Once upon a Kimmie

I went to Best Buy on Cambie Street the other day to buy a lap top case. As I walked in, I was looking for the giant sign that said “Computers”, which should be hanging from the ceiling. I look around and finally see it. I walk over towards the many aisles and walk through them all. I finally find the area marked Lap top accessories. I go straight to the 13inch lap top cases and contemplate about which one I really wanted and which one valued the most to me. I compared the prices and the qualities of each case, but ended up asking a sales person about which one they would recommend. Once I grabbed the lap top case that I wanted, I walked towards the check out aisle.

On my way out, I remembered that I wanted to look at the Ipods. I looked up again towards the ceiling for a sign that would lead me towards Mp3’s and such. I looked up at the signs and saw  “Cell Phones and Ipods”. I was really surprised to see that a section was labelled Ipods and not something more broad. It just shows that Ipods have taken up such a large part of the market, and therefore can hold its own section. I assume that Best Buy knows that Ipods make up a large chunk of their sales, and therefore they put a sign on its own for the convenience of their customers. Automatically, customers will know the exact location of where they can find this popular product.

This relates to the second definition of merchandising. We learned in class that the organization of the way products are displayed is part of promotion. Best Buy’s category signs are labelled specifically and hung a certain way to attract customers. The were probably set at a certain height that they figured consumers would best react to.