Poll: Factors Influencing Where You’ll Shop This Holiday Season?
Consumers have many choices where to shop all year and retailers really try to get you during the holiday season starting on Black Friday:
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally marked the moment retailers moved into profit, or “the black”. Latterly it has been when consumers queued for hours in the cold to dash around shops, fighting over the latest half-price LCD widescreen televisions. (source)
For the poll this week I’m asking what factors influence where you’ll shop this holiday season. Below is the list of answers I’ve provided, in alphabetical order, you can pick up to three. The poll is in the right sidebar, mobile users switch to desktop layout.
- Convenience
- Customer service
- Employment policies
- Financing terms
- Layaway plan
- Owneership
- Politics of retailer
- Price
- Sales/Specials
- Selection
- Shipping
- Unsure, N/A, no answer
Note the answers are displsayed in a random order in the poll itself.
— Steve Patterson
Three choices are not enough. 1, 2, 8, 9, 10 & 11 are all important, as are return policies, having product in stock, having unique/surprising items, adjacency to other retailers, access to public transit or convenient parking, a secure shopping environment (minimal crime) and an overall pleasant shopping environment. And, interestingly, for some people, whether the sales staff are allowed to say “Merry Christmas”, or if they’re limited to “Happy Holidays”.
Prioritize your top three.
I did. My point is that shopping decisions are, many times, more complex than anyone’s “top three”. If I want a bag of chips, convenience is more important than price. If I want to fill my tank, price is a major component, more so than convenience. I rarely pay attention to what stuff costs in the grocery store, I pay a lot of attention when shopping for a car. When it comes to holiday shopping, finding something / what the recipient will really appreciate is my biggest priority, and I’ll put up with crowded stores, heavy traffic and incompetent service to find the “right” thing, much more than I would if I were shopping for myself . . . .
Sure, I’m not going to buy my Tanks where I buy my pastries and will prioritize those purchases differently…duh. Cut the guy some slack.
All things being equal, and using the poll choices, what are your top 3 factors influencing where you’ll be doing your holiday shopping.
Sales/Specials, Customer Service and Other. My point is that if you (attempt to) oversimplify complex decisions, all you do is generate bad data. Three is an arbitrary number. Why not two? Five? One? Eight? Steve’s polls are always interesting, but they sometimes generate some “interesting” results, as well, which Steve and others like to use to justify specific positions. I know, I know they’re not “scientific”, nor are they ever presented to be, but given their purpose (to illustrate positions and generate discussions), I would hope that an appropriate number of options is provided.
Customer service, selection, and ownership. We prefer local if possible. What we will NOT be doing is shopping at any store that opens on Thanksgiving day or at Midnight. That demostrates such disrespect for the staff I can’t put my disdain into words.
I can not agree with you More!
Random Target/Transit related question Steve. Is it simpler to take the bus to the Hampton Target or take light rial to the Brentwood Target (assuming you go in your power chair)?
None of the businesses in Brentwood Promenade are reachable from public transit since it isn’t connected to the public sidewalk along Eager Rd.
I catch the #11 bus at 14th & Market and it takes me to Chippewa & Hampton, very easy and considerably safer because I’m not having to travel through parking lots and in auto driveways.
This offers a chance to look at the old city with far flung commercial stores all over St. Louis City vs centralization of commercial. it is important to note how much transit, walking and bicycles contribute to small scale commercial over centralized locations that require massive parking lots.
You are more likely to stop at a small storefront if you are walking by the store already than if you have to drive by the same store, stop, get out of the car and so on.
Walking, transit and bicycles actually support a broader economic development compared the the car, where Wal-Mart and all of the other Marts of centralized profit centers reside.
Of course that is why they want ,the car to continue to rule so the can make millions and buy the competition until there is none. (gasp, gasp global warming and all). Transit walking and bicycles is exactly what the City of St. Louis and the nation needs.
Christmas and the Holiday season has become corporate ejaculation.
No, the reason most people want the car and the convenient parking is that it’s damn hard to carry a 52″ flat screen TV, a case (or three) of beer and/or the 64-pack of toilet paper on Metro or two blocks to a parking garage! IF most stores (still?) offered fast, free delivery AND they didn’t screw up their orders, maybe this wouldn’t be the case. But given the level of “service” most brick-and-mortar stores offer, most of the time I’d just rather do it myself.