RCS 261- Harris Teeter (Battleground Ave)

Harris Teeter!
(on Battleground Avenue)

This Harris Teeter is part of a shopping center, but more specifically a strip mall. It has multiple types of stores to the left and right of its location.
The advantages of this location are that the other stores surrounding it bring in similar customers to that of Harris Teeter; therefore increasing their chances of more customers. Also it has a very large parking area, so customers will never encounter the problem of having nowhere to park.
The parking lot however is part of their disadvantages. Battleground is a very busy street, with a constant amount of traffic flow, which makes it difficult to get on and off of while trying to get to the stores. Harris Teeter is no different. There is a light at the turn for the Harris Teeter, which helps, but the Harris Teeter is at the end of the parking lot, and customers have to go through a major parking lot intersection in order to park by Harris Teeter. There is always traffic with other Harris Teeter shoppers plus Target customers. You can only imagine how many busy moms doing a hundred other things while driving are coming through that parking lot a day. It can make for a pretty hectic experience before you even reach the store.
I do realize the choice for this location. It obviously brings in a lot of business because of the high traffic and the surrounding stores with their similar target markets. (Excuse the pun) It’s a one- stop shop for the typical family: you have the grocery store, the pet store (Pets Mart), the everything else store (Target), the birthday/party store (Party City), a cheapo store (Dollar Tree), and some yummy eats (Steak and Shake)! It’s a gold mine for the soccer moms that are always on-the-go.
I do think that this is a good location, I feel like aside from its busyness it does pull in a lot of business, and it is central to a lot of suburban areas. Harris Teeter is a good grocery store, and I think people are willing to got through a little bit of traffic to get the better quality of food or service that they offer.

RCS 261-Sharper Image... Not So Sharp

Sharper Image

I have never been a fan of the electronic gizmo stores; but I do know of Radio Shack and Best Buy. So it didn’t really surprise me that Sharper Image is closing its stores. I never thought of shopping at Sharper Image for my technological products because I have never heard feedback from my friends or family shopping there, they always refer me to Best Buy or online stores. A main reason for Sharper Image’s loss of sales had to do with the bad review that Consumer Report challenged them with in 2005. The review was of an air purifier: The Ionic Breeze, which was said to emit amounts of ozone. There were some legal cases that Sharper Image did not win, and will more than likely make them have to pay out a lot of money.
Sharper Image was always full of really random items, and I was never sure why or what the purpose was to carrying such a large assortment of items. After reading the articles, the reasoning behind their large assortment was one of their retail strategies. Sharper Image was hoping to diversify its’ inventory in order to attract customers, and set it apart from competitors. This tactic however, failed them. Customers who bought a very special item were not as likely to return, versus competitors who sold more generic electronics had a greater likelihood of customers returning.


Citations!
MLA:
Barbaro, Michael. "The Sharper Image Files for Bankruptcy Protection." The New York Times 21 Feb 2008 5 Mar 2009 .

Huffman, Mark. "Sharper Image Closing All Stores." Consumeraffairs.com 03 Jun 2008 5 Mar 2009 .

APA:
Barbaro, Michael (2008, February, 21). The Sharper Image Files for Bankruptcy Protection. The New York Times, Retrieved March 5, 2009, from Barbaro, Michael. "The Sharper Image Files for Bankruptcy Protection." The New York Times 21, Feb, 2008 5 Mar 2009 .

Huffman, Mark (2008, June, 3). Sharper Image Closing All Stores. Consumer Affairs.com, Retrieved March 5, 2009, from http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/06/sharper_image.html

RCS 261-A TJ Maxx Story

TJ Maxx
History: TJ Maxx started in Massachusetts in 1976. The original founder was Taras Sokil; and TJ Maxx was part of the Zayre discount store. The company sold their store to Ames, a rival discount store in 1988. At that point TJ Maxx was bought out along with Hit or Miss and Chadwick’s of Boston by the “TJX Companies, Incorporated.”
Present: The current Director and CEO of TJ Maxx is Carol Meyrowitz. By the end of 2007 there were 847 TJ Maxx stores. There are TJ Maxx stores overseas, in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Germany. But across the ocean the store goes by “TK Maxx.” TJ Maxx also owns: Marshalls, HomeGoods, HomeSense, and Bob’s Stores. All of which carry the same goals as TJ Maxx, offering quality goods at low prices.

RCS 261

My favorite retailer, at the moment, would have to be TJ Maxx. I recently discovered it through my boyfriends mom, and I fell in love at the sight of my first discount. The first and most obvious reason why I chose TJ Maxx is the price. One of their smartest selling points, is that they show you the original price on the tag, and then beneath it they show TJ Maxx's price so the customer can see right then how much they are saving. Which is almost always half of the original price. My second reason is the designer variety. There are designer names such as Calvin Klein, Seven, and Dolce and Gabbana. Not only do they have the big names, they also carry various store brands, like American Eagle and Express. The third reason is their selection of shoes and purses, they have so many purses, and in so many colors! I think I spent at least an hour and a half looking through their purse racks. (The fact they were color coordinated made my day!) I also enjoy the immense amount of clothing they carry. They keep it organized, despite it's quantity. My final reason for choosing TJ Maxx as my favorite retailer is because despite their low prices, they are not low quality. The stores I've been to still keep a clean establishment, and the clothing has withstood washing and wear.

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A Hairy Situation

Chic Graphing