Case Study 1B

Flagship stores attract bodies like a bug zapper except without the death by electrocution part. The flagship stands out for a couple of reasons. They are usually designed by high-end well respected architects/designers. That said, the outside architecture stands out from its surroundings like a sore thumb. The store's brand is prominently displayed and can be seen for hundreds of meters down the street, helped in no small part by the number of floor levels in the store. It stands out in the day, in the night, in bad weather, in good weather, and probably would through a nuclear holocaust if given the opportunity. These stores are insanely well lit, allowing you to see people going in, out, up, down, and sideways from outside at a considerable distance. Who knows how many coal and nuclear plants are required to keep one of these behemoths up and running with juice. It should be noted that this is the type of store I am interested in for my project for the semester.

I know nothing of the statistics involved nor am I an expert on retail stores but it is my educated guesstimate that they rake in a large proportion of the market share when compared to what I call "pathway" stores (anything not on a corner). Its very simple: the longer store frontage that you have, the more likely someone is to come into your store to buy something. The sales opportunities increase when your store is located at an intersection since you have people coming from multiple directions. The increased store frontage means more opportunity for merchandise display, signage, and in-store viewing. This is also a preferred characteristic of my flagship store project.

To sum it up, smaller stores have to be creative and fit a market niche, especially when competing with others that have any combination of a preferred location, multi-level, and big time architectural facade.

I've got a headache. Blogger hates me.