Marketing, Marketing, Marketing - Everywhere I Look

Yesterday I was doing some Christmas shopping and couldn't get over all the marketing everywhere. Merchandising makes such a difference when I'm out shopping. So much of it just blares at the consumer, instead of helping/aiding/guiding. The blaring kind can be so annoying.

Yesterday I visited Best Buy, Target, Walmart and Kohls.

Best Buy had most of the merchandise I was interested in buying, but the check out lines were so long, products that we wanted were missing or sold out... and I just kept wanting to get on line to double check what else was out there. Sales people were eagerly helpful but they launched into too many "gigabit" feature conversations before even asking how it was going to be used. We walked out without buying anything

Target's merchandising was outstanding. Although the store was PACKED, it sure didn't feel that way. Wide aisles, beautiful aisle layouts. I found we had more in our cart than we had planned on spending. We not only found what we were looking for, we found more.

Kohls experience was the worst. Just piles of stuff that looked like what I call pre-yard sale. Crammed aisles, difficult to walk through.

Walmart was quick because we had a list of 3 things we needed to pick up from there. Dirty and unappealing for real shopping, it's hard to beat their prices on the commodity stuff like laundry detergent and shampoo.

My prediction: Target is going to eat Walmart's lunch this season. Kohl's is going to be looking at about 30 to 40% carry over... and Best Buy will have (or already has) really good sell thru.