Part 1: Observation You are going to select two competing retail locations. You can NOT use Walmart as one of the competitors. You will visit both locations on three different days. Try to make them three different times or days of the week. Please visit the competitors on the same day and time. For example, visit McDonalds at 11:30 and Burger King at 12:30 (lunch time) on Monday, go back to both locations in one block of time at dinnertime on a Wednesday. Here are things to observe during these visits. Customer demographics staffing demographics # Of customers and employees Any section or area showing more customer traffic Parking lot capacity I want you to compare each store over the three visits and then also compare the two stores to each other.

Part 2: Customer Loyalty program Select three retail store loyalty programs. I want you to describe the loyalty program. How does a person join? What benefits do they get? How does the store communicate with the customer? How does it benefit the store? I want you to tear apart the program and breakdown every aspect of it. If I had never heard of the store, I would still have a complete understanding of the program. You will do this for three stores.

Part 3: Secret Shopper You get to go undercoversort of. I want you to pick out a business location. It must be different for any other retail business used. You are going to go shopping. You do not have to buy anything, but you need to pretend you might be. 1) Before going in select, a product to buy. Shop for the product. 2) I want you to look and see how quickly (or at all) you are greeted or helped. What was the conversation? 3) Have questions to ask the customer service associate. 4) Would you buy the product? Why or why not? Once you have gone through the shopping process, you will do a write-up on your experience. Summarize all your observations in paper form.

Part 4: Marketing Find a different retail location. Look at the marketing of the company. Look out for external marketing, in-store marketing, and selling. Remember marketing is more than just commercials and billboards. It is the 4 Ps. If you dont know what that means do some research to find out. Write a paper on your observations as part of that I want you to critique the marketing. Is there anything they should or should not be doing?