A question about reading comprehension.

[DiSiLLUSiON]

Look at the big boys; how do they do their signage? Most of the big retailers have clear signage, and that's not for nothing: They've usually paid for extensive marketing research, and changed their signage accordingly to boost their sales. If your signs are very different then theirs, that might be a clue that they could be better.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

The sign is "2/$4.00" (silly me I thought that would've been obvious to my intended audience).

What does "2/$4.00" mean? 2 divided by four bucks? That's really confusing. A better way might be "2 (name of item) for $4.00", leaving no room for error.

The happy arrow and "price decline" are just silly things the higher-ups came up with. "without reading there is no way to be sure." = Exactly!

That's why they should be left out of the signage. I understand you might not have the power to change them, but you can always cut them off.

The package is also clearly marked as $2.00 with two items in it.

Yes, but that doesn't exclusively mean that your signage is talking about that; it's talking about "2" after all, not "1".

Now you're just being obtuse. Meat items are weighed up individualy at a certain price per pound. In this case the item is advertised at $2.99lb as such there's a sign on it saying so. But, since each item is priced individualy and not every package weighs exactly one pound each package isn't going to be priced at exactly $2.99. By law, on the package, I have to have the price-per-pound on the sticker on the product. So, a smart person, would look at the sign "2.99 lb", look at the pacakge, "1.10 lb" and then say, "Ok, so this is going to cost a bit more than that $2,99, and hey right there it says the price is $3.29. (omitted from my image: Those three numbers are in smaller print along the top edge of the label, at the bottom of the label is the bar code, next to it in larger numbers the final price, $3.29.)

No. What you're saying is all true, however, simply putting "lb" is not the most clear way of putting it. "per lb" would be much clearer, for example.

You're either being obtuse, pedantic, or both.

No, I'm simply reading the signs as a customer (who's busy thinking about a whole load of other things and thus only have 1% of their brain capacity available) could read the signs. That doesn't mean that all customers will, but some are bound to. How large that group is, you'll only know by either expensive marketing research, or massively simplifying the signs to see if they have any effect.

The point is very simple: Signage should, in each and every case, be as simple as possible to as many customers as possible, if you value your business. This is a fact. That customers walk up to you, conveying their confusion over the signs, means that the signage isn't as clear as possible and that you're losing sales. You don't know by how much, but you are losing. Otherwise, they wouldn't even go through the trouble of asking for clarification, for there would be no confusion.

 

[Trekker4747]

Look at the big boys; how do they do their signage? Most of the big retailers have clear signage, and that's not for nothing: They've usually paid for extensive marketing research, and changed their signage accordingly to boost their sales. If your signs are very different then theirs, that might be a clue that they could be better.

I have no control over what the signs look like, I have no control over how corporate wants to price ad items. I *do* have control over sings like the yellow "price decline" signs as I make those decisions when I (temporairly or otherwise) drop my prices but, as I said, I'm stuck using those yellow signs in such situations and due to way the shelves are made (and where the signs go as a universal truth) I have no control over where they go in relation to the product.

Reading and understaning. That's all one has to do.

Large sings in bunkers -like my $3.99 steak example- I do have some control over, but things like having to make the individual price point obvious ties my hands a bit. And, as I've said, we've tried many different ways to do that kind of signage and it always confuses people.

So. Either I can make a sing with a long sentence that says "Items in this bunker are priced $3.99 individualy and are in packages of two for a total of $7.98." Or a person can just friggin read and understand.

ANOTHER example:

In the ad (again, not something I have any control over as I do not write, design, or layout the ads) There's a picture of a bag of shrimp with "3.99/lb" on it, right next to it there's a little circle written in it: "Sold in 2lb bag for $7.98." In the case where these are sold, a sign that says "2lb Bag of Shrimp: $7.98." Guess how many people want to buy that bag of shrimp for $3.99?

ANOTHER example:

In a "wrap around ad" (again something I have no control over as I do not write, design, or layout the ads) -which is a small ad that "wraps around" the larger weekly ad- there's writing/pictures on it advertising a "3 Day Sale" under which is a little "calendar" showing the date(s) of the sale, along with the days, "Thursday, Friday, Saturday." People, constantly come in the preceeding Wednesday and the following Sunday wondering why those items are not on sale. Even though the ad clearly says that it was a 3 Day sale, what days it ran and what DATES it ran.

But, I guess we should have people at the front doors handing out the ads and personaly telling each person what days that sale actually runs. Wouldn't want them be bothered by having to, I dunno, READ or something.

What does "2/$4.00" mean? 2 divided by four bucks? That's really confusing. A better way might be "2 (name of item) for $4.00", leaving no room for error.

Maybe this is a national/regional thing. But "2/4.00" means "2 for $4.00" pretty universally here. (The signs might actually say "for" as well rather than using the slash.)

No. What you're saying is all true, however, simply putting "lb" is not the most clear way of putting it. "per lb" would be much clearer, for example.

Again, this might be a regional/national/language thing. Where having a small "lb" at the end of the price pretty universally here means "per lb."

 

[RJDiogenes]

I think it would be best to have Zion do the signage. Then the customers would have to figure out a rebus and divide the answer by the square root of pi or something.

 

[trampledamage]

I think it would be best to have Zion do the signage. Then the customers would have to figure out a rebus and divide the answer by the square root of pi or something.

And that's just to figure out the opening hours!

 

[McCoy]

But, I guess we should have people at the front doors handing out the ads and personaly telling each person what days that sale actually runs. Wouldn't want them be bothered by having to, I dunno, READ or something.

And some very rich chains do exactly that.