A shopping trip ending with confirmed assumptions

            For this excursion assignment, I decided to focus on the shopping experience at a department store. The department store that I went to was Macy’s, located at Queen’s Center Mall, in Elmhurst, Queens. While at this Macy’s, I decided to focus my attention at both the Young Men and Women’s sections, and also the Men and Women shoe sections.

The first area that I went to was the young women’s department. This area was incredibly crowded with both customers and store associates.  The customers in that department consisted mostly of teenage girls in groups of 4 or 5. Some were shopping by themselves, while a few were also with their mothers shopping together. All the customers were scurrying around the department floor searching for different clothes, while talking amongst them selves about the different styles they saw and how they imagined themselves in the clothing. The store associates were also all over the section. They however were constantly in the process of putting out more clothing onto fixtures and hanging racks. They were also busy fixing the clothes back on to hangers that the customers would shamelessly leave on the floor after dropping them once done looking at them. I noticed very few men in this section. The ones that I did see were just passing through to get to the next department or were tagging alone with a girl. I did find a large group of men though waiting by the threshold of the women’s fitting room. All of them were on either their smartphones or iPods, seemingly killing time and waiting for their female party member to be done.

I decided to take a look at the jeans that were made available for Young women. They of course carried different name brands but I decided to look specifically at the brand Levi’s, Guess, and American Rag. This way it would be easier to find a comparative male item. A pair of boot cut Levi’s had a regular retail price of $50.00 – $58.00, depending on the kind of denim that was used in the make of the jeans. A pair of Guess boot cut jeans ranged from $80.00-$110.00 dollars. Finally American Rag skinny jeans ranged from $30.00 - $50.00 dollars.

I moved from the Young women’s section to the Women’s shoe department. I can easily sum up my immediate sight at the department as a pure madhouse. If I had felt the Young women’s section was chaotic, the shoe department made the previous area looks like a calm pasture. Numerous customers, mostly women, appeared very irate waiting for customer service and were highly fixated upon the various shoes on display. Most of the shoe displays were on the floor or knocked over on the table stands. The shoe department was highly understaffed, containing only 2 active store associates at the time, serving the entire department. They both looked stressed and fatigued, as they carried several boxes with both hands to hand over to customers.

The items that I looked at in this department were the Women’s Converse sneakers, Lacoste sneakers, and Nike running sneakers. The selection of converse sneakers were priced from $55.00-$85.00 dollars. The selection of Lacoste sneakers were priced from $75.00-$110.00 dollars. Finally, the Nike running sneakers were priced from $80.00 to $125.00 dollars.

            I then went downstairs to take a look at the young men’s clothing section. The customers in this section of the store had a fairly even mixture of both men and women. Most of them were either alone or shopping together in parties of two or three. Compared to the young women’s section, the customers were shopping at a much more passive pace and more relaxed. The sales associates there were not as numerous as in the young women’s department, but they were much more readily available to help. If anything they were either standing around, or restocking clothing onto the racks.

Just like in the young women’s section, I took a look at the jeans available. A pair of Guess regular fitted jeans were priced from $85.00-$120.00. A pair of Levi regular fit was priced from $50.00 - $60.00 dollars. Finally, a pair of American Rag regular fit jeans were priced from $30.00-$40.00 dollars.

I made my last stop towards the men’s shoe department. The shoe department was right next to the Young’s Men department. It was not really that busy at the time. Only a few customers were there asking for help. Some were looking at the shoe displays but quickly scurried away to other areas. Numerous store associates were standing around and were eagerly asking me if I needed assistance once I was in that section, in which I had to repeatedly decline.

I took a look at three name brand shoes that were available for sale: Nike, Converse, and Adidas. The Nike sneakers available for sale ranged from $60-$170 dollars. The Converse sneakers ranged from $50-$70 dollars. Finally, the Adidas sneakers ranged from a price of $65-$80 dollars.

My excursion experience has left me at a few conclusions, even if a bit stereotypical. The first is that women appear to enjoy shopping much more than men. The second is that women clothing have a tendency to be priced higher than the male equivalent. During my trip I did ask a store associate working in the Young Women’s department as to why Women are more willing to pay more for something than Men are when shopping. The person’s name was Helen and was in the midst of bringing out clothes from the stockroom. The store associate’s response was brief: “Once they see and they like it, price is not an object. I know because I have a daughter.”