On Wednesday evening (October 3) I went to Macy’s up on 34th St. and stood on a mezzanine for about an hour and a half observing the cosmetics department. I was interested in observing a space for consumers that had unique qualities compared to and overall basic retail environment. Obviously, a lot of observations about gender, the idea of beauty, and shopping behaviors can be made in this space; and though while some of the things I observed were fairly obvious, I did discover some interesting patterns as well. Here’s a quick bulleted view of the things I observed:
- People who shopped
- Women in Pairs
- engaged in the displays and discussed the products more than others groups/people would
- sales people didn’t approach them as much as they would approach others
- more likely to try out the product samples and get opinions about it than people shopping alone
- Women shopping alone
- browse more casually
- would not spend as much time looking at the products
- a more cut-and-dry approach to the shopping experience
- African-American women tended to spend a significantly longer time shopping and appeared to take it more seriously. They also seemed more willing to talk with the sales people.
- Women with their boyfriends/husbands
- men would sit and just wait for their partner to finish shopping
- several men would pay at the end
- women tended not to engage in the displays and samples as much, and treated things more like a serious business transaction when working with sales people
- men would follow women around, space out, and act disinterested/semi-impatient
- Women in Pairs
- The sales people
- the way they are trained to work with customers is an ethnographical study in and of itself – they are trained through ethnography
- provide people with ‘mini relationships’ where they act as someone to confide in and trust. there is a temporary level of commitment
- appear to have ‘authority’/credibility based on what they wear and how they conduct themselves and interact with the customers. this is very apparent in their body language when discussing the products
- The environment
- displays try to appear simple yet grab attention at the same time
- all products are displayed in glass cases that people constantly bend over. why not display the items on shelves or in a different manner of sorts?
- layout of the cosmetics department allows for each brand to be separated in its own space, making each brand appear more exclusive and offering shoppers their own ‘unique’ shopping experience
- square-shaped counters caused people to cluster together in tighter groups, while people tended to spread out more around circular counters
- Rituals
- women most likely to test out products on back of hand or wrists
- somewhat a tradition for the women to sit whilie the sales people provided them with special services and demonstrated the products for them
- the idea of why women have such a great need to enhance their beauty or create artificial beauty. what is the appeal? why is this a necessary in our society? why is there such a demand for this that many women take it so seriously?
