Question 1

Star Tax Services opens many offices around the country to accommodate the tax season. The company has the ability to piece together new offices, expand existing offices, or alter the design for a unique space in a matter of hours. Which of the following design considerations related to controlling costs can be seen in this example?
A) Inventory shrinkage
B) Flexibility
C) Utilitarian benefits
D) Atmospherics
E) Vertical merchandising

Accepted Answer

A design consideration related to controlling cost is flexibility. As the merchandise mix changes, so must the space allocated to merchandise categories and the layout of the store. Thus, store designers attempt to design stores with maximum flexibility.

Question 2

Impulse products are products that are purchased without prior plans, like fragrances and cosmetics in department stores and magazines in supermarkets.

Accepted Answer

Impulse products, or products that are purchased without planning, such as fragrances and cosmetics in department stores and magazines in supermarkets, are almost always located near the front of the store, where they're seen by everyone and may actually draw people into the store.

Question 3

Stores design provides hedonic benefits by enabling customers to locate and purchase products in an efficient and timely manner with minimum hassle.

Accepted Answer

Store design provides hedonic benefits by offering customers an entertaining and enjoyable shopping experience. They then want to spend more time in the store or on the website because the visit itself is rewarding.

Question 4

Which of the following is not an objective for store design?
A) Implement the retailer's strategy.
B) Build loyalty by providing a rewarding shopping experience.
C) Increase sales on a visit.
D) Meet legal requirements.
E) Cut costs.

Accepted Answer

Some store design objectives are to (1) implement the retailer's strategy, (2) build loyalty by providing a rewarding shopping experience, (3) increase sales on a visit, (4) control costs (but not as cheap as possible, as sometimes the extra expense has benefits), and (5) meet legal requirements.

Question 5

The two benefits customers seek when shopping are customer satisfaction and customer service.

Accepted Answer

Customers seek two types of benefits when shopping: utilitarian and hedonic benefits

Question 6

Apparel retailers mostly utilize gondola fixtures.

Accepted Answer

Apparel retailers utilize the straight-rack, rounder, and four-way fixtures, while the principal fixture for most other retailers is the gondola.

Question 7

Atmospherics refers to the design of an environment via visual communications, lighting, colors, music, and scent to stimulate customers' perceptual and emotional responses that affect their purchase behavior.

Accepted Answer

Atmospherics is the design of an environment by stimulation of the five senses.

Question 8

Retailers are required to provide all of the following for disabled customers except
A) accessible dressing rooms.
B) accessible checkout aisles.
C) fully accessible bathrooms.
D) a lower checkout station.
E) a courtesy discount.

Accepted Answer

Retailers are typically required to (1) provide 32-inch-wide pathways in the main aisle, to bathrooms, dressing rooms, and elevators, and around most fixtures; (2) lower most cash wraps (checkout stations) and fixtures so that they can be reached by a person in a wheelchair; (3) create disability-accessible checkout aisles; (4) provide bathrooms with handrails or grab bars; and (5) make dressing rooms fully accessible.

Question 9

A retailer considering LED lighting versus florescent lighting, solar power versus standard electricity, and local grasses versus typical grasses for landscaping would mostly be considering ________ as the objective for store design.
A) legal requirements
B) retail strategy
C) controlling costs
D) flexibility
E) buying behavior

Accepted Answer

One of the objectives for store design is to control the cost of implementing the store design and maintaining the store's appearance. Many retailers have also embraced the notion of gaining efficiency in their energy use.

Question 10

The best place for store planners to position a "destination" department or item is the front right-hand side of the store.

Accepted Answer

By strategically placing impulse and demand/destination merchandise throughout the store, retailers increase the chances that customers will shop the entire store and that their attention will be focused on the merchandise that the retailer is most interested in selling. Demand merchandise and promotional merchandise are often placed in the back left-hand corner of the store.

Question 11

Tonnage merchandising is a display technique in which large quantities of merchandise are displayed together.

Accepted Answer

As the name implies, tonnage merchandising is a display technique in which large quantities of merchandise are displayed together. Customers have come to equate tonnage with low price, following the retail adage "Stock it high and let it fly."

Question 12

Why is it important for stores to be designed with flexibility in mind?
A) It is less expensive for retailers to build several different types of flexible fixtures than to build one inflexible fixture.
B) Retailing is a dynamic business, and retailers need to keep changing the merchandise mix offered.
C) Customers find it hard to locate merchandise if fixtures are rigid.
D) Department managers never know what to expect from the planner's allocations and require the ability to display more merchandise at a moment's notice.
E) Environmental legalities require stores to have flexible designs to reduce waste.

Accepted Answer

Retailing is a very dynamic business. Competitors enter a market and cause existing retailers to change the mix of merchandise offered. As the merchandise mix changes, so must the space allocated to merchandise categories and the layout of the store change. Thus, store designers attempt to design stores with maximum flexibility.

Question 13

The grid layout is well suited for customers who are primarily interested in the hedonic benefits offered by a store.

Accepted Answer

The grid layout is well suited for customers who are primarily interested in the utilitarian benefits offered by the store.

Question 14

The primary objective of a store design is in implementing the retailer's strategy.

Accepted Answer

The primary objective for store design is to implement the retailer's strategy. The design must be consistent with and reinforce the retailer's strategy by meeting the needs of the target market and building a sustainable competitive advantage.

Question 15

The store design that provides a major aisle to facilitate customer traffic with access to the store's multiple entrances is called the racetrack layout.

Accepted Answer

The racetrack layout is also referred to as the loop layout because it has a major aisle that loops around the store to guide customer traffic around different departments within the store.

Question 16

The ________ is the phenomenon that occurs when a store is extremely cramped.
A) closing time effect
B) bystander effect
C) butt-brush effect
D) boomerang effect
E) conspicuous consumption effect

Accepted Answer

Shoppers do not like it when a store is so cramped that they touch one another, a phenomenon known as the "butt-brush effect."

Question 17

Store design provides ________ by offering customers an entertaining and enjoyable shopping experience.
A) altruistic experiences
B) emotional stability
C) tonnage merchandise
D) hedonic benefits
E) utilitarian benefits

Accepted Answer

Store design provides hedonic benefits by offering customers an entertaining and enjoyable shopping experience. They then want to spend more time in the store or on the website because the visit itself is rewarding.

Question 18

The Americans with Disabilities Act
A) states that stores built before 1990 must be fully accessible for the disabled.
B) states that it is illegal to discriminate in hiring and termination decisions concerning people between the ages of 40 and 70.
C) prohibits unequal pay for men and women who perform equal work or work of comparable worth.
D) protects people with disabilities from discrimination in employment, transportation, public accommodations, telecommunications, and the activities of government.

Accepted Answer

This law protects people with disabilities from discrimination in employment, transportation, public accommodations, telecommunications, and activities of state and local governments. The ADA affects store design because the act calls for "reasonable access" to merchandise and services in retail stores built before 1993; stores built after 1993 must be fully accessible.

Question 19

The trade-off between ease of finding merchandise and providing a varied and interesting layout is determined by
A) how often there is a shipment from the distribution center.
B) the simplicity of the merchandise.
C) well-trained, design-oriented managers.
D) the needs of the customers shopping at the store.
E) legal requirements.

Accepted Answer

The trade-off between making it easy to find merchandise and providing an interesting shopping experience is determined by the customer's shopping needs.

Question 20

Since a store design cannot achieve all objectives, managers need to make trade-offs among them. Which of the following does not describes such trade-offs?
A) A supermarket's traditional design can efficiently store and display a lot of merchandise with long rows of floor-to-ceiling racks; however, this design is not good for a pleasant shopping experience.
B) Retailers often make trade-offs between stimulating impulse purchases and making it easy to buy products.
C) The trade-off between the ease of finding merchandise and providing an interesting shopping experience is determined by the customer's shopping needs.
D) Specialty store retailers encourage the ease of finding merchandise rather than exploration.
E) Giving customers adequate space in which to shop has to be balanced with the use of scarce resource for merchandise.

Accepted Answer

Customers shopping for specialty goods like a computer, a home entertainment center, or furniture are more likely to spend time in the store browsing, comparing, and talking with the salesperson. Thus, specialty store retailers that offer this type of merchandise place more emphasis on providing hedonic benefits and encouraging exploration than on making it easy to find merchandise.

Quiz 16: Store Layout, Design, and Visual Merchandising

Impulse products are products that are purchased without prior plans, like fragrances and cosmetics in department stores and magazines in supermarkets.

Stores design provides hedonic benefits by enabling customers to locate and purchase products in an efficient and timely manner with minimum hassle.

Which of the following is not an objective for store design?

The two benefits customers seek when shopping are customer satisfaction and customer service.

Apparel retailers mostly utilize gondola fixtures.

Atmospherics refers to the design of an environment via visual communications, lighting, colors, music, and scent to stimulate customers' perceptual and emotional responses that affect their purchase behavior.

Retailers are required to provide all of the following for disabled customers except

A retailer considering LED lighting versus florescent lighting, solar power versus standard electricity, and local grasses versus typical grasses for landscaping would mostly be considering ________ as the objective for store design.

The best place for store planners to position a "destination" department or item is the front right-hand side of the store.

Tonnage merchandising is a display technique in which large quantities of merchandise are displayed together.

Why is it important for stores to be designed with flexibility in mind?

The grid layout is well suited for customers who are primarily interested in the hedonic benefits offered by a store.

The primary objective of a store design is in implementing the retailer's strategy.

The store design that provides a major aisle to facilitate customer traffic with access to the store's multiple entrances is called the racetrack layout.

The ________ is the phenomenon that occurs when a store is extremely cramped.

Store design provides ________ by offering customers an entertaining and enjoyable shopping experience.

The Americans with Disabilities Act

The trade-off between ease of finding merchandise and providing a varied and interesting layout is determined by

Since a store design cannot achieve all objectives, managers need to make trade-offs among them. Which of the following does not describes such trade-offs?