American Eagle Store Analysis

I went to the American Eagle Outfitters store in the Twelve Oaks mall near my house. They market to guys and girls between the ages of 15-24 who want the "preppy" look for a decent price. The store initially attracts you into the store because of the huge glass windows on either side of the entrance modeling new clothing and sales currently going on at AE. Once inside the store, I was welcomed by music playing in the background by popular pop/hip-hop artists like Chris Brown, Fall Out Boy, Kanye West, and many others. Along with the music, there is also two flat screen TV's in the very back of the store show casing the music video of the current song.
The merchandise in the store is displayed in a number of different ways. AE does use the "touch" concept we talked about earlier in class by having a number of T-shirts available on tables for you to look at and feel. This is especially important for AE T-shirts because they are known for having very soft, comfortable T-shirts. They also have all of their jeans on a wall in little cubby holes from smallest to biggest sizes, from top to bottom. They also incorporate racks of long sleeve shirts that are available for you to shift through to find your size. As for guys vs. girls clothing, the store is split right down the middle with guys clothing on the right and girls on the left.
The floors of AE were nothing special to me. The floor was composed of square, tannish hardwood floor that was clean, but contained no particular design on it. The signs in AE were mainly composed of sale details like clearance racks and jean sales. I think this is probably a good idea, not for the customer, but for the store owners because it forces newer consumers to look around for items they want, in which time they may find something else they like as well. There are a few signs with models on them showcasing current fashions but those are mainly behind the cashier's counter. The cashier's area is located on the far right wall on the guy's clothing side. It is a very long counter that takes up half of the wall, but there is one flaw with the large cashier set-up: there is often no real set line. Eventually a line forms behind someone, but other times I have come in and the line is in a different spot. It's really no big deal, but I just think it is a poor design aspect on AE's part.
With all of these aspects, I believe AE is trying to project a hip, preppy style that encourages teenagers to come buy there clothes. The models on many of their signs are young adults in fun, flirtatious pictures that make consumers want to look like that. AE sells many collared shirts and button up collared shirts that are known for the little eagle symbol on the upper left chest of the shirt. This provides a certain attachment to the the clothing line similar to the Ralph Lauren Polo horse that captures the older, more mature consumer base. AE is trying to have this image as well, but for the younger generation.
Once consumer's enter the store, they interact in various ways. You can tell the newer consumer's because they don't touch many things and often do a quick look through and only grab something if they find exactly what they are looking for. However, you can tell who the loyal consumers are (besides the AE clothing they are wearing when they walk into the store) because they spend more time at the racks, shifting through a number of sizes, and take several trips to the fitting room, instead of just one like newer consumers, if they go at all.
Overall, I like the design of AE. I did find interesting, however, that there most popular item, the jeans, were right on the right as you walked in. Our class read how Paco Underhill stated that you should place the more popular items in the back of the store because it forces consumers to go into the depths of your store. I also didn't like how there was no clear division between guys and girls clothing. Ezra talked about it during class and I discoverd it was kind of an issue at AE. I was walking through the center of the store and one second I was looking at guys T-shirts and the next I was looking at a circle display of girls lingerie, not exactly what I was looking for.