Josh Evnin

Am I the only one who gets lost at Target?

Target Logo

Every other weekend or so I take a trip to my local Target store to stock up on necessities. Let me start by saying this: I love Target. For the most part I have a wonderful experience there…well, except for one section: the toiletries area. For some reason, I can never find the things I’m looking for in this section. Yesterday it was shampoo. I looked for minutes and could not locate my Pert Plus. The visit before it was my face wash. And before that it was the soap that I like.

My question is, does anyone else have this problem in this area of Target? Or is it just me? If it’s not just me, then perhaps Target is ready for a little reorganization.

Assuming it is a problem others have as well, it wouldn’t be all that difficult to reorganize this section of the store based on the needs of shoppers. First, I would want to do some user research, likely by bringing people into the store and asking them to find the things that they would normally buy. This would yield a few different results:

  1. We would confirm whether others can find the products they’re looking for, and assuming it is still an issue
  2. This would shed light on navigation patterns through the aisles
  3. So that we could restructure the contents of the aisles

In effect, this is a little like what I do every day. Of course, I’m sure the people at Target work hard to make sure items are as easy to find as possible. I just wonder if they’re doing any contextual research to find solutions. It’s important to see people in the act of finding items…be they real items, or links on a webpage. Otherwise the solutions are based simply on theory. And when I’m desperately trying to find my Pert Plus, that’s not good enough.

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7 responses

  1. Dat Avatar
    Dat

    Haha. I always have trouble figuring out which department a specific item is located. It doesn’t help that my local Target has changed it’s layout radically from what I knew as a kid.

  2. suzanna Avatar
    suzanna

    Well, perhaps you can’t find what you’re looking for because Target likes it that way. Retail stores are known to move things around all of the time so that you get enthralled with something you DON’T need while you are looking for what you do need.

  3. John wilger Avatar
    John wilger

    Actually, they intend for you to spend several minutes trying to locate that type of thing, as it forces you to look at the other products. You wouldn’t beleive the research and money that goes into figuring out how to arrange retail shelves for maximum profit! They’ve done the homework – but there goal is different from yours.

  4. John wilger Avatar
    John wilger

    Their goal, too. 🙂

  5. Rob Wilkerson Avatar
    Rob Wilkerson

    My single largest complaint about Target: why bother to have 1,293 checkout aisles (I counted them) if you’re only going to open 3 of them? Seriously.

  6. Marjorie Avatar
    Marjorie

    It’s always good to cultivate friendships with women who have worked in or are working in retail. They generally have a good ability to zero in on the product placement rules a store mgmt. has going. ( Maybe, it’s a re-direction of the ancient hunter/gatherer division of responsibilities 🙂 )

  7. William Neal Avatar
    William Neal

    Yes, I tend to consider it’s more on the “insidious” path when it comes to you not finding your beloved PERT (plus or other), because the more time you’re in THEIR place, the less time you’re able to spend in another. Course, this could backfire. Frustrated, you leave.

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