PETITE SHOP (A)

Alice Wood is concerned. She has worked in a women's clothing store for several years after graduating from high school and is now considering opening a store of her own. Her investigations have yielded considerable secondary information, but she is not sure how to go about estimating the potential for another women's clothing store in the city of Jacakes. Jacakes is a city of 86,100 surrounded by a large trading area. It currently has

1 7 clothing stores and five department stores that retail women's clothing. During the past few years, Alice has been saving her money and learning all she could so that her Petite Shop women's wear store will be a success. Selected Data for the City Jacakes

In anticipation of starting her own store, Alice enrolled in a small busi- Population ness management course at a local Number of families college. The instructor stressed the Per capita income Retail sales impoltance of market research and

				Estimated Retail Space for Selected Retail Establishments (in square feet) City of Jacakes Food stores Apparel stores: Men's clothing stores 145,000 Women's clothing stores 180,000 Hardware stores 600,000 Department stores

Per family expenditure on women's clothing $ mentioned several sources of secondary information that could assist in determining market potential for a new business. Alice obtained the reports she felt were relevant to her prospective business from the Provincial Department of Small Business,

Statistics Canada, and the city hall in Jacakes. This information is presented in Tables 1 and 2

Alice now has this information, however she is not sure how to proceed.

She does not want to retail all kinds of ladies' clothing, but plans to cater to the "petite" woman who wears dress sizes 3 to 9. Alice herself is petite (at 5 feet or 1.5 metres tail), and she feels she understands the difficulties women of her size have in shopping for clothing. From her retailing experience, she estimates that about

60 percent of all clothing sales are in women's clothing, and 20 percent of all women fit in the size 3 to 9 category.

She arrived at her decision to select a store directed at the petite woman after she visited all 1 7 clothing stores in Jacakes and the clothing departments of the city's five department stores. She estimates that only about 10 percent of clothing stores' stock is sized 3 to 9, and the five department stores devote only about 6,500 square feet of selling space to this size range. She believes a small shop of about 1 ,OOO square feet could provide a much better selection to this market than those outlets presently provide.

Questions

1. Using the information provided, prepare an estimate of the market potential for the target market at which Alice Wood is aiming.

2. What portion of this market potential could Alice expect for Petite Shop's market share?

3. What non-quantitative considerations should be brought into this analysis?