Week 6 Blog Post Response

**The Social Shopper**

In my visit to the shopping center this weekend, I chose to primarily observe the inhabitants of Target, a store that is common place in which many visit or shop at one time of another, for various needs from cleaners, to clothes, to food goods and electronics, better known as the conventional super store. Less limiting than the department store, yet less personal than the specialty mom-and pop-shop, and its high end-neighbor: Macy's.

Both of these stores represent two ends of a spectrum according to consumers: Target regarded as mid-price range depending of the variety of items offered as sold, considered more high end than its competitors Wal-Mart and K-Mart. One the other end Macy's of course represents the more luxury of the two, more expensive than Kohl's but less illusive than Nordstrom.

The environment of the Target varies considerably from the boutique style setting of Macy's as expected. Shoppers who may feel more independent, feel confident in strolling the isles with red shopping carts prowling through shelves of frozen food and and canned goods to office supplies, all organized by high hanging signs indicating isle placement of products punctuated by price checkers, between side displays of bulk sale items with bid red SALE letters and prices, visible to all for up to a mile away (saves the hassle). Designed to "target" (pun semi-intended) sensible shoppers ready and willing to navigate for bargains and shrewd weekly sales.

In another realm, Macy's offers a more costumer service-oriented atmosphere, a offering to the consumer a possible attempt to justify price with quality service and products. The glistening cosmetic counters with wafting fragrances lined with black clad employees waiting, ready and willing to help with your needs from a 5 minute makeover to the perfect fragrance or matte concealer. These shoppers enjoy being waited upon, pampered, and catered to, expecting to receive quality service and goods for their money's worth, designed to target those for "high end tastes for style". Price tags either hidden or need a magnifying glass, suggesting it may not be the first thing on the consumers mind.

The Target I visited was pretty crowded in with Saturday afternoon shoppers, which was expected, with plenty to observe and take note of. Most shoppers were dressed pretty casually and going about their business. The three "representatives" I chose were two females and a male, two of whom, (1 male/female) dressed moderately casually, the male more casual than the female, while the third representative shopper (2nd female) was dressed less casually almost semi business or suburban like. The male shopper sporting sneakers and a baseball cap blue tooth in his ear with a relatively unkempt appearance appeared to be lower-middle class according to his attire carrying items in his hand toothpaste toiletries etc, after later making the wise decision of picking up a hand basket(which may or may not be an accurate index due to the fact that is was a Saturday and most males dress more casually than women in general). The first more casually dressed female appeared to be middle class with a shopping cart with bulk sized toilet paper, wearing sneakers and a knit sweater over a t-shirt. The third more formally dressed female entered the store with large sunglasses, was wearing flats, leggings and a large hobo bag, and animal print blouse. An index of a fashonista who didn't bother to push around a cart, or look up from her cell phone in hand texting away almost running into the price check-out stand, probably looking for a bargain on hair care of facial products, to go with some new shoes purchased at the Macy's next door.

I used these indexes specifically to describe the representatives I observed because I felt it cover the spectrum or shopper in this particular center as predominantly middle-class females from ages 20-35 shopping for families or for fashion, and personal items and/or necessities. These indexes reveal consumer preferences and possible shopping habits as well as choices or items and social class statuses, but can be misleading as in the case with the male shopper, (who could be a scruffy casually dressed businessman coming from a workout or who just likes to be comfortable shopping on weekends.) Also, as I have learned from personal experiences and advise of others, in shopping at a high-end store like Macy's, "dressing the part" may ensure a slightly more friendly demeanor in costumer service as opposed to the baseball cap clad shopper wearing baggy sweatpants at a cosmetics counter.

After observing the center as a whole, I would say their are predominantly mixed class shopping center with working to lower and upper middle class shoppers, mostly female from the ages 20-45.