My Super Store

I am a a psycological consultant for “My Super Store’ which used to be called Astra prior to its takeover by Cupola Group. As the changeover of administration took place, there was a drop in the number of customers daily, disappearance of regular customers and therefore loss of sales and total revenue. Analysing the underlying causes of this phenomena led me to three conclusions and therefore three solutions, which if implemented would clearly rectify the situation. As the changeover occurred the new administration, whilst maintaining the product portfolio of the store, changed the placement from ‘category-style’ to brand groups.

For example, instead of all the shampoos being placed together so that the customer can be ‘fluent’ in processing information, as according to Fiske, and therefore be quicker in making a choice, the shampoos were placed brand-wise, aisles apart: nivea with the nivea stall; loreal shampoos with other loreal products and so on.. thus confusing the customer if he wants to compare ml quantity, price ranges and packaging. Thus availability is not all, products must be placed “fluently” as well. A second observation was staff.

The mall was situated in an well-off elite area where people are fashion conscious and judge shops by the grooming of the staff. The staff at present is not well versed in English, speaks local dialects and therefore alienates the customers. It would be much more efficient and save much communication hassle if the staff is recruited from the same area (for example students who would like summer jobs) so that the image of the supermarket is elevated and the customers ‘identify’ with that image. A third observation was the dominance of imported products over local products.

Although a purely economic point yet this implies a certain social attitude that may be alienating customers used to using local products and having to bend down to the lower shelf to find something that is more accessible in other department stores. It is all a matter of ‘mind perception’ ; customers perceive themselves as important and expect their choices to be at hand, not hidden away as the ‘odd-ones out’ that nobody likes to buy and a foreign alien brand to be so much in the forefront. In all the analysis focuses on making the customers confortable in the environment and makinf the super-market socially acceptable