Thread: What would you want? (help me with my school project)

What would you want from an electronics store in a small to medium sized community (think 50,000 to 500,000 people)?

Would you want face to face tech support? Training on products? Hands on demo devices? What kinds of electronics would you want? Anything with a plug? Only home theatre? What about store design? Would the layout and atmosphere matter? Would you want all store employees to be female supermodels who dress in Catholic school girl outfits?

There are no limitations here. Money is no object, there is no limit on products or services offered, specific brand offerings, anything you can think of is possible, literally. Think of it as a dream store. If you could have anything you wanted, what would it be? It doesn't matter if you are a technogeek or a soccer mom or are scared of anything more technologically advanced than a rotary dial phone (read: Dreadnought); I would love to hear it all, even if you don't believe it is financially or otherwise viable.

This will help me with a group project for school and help me satisfy a general curiosity. Questions, please ask.

Thanks guys and gals. You're the best!

Dream store!
It would be a large, warehouse style building. Bright, happy colors with a lounge (no alcohol) towards the back so people would have to walk through the store and explore the products on the way.
Music would probably consist of the gentle sounds of nature, but would experiment with this to see what really entices the customers.
It would have a couple of hands-on training areas towards the back, so people would have to walk through the store and explore the products on their way.
I would probably offer some basic, free computer courses to help people out and encourage them to move forward into the computer world.
Tech support and computer repair on-site...very important.
I would also set up 'stations' through out the store to isolate fun, hands on products.
My store would also have every computer part a person might need available; motherboards, ethernet ports, ect....
There would be at least two, happy greeters at the front of the store.
Salespeople would not be working on commission, so there would be no pushing the customer...only helping the customer.

Hope that helps your project.

Am I the builder/store owner? Or am I the consumer?

Because those would be completely different wants/needs for me.

I live in a small community of about 50K people. Do you want something logical and reasonable, or is the sky the limit?

Originally Posted by underrated29

Am I the builder/store owner? Or am I the consumer?

Because those would be completely different wants/needs for me.

Think consumer for the moment. I just need ideas; crazy, big dream ideas, even if they seem completely unfeasible to you. Logistics is my job.

Originally Posted by gnomeflinger

I live in a small community of about 50K people. Do you want something logical and reasonable, or is the sky the limit?

Sky is the limit! However wild it may seem really doesn't matter.

I don't want to give too much information right now, as I don't want to box in any suggestions, or lead anyone down the path I'm thinking of right now. This is pure brainstorming "fun".

First off I would want cats to just roam the store like you see at some independent pet stores....then as far as what the stores sell, I would want them to have lightsabers. Other than that I don't care what it sells.

It would have a huge pond in the middle with giant catfish and dolphins flipping up in the air through hoops. Besides the pond their would be native prairie land filled with all kinds of prairie animals.

When you walk through the store instead of an old lady greeting you at the door you would have Admiral Ackbar personally greeting you....all other employees would be females betweet the ages of 18-30 around 5'4" or so with brown/black hair (length doesn't matter) with various sized cans (B-DD) and would have pretty smiles and totally not be bitches. They would wear skirts with string bikini tops (none of those clasp fastener kinis).

The walls would be painted with various murials depicting the Battle Of Endor. The domed ceiling would be retractable, and be made of clear glass.

Customer service would be a non-issue because if anyone had a problem they would fall into the custom built Rancor pit or be eaten by a tiger (or maybe those cats who kill and then drag the kill up a tree).

One unicorn would patrol the store too.

There would be live music, mostly pretty contemporary classical music, absolutely no baroque music would be allowed.

Also there would be a food court with geese flying you your food from a sachel droped from their beaks....and they would stay at your table so you could pet them.

There would be an outside section where people could play baseball and go camping and poop in the woods and go snipe hunting.

Sneaks....you are totally awesome.

But instead of a unicorn, can I superglue a horn on a horse? I'm just not sure my suppliers carry unicorns.

it's not a dream-store unless you move this thread to the lounge.

i hate shopping, so my ideal electronics store is the internet... sorry, not much help i suppose.

I want my local electronics store to offer strippers.

Originally Posted by shawshank24

it's not a dream-store unless you move this thread to the lounge.

i hate shopping, so my ideal electronics store is the internet... sorry, not much help i suppose.

I thought about that, but decided exposure was more to my benefit.

I don't blame you. I mostly agree. How about thinking of it in this context: You just bought Awesome Item X over the internet from Fictional Dream Store. Would you ship it back or return it at your local branch? If you'd return it in person, what would you want from your experience?

And hell, if you'd want it as an internet store, what would you want from it in terms of techy web features?

Originally Posted by frauschieze

I thought about that, but decided exposure was more to my benefit.

I don't blame you. I mostly agree. How about thinking of it in this context: You just bought Awesome Item X over the internet from Fictional Dream Store. Would you ship it back or return it at your local branch? If you'd return it in person, what would you want from your experience?

And hell, if you'd want it as an internet store, what would you want from it in terms of techy web features?

only reason i would return it is if it was defective. i do shit-tons of research before i make electronics purchases, so i know exactly what i'm getting into... one of the reasons i don't like in-store is because there have been times when i knew what i wanted when i went to the store, and then workers give me lots of mis-information that i know is incorrect from my researching... internet always has a better price as well.

only time i can remember buying electronics in person in the last few years has been on black fridays.

from an internet store, i don't know what kind of features would really be cool. price comparisons are easy enough to do without it being a site feature...

i have no idea. virtual strippers. :copout:

Originally Posted by frauschieze

Think consumer for the moment. I just need ideas; crazy, big dream ideas, even if they seem completely unfeasible to you. Logistics is my job.

You got it.


First- I want to walk in to the store and smell a waterfall. because they have a big ass waterfall somewhere inside. A big thunderous one. I hate walking on hardwood floors in stores so it should be some sort of marble, because thats just awesome too. Gaint floor to ceiling glass windows with cool etched in designes that make me excited to go in and see what else is there. Since its electronics i want some sort of sunken in mini movie theater with popcorn and bean bag chairs. A lite breeze flowing though is cool, maybe a fair amount of ceiling fans that emit some sort of citrus smell. Palm trees are a mutha freaking must. Every dudes dream is to watch his big ass HDTV on the beach with drinks and a BBQ. No umbrella drinks except in the ladies area. So that when I want to buy a TV she can get sauced up with the other girls making it an easier sell why I need one.

The greeters, need to not be stationed at one post and should definitely be super hot girls. They dont have to be skimpy, but HOT! That way if i am there with my girlfriend I wont get punched in the stomach for always wanting to go inside. Speaking of going inside. I like the spinny door thing, like you get at hotels. Thats how you go inside and there should be a bridge you walk across. One wall inside the building should be like a giant IMAX only its a wall, but an imax and they need to play football, hockey or cheerleaders.

If I have to return something, I need computers, xbox, ipods, or free download stations in line. So that while I am standing there pissed off I can enjoy my wait playing a game or adding songs to my library. Then as the line moves i move the next station which is a tutorial on how to increase my 1080p tv to 1500. There also needs to be a wheel of fortune thing going on inside. live where people can win. In addition to that, EVERYONE is required to play chopsticks on one of those floor pianos, like in the movie big. A volleyball court with sand so I can video tape volleyball girls in my potential new video camera and see if I like it.

Being that this place is huge, and might take some time to get through it all. The walking platforms like at airports are a must as well as a wings,nachos type returante...totally free on game days. I am slightly afrraid of segways, but those might be cool too. I would add a lot of other stuff but this is a technology store so i wont go there. But i am not done yet. oh no.


Hand on training, def so. Vitual simulators, you know it. NO EFFING PEOPLE WITH FLAIR ON THEIR SHIRTS!... Everyone that works there that is a dude has to talk like lumberg from office space. And all the dudes need to be total geeks. Sneakers like...Just kidding dude...But not about the geeks. I want someone whose life dream it is to dis-asseble and re assemble a TV blindfolded to sell me my stuff. Like shaw said, I dont want sales person to feed me lies and BS thats wrong from what I know. I want the inside bill gates nerdy stuff. Mullets. Somehow someway Mulletts need to factor in to this place. All the managers need mulletts. A kids place to stash my son while looking at things.....The building needs to be accoustically constructed so its not noisey though, I dont want to hear tons of people like a carnival either or kids and people going stupid and crazy. So they need egyptian pillars throughout to break up sound and look cool. And last but not least, because I am sure you nor anyone else wants me to keep going, because I could..........

There MUST be an area where I can bring my old TV or broken one or whatever...And sledge hammer the shit out of it. Then bring in my boken down computer and basball bat that mf'er to pieces!!

(did a school project on that last bit, got an A+)

If you need more, ask away Frau- i got a big imagination.

Realistically,
a combination of Circuit City/Best Buy(Wide variety of electronics and Large Appliances), RadioShack(Electrical Components), Ultimate Electronics(Audio/Visual), OfficeMax/Depot/Staples(office focused supplies), FYE(media), and Microcenter(Computer components).
Ideally you would want to cater to as wide of a market as possible, but strip it down to the the size the community needs. What I listed might be TOO much however.
A lot of those stores overlaps so basically BestBuy+RadioShack+MicroCenter would have everything covered.

Don't worry about what the market can bear. Again, logistics is my problem.

For those that have helped out so far, thanks a million. If you wanted to be a little more specific about what the store actually would sell, both products and services, that'd be appreciated.

I like Crazyhorses listing of the type of products the store would be and ditto all of that. I would say this though. As a consumer I'd want it easily navigable. Meaning say simialr items like Microcenter and Radio Shack in a very cordoned off area. Perhaps a second floor? One problem I have with say Best Buy or Office Max is that the organization of the store sometimes tends to be very chaotic and difficult to navigate. Unless you know the store well or are after DVD or cell phones which are easily identifiable areas, going through the store can be a pain in the butt.

Also a big warehouse to accompany it on site. Stockpile the most popular items to ensure that you can keep those prices extremely low such as how Walmart or Ikea's business model to make the products they sell so reasonably priced.

Solid location to ensure there's other places to go afterward so I can shop elsewhere for other goods I might need to make shopping short and efficient or to draw in other customers who see the store and drop in on a whim.

Lastly grills or other food outside the store selling delicious food. Nothing beats a great hot dog stand/philly cheese steak stand/pretzel stand to grab before or after shopping. Home depots with those outside kick butt....