Store lighting is a combination of art form and function that contributes to a retail store's sales and prosperity. The quantity, quality, and effect of the light reaching the merchandise are the determining factors in the success of the sale of merchandise. There are three basic merchandise lighting techniques used in retail stores. They include the low-end, mid-market, and high-end lighting techniques. However, retailers are developing merchandising techniques that do not have a clear cut lighting solution. A new merchandising technique for the audio/video retailer is the simulated home environment (SHE). It is a series of rooms and vignettes that present audio/video products in a home setting. Studies have shown that lighting has an affect on human behavior. In a retail store, three customer behaviors are linked to increased sales: customer communication with store personnel; customer interaction with displays and merchandise; and length of time in the store. The purpose of this study was to determine which of the lighting techniques was most effective in stimulating the customer behaviors linked to increased sales in an audio/video store's SHE. The study was conducted in an audio/video store's SHE equipped with a lighting system that could produce the three lighting techniques. Each day the SHE's lighting system was set up for one of the lighting techniques and customer behavior was unobtrusively observed and recorded. A convenience method of sampling was used in the study. The subjects were the customers shopping in the SHE. The study's experiment was done twice using two methods for selecting the observation days for the experiments. One method used the same day of the week in three successive weeks (SDW), the other used three different days within the same week (DDW). The sample size for the SDW method was 123, and 47 for the DDW method. To assess the effectiveness of the lighting techniques in stimulating customer behavior, two behavior rating scales were created. The Customer Communication Rating Scale and the Customer Display and Merchandise Interaction Rating Scale assigned values to observed customer behavior. The third customer behavior, length of time in the SHE, was measured in minutes. Data was analyzed using Chi Square tests for the Customer Communication Rating Scale and the Customer Display and Merchandise Interaction Rating Scale. An ANOVA was used to analyze the length of time in the SHE. The results indicated that both the mid-market and high-end lighting techniques were significantly better than the low-end lighting technique in stimulating customer display and merchandise interaction, and longer customer visits in the SHE. However, the results indicated that all three lighting techniques were equally effective at stimulating customer communication with store personnel. The study concluded that store lighting designs that include highlighting of displays and merchandise will stimulate customer display and merchandise interaction and longer customer visits. / Master of Science

This investigation was carried out in order to determine whether or not blanching and freezing tends to reduce the incidence of bacteria, particularly those of the coliform group, and also the yeasts and molds.

It is the purpose of this study to analyze certain basic problems of office operations and personnel administration in the Goodyear Retail Stores, and to make recommendations as to improvements most needed. Specifically, this study is undertaken with the intention of determining to what extent proper planning, more efficient operating procedures, and improved personnel relationships can aid in the success of office management in the Goodyear stores.

by Chan Wing-Sum. / Includes Chinese questionnaire. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-117). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.vi / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.viii / Chapters / Chapter I. --- BACKGROUND --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.3 / Chapter III. --- STELUX HOLDINGS LIMITED --- p.6 / Chapter IV. --- CITY CHAIN CO. LTD --- p.8 / Company Development --- p.9 / Stage 1 (May 85 - May 86) --- p.9 / Stage 2 (May 86 - May 87) --- p.10 / Stage 3 (May 87 - now) --- p.12 / Current Marketing Strategies --- p.14 / Target Market --- p.14 / Competitors --- p.14 / Product --- p.15 / Price --- p.16 / Distribution --- p.17 / Promotion --- p.18 / Personnel --- p.19 / Presentation --- p.22 / Personality --- p.23 / Chapter V. --- OPTICAL 88 LIMITED --- p.25 / Company Development --- p.26 / Stage 1 ( April 79 - May 84) --- p.26 / Stage 2 ( May 84 - April 86) --- p.27 / Stage 3 (86- Oct. 88) --- p.28 / Stage 4 ( Oct. 88 - Now ) --- p.29 / Current Marketing Strategies --- p.30 / Target Market --- p.30 / Competitors --- p.30 / Product --- p.32 / Price --- p.33 / Distribution --- p.34 / Promotion --- p.35 / Personnel --- p.38 / Presentation --- p.40 / Personality --- p.40 / Chapter VI. --- RESEARCH --- p.42 / Methodology --- p.42 / Results --- p.45 / Demographics of Total Sample --- p.45 / "Demographics of City Chain ""Shoppers"" and ""Non-shoppers""…" --- p.47 / "Demographics of Optical 88 ""Shoppers"" and ""Non-shoppers""" --- p.49 / Research Implications and Recommendations --- p.51 / City Chain --- p.51 / Optical 88 --- p.58 / Chapter VII. --- DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS --- p.64 / Synergy Effect --- p.64 / Definition of Business --- p.65 / Definition of Products --- p.66 / Shopping Process --- p.72 / Life Cycle of Chain Stores in Hong Kong --- p.74 / Introduction Stage --- p.74 / Early Growth Stage --- p.76 / Rapid Growth Stage --- p.77 / Consolidation Stage --- p.78 / Maturity Stage --- p.78 / Chapter VIII. --- SUMMARY --- p.79 / APPENDIX --- p.80 / Chapter A. --- Factor Analysis of Attributes : City Chain --- p.80 / Chapter B. --- Factor Analysis of Attributes : Optical 88 --- p.81 / Chapter C. --- "TV Commercial of City Chain - ""Solvil et Titus (Shanghai 1937)""" --- p.82 / Chapter D. --- Instore Layouts of City Chain --- p.90 / Chapter E. --- "TV Commercial of Optical 88 - ""Stand by Me""" --- p.91 / Chapter F. --- "TV Commercial of Optical 88 - ""The Kid""" --- p.96 / Chapter G. --- Instore Layouts of Optical 88 --- p.107 / Chapter H. --- Questionnaire --- p.108 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.115

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The South African business arena forms a rich platform for tertiary research in strategic management to post graduate students attending South African business schools. The problem exists, however, that very few of these case studies are written up and therefore available as research material to the students. The researcher contributes with this case study to the lean body of research material available for research of South African businesses. The chosen company for research purposes are Pick 'n Pay Stores Limited. This company is typically a leader in the food retailing industry. Information regarding this company is readily available, which increases the learning experience for the student. The study project is presented in the form of a case study that urges the student to work through the material and answer the questions. The questions are formulated with the purpose of guiding the student through the logical steps of a strategic analysis of a company. The case study also includes a model answer that serves the purpose of guiding the lecturer towards the expected answers to the questions of the case study. Initially the student is introduced to a model that could typically be used in the strategic analysis of a company. This model serves as a framework for the strategic analysis of Pick 'n Pay. The student is invited to use this model in the strategic analysis of the company. In so far as this model is not adequate, the student may introduce a new model as long as business-minded and/or academic arguments underpin it. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Suid-Afrikaanse besigheidsarena skep 'n ryk platform vir tersiêre navorsing in strategie bestuur aan nagraadse studente by bestuurskole. Die probleem bestaan egter dat min sodanige gevallestudies opgeteken is en derhalwe beskikbaar is as leerstof. Die navorser dra by wyse van hierdie werkstuk by tot die uitgedunde bron van leermateriaal beskikbaar vir strategiese analises van Suid-Afrikaanse gevallestudies. Die gekose maatskappy vir analise, is Pick 'n Pay Stores Limited. Hierdie maatskappy is tipies 'n leier in die kleinhandel voedsel industrie. Daar is baie inligting beskikbaar en opgeteken aangaande hierdie maatskappy, wat die leerervaring vir die student vergroot. Die werkstuk word opgeskryf in die vorm van 'n gevallestudie wat die student noop om , deur die leesstof te werk en die opgestelde vrae te beantwoord. Die vrae is geformuleer met die doel om die student deur die logiese stappe van 'n strategiese analise van 'n maatskappy te lei. Die gevallestudie sluit ook 'n modelantwoord in wat ten doel het om die dosent te lei in die antwoorde wat verwag word in die gevallestudie. Die student word aanvanklik voorgestel aan 'n model wat gebruik kan word in 'n tipiese strategiese analise van 'n maatskappy. Hierdie model dien as raamwerk vir die strategiese analise van Pick 'n Pay. Die student word uitgenooi om hierdie model te gebruik om die strategiese analise van die maatskappy te doen. In soverre hierdie model nie voldoende is nie, kan die student 'n nuwe model bekend stel, solank dit met weldeurdagte akademiese en/of besigheidsbeginsels onderstreep word.

During the last decades, it has been brought to light that well organized logistics processes have contributed to competitive advantages for companies. Mio AB, a chain store warehouse and the second largest furniture company in Sweden, is operating in the middle of an expansion phase with growing revenue. As a consequence, larger volumes of goods are handled, space utilization become more scarce and the everyday operations within the internal logistics are affected. Therefore, the processes within the warehouse department were measured by performing a frequency study, registering how time was distributed between the different work tasks. In order to fully understand the processes, interviews were held with management and personnel. After analyzing previous research that could help guide to ease the impositions and analyzing the result of the frequency study, wastes were identified and new ways of working were suggested. The result firstly presents how to organize internal logistics operations in chain store warehouses to gain competitive advantage. Secondly, keeping in mind that firefighting stressed situations usually is not sustainable and only eases loads temporarily, long-term sustainability and ethics were addressed. Concluding that in order to optimize internal logistics operations in chain store warehouses and gain a long-term competitive advantage in a sustainable way, are achieved through standardizing work tasks, ensuring commitment of management and personnel and applying systems to serve the people and processes. Lastly it is advised to keep in mind the impact a company have on its surroundings and the importance of engaging in sustainable and ethically friendly operations, in order to achieve long-term competitive logistics.

M. Tech. Business Administration / The purpose of this study is to profile the suburban mall shopper in terms of their demographic profile characteristics and to gain an understanding of the factors that mall managers employ to attract these shoppers to their suburbian shopping malls as well as the influence these factors may have on their consumer behaviour.

Syfte: Studiens syfte är att förstå hur sinnesmarknadsföring påverkar konsumentens köpupplevelse i klädbutikers kassaområde. Metod: Studien bygger på fyra fokusgrupper av ostrukturerad intervjuform. Den är av kvalitativ karaktär och har ett induktivt synsätt med inslag av det deduktiva synsättet. Slutsats: Efter genomförd studie kan det konstateras att sinnenas samspel i olika kombinationer skapar olika köpupplevelser i kassaområdet. Konsumentens köpupplevelse påverkas av över- och understimulering av sinnena.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Autonomic computing aims at making computing systems self-managing by using autonomic managers in order to reduce obstacles caused by management complexity. This thesis presents results of research on self-management for large-scale distributed systems. This research was motivated by the increasing complexity of computing systems and their management. In the first part, we present our platform, called Niche, for programming self-managing component-based distributed applications. In our work on Niche, we have faced and addressed the following four challenges in achieving self-management in a dynamic environment characterized by volatile resources and high churn: resource discovery, robust and efficient sensing and actuation, management bottleneck, and scale. We present results of our research on addressing the above challenges. Niche implements the autonomic computing architecture, proposed by IBM, in a fully decentralized way. Niche supports a network-transparent view of the system architecture simplifying the design of distributed self-management. Niche provides a concise and expressive API for self-management. The implementation of the platform relies on the scalability and robustness of structured overlay networks. We proceed by presenting a methodology for designing the management part of a distributed self-managing application. We define design steps that include partitioning of management functions and orchestration of multiple autonomic managers. In the second part, we discuss robustness of management and data consistency, which are necessary in a distributed system. Dealing with the effect of churn on management increases the complexity of the management logic and thus makes its development time consuming and error prone. We propose the abstraction of Robust Management Elements, which are able to heal themselves under continuous churn. Our approach is based on replicating a management element using finite state machine replication with a reconfigurable replica set. Our algorithm automates the reconfiguration (migration) of the replica set in order to tolerate continuous churn. For data consistency, we propose a majority-based distributed key-value store supporting multiple consistency levels that is based on a peer-to-peer network. The store enables the tradeoff between high availability and data consistency. Using majority allows avoiding potential drawbacks of a master-based consistency control, namely, a single-point of failure and a potential performance bottleneck. In the third part, we investigate self-management for Cloud-based storage systems with the focus on elasticity control using elements of control theory and machine learning. We have conducted research on a number of different designs of an elasticity controller, including a State-Space feedback controller and a controller that combines feedback and feedforward control. We describe our experience in designing an elasticity controller for a Cloud-based key-value store using state-space model that enables to trade-off performance for cost. We describe the steps in designing an elasticity controller. We continue by presenting the design and evaluation of ElastMan, an elasticity controller for Cloud-based elastic key-value stores that combines feedforward and feedback control. / <p>QC 20120831</p>