I Granai(mall) Essay, Research Paper

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Name: I Granai-Panorama

Site: Via del Tintoretto ? Zona Laurentina

Size: Around 130 commercial activities plus a supermarket; square meters of commercial area 150000mq.

Accessibility: The situation of the local roads is good and well organized even if it is a bit far away from the GRA- The parking situation is very good, there is an outside one (payment) and a free internal one. The place is relatively close to the tube; Bus n?767 .The bus stop, is 25 meters away from the shopping center.

Opening ours: Every day from10.00 to 20.00; on Monday from14.00 to 20.00

There are 7 departments:

1. Clothing (56 premises)

2. Restoration (11 premises)

3. Services (13 premises)

4. Electronics (7 premises)

5. Household articles (22 premises)

6. Others (15 premises)

7. Panorama supermarket

Big mall as a place where to socialize

Malls were first made in the U.S. at the end of the 50?s in order to decentralize the congestion of the urban sites. In Rome the situation is quite different, in fact the Malls are of a very recent construction and the population is still not used to them. In the Roman case and also in Europe, the urban contest is particularly different and especially in Rome where the climate is tempered.

It is easy to find a big contrast between the old customs of the open district market of Rome and the Mall?s spirit. The contrast is obvious if we compare the roads around Piazza di Spagna where all the main roman shops are located and a big mall like ?I Granai?. The space of the commercial roads, is certainly older than the shopping centers and less complex. This is the reason why the shopping centers become important, they are necessary to decongest the big city by organizing people?s big shopping.

Clothing Shops

There are 54 clothing shops in the shopping center, of which 34 on the first floor and 20 on the second. Of the 54 shops we found a further division: men?s clothing, women?s clothing, shoe stores children clothing, leather goods shops, underwear shops, sports wear and shirt shops.

Of these shops we have examined 15 men?s clothing shops and 4 shirt shops.

Men?s clothing shops

The level of the shops is quite high, there were not enormous differences in types of shops . Only two shops , ROMAGNOLI and EREDI PISANO? were making a difference, in fact, these shops are the more elegant ,complete (it is possible to find everything for men there ,from shirts , ties ,shoes ,suits and jackets), but they are a bit too expensive for that type of customers. The service is prompt, efficient and the clerks are very polite and helpful in choosing goods. Another men?s clothing shop that we examined was ELEUTERI: a very elegant shop with a very big variety of goods and good personnel. The only thing that is slightly negative is the fact that the goods are very expensive. We then went on to examine two BARTON stores: even though the shops have the same name they are quite different from one another, in fact one of the stores is very big and has casual clothing, the prices are very competitive and there are large discounts. The other Barton store is much more elegant, has more exclusive clothing and the prices are slightly higher even though they remain very competitive. The PAL ZILERI store has fashion clothing but has very high prices and moreover the service offered by the personnel was not at all brilliant. The DEGLI UBERTI store has a very different variety of goods and is very well organized even though the shopkeepers are focused on quantity rather than on quality. The MURPHY & NYE store is a good franchising, very elegant clothing for mainly young customers but the personnel were disgusting, unhelpful and impolite.

Shirt Shops

In the mall there were 4 shirt stores, one of which is one of the best in Rome. The shops are all very elegant and the prices are very much alike. They all are giving good discounts and it is possible to say that at the shopping mall ?I Granai? all customers have the possibility to find the shirt they desire.

IL CAMICIAIO (our best shop) has a great variety of shirts, ties and all the accessories for men. They give their customers good discounts on their high quality products and moreover the personnel are polite and helpful.

BRILLANTE is a nice shop with competitive prices and products, probably the worst of the 4 shirt shops because of the lack of organization.

LA CAMICERIA ITALIANA is well organized and it offers competitive prices for their products. The shop has a neat and tidy location.

SU MISURA has an enormous variety of shirts and ties all exposed in a stand. The style of the shop mainly strikes younger customers, also for the competitive prices.

Questions

1. The competing stores are not really unique, they are rather similar to one another but we don?t think that they could really be substitutes. The shirt shops, for example, all sell shirts and ties but they really have different target customers from one another. Two of them are mainly focused on adult customers and are more elegant and slightly more expensive, whilst the other two mainly focus on a younger target market with slightly lower prices. The men?s clothing stores are quite a lot so there is obviously some similarity between a couple of them, but the situation is rather alike to the shirt shops, i.e. some of the shops are oriented on a younger market and have much lower prices, whilst others are focused on a more adult market and have higher prices. The mall?s overall goals are to create a shopping center where all kinds of people can go shopping, from the richer to the poorer families. It is a public recreational space where people are supposed to spend a whole day (reason why there are so many bars, restaurants and pizza places) going around having a look at the shops, and possibly buying. The mall is well organized because the shops that, however, sell similar goods and products are not close to each other but are dislocated evenly on both floors.

2. Unfortunately we did not have the possibility to see a great number of shoppers, but however the age and gender was almost equally distributed. There were young teenagers going around the mall after school with their friends, there were families with their children, and there were older people. Mainly though the customers were young teenagers and families with their children. The families seemed to find shopping a pleasure and were happily walking around the mall. The teenagers were not at the mall for shopping purposes, but rather to meet their friends and have a chat whilst walking around the mall. We did not really see anybody that seemed to be frustrated and bothered by shopping.

3. The mall offers the customers many different opportunities to satisfy their needs and desires. The mall?s marketing plans seem to maximize consumer satisfaction through many services: it is possible to find various machines that change notes into coins, telephones for the deaf , a baby parking . The mall has a very big parking lot and it is open all week apart from Monday mornings. There are many different categories of shops that have a great range of products and prices. ?I Granai? shopping center has the possibility of satisfying basically all customers and their needs and desires.