Target, Inc. has stores around
the country that generally follow the same floor plan from store to store, just
like Wal-Mart stores, Waffle Houses, etc. I happened to work in the Target
Greatland #1049 in Richmond, VA and am quite familiar with the layout of the
store. I therefore have drawn many conclusions about how the store manipulates
its customers through product placement and structural design, and have even
learned a few facts from managers in this area. As a disclaimer, I must note
that these ideas are not endorsed by Target, Inc. and are solely my own
assumptions. That being said, Target has engineered its customers to adhere to
age-old gender biases and uses other techniques to sell their products
efficiently.
If the store were divided directly
down the center aisle, the left half would, on the majority, contain all of the
items that one would assume a man would like to buy. Conversely, the right half
would contain all of the items that a woman would want to buy, or that society
thinks she is supposed to buy. In the men’s half, you would find men’s
clothing, electronics, sports equipment, lawn care items, and automotive
accessories. In the women’s half, you would find jewelry, lingerie, women’s clothing,
young girls’ clothing, children’s toys, domestics, household appliances, food,
and the pharmacy. Since it is assumed that women would be the ones taking care
of the children, the toys are found in “her” section. While shoes and young
boy’s clothing are technically on the men’s side, they flank the center aisle.
Women, who usually do all of the household shopping, according to this 1950s
standard to which Target adheres, would be the ones walking down the center
aisle and thus be drawn to both sides. Men’s items, besides clothing, are
presumably separated from women’s so that they do not need to obtain permission
from their wives to purchase them. If you have ever been in the Automotive
department of a Target store, you would know that it is hidden in the back
corner and it would be difficult for a woman to locate her shopping husband if
he were in that particular section. While not many men would “hide” from their
wives in such a manner, Target would prefer men to make impulse buys without
the typically more sensible logic of a woman. The less people that have to make
a decision on an item, the more likely it is that the item gets purchased.
Essentially, if just the woman makes the decision about buying a woman’s item
and just the man makes the decision about buying a man’s item, then more things
will be bought overall.
Therefore, Target uses this gender separation (and
bias) to sell more products.
The power of a whiney child is
immense because some parent’s do not wish to “make a scene” and others just
can’t say no to their children. Target uses this power by placing electronics
at the front left, toys in the back, and most items near the cash registers.
Older children often ask their parents to buy them video game systems, which
are prominently placed in the electronics department next to the entrance of
the store. Keeping in mind that the entrance to the store is also the exit,
children have twice as much time to notice the things they want and bug their
parents about them. Also, once again following the previously discussed gender
bias, women would be the ones taking care of the smaller children in the store
and thus would be taking them down the center aisle that contains clothing and
shoes. In doing so, the smaller children would be well able to see the toy
section immediately in front of them at the back of the store. The smaller
children would use their powers of persuasion (crying) to get the mothers to
the toy department and make purchases. Finally, along the register aisles, you
will find candy, toys (such as Mattchbox cars), and useless items. For example,
Target sells a product called an AquaBaby. It is a plastic cubbe filled with
water, a snail, a plant, and a fish, and it sells for $21.99. My manager told
me that they were placed there so that children would convince their parents to
buy them – and I have seen it happen more than once. In the area of candy,
people will buy any attractively packaged mint flavored item and so all of the
registers are well stocked with a wide variety. The last seller’s touch at the
register is a cooler with cold drinks for those who’ve been shopping too long
to pick up on the way out.