The Retail Environment

FTLComm - Tisdale - January 12, 1999 Extra-Foods the renamed version of what used to be OK Economy has continued to upgrade its appearance since the initial remodeling and expansion that it underwent last year. The newest edition has been these large signs in the produce department and in some other areas of the store. They also have a nice new sign advertising the photo finishing operation. As a consumer we often take for granted the shopping environment and assume that what we see is just the way things are but our retail outlets, especially the food ones are extremely controlled places where the sights and impact of the setting influences our purchases and our on going attitude toward what we buy and where we buy it. The BeeLand Coop in Tisdale has just undergone a major renovation to create a new and consistent atmosphere for its shoppers and this newest edition to Extra-Foods is part of their continuing effort to create a marketing strategy that welcomes and encourages the customer along those lines that their research has shown is appropriate. After all the money you spend on your food purchases is a sizable portion of your income and the retail world is competing for high stakes to get its share of that money. The temperature in OK Economy and for the first while it was called Extra Foods was deliberately kept lower then comfortable to keep the shopper moving along and reduce the amount of time they would spend pondering a purchase. You will find that on the shelves the colour red predominates because shoppers consistently prefer red purchases and will select products with red wrappers over the same product in another colour. The QuickTime VR panorama below gives you a look around the Extra-Foods store just as you get inside its entrance