Floor Walk
A Non-Scientific But Horizontal Assessment of Holiday Buying
By Roger L. Kay
Friday, December 17, 2010 around midday, while doing some Christmas shopping, I took a floor
walk in the Natick Mall in Natick, Massachusetts, and a nearby strip mall, checking in on the Best
Buy and Apple Stores as well as other outlets.
Best Buy was fairly busy. However, as the company’s 3Q10 results indicated, the big TV and
monitor section and the soft goods area were pretty empty. There was a perceptible nexus of
interest at the Apple table, which was manned by a devoted Apple specialist. Activity in the other
notebook areas: not so much. Although the malls were crowded overall, and there were lines in a
lot of places to buy a lot of different kinds of merchandise, the lines at Best Buy were short.
By contrasts, the Apple Store was completely chockablock. People were asking lots of questions,
and lots of transactions were taking place. Everyone was window shopping, looking at all that
pretty hardware and all those high prices, which were not discounted even one lick. I felt the
familiar Apple pain of wanting something but just not being able to justify the money. It was hard
to see exactly how many transactions were going on, though. Since the payment system is
dispersed around the store, lines tend not to form. So, transaction velocity was likely higher than it
looked. Despite the difficult of getting a sense of transaction rate, but the store was fully occupied
and the sales personnel was dense on the ground and highly alert.
The men’s bathroom was the only place where there wasn’t a line, and in another moment even
that started queuing up. But otherwise, toy, game, and clothing stores were crowded. Some
higher-end cosmetics and jewelry shops were looking a bit empty, probably reflecting their higher
price points. There was lots and lots of traffic in the open corridors. Not bad for the middle of the
day on a weekday a week before the holiday. However, all of it was flowing around the HTC Evo
4G island without stopping. The sole clerked eyed me hungrily.
General assessment: it looked pretty good. In terms of overall traffic flow, thumbs up as a year
compared to others. Different categories did show varying strength. But there was enough froth
there to lend confidence that a fair amount of the activity was converting to transactions in a lot of
outlets.
A final note on price sensitivity: Old Navy traffic was heavy and the checkout line was very long.
You’re talking price shopper here. Recession-wariness remains an important feature, and the
average market basket will likely to be down as a result. There may be a lot of transactions, but
they could be taking place at fairly low prices, with the exception, perhaps, of Apple. It was clear
that the pricier venues had less traffic. It appeared that many people were spending their time
hunting for bargains.
© 2010 Endpoint Technologies Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
walk in the Natick Mall in Natick, Massachusetts, and a nearby strip mall, checking in on the Best
Buy and Apple Stores as well as other outlets.
Best Buy was fairly busy. However, as the company’s 3Q10 results indicated, the big TV and
monitor section and the soft goods area were pretty empty. There was a perceptible nexus of
interest at the Apple table, which was manned by a devoted Apple specialist. Activity in the other
notebook areas: not so much. Although the malls were crowded overall, and there were lines in a
lot of places to buy a lot of different kinds of merchandise, the lines at Best Buy were short.
By contrasts, the Apple Store was completely chockablock. People were asking lots of questions,
and lots of transactions were taking place. Everyone was window shopping, looking at all that
pretty hardware and all those high prices, which were not discounted even one lick. I felt the
familiar Apple pain of wanting something but just not being able to justify the money. It was hard
to see exactly how many transactions were going on, though. Since the payment system is
dispersed around the store, lines tend not to form. So, transaction velocity was likely higher than it
looked. Despite the difficult of getting a sense of transaction rate, but the store was fully occupied
and the sales personnel was dense on the ground and highly alert.
The men’s bathroom was the only place where there wasn’t a line, and in another moment even
that started queuing up. But otherwise, toy, game, and clothing stores were crowded. Some
higher-end cosmetics and jewelry shops were looking a bit empty, probably reflecting their higher
price points. There was lots and lots of traffic in the open corridors. Not bad for the middle of the
day on a weekday a week before the holiday. However, all of it was flowing around the HTC Evo
4G island without stopping. The sole clerked eyed me hungrily.
General assessment: it looked pretty good. In terms of overall traffic flow, thumbs up as a year
compared to others. Different categories did show varying strength. But there was enough froth
there to lend confidence that a fair amount of the activity was converting to transactions in a lot of
outlets.
A final note on price sensitivity: Old Navy traffic was heavy and the checkout line was very long.
You’re talking price shopper here. Recession-wariness remains an important feature, and the
average market basket will likely to be down as a result. There may be a lot of transactions, but
they could be taking place at fairly low prices, with the exception, perhaps, of Apple. It was clear
that the pricier venues had less traffic. It appeared that many people were spending their time
hunting for bargains.
© 2010 Endpoint Technologies Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
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