Store Comparison

1. Store Comparison By: Patchwork

2. La di da Location: Denton, TX Town Square

3. La di da Store Information • Atmospherics: • Bright, Free-spirited, and “Texan chic.” Wood flooring throughout the store with sparkles and flowers all around. There are chairs and lounge furniture scattered around the store. • Fixtures: • They use shelving, T-stands, flat tables, and mannequins. The jewelry is also displayed on the tables using stands. Racks and shelves are also built into the wall to display clothing.

4. La di da store information • Floor Plan: • Use a free flow layout like most boutiques. Tables are all in a line, making it difficult to move around the store. The walls are also lined with shelves to display merchandise. • Window Display: • Visual display uses two mannequins on either window. They are open back windows with red, sparkly, “presents” hanging from the ceiling as the background as a seasonal or holiday display. There are also columns that display shoes and accessories.

5. Annie girl boutique Location: Denton, TX Town Square

6. annie girl store information • Atmospherics: • The mixture of décor elements within the boutique-sound, smell, lighting effects, color, and texture should all be contributing to the brand image and overall environment of Annie Girl. Lighting gave off a relaxed and comfortable mood. The store had three powder blue walls that stuck out among the one red brick wall. • Fixtures: • The vintage armoire in the back left, the small table covered in floral fabric used as the cash wrap, and the antique chairs all compliment each other and complete the look of the store very nicely. The vintage, weathered, and restored variances among the fixtures all contribute to the brand message of Annie Girl.

7. Annie girl Store information • Floor Plan: • The space the Annie Girl Boutique has to work with is very limited, so the amount of fixtures is somewhat overpowering and takes away from the merchandise that is trying to be sold. The store is currently applying a grid floor layout, which is contrasting to the total environment as well as the types of merchandise being sold. • Window Display: • The window display right now that Annie Girl Boutique has is a seasonal themed display. Focusing on bright red and green. There are two strands of winter white snowflakes that hang in front of the mannequin that is featured wearing a neon green dress. The use of tertiary colors-mixture of primary and secondary colors, green and red, are a design element that adds to the theme of the window display and adds relevance • Wall Elevation: • There is a lack of structure of organization among the products in the boutique. Annie Girl Boutique needs a cohesive structural wall presentation to properly display the products instead of solely leaning antique furniture against the wall.

8. Hobby Lobby Location: Denton, Texas

9. Hobby lobby store information • Atmospherics: Hobby Lobby implements sight, sounds, and texture to enhance the stores atmospheric experience. • Sight (Positives): • Hobby lobby caters to the consumer by supplying a variety of products in a wide assortment of colors. Merchandisers utilize these colors when categorizing placement on the sales floor. All products are strategically placed by category and coloring. This pattern ensures a visually appealing arrangement that is both stimulating and organized. • It has already been established that Hobby lobby merchandises based off product categorization. One of the stores most visually stimulating categories is the seasonal market. These holiday aisles occupy a dominant fraction of the stores right half. A variety of reds, golden shades, and greeneries combine to make a whimsical wonderland. This iconic holiday merchandise stimulates relatable feelings of warmth and nostalgia to the majority of consumers. • Negatives: • Lighting: The lighting in Hobby lobby is extremely bright. Such intensity depletes any sense of hominess and comfort. To some customers, these high frequency bulbs might come across as harsh and unwelcoming.

10. Hobby lobby store information • Fixtures: • Metal peg wall gondola units are essential to Hobby Lobby merchandising. These structures are constructed with a slotted backing, allowing for versatile hanging accessories. Hooking variations include large, small, and medium sized single line hooks. Peg wall gondolas also incorporate glass dividers, and large curved cradle hooks. These accessories are placed at different heights in various patterns to bring a unique styling to each individual structure. These gondolas provide wonderful flexibility, as well as ample hanging space. • Custom fixtures: • Hobby lobby has incorporated wooden customized shelving units into designated gondola fixtures throughout the store. These units house smaller items throughout various departments. The customization of these unique fixtures contributes an element of creativity while promoting a homelike atmosphere. • Tables: • Tables and rounders are distributed throughout the middle of store, as well as in main walking aisles. These organizational units house miscellaneous overflow in various sections. The majority are multiple tiers and display clusters of merchandise in varying arrangements.

11. Hobby lobby store information • Floor plan: • Hobby Lobby fallows a racetrack layout. Major walkways navigate consumers in a square shaped route around the store. This route loops around an inner grid of thin aisles created by gondola and tables placements. Outlaying gondolas on the surrounding walls also enclose this inner grid. This set up exposes shoppers to a great deal of merchandise as they travel through a maze of inner and perimeter traffic. • Kind of Window Display: • Hobby Lobby fails to utilize any aspect of their long track window. In fact, the backs of items line the glass entrance. While this dispersal of merchandise appears uninviting from the front, it creates a sense of wonder. This curiosity acts as subtle encouragement to enter the establishment. Once entered, a hallway separates the window and the main entrance doors. This barricade almost immerses the consumer into the display. The immersion allows for interactive shopping before the consumer even enters the heart of the building.

12. Hobby lobby store information • Wall elevation: • Hobby Lobby aisles are constructed from a series of wall elevations created from peg wall gondola structures. The abundance of shelving unites provides a wide variety of wall presentations styles. However the categorization of merchandise by end use, color, and size is evident throughout every isle of the store. • Recommendations: • Overall three major suggestions come to mind when brainstorming proper recommendations for hobby lobby. • My first suggestion would be the implementation of more neutral lighting. Converting to a softer glow would appeal to a wider mass of people. This wider appeal can be credited to the welcoming comfortable overtones that coincide with dimmer lighting. • My second suggestion would be proper utilization of a display window. While the current window does provide curiosity, it also establishes a negative message. Having backs of merchandise turned to incoming consumers shows a sign of disinterest and poor planning on the behalf of the company. • My final recommendation would be to reduce the clutter, which currently monopolize the tables and rounders. The congestion of products confuses the eye and diminishes the importance of signature items lost in the jumble.

13. Michaels

14. Michaels store information • Atmospherics: • The store is completely filled with merchandise so after the customer walks in, they are greeted with merchandise after merchandise scattered neatly throughout the store. The store is cold and bare with white walls and white floors. It seems blank but it helps make the items that they are selling pop out and appeal to the customers. The lighting is fluorescent lights that are either huge circle lamps covered by a patterned shade or long white lamps that hang from the ceiling throughout the store. • Window Display • Right when you walk up to the store the first thing you will notice is that there are huge metal baskets filled with merchandise that is currently on sale or is being promoted. There are about four windows that are surrounding the double doors. The only thing that is displayed in the windows is a huge sign that tells the customers what is currently on sale. The store windows are empty and cold.

15. Michaels store information • Fixtures: • The store is filled with rows and rows of shelves. There are also large and tall metal baskets that house a ton of merchandise along the aisles as the customer shops. The merchandise is all displayed along the tall shelves in an organized manner, which makes it easy to shop. • Floor Plan: • The floor plan is a grid layout that makes the customer move throughout the entire store to find what they need. It would be hard for Michael’s to figure out another floor plan that would help display the merchandise because right now it does a very clean job at doing that.

16. Michaels store information • Color : • Michael’s does offer an assortment of items that range in a variety of colors. The merchandise is color coordinated in some sections of the store and sometimes the merchandise is assorted in a random sequence of color. The store does a good job at organizing what it sells in a clean way with the color order. • Texture: • Texture in this store is a key part in how Michael’s displays it’s merchandise. The store is categorized into each department from wooden items to paint. There are many different textures that play into the feel of the store. There are fluffy things, metal objects, and even squishy items.

17. Michaels store information • Line: • Line is also an important factor in why the merchandise in Michael’s is so organized. Everything has it’s own place and is ordered in a way that is clean and polished and makes the store seem less crowded, even though it is filled from ceiling to floor with items. The use of line is very prevalent through the aisles and along the walls. • Unity: • The merchandise is categorized in its own department and is even organized in a way that makes it more unified with the rest of the merchandise around it. The store is laid out in a way that makes it have it’s own departments. There is a framing department to a scrapbooking department which makes the unity in the store the most important factor for displaying what Michaels has to sell. • Wall Elevation: • The walls of Michael’s were lined with shelves in rows from the floor to the ceiling. The shelves housed a variety of merchandise from different categories. All along each wall were rows of shelves and the occasional section with racks displaying merchandise that could hang easily in its packaging.