Hi. Welcome to the blog for my IB English B class at Jur Hronec High School in Bratislava, Slovakia. Below you will find links to other websites and discussion questions. My students are required to comment on one of these postings every month and also respond to each other's comments. Feel free to add your two bits, but be aware that all comments are monitored before being posted.
Why do stores play music and why do some of them play it too
loud?Does music enhance your shopping
experience or just annoy you? What
should be done to protect employees or others?
The article about the noise level in the Abercrombie interior caught my attention since a few months ago I visited one of the Abercrombie shops in Vienna. Never before have I had such an intense experience from buying clothes. The whole shop was dark, with almost no light inside and very loud music. Even though the store was unique, it was quite unpractical to choose clothes and after a while I had to leave.
In my opinion loud music is definitely a great way to attract teenagers and youngsters into the Abercrombie since the music level resembles the levels in nightclubs. As the article mentions, it is a way of customer selection that favors the brand. Older people are often frustrated and nervous when listening to loud disco music. However, as a teenager I think that after a longer while the music gets annoying. Not to mention how annoying it must me to listen to such load music almost everyday all day, like the employers of the Abercrombie stores.
I think it's disrespectful towards Abercrombie’s employees that they have to be subjected to the loud noise. After all, their are health risk as the article mentions. No wonder employers get "frequent headaches". Marketing executives try to make the most money possible and forget the people that work for their company to actually make those sales.
In conclusion, I do think that high music volume in stores is a good marketing strategy to attract teenagers and get them to buy clothes fast since after a while it may be unpleasant to listen to such load music. On the other hand, it does endanger the employers of the store and therefore the Abercrombie headquarters should reconsider the allowed music level in their branches.
I will have to agree with Nina on the ridiculousness of this type of shops in terms of their choice of atmosphere. I’d find such shopping experience extremely irritating as I tend to listen to MP3s while travelling or shopping and I don’t consider enduring the prospects of a mishmash of two completely different tunes or having to turn my MP3 off and listen to, to a great degree, unenjoyable music, for that matter, very appealing. Though I’ve never been to one of these stores, if what Nina says about the dimmed atmosphere is true, I might as well enter the store blindfolded if I’m not going to be able to see the products clearly anyway. I don’t mind shops going for a specific particular feel, but having my senses bombarded with absurd noise levels and a soup of fragrances is way too over the top. To me it looks like the Abercrombie chain is trying to sell a show rather than their own products.
Almost every person, mostly woman, who love shopping do not realize, how much music influences their shopping experience. The music affects the atmosphere in the shop and this again attracts a specific group of people the shop owner wants to target. It is the same as with the decoration in the store. The music evokes in you emotion which affect your mood, it makes you sing and dance. Basically, it makes you want to buy something and enjoy life. The best way how to figure out for you how important the music in a store is, is by imaging yourself in a store where no music is playing. It is completely quite in there, the only noise you hear is the one of the other customers talking. The energy and the atmosphere of the shop are completely gone. On the other side, the noise can be also very annoying when one is shopping for a very long time. He or she gets annoyed by the music, by the amount of people and so on. That’s means, that when a customer gets annoyed by the noise after around 4 hours of shopping imagine how irritated the employees are, who have to listen to it for around 8 hours.
In the article “Preppy tops and banging tunes” the author is giving an example of a shop where the music is extremely loud. It is the new outlet Abercrombie Fitch store. They say it’s for the experience of the customer, but I don’t understand how an employee can stand the loud noise. To protect the costumers and mainly the employees there should be made more strict rules and laws. In my opinion, store owners have to realize that the loud music can harm the employees and the customers. I do understand that the loud music and the dim lights can be seen as a form of art or attraction, but I think, it would be better if these kinds of extremes would stay in an art museum or gallery and not in a store.
The article about the noise level in the Abercrombie interior caught my attention since a few months ago I visited one of the Abercrombie shops in Vienna. Never before have I had such an intense experience from buying clothes. The whole shop was dark, with almost no light inside and very loud music. Even though the store was unique, it was quite unpractical to choose clothes and after a while I had to leave.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion loud music is definitely a great way to attract teenagers and youngsters into the Abercrombie since the music level resembles the levels in nightclubs. As the article mentions, it is a way of customer selection that favors the brand. Older people are often frustrated and nervous when listening to loud disco music. However, as a teenager I think that after a longer while the music gets annoying. Not to mention how annoying it must me to listen to such load music almost everyday all day, like the employers of the Abercrombie stores.
I think it's disrespectful towards Abercrombie’s employees that they have to be subjected to the loud noise. After all, their are health risk as the article mentions. No wonder employers get "frequent headaches". Marketing executives try to make the most money possible and forget the people that work for their company to actually make those sales.
In conclusion, I do think that high music volume in stores is a good marketing strategy to attract teenagers and get them to buy clothes fast since after a while it may be unpleasant to listen to such load music. On the other hand, it does endanger the employers of the store and therefore the Abercrombie headquarters should reconsider the allowed music level in their branches.
I will have to agree with Nina on the ridiculousness of this type of shops in terms of their choice of atmosphere. I’d find such shopping experience extremely irritating as I tend to listen to MP3s while travelling or shopping and I don’t consider enduring the prospects of a mishmash of two completely different tunes or having to turn my MP3 off and listen to, to a great degree, unenjoyable music, for that matter, very appealing. Though I’ve never been to one of these stores, if what Nina says about the dimmed atmosphere is true, I might as well enter the store blindfolded if I’m not going to be able to see the products clearly anyway. I don’t mind shops going for a specific particular feel, but having my senses bombarded with absurd noise levels and a soup of fragrances is way too over the top. To me it looks like the Abercrombie chain is trying to sell a show rather than their own products.
DeleteAlmost every person, mostly woman, who love shopping do not realize, how much music influences their shopping experience. The music affects the atmosphere in the shop and this again attracts a specific group of people the shop owner wants to target. It is the same as with the decoration in the store. The music evokes in you emotion which affect your mood, it makes you sing and dance. Basically, it makes you want to buy something and enjoy life. The best way how to figure out for you how important the music in a store is, is by imaging yourself in a store where no music is playing. It is completely quite in there, the only noise you hear is the one of the other customers talking. The energy and the atmosphere of the shop are completely gone. On the other side, the noise can be also very annoying when one is shopping for a very long time. He or she gets annoyed by the music, by the amount of people and so on. That’s means, that when a customer gets annoyed by the noise after around 4 hours of shopping imagine how irritated the employees are, who have to listen to it for around 8 hours.
ReplyDeleteIn the article “Preppy tops and banging tunes” the author is giving an example of a shop where the music is extremely loud. It is the new outlet Abercrombie Fitch store. They say it’s for the experience of the customer, but I don’t understand how an employee can stand the loud noise. To protect the costumers and mainly the employees there should be made more strict rules and laws. In my opinion, store owners have to realize that the loud music can harm the employees and the customers. I do understand that the loud music and the dim lights can be seen as a form of art or attraction, but I think, it would be better if these kinds of extremes would stay in an art museum or gallery and not in a store.