Ch. 15 - Retailing

Before the spring break holiday I visited the Coach store located at the Queens Center Mall.
The Coach store is a "Specialty store" which (as I've said in my other post) specializes in the production on fine leather goods such as handbags, wallets, & wristlets.
First I'd like to say that the location of the store is great. The mall is in an area which would be considered a "middle class" neighborhood. The stores in mall are all stores that price their products well enough to attract the middle income consumer. Walking into the store I thought the lighting was bright and showcased the items through out the store. A salesman came to talk to me right away which was fine but can often be annoying. I told him that I was only looking and he still continued to show me the newest Coach products like a new spring bag that just came out and a new perfume that smelled really nice. I didn't find him annoying or forceful, I thought he was just trying to let me know that their were new items that I may want to buy - which was smart. That said, I think the "level of service" was high and I agree with the text book chart for a specialty store.
The "assortment of product" for this location in Queens was "narrow". It's a small store and they had a limited amount of products. Earlier this year I went to the Coach store in Puerto Rico and it was huge. The store had 4 separate rooms beautifully decorated. One of the rooms displayed only men's products which were all really nice. I didn't know that Coach had so many men's products until I saw them in that store. I suppose the reason why the store was so big had allot to do with it's location. The store was in a tourist area where not only were there lots of resorts and hotels but also cruise ships dock near by and the visitors tend to flock to these stores. I liked this store so much better.
The "Price" was "moderate to high" in both stores. You can buy a Coach bag for anywhere from $125 to $600. However, I did notice that the Coach store in Puerto Rico had sale items which were up to 50% off...I thought this was insane, I've never seen that kind of sale here in New York.
Overall, I agree with the text book chart that indicates the types of stores and their characteristics. One thing that I found interesting was how the stores change how they look and what they offer to fit the need of the area their in.