Retail Store Design - Essay Example

stores to asses the extend of the easiness in shopping for the customers. It was proposed to evaluate the degree of illumination in the shopping space, product shelves etc and a comparison across different stores on these factors and how it influenced the shoppers choice on selection of stores. Further, a comparison across the U.S. and U.K. stores was also carried out. The purpose of such comparison is to understand the pattern of change across the countries and the customer attitude behavior in the shopping in retail stores.

Another major research question that is addressed here is on predicting the customer decision to shop in one store over the other. It could be due to different set of reasons and hence the research undertaken here must be able to expose the key factors that would drive the customer decision-making. in the retail store selection. In addition, it is also planned to have an evaluation on the effect of store lighting on the decision taken to shop in a particular shop by the customer. The retail business segment is a very vibrant and dynamic area of commercial operations that demands specialized design of its building systems.

The building envelope and interior features in the retail establishments are found to have direct influence on both the mental and physical well being of the occupants as well as the clients (Hiserdot, 2002). Incorporation of technology in the business operations have helped to bring tremendous transformation on the business functions and have also led to the innovative design of the functional space of the retail business unit. The two major components that design of a retail business unit must focus are design of interiors and establishing a favorable environment for effective the visual communication (Retail Systems, n.d.) Some of the specific interventions in the retail system designs are (i) Reliable and secure systems based on efficient automated systems and (ii) Solutions that are environmentally friendly and cost effective operations (Salvador, et al. , 2006).The retail design process is a very rigid exercise involving large number of interconnected activities like the design of the exterior, floor plan creation with selling space demarcation, interior planning, placing of fixtures and merchandise on the shelves.

Unlike the traditional approaches the design process is expected involves a thorough review of the past with clear understanding of the differences with the present. It is said to create a very rich design with the help of research data. To create a changing environment in the shopping space, it is better if the designs are considered as modular and flexible. The retail segment consists of large pool of trading stores. The primary classes of the retail trade are grocery stores, drug store, convenience store, discount stores and mass merchants, department stores, specialty stores, catalogue and internet shopping.

Retail Drug Stores Drug stores are among the fastest growing retail stores. This is driven partially by aging baby boomers that require more healthcare products, but also as a strategy to siphon customers away from conventional stores. Consolidation in the industry has left three national players with several thousand stores each: Walgreens Drug, CVS and Rite Aid. The study undertaken here have chosen Walgreens drug and Rite aid as the samples for