Shopping Senses

The old, ugly green carpets are covered with dirt and salt from shoppers dragging their winter boots across the floor, but tis the season.  Half of the lights have burnt out and the owner refuses to replace them, making the store look dark and grungy.  Thankfully there are yellow signs on every rack and table to brighten the store highlighting the sales “50 – 80% off”.  The coat of dust doesn’t exactly attract customers either, but there are a few that dare to enter.

 The store has two entrances, a right and left side, separated by a four-foot wide wall.  The wall is bare except for a few hoodies that hang from it. On the right side of the store is formal wear, consisting of suits, ties, belts, dress shirts, dress pants and vests.  The left side is casual, stalked with hoodies, T-shirts, jeans, and jackets.

With two opposite genres of fashion, the consumer population is diverse. Although it is a mens clothing store, there are clothes appropriate for everyone. There are purple and red fitted hoodies that could be unisex, winter jackets with longer arms for those who are taller, and a variety of fitted jeans. Many women find mens clothes more comfortable so anyone is able to shop at this store.

However the stores conditions are not appropriate. Along with the broken lights, the vacuum doesn’t work and the cleaning products leave gross residue. The mirrors that reflect back to consumers how the product looks are streaked without being properly cleaned. A store is judged primarily on it’s presentation. This is what initially draws consumers into the store, then it is judged on quality and variety of styles.

With a light layer of dust coating the store the smell is of a powerful mold. This is no ordinary mold but almost like if you had left your laundry in the washing machine for a week then opened it up to all of its ripeness. The clothes also obtain this smell as well as the smell of bodily odors as customers try on numerous sizes and styles.

The feel of the materials isn’t pleasant. It feels cheap and itchy. It looks as though

It was rushed when being manufactured with loose threads and uneven seams. It is very awkward when a customer is zipping up their sweatshirt and the zipper breaks or a snap or button falls off. There are many damaged products that are to be sold for full retail price. However this location created a damage wrack, which just added to the inexpensive look of the store. The rack was jammed with all kinds of damaged clothes it made the store feel like an outlet.

The look is amplified with the stores music selection. There are many channels through Sirius XM, the satellite radio. Yet, the store is only allowed to play three channels, none of them are allowed to have lyrics due to the provocative nature of most current pop songs. This really impresses the employees who look as though they would rather like to sleep, cry or die than be working there.

The whole experience of shopping at International Clothiers leaves a bad taste in your mouth.