Observation Lab!Crash Course on Creativity!

!Saad Hamid!

Observation Lab!•  For this assignment I visited five different types of stores*

in my city Islamabad (Pakistan).!–  Clothing!–  Computer!–  Bookstore!–  Groceries!–  Gift shop!

!*Since the culture of Pakistan is not very photo-friendly so I could only manage to get one photo of each store.!

Khaadi (Female Clothing Store)!

•  Khaadi is known to make women of Pakistan crazy with their seasonal collection. It’s a gender biased store.!

•  Unlike other stores, the way they have put all the clothing on display here is a little peculiar since all sections are wall-mounted to the sides.!

•  The moment you enter the store you are greeted with a personal “male” shopper who guides you about the price and material of clothing (funny observation for whoever is reading this but almost 95% of all the sales staff in all female clothing stores in Pakistan are males).!

•  You will mostly notice a group of customers instead of individual buyers because clothes shopping is kind of like a group female activity (usually moms, daughters, friends, aunts come together).!

•  The products are raw (which means these are mostly not ready-to-wear clothes). The reason why Khaadi and other female clothing brands keep it that way in Pakistan because women like to get their clothes stitched with their own specifications from their personal tailors.!

iRaffles (Computer Store)!

•  iRaffles is the only Apple-authorized retailerin Pakistan. (note that there is no official Apple store in Pakistan).!

•  Observe in the photo on the right how theyhave designed this store to look as much similar in experience to Apple Stores in US.!

•  The material used is wood. (this gives a unique color and smell to the store).!

•  The products (iMac, Macbook, iPod) have been put out for public display so people can use them (note that this is very unusual for any computer store in Pakistan because products are mostly kept behind in closed boxes).!

•  The prices of the products are inflated above the official prices by Apple (imagine that!) so there is room for bargain and negotiation. !

•  Funny thing you will notice is that you will see computers from other brands such as Dell, Sony etc on display too.!

!

Saeed Book Bank (Bookstore)!

•  Its known as one of the best bookstoresin all of South Asia.!

•  As soon as you enter you will be greeted with a shelf that has on display the mostpopular books about Pakistan or written by Pakistani politicians.!

•  This bookstore does not keep or contain any pirated, copied or illegal version of books (which is very unusual in Pakistan)!

•  The books are divided into shelves and there is are computer booth located on each side of store which help you find a book title by name, author and will tell you exactly on which shelf it is located)!

•  You will notice a lot of people who may not end up even buying any book but they just like to surf along because this bookstore has one of the best selections of titles from the world.!

•  Foreign Minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt, visited this store and tweeted that he loved it.!

Naeem and Sons (Grocery Store)!

•  Notice the name of the store. Here it is usually a practice to name a family business with name of person who started it. !

•  This is a quick walkin-buy-leave store which means customers don’t surf for long and they already know what they want.!

•  NO credit card is accepted on such small grocery shops in Pakistan and people pay upfront in cash.!

•  The items are categorized carefully in shelves as you can see in the photo above.!

•  For a small grocery store, you will not find more than 1-2 sales person standing at the store. They will pick the things you want to buy and they will themselves act as cashier.!

•  No receipt of your purchase will be given to you unless you specifically ask and the cashier may even raise an eyebrow if you do so.!

Haroon’s (Gift Shop)!

•  I like to call this store as a ‘happy feeling’ shop. Means as soon as you enter this one you will get a rush of sweet and happy emotions looking at the different products.!

•  This can also be called a shop ofsurprises as you will find very unique little items that you didn’t think were worthy enough otherwise.!

•  You will notice people spending a lottime in this shop because they like to go on and on discovering new and beautiful objects that they can give as presents to their family, friends or significant others.!

•  This shop has a certain smell to it. The objects are shelved in the walls all around you.!

•  You will also notice a lot of couples like to visit this shop together (again, a little unusual in Pakistan).!

Observation Lab!

I Hope you liked reading about the discoveries and observations from stores in my city and culture.!!!

Thank You!

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