Steve,+Kelsey

= How does culture influence spending decisions? =

-What does the number of each type of shop in a mall tell us about our culture?-

Hypothesis
It is presumable that a mall will have more shops for products that sell more; shops do not just do nothing when more customers look for them, nor will they be able to sustain their shops when significantly less customers look for them. For example, if men's attire don't sell as much as those of women's, then it is likely that there will be more women's attire shops in a shopping mall. Assumption 1 - the more annual turnover a product has, the more shops selling the product will be built in a shopping mall. From this, we can hypothesize that the more of each type of shop a mall has, the more significant it is in that culture. However, further analysis must be done to put results in context.

Objective
Our main objective is to come to a conclusion of how culture influences spending decisions, according to what stores are offered at various shopping malls. Another objective of our research is to examine different groups within a culture, such as men vs. women, and children vs. teens, and come to a conclusion as to which groups within a culture spend more money. From our experiment, we will find out what each type of shop in a mall tells us about each culture.

Method

 * 1) List all the shopping malls in the vicinity.
 * If two shopping malls are made by the same company, for example, Walmart, we still count them as separate malls.
 * 1) From the list, give each shopping mall a unique number, starting from 1 and ending in //n//.
 * 2) Using a Simple Random Sampling method, select (5) random shopping malls.
 * One SRS method can be to use random.org but any other sampling methods are suitable.
 * 1) Visit the shopping malls and find a way to count which shops are in the mall for each of the malls selected.
 * Usually, this information can be found in the guide that can be found on each floor.
 * 1) Make a spreadsheet about the data collected.
 * Make sure to identify to mall's unique number on the column and the types of malls on the row.
 * 1) Draw conclusions.
 * Further research/observation may be needed to draw conclusions in context.


 * This research will be/is conducted between March and April, and the results may vary if it is conducted in any other time of the year.


 * Potential Errors:**
 * ======Our experiment is limited to only the shopping malls in/around our area. Because we will not be asking or interacting with other people, we must do our research stricly through observation at shopping malls, or through mall websites.======

Literature Review -Steve K.
1. [] When we find teenagers at malls, we used to think that they are just there to hang out and fool around. However, they are now becoming a major proportion of the malls' source of profit, contributing to more than 10% of the mall's total profit.This is partly due to the conception now that children, too, should be given the right to choose what they want to wear and eat; they grew up with more authority than any other generation. Because of this trend, industries are now looking at this new group of customers more seriously than ever. There are even industries that just focus on teenagers. I believe that this will definitely affect the structure of the mall.

2. [] Analysis suggests that as males are seen shopping more, it indicates that the economy is improving. Because of the recession in 2007, men were unable to provide financial support for him and his family to shop. However, now that they are regaining their position with new jobs, they are providing their families with money for them to shop, therefore increasing the number of men, as well as families, in the shopping malls. This also led to the increase in the number of men's apparel shops in the malls, which will be something to take note of while we do our research, for it will affect the number of shops.

3. [] This article states that because of the increasing fuel price, people are reluctant to burn precious gas and go to a shopping mall. This will push people to just use grocery store when possible, and significantly increase online shopping to save driving costs. This will probably influence the shops in the mall in a way that pushes them to have shops that 'require' people to actually come and shop for themselves, such as apparels. Although people will prefer to see their product first-hand, they will be more likely to just buy furniture online in this trend continues.

1.
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 * 1) =====- This Article talks about shopping habits and patterns between men and women. It states that women are more likely to spend their money on clothing than men. The article also talks about how women are more conscious of the way that they look to others, malls a usual place for them to go to. Many stores in a mall are aimed for women because of this reason.=====

2.
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2. - The two scholars that wrote this article conclude that shopping habits are due to behavioral patterns in people. Personalities and different styles are reasons for the various types of shops or stores in a shopping center.

=3.=

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3.- When evaluating different shopping malls in different areas, social class is an important factor due to prices of stores. For example, in a busy city, the prices of a store will be higher than one in a rural area. ======

Link to our presentation: [] Link to our Formal Report: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17w-FxIRsZGe3UVfqtnmJrpx4vuK_qeeczOtC54w_QLM/edit