Pavel Krok
A 20-something man wearing an Oregon Ducks t-shirt, a young mother pushing a running stroller wearing yoga pants, a 50-something guy shorts and a button down shirt and a teenager in a letter jacket walk into a store. Kind of sounds like a joke. Unfortunately, it is not.
I will admit that I do not buy as much music as I used to. Part of it may be my age. Part of it may be the availability of music from other sources (Amazon Prime on Echo). Part of it may be that I listen almost exclusively to NPR when I am driving near home.
But one of the main reasons is that I have lost touch with Steve. Steve was not an old friend or a work colleague. He was not a music reporter for some hip website, publication or YouTube channel. No, Steve was just an employee of a record shop I used to frequent in Seattle, Silver Platters, at their old South Center location. I didn’t really know Steve. In fact the time that I ever spoke with him was when he happened to be the cashier that rang up my purchases at the front counter.
Even though we exchanged few words, he did communicate with me and significantly influenced my musical tastes and my purchases. You see Silver Platters used to have a display located at the front of the store that featured music that the staff members were listening to. Over time, I came to realize that of all the staff members, Steve had musical tastes that paralleled mine the closest. If Steve recommended a cd (this was the early 00s), I would buy it. I was never disappointed. I miss Steve and his musical recommendations.
Walking past Sears today and their front of store display caught my eye. The store in our local mall typically features a Lands End display, so this was not out of the ordinary. What took me by surprise was the marketing of Lands’ End clothing to “spring breakers.”
One I think of spring breakers, I do not think of college students drinking and partying in clothing from Lands’ End. The map features the apparent route one would take from Dodgeville, WI, the headquarters of Lands’ End and Daytona Beach, one of the college hotspots. Maybe if the marketing spoke of spring vacation with the kids and the map destination was Disney, it may be more on target.
Another business looking to make a great impression on their customers with their door pulls. Found at Spike’s Hotdogs in Portland, OR.
(Great food & friendly service, by the way.)
Seems only fitting that on International Women’s Day, there comes two interesting news items for women.
The first comes from Nike. They unveiled a hijab to allow female Muslim athletes to compete while observing the religious beliefs. Nike’s hijab
The second comes from Sport Chek in Canada. They opened their first women’s specific store at the Chinook Centre in Calgary. The 16,000 sq. ft. store was designed by and for women. Sport Chek Women
“A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.” -Chinese Proverb
“If you’re not serving the customer, your job is to be serving someone who is.” -Jan Carlzon, SAP CEO
I saw the two of them square off – the salesperson and the customer, the adversary and their opponent. Even though I have seen this subtle encounter many times before, I never pass up a chance to watch. For the Dance was about to begin.
What is the Dance? It is the name that I gave to the movement that salespeople and their customers go through trying to find a comfortable place and distance to interact.
Typically when two people talk, they stand approximately an arms distance away from one another. If they are close friends, they may stand closer. If there is a power differential between them, the person with less power may stand a bit further away. The distance is never discussed by the talkers but rather it is set as the two talkers position themselves.
Door handles of the DQ Grill & Chill in Bend, OR
Almost as iconic as the trademarked curl on the top of their cones is Dairy Queen’s red spoon.
It is a stroke of branding genius that DQ restaurants are beginning to adorn their stores with oversized red spoon as door pulls. This photo was taken last weekend in Bend OR. I always appreciate themed door pulls at specialty stores. The pulls are a great way to create a positive customer impression!
You do not have to take my word for it. The red spoon door pulls were featured in LockNet, the website about doors and locks for businesses. See link below.
http://www.locknet.com/lockbytes/custom-door-hardware-boosting-your-brand/
The Observant Customer 