Field Research...Part 1

I stowed away to the front of Whole Foods a couple times, parking myself at a bar table and taking notes. 

See for yourself

Here, I recorded instances where the check-out counter is a real ergonomic issue- particularly at the end of the process when a customer/cashier is bagging the groceries.

This is what I noted, when I, myself, went through the check-out line.

-Moving groceries is a time suck- it's what contributes to the wait.

-The checkout of purchases can be broken down into 6 steps.

1) Groceries are taken out of the cart & loaded onto the belt

2) Groceries travel down the belt to the scanner

3) Groceries are scanned/weighed/etc

4) Groceries rolled down a corral to the bagging area

5) Groceries are bagged.

6) Bags are put back into the cart.

This highlights areas of redundancy; places that add time & energy to a customer's wait & a cashier's job. 

I can easily see technology pushing us forward past the steps of putting our groceries on the conveyor belt & it rolling down towards the bagging area, presenting a more efficient situation, like this:

Essentially, if the checkout process is simply the point at which the store bills you for your purchases and records inventory data, then it should require nothing more than that. A simple swish over a scanner, a tap of a credit card, and off you go!

The Psychology of Queing....

The NYT published this interesting article, "Why Waiting in Line is Torture", and it touches on the psychology of queuing, which is one fundamental aspect of my project.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/opinion/sunday/why-waiting-in-line-is-torture.html?smid=pl-share

It's a really good read, and I highly recommend it for its insightful commentary about people's perceptions of time,  how unoccupied time is longer than occupied time (hence, those trashy magazines and snacks welcoming everyone towards the checkout lane), how uncertainty heightens the stress of waiting in line, etc. 

Some quick & dirty sketches....

FastCo's Whole Foods Visual Merchandising article

http://www.fastcompany.com/1779611/priming-whole-foods-derren-brown

This FastCompany article couldn't have found me at a better time....A time when I am dissecting the WF visual brand, trying to understand how they have crafted the customer experience via visual merchandising.

(This isn't a particularly  upbeat article, as the author, slams Whole Foods for using a series of "tricks" to alter customers' perceptions of what they are buying, and the brands they choose. While the article's analysis is interesting, I'm somehow skeptical of his subject of choice, since it feels like he took cheap shots at a widely popular store, just for the sake of buzz and publicity.)

The author points out WF's inspiration in authentic "old time simplicity" stems from outdoor European marketplaces. I can see how. When I lived in Germany, they were everywhere. Each city has a central outdoor marketplace, but one can find fresh fruit & vegetables more easily from daily street vendors selling around a busy corner. 

Here's a deeper look into the European daily marketplace that inspires Whole Foods

The experience that Whole Foods draws from is one that is a personal learning experience for their customers. As an once Whole Foods cashier, I remember that it  was important for us to talk to our "guests" & build a rapport, a relationship, in order to get to know our customers and provide the best service possible. But it really is that chance for Whole Foods to make a lasting impression on customers, just as they are leaving the store. 

Cashiers are the face of the company to customers. And they are also the "experts" to which customers ask their questions and direct their concerns about their purchase, about their "food". Cashiers are equivalent to the farmer's market seller, the expert of food, with whom customers develop a relationship with. No matter how many customers, I still remember specific purchases that were habitually made by the same customers. I got to know them, personally. 

More importantly, the authenticity that Whole Foods eludes to, though criticized in Lindstroms' article, is authentic. They re-create a sense of that farmer's market, and authenticity in their customer service. And it remains that way, as so aptly put by Roger Dooley, because "...brands are only as strong as the products and services they represent". 

Brainstorm take aways

Speaking of Brainstorms...

In response to a few posts back on brainstorming sessions, I found this interesting post on how to kill a brainstorm & waste everyone's time. As this post notes, "These are not IDEO's strict rules for sparking good ideas...these are absolute no-no's."