One trial room, 22 cartons and a busy evening
A 900 sq ft unisex apparel store on a busy Kolkata market street gets about 120 walk-ins between 6 pm and 9 pm. The store has one curtained trial room with a mirror inside. The complaints book has six entries in ten days about waiting for the trial room, and two customers left garments at the counter saying "too much crowd". A new winter range of 480 pieces arrived four days ago and is still in 22 cartons in the back room. The window display still shows the Diwali range, 60 pieces, marked 40% off. Cartons have been stacked in the main aisle, narrowing it to about 60 cm. Sales staff are on an incentive linked only to total sales value. The owner's instruction for the week is "push the discount stock first, it is blocking money".
1. Rank the first three actions for this evening's peak and justify the order.
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Order by risk × revenue lost, not by what is easiest.
- Clear the aisle tonight. A 60 cm walkway with 120 people in three hours is a safety and evacuation problem first (it is the path to the billing counter and probably the exit), and a conversion problem second - customers turn around rather than squeeze past cartons. Move all 22 cartons to the back room or the stock loft before 6 pm; keep at least 1.2 m clear.
- Fix the trial room bottleneck. With that footfall, one curtained room with the mirror inside is the single biggest cause of walk-outs; a customer holding three garments and queuing 15 minutes usually buys nothing. Introduce a numbered token and one staff member stationed there, limit 3 garments per person, move the mirror outside the curtain, and open a second screened corner if the layout allows.
- Get the new range onto the floor in size runs. 480 pieces in cartons is dead capital and it is now four days old in a winter season that will not wait. Open 80–100 pieces tonight, in complete size sets, rather than all 480 in a heap. The owner's "push the discount stock" instruction is not wrong about cash, but it must not occupy the window or the front table - see the display plan.
2. Draft the window and front-of-store display plan for the new range, and say what you would remove.
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Remove first: the Diwali 40% off from the window. A discount board in the prime position tells every passer-by that this is a discount shop, and it makes the full-price winter stock behind it look overpriced. Move those 60 pieces to a clearly signed clearance rack at the side or rear of the store, with one honest price board. Window: 3–4 mannequins in the new winter range, one story only (not one of each product), focal point at eye level roughly 1.2–1.6 m, colour-blocked by outfit rather than by size, two layers of depth, and a single clean message board - "New Winter Stock" - with prices only where they help. Change it weekly so repeat footfall sees something new. Front table and first fixture: the new range in complete size sets, folded, with a folded sample opened to show the fabric; top-selling sizes at eye level and reach; a mirror and a small styling board nearby. Signage rules: correct MRP and honest discount claims only (Legal Metrology applies to any "was/now" pricing), no handwritten corrections on price tags. Measure it: record footfall, bills and units per bill for one week before and one week after, and note which display the sold pieces came from.
3. The incentive is on total sales value only. How does that explain what you observed, and what would you change?
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What it explains: a scheme paid on total sales value rewards whatever is quickest to sell. Staff therefore stay at the counter with the discounted stock, which moves easily, and avoid the slower work that produces sales two weeks later - unpacking cartons, size-sorting, styling, and managing the trial queue. Nobody is paid for the aisle, the window or the trial room, so nobody owns them. What I would change:
- Split the incentive into total sales plus new-range units so unpacking is worth money.
- Add a conversion or service measure - bills against footfall, or complaints per week - so queue management is not invisible.
- Give named daily ownership: one person for the window and front table, one for the trial room during peak, one for replenishment, rotated weekly.
- Brief the team that the clearance rack is measured separately, so staff are not forced to choose between the owner's cash instruction and the new range. Guardrails: any incentive must not reward mis-selling, forced add-ons or pushing a size that does not fit - that produces a one-time sale and a lost customer, which is more expensive than the margin gained.