Natalie Rose Pay Attention

7/31/2019 Natalie Rose Pay Attention

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PAY ATTENTION:

EYE ONEDGWARE,NEIGHBORHOOD

WATCH


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People like to slag off and put down Edgware as not being verynice, though in many ways it has more on offer than the smallcity where I lived before.

The "Pay Attention" exercise proved a good way toinvestigate how the local shops, even the franchises andchains, reflect the local culture and residents.


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POUNDLAND, EDGWARELONDON, NW7


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-Both shoppers and staff were a mix of ages, genders, ethnicities and shoppinggroups. Men and boys tended more often to be there with someone else (ietheir female partners or family members) whereas women and girls seemedjust as likely to be there alone as with their friends, partners or children.

-Recognisablebrands are placed near the front of the store to draw customersinside. So, in addition to being an opportunity to pick up cleaning staples (dish

soap, branded bleach and disinfectant) at a discount, the store draws you inand exposes you to off-brands or alternative products that you would havebeen unaware of otherwise.

-Watching what people are drawn towards and repulsed by in Poundland is veryinteresting. Generally, people seemed content to buy generic brands of paperproducts (kitchen towel, loo roll, etc) and office supplies (pens, pencils, paper,

etc) but were fussier about purchasing off-brand cosmetics, shaving foam,razors and skin care products. Though Edgware is not as wealthy as theneighboring Mill Hill, based on these observations I would infer that people inEdgware are of a class that is concerned about the kinds of personal care itemsthey use.

-Poundland may provide the opportunity to get insight to the neighborhood's socio-

economic classes and their shopping habits

POUNDLAND, EDGWARELONDON, NW7


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SAINSBURYS, EDGWARELONDON NW7


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- Shoppers seem to be there on "a mission" and not to browse. Few teenagers,mostly young children with adults, or adults shopping by themselves or in pairs.Many people are dressed as though they've just come from work.

-Some parts of the store are very crowded, while other aisles are completely

empty. Most people seem to use the same aisles as thoroughfares to movethrough the store and travel to the sections they need.

-Interestingly, though a Supermarket is a very public space, many people are ontheir mobile phones and talking about their personal affairs down the phonerather openly. As most of the people who shop in this Sainsbury's live locallydue to its location in an outer borough of London, you'd be fairly likely to crosspaths with your neighbors on any given evening. With so many customerschatting openly about their lives, this Sainsburys could potentially provide anopportunity to learn more about the lives of your neighbors --making it, like oldmarkets, a place to hear social news and learn more about local affairs. This isall a polite way of saying that this might be a good place to overhear yourneighbor's business.


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- A friend once told me she likes to visit supermarkets when she goes abroad toother countries as they often tell a lot about the eating habits and preferencesof the local people. It strikes me as quite interesting that the Sainsburys in mycurrent neighborhood closely resembles the ACME and PathMark markets Igrew up with in a small banking city in Delaware in the US.

Something that is strikingly different however, is the variety of fresh bread that's

available and, even after one accounts for the currency exchange rate, manycheeses are much less expensive to buy in this British supermarket than any ofthe supermarkets my family shopped in when I lived in the US. I think myfriend is right in that supermarkets tell you quite a lot about local/regionalfood culture and cuisine and about the eating and buying habits of the peopleliving nearby.



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BROADWAYLONDON, NW7


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BROADWAYLONDON, NW7

-Though technically in the nearby Mill Hill, this Costa Coffee is frequented by many ofthe same people that visit shops in Edgware.

- This Costa resembles every other Costa in many ways (the layout of the counter, thebakery case, and the sandwich selection) but in other ways its nicer than otherCostas.

-The most comfortable seating is in front of the windows. This helps to both drawpeople from the street into the store, and to encourage patrons to sit near thewindows, which also helps draw people's attention and encourage them to comeinside. Curiously, the seating in this Costa is much more comfortable than the seatingin the independent cafes along the same road.

-While patrons vary widely in age, the Costa in Mill Hill comparatively attracts moreteenagers and school-aged children than the neighboring cafe. Costa is a very wellknown and familiar brand in the UK, so younger people may feel more comfortablevisiting a cafe with an established brand image and a product that is "a knownquantity".

-People seem to run into others they know frequently, so like Sainsburys, Costaprovides the opportunity for spontaneous socialising.


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INTERNACIONALE, EDGEWARELONDON NW7


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INTERNACIONALE, EDGWARELONDON NW7

-Compared to the clientele of all the other shops I visited, the shoppers at thisstore were much more homogeneous and tended to be young (15-25), female,and there on their own or with one other person. There was one notableexception, of a young man there on his own, who spent most of his time lookingat his phone. He stayed only in the shoe area and left before I completed my

observation.

-Compared to the shoppers in Sainsburys and Poundland, the people inInternacionale were much quieter and seemed more "inside themselves" asthey considered what wares they might purchase.

-Though I've long thought of Internacionale as just a place to buy cheapclothes, it was actually a good place to go to get an idea of what teenagers living

in northern outer London tend to wear, both based on the items for sale, andbased on what people shopping were wearing as both the clothes and theclientele could be described as "trendy" and "fashion conscious" even if theclothes wouldn't be featured in Vogue.


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ARGOS, EDGWARELONDON NW7


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-Somewhat oddly, Argos was more brightly lit than any other store I observed,except for possibly Sainsburys. As with Sainsburys, it seems that people don'ttend to linger or browse, but come in "on a mission" looking for a particularsomething.

-Shoppers were mostly young adults to middle aged, and tended to come in pairs.

Based on this behaviour I'd assume most people shopping at Argos that daywere furnishing a new room or flat. If one were hoping to open a store thatcatered to a similar clientele, (people furnishing their first flat or studentaccommodation), observing what people buy at Argos would provide valuableinsight as to what people tend to need and what, and what price point they'reprepared to go to for it.

-Along the same lines, observing at Argos could be a component of demographicresearch to gain better insight to the housing situations of locals in addition towhat their homeware and gift needs are.

ARGOS, EDGWARELONDON NW7


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GREENS INTERNATIONAL FOODCENTRE, EDGWARE LONDON NW7


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-Even before this exercise I thought that the International food market would be themost interesting and perhaps provide the most opportunities.

-Edgware is a very mutli-ethnic and varied neighborhood in London and one of theseveral local international grocers reflects not only this fact, but offers someinsight regarding the details of the neighborhood's international composition.In addition to having a halal butcher counter, Greens International FoodCentre also sells pasta manufactured in Cyprus, Greek dairy and tinned foodsthat have labels printed only in Arabic and Cyrillic.

-In addition to learning more about the national origins or food preferences of thesurrounding streets, Greens International Food Centre provides excellentopportunities for sourcing more authentic ingredients for cooking

international cuisines, as well as providing people the opportunity to try newfoods, like sheeps milk, that would be unavailable or harder to find in asupermarket. Having easy access to an international food market gives peoplemore opportunity to be more adventurous and expand their palates.

-As my team learned in the last exercise, interest in food is often a place ofcommon ground for people, no matter what their background. Expanding yourpalate and your general culinary knowledge gives you more opportunity to

have more in common with everyone, no matter where you are in the world.



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-Spontaneous socialisation -Starting point for local demographic research -Insight to socio-economic makeup of the neighborhood -Insight to which ethnicities live in the area and/or what

international cuisines the locals have a taste for -Exposure to new international and foreign foods -Chance to enhance authenticity of favourite foreign dishes

cooked at home

-Real time visualisation of young women's fashion trends

-To passively learn more about neighbors' affairs -To observe and interact with known neighbors as well as

local people one is not yet acquainted with

WHAT OPPORTUNITIES ARE INEDGWARE?

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Natalie Rose Pay Attention