then started expanding for
the women, men and children. There products start form blue jeans, accessories
and different styles of clothing.
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A brilliant retail store like Gap, must have some tricks up its
sleeves. When a guest first walks into the store they find themselves in what Paco Underhill describes as the “Decompression Zone.” In Gap, the Decompression Zone was not as wide and open as needed but the guests still did have a little spot that they could adjust their speed and vision too. Many times, guest need a little wider spot to understand what their step would be when they first walk into the store. When the guests first step into Gap they see mannequins in front of them that are advertising there latest styles. This advertisement lures the guests that are walking by to enter the store. When the guest walks into the store, next comes the “Invariant Right.” There were a few customers in the store that did make that little haft turn to the right when they entered. On the right side there were cloths that were being displayed on tables, mannequins and even hanging. Underhill’s cues were not that clear to some guest in the store so they did not exactly pay attention to the cloths. Some people walked from the entrance to their desired location, retrieved what they wanted and exited the store. This store is targeting the middle generation. It’s clean and organization shows the public that they are more about quality. What Underhill describes as “petting” was noticed in Gap. This retail company has a lot of their items placed on tables so that the customers would pass by and tough the items even if they do not exactly notice it. Petting seemed to be there number one trick. The customers in the store were reacting fairly well to petting. An interesting thing that was noticed in the store was that the items were not as close to each other as other store. Gap did not fallow the “Butt-brush” theory either. There was only one spot in the entire stores that would be considered as a butt-brush but it was not as close as other retail companies had them. When a guest would walk by the cloths they would not be touching any of the other items by accidental. They would simply walk by and not see it. This is very interesting to see because the store still had a well number of sales but they failed in fallow Underhill’s methods. Negotiations were not noticeable in the Gap because there were only parents singled out in their own world by themselves. |