Section 2
Observe and analyze the merchandise layout of
CVS
GROUP #7: Elizabeth Fodill, Nathan Frantz, Kyle Hendirck, Lukas Pelikan, Chris Willey
3/30/2009
A.
In general the store layout, design and visual merchandising techniques
stayed consistent with the exterior and the location of CVS. The store layout
is used to entice the shoppers to explore the store. When you walk in to CVS
they have a pathway that takes you through the store. The layout that CVS
uses if called a grid layout. A grid layout has parallel aisles with merchandise
on shelves on both sides of the aisles’. The picture below gives a better view
of how CVS is similar to a grid layout.
CHECK OUT
CHECK OUT
Key:
Purple area = Bath Shower and Body Products. Such as makeup, nail polich
soaps, shampoos etc.
Black Boxes= Mostly makeup and some Radford University clothing is
presented in this area.
Red Rectangular Dashes= the entrance
Arrow= Indicates the pathway through the store.
Blue area= Pharmacy. Aisles in the blue area one of them are Radford
University items and some are office suppliers but as you go closer in to the
pharmacy you find medicines.
Orange area= this area indicates cold items. Such a milk, drinks, beer etc.
Green Area= 1 hour photo center
Blank area= are miscellaneous items like house hold items, cards, wrapping
paper, candy etc.
Red area= is the checkout area.
By supporting local teams CVS is staying consistent with its location.
B.
The stores ambiance does stay consistent with the merchandise presented and
the customer’s expectations. CVS has a very friendly feel to it. Soft music is played
with a friendly atmosphere. You wouldn’t expect to walk into CVS and hear hard rock or
rap, the music they play is what you would want to hear in a store like that. All the
different sections of merchandise are all color coordinated, so it is very easy to see what
the store has. I would assume most customers are satisfied with this setup.
C.
The design of CVS is fine and should not be redesigned. The store is relatively
new in Radford so there hasn’t been much need for change yet. The store has a very
organized design. Everything is labeled properly and easy to find. There are signs over
each isle that helps you find exactly what you need. By simply standing at the front
door and looking up, you can see what’s in every aisle without making a move. If they
wanted to move merchandise around, it wouldn’t be too hard. Most the isles are the
same size, so they would just have to change the labels over each isle.
D.
CVS’s store layout design and merchandising technique are not that flexible.
The store is small so it may be hard to change a lot of the layout. The pharmacy is in
the back and the photo center is located in front. These two areas are not flexible for
changes. Although on the selves products can be inner changed with new or more
merchandise or different merchandise. Overall CVS may not be able to change major
physical structure of the store layout. But aisles and fixtures within them can be
changed accordingly.
E) CVS does have good lighting, both natural lighting and unnatural lighting. The main
source of lights comes from florescent fixtures in the ceiling. There are also windows at
the top of the walls that allow for some natural sunlight to come into the building.
Throughout the store on the walls there are lights that highlight the signs telling the
customer which section they are in. This helps customer to be able to locate different
sections of the store. The cooler section has lights in side to allow customers to
evaluate products efficiently and allows for products to stand out. The lighting along the
walls especially in the beauty section have accent lighting to call attention to the
merchandise and displays of the different brands of makeup.
F) The main color of CVS is red, red is meant to give produce an emotional active
response. This is appropriate for their target market because people shopping in CVS
typically aren’t shopping in there for long periods of time it’s usually an in and out
decision process for some customers. The store has music playing over the intercom
system that is a mixture of calm and upbeat music. Considering the store is a drug
store, they carry a wide variety of products and often get a variety of people that shop.
So a calm, upbeat, bright store is perfect to their target market.
G) The fixtures are metal and are aligned into straight aisles. Yes the fixtures in CVS
efficiently hold and display the merchandise. The aisles are aligned with the pathway to
the back of the store as noted earlier in a previous section. The section where the
pharmacy is the aisles are arranged in that specific way so it will be easier to get
pharmacists’ attention.
H) When evaluating the stores signage it does an effective job at selling merchandise.
They use white tags with black lettering for regular prices. For sale prices they have a
yellow hanging tag that is supposed to attract customers to the reduced price.
( The photo above indicates an example of the items for sale or additional savings.)
The neon lights on the walls help elude customers to their
destination and are effective.
I. CVS does not use theatrical effects to help sell their merchandise.
J. The layout definitely draws people through the store. This goes back to the actual
structure of the building. What CVS did was create a building that’s main entrance
which is at the corner of the store instead of following “standard way” in this particular
location. By doing this it allows easier access to the store from a parking aspect, people
do not have to walk as far to get to the entrance while at the same time CVS does not
have to have a huge parking lot because it is spread on two sides of the building. From
a consumers point of view this may add convenience as time is saved. Also because of
this structural layout when a consumer walks through the main doors their first
impression is a building of greater size. Basically if you break it down mathematically
the point of entrance (being at corner) and the point that you face is the greatest
distance possible, therefore making the store look bigger than it is.
When in the store you notice a main walkway from the main doors. This walk way
winds in an S shape all the way to the other corner where the pharmacy is. With this
main pathway you are forced to walk through just about every aisle. The main business
of CVS is the pharmacy and so knowing this they made sure you see all the
merchandise on your way to the other corner of the store. At the end of the aisle there
are displays with merchandise that is on sale or in some cases items that are not on
sale. This is their way of exposing the consumer to some impulse buys even though
they are only there to buy medication. Upon observation I noticed that they put the
magazines right near where a long time would occur which is at the pharmacy. Maybe
this is by coincidence, but if there is a longer line a consumer could kill some time and
read/get interested in a magazine of their choice.
CVS is using this layout because of its benefits. A study done by Messinger and
Narasimhan shows that if a consumer has to spend more time in a store that he/she will
be more tempted to make an impulse buy. They also go on to say that there is a
massive growing trend of one stop all shopping and by CVS creating that big store feel
and creating common day useful inventory they are jumping on that bandwagon.
K. CVS has taken advantage of selling their merchandise in featured areas. Like
stated before, they are selling their items that are on sale or featured. They put them at
the end of each aisle and have a bunch of free standing small aisles at the entrance. At
this local CVS that have Radford University merchandise as stated earlier. They also
have seasonal items like candy and other small purchases. Consistency was also in
mind when doing their layout. As stated, at the end of each aisle they have featured
items but they also have something to do with that aisle. Because these items are
mostly common day items they are there to help strike a need in a consumers mind.
Just because they are featured does not mean they are going to sell but because it
created a want/need in the consumers mind they go down the aisle and purchase their
desired brand.
L. In CVS the wall space is not used in a creative way. When you look at the
merchandise in CVS the walls are organized by item. Many retailers use this technique
to organize stock.
M. The CVS store uses a layout where the customer enters the store and has a
pathway all the way through the store. Similar to a grid layout as noted earlier. The
layout is new, compared to the old style where there was no walkway and shelves and
merchandise were in your face as soon as you entered. The new store style is definitely
more friendly and welcoming.
N. The store manager would not comment on the way that the store’s was measured
according to the layout. Although we feel that CVS uses a sales per linear foot to
measure their profitability of the space. Another example of a retailer that would use this
approach would be a grocery store which have similar aisle layouts.
O. Space in the store is assigned by section and type of item. Medicine is located in the
back of the store near the pharmacy, in order for the pharmacy to better assist
customers and not have to walk across the store to do so. The other products are
assigned by convenience of the products near them. For instance the candy which is
next to the register is accompanied by food on the next isle over. Since this can be used
in households, there is the laundry detergent and other household products on the wall
next to that.
P. Planograms are used frequently in CVS. The corporate office sends an itemized
picture to the store with where they want specific SKUs put on the display. The store
has nothing to do with developing planograms.
Q- The department location of CVS are appropriate. In almost everyone of them the
beauty products are typically closet to the entrance and the pharmacy is usually in the
back of the store a long with the over the counter medications. The pharmacy is located
in the back to draw people back through the store to help with influence customers to
purchase more. We do not think that any of the departments in the store should be
moved.
R- The store is organized by signs along the walls to indicate where things are for
example beauty products, photo, and pharmacy. These signs are also in different colors
that have lights underneath of them to be more visible. There are also aisle signs to
indicate different merchandise in a particular aisle. They only recommendation to better
organize merchandise would to have a section for local Radford merchandise to have
its own section rather than crowded at the front of the store.
Recommendations for the retailer
We feel like CVS should have more employees working out on the floor to assist with
customers. When in the store we didn’t see many employees walking around and
helping. Mainly stuff at the front of the store was bunched together and did not look like
it was worth buying or paying any attention too. This was also a problem not just to the
right near the checkout station but also near the beauty section. It created a barrier and
blocked a lot of the beauty section. Also the Radford University merchandise and the
Radford High School merchandise should have its own section and should not be
jumbled up at the top of the store.