Question

Consider a department store. Which departments probably should not be located near each other? Would any departments benefit from close proximity?

Answer 1

Service layout of retail stores like department stores, banks or restaurants are designed in such a way that would maximize the net profit per square foot of the store. The layouts of retail stores are decided according to the relatedness of different departments and requirement of product exposure to the customers.

Consider a department store that consist of different departments including clothes, cosmetics, shoes, furniture, electronics, food, product for pets, toiletries, etc. In addition to it the stores also have non selling departments like billing department and customer service departments.

A department store should not locate departments selling completely unrelated products near each other. For example electronics and food department, or hardware and cosmetics department should not be placed near each other.

Contrary to this, departments selling complementary goods like men’s clothes and shoes department or female clothes and cosmetics/jewelry departments should be located at close proximity. This arrangement would increase the visibility of products and induce impulse buying.