An important type of research is observation. Watching what people do is informative. You can make decisions about product placement, look for safety issues, and general traffic patterns. You would want to observe shoppers before siting a store anywhere. You would need to know how many people come by a space, if they come alone, if they have bags when they leave, etc.

An important type of research is observation. Watching what people do is informative. You can make decisions about product placement, look for safety issues, and general traffic patterns. You would want to observe shoppers before siting a store anywhere. You would need to know how many people come by a space, if they come alone, if they have bags when they leave, etc.

Your project is to visit a large store (grocery, department store, Bed Bath and Beyond). There are several in the nearest shopping center so this should be easy.

You need to spend 30 minutes walking the store and observing. If the store asks you to leave, do so. They should not notice you but if they do, leave immediately. This is a class project, not a reason to be arrested.

record the time of day and the address of the store

Observe (qualitatively):

=What do shoppers do when they enter the store?  Get a shopping cart, stop to get acclimated, move on quickly? Watch for a minute or two and move on.=Aisles: do they follow the main aisle all the way to the back or do they quickly move into the merchandise?

=Do they seem to be actively searching or are they browsing?

=How many shoppers buy something with in this short time frame?

Your deliverable is a well-formatted report that includes:

=what you observed

=what is important in the information you observed

=actionable intelligence, that is, what could this store do to improve