Consumer Insights

Walking to work is dangerous. No, not in the sense that I’ll get mugged in Time’s Square in board daylight at 9am, but rather that I end going on spontaneous shopping sprees and arrive at the office 2 hours later.

Living in Chelsea, my morning commute takes me through the Garment District, Penn Station, up Madison, and 5^th Ave. – the prime shopping locations in Manhattan and arguably of the world. It’s beautiful walking the NYC streets in the brisk September air. The skyscraper sights, the European tourists, the pretzel vendors, the business suited workers, etc., each group, each person plays a key role in the city fabric, Manhattan wouldn’t be the same if any of them were missing.

My insight for the day centers on the way stores catered their location inventory to their customers. Subconsciously, I’ve always known that even within the same store-chain, there various branches carry different lines. This makes intuitive sense, to cater the clothing lines to the customer demographic of the region. A Macy’s in San Diego would never carry thick wool coats even in December unless it was for a design fashion statement. It’s interesting to occasionally go beyond the consumer mind frame, and to understand the underlying business concepts of a restaurant, of a credit card, or of a simple notebook.

Today, I learned about the differences in the NYC H&Ms. These insights are useful to plan shopping trips that maximize chances of finding the right size and to avoiding the fitting room and checkout lines.

Some Quick Basics of H&M

The clothing shipments arrive every night and are organized at 6am before being placement on the floor for the store opening at 10am.

• H&M’s flagship store at 5^thAve. and 56^th carries their widest selection of clothing. Stop here to get the best idea of all the selection.
• The two stores near Penn station are the heaviest trafficked of all the Manhattan stores, to the point that they receive two shipments Thu-Sat and are open until 11pm. They carry more of younger Divided concept lines.
• The newest Manhattan location is on 5^th near Bryant Park. Because it’s located in a business area, it carries a wider line of career fashion. (And for those interested, they’re having a 1 yr anniversary event on the 25/26^th of this month).

The Sexist GOP

"In fact, McCain's idea that women will vote for the McCain/Palin ticket just because Palin has a vagina is incredibly condescending, as Ann Friedman at the American Prospect writes:

Palin's addition to the ticket takes Republican faux-feminism to a whole new level. As Adam Serwer pointed out on TAPPED, this is in fact a condescending move by the GOP. It plays to the assumption that disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters did not care about her politics -- only her gender. In picking Palin, Republicans are lending credence to the sexist assumption that women voters are too stupid to investigate or care about the issues, and merely want to vote for someone who looks like them. As Serwer noted, it's akin to choosing Alan Keyes in an attempt to compete with Obama for votes from black Americans.

A candidate should be chosen because they are qualified for the job, not because of their gender. Any hardworking woman who has been passed over for a promotion could have told the McCain campaign that."

Quoted from http://www.alternet.org/election08/97350/?page=3

TimeWarner Cable Guy

TimeWarner has abominal customer service. My experience with a TW customer service representative.


After waiting 10minues on the telephone and navigating through 6 operator menus...

B: Hi, my name is Brian. Can I have your name?
L: Yes. It's XXX XXXX. I'm calling today because I'm interested installing the basic cable and internet package that TW offers.
B: Let me place you on hold.
L: This was the right number to call, right?
B: Yes. I'm putting you on hold. *me wondering why after waiting on hold already to talk to him???*

5 minutes later...

B: What is your address?
L: ### XXX NYC
B: Again?
L: *slowly* ### XXY NYC
B: Can you repeat that?
L: *very very slowly for the third time* ### XXY NYC
B: Again?
L: We haven't even discussed plans yet, would it be easier to give you my zip code?
B: Yes, we can do that instead.
L: #####
B: When do you want to the set up?
L: As soon as possible. But before we get into the logistical aspects, can we discuss and decide on the plan?
B: I'm putting you on hold.
L: Again *cut off by hold*

4 minutes later...

B: Okay, I'm signing you up for the $99.98 plan with Spanish, English, HBO, blah blah blah...
L: Excuse me sir, I'm really just interested in just the very basic $15 cable and 10mgb internet option.
B: *totally ignoring me* blah blah blah, digital cable plans...blah blah blah...more channels...
L: Excuse me, I'm not interested in all those channels. I would just like the $15 basic cable option.
B: There is no $15 plan.
L: I'm sure there is. I have friends on it.
B: It doesn't exist.
L: But I spoke to another TW representative 4 days ago about it.
B: It no longer exists.
L: It was only 4 days ago.
B: The basic plan is $60 month. There is and has never been a $15 plan.
L: So you're telling me that the other TW representative was wrong?
B: Perhaps. *pause* Yes.
L: But how do you know that they are right and that you're wrong?
B: They are wrong.
L: So you're saying that some TW give out wrong info.
B: silence
L: Don't you all go through the same training? How can you be trained to give out conflicting info?
B: I'm right.

Conversation goes no where.

L: *exasperated* I would like to speak with another representative. Can you please transfer me. *didn't want to wade through another myriad of phone menus.*
B: No, you have to hang up and dial Customer Service again.
L: What if I get you again?

I hang up, vowing never to call TW again.

***addendum, my roommates called TW later in the afternoon and confirmed the existence of the $15 basic cable plan. But after these experiences, we're probably just going to go digital satellite.***