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| Blue box: less crowds Red Box: more crowds |
Quantitative Results
Female vendor at kiosk selling skin care products:
2 attempts to engage shopper in which she got their attention but they declined
2 attempts to engage shopper in which shopper ignored her
Total vendor sales: 0
Male vendor manning three kiosks:
Sunglasses kiosk:
0 attempts to engage shoppers but 7 successful sales
1 sale lost since he was busy with other customers
7 successful sales
Hair styling product kiosk:
10-12 attempts to engage shopper in which he got their attention but they declined
5 attempts to engage shopper in which shopper ignored him
2 successful sales
Shirt kiosk:
0 attempts
1 possible sale failed since he was busy with other kiosk so shopper left
1 successful sale
Total vendor sales: 10
Qualitative Results
Since I wasn’t sure if there was a specific format for this, I decided to give this a little narrative flair.
After my time at the mall on Saturday watching vendors man their kiosks and make a few sales – or none at all – the first conclusion I came to was that these vendors are not as lively as the ones in Houston, which left me a little disappointed.
While many of the vendors sat in their chairs with their eyes glued to the screen of their computers or their ears glued to their cell phones, I spotted one vendor walking back and forth behind her kiosk showcasing salts and skin care products. It was situated down the way from Macy’s. This part of the mall did not contain the swarms of people that seemed to congregate only closer to the food court or down by Auntie Anne’s pretzel shop. The vendor had her work cut out for her.
As groups of people pass by, likely drawn to the area by a car on display back behind the kiosk, the vendor looks to each shopper’s eyes in search of anyone willing to make eye contact. Meanwhile the shoppers keep their eyes straight ahead, likely glued to that shiny new car. Suddenly the vendor catches a customer’s eye, and the vendor attempts to initiate. She holds up her hands as if reciting a prayer and utters several words I cannot hear. The shopper turns away as if suddenly enthralled by the blank wall to her right.
The vendor’s jaw snaps shut and she begins to search again. She walks back and forth behind her kiosk never quite making it to the front side. Whether she does this to give potential buyers a better view of the kiosk or does this as a way to hide behind the tall cart, I am not sure. All I do know is that she is trying much harder than the majority of the vendors who never make eye contact and never make any attempt to initiate. (I did not spend any time on this trial run observing the vendors doing nothing.)
The vendor appears to get frustrated. She calls someone on her cell phone, but the conversation is short. Twice while I watch her from a bench feigning interest in a videogame my fiancé is playing while I observe the vendor and take notes, the vendor leaves her kiosk unattended only to come back several minutes later. While she’s gone I notice that shoppers pass more closely by the kiosk and pass even in the small space between it and the shiny new car.
Curious when the vendor leaves a third time, I follow her and discover she’s friends with the only other lively vendor I’ve seen in the mall today. He wears a scarf, wields a brown comb and appears to be manning three kiosks at once. The girl does not stay with him long. They exchange a few words – possibly words of encouragement because the girl appears pretty ran down by this point – and then she heads back.
I stand by to observe the guy with the scarf. He mans one kiosk laden with hair straighteners and curlers, another with sunglasses and another with shirts all side by side. I learn quite quickly that the sunglasses kiosk is the happening place.
“Curly tired to initiate,” my fiancé reports, alluding to a guy with brown curly hair, as I scribble down some notes. “Blondy stands waiting with him.” Blondy and Curly remain for a moment, then leave, losing interest since the vendor is talking to two other shoppers.
This vendor seems to have an easier time at least with the sunglasses kiosk. For several minutes shopper after shopper approaches him about the sunglasses and picks out a pair. When the crowd thins, he returns to the kiosk with hair styling products. He’s quicker to greet people, and here the halls seem narrower and more crowded, making it harder for a shopper to ignore him. It’s also much closer to the food court. The vendor also seems to be screening his shoppers, targeting the women and girls with glossy straight hair or carefully styled curly hair.
He waves the comb at a few shoppers. Some merely shake their head and move on while others stop to listen to him. Very few, about five out of the twelve or so shoppers I saw him initiate with, flat out ignore him. One girl seems to take a great interest in a hair straightener after he waves her down. However, once he pats a black hair resembling the ones found in salons, the shopper shakes her head and continues on.
During this particular event a couple of people gather at the third kiosk with shirts. He quickly makes a sale and returns to the first kiosk. A couple of times the vendor gets on a white phone attached to the kiosk. A few minutes and several sunglasses sales later, a new vendor appears and takes over at the sunglasses kiosk, giving the vendor with the scarf and brown comb more time to focus on the hair styling products kiosk which he does. (I rarely ever saw him at the shirt kiosk nor did I see shoppers there.)
Meanwhile, the female vendor who hasn’t had much luck with her kiosk continues to search for eye contact. The short phone calls on her cell phone or the phone attached to the kiosk increase – one call per every five minutes to a call every one or two minutes. The calls are short and in between those times, the vendor walks behind her kiosk. Once she approaches a shopper with her hands palm down in front of herself to ask the shopper to show her her nails. The shopper complies and for an instant the vendor’s shoulders lift with this possible sale. Then the shopper glances towards the kiosk and shakes her head.
The crowds are thinning around both vendors I’m watching, so I decide to make one last pass by them. I’m surprised to find them both on the phone, the white one attached to their kiosks, and after what I’ve seen I believe they might have been on the phone with each other, but I am not certain.
Conclusion
Based on everything I watched, I am uncertain how so many of the kiosks stay in business. The vendor with the scarf made plenty of sales, but the female vendor made none that I saw even with the effort she was making. The other couple of vendors I watched less closely made no efforts and as a result made no sales.
After this trial observation, I am not sure whether it would be worthwhile to continue or not. On the one side, I did pick up on a couple of different techniques that the vendors used and an interesting relationship between some of the vendors I would not have noticed otherwise. However, many of the vendors did nothing but sit. Only two appeared actively working while a select other few stood staring at their computers rather than sat. Coming at a few other parts of the day or on a few different days may yield better results but it all depends on the vendors.
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