“I’m going to Target” is a common phrase to hear nowadays, especially among the young generations. The discount retail store offers a large variety of products attracting a wide spectrum of customers. The store serves a bigger purpose within society, but how does it affect individuals’ interactions that are recycled into the behavior of society and how does it negatively contribute to the evolution of society? Sociological Imagination can be applied to the picture to better understand the bigger picture and further examining it by applying Functionalism, Symbolic Interactionism, and the Social Conflict Theory to discover new topics of research to further the study of sociology.
This photo is taken inside of Target located in ________, _________.
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Items such as clothing of home decor products are updated often so that the company can keep up with the popular items and promote change, all while encouraging their customers to spend money to “stay hip.” The store serves many purposes, but, ultimately, it is an agent of cultural evolution and socialization.
C. Wright Mills coined his idea, The Sociological Imagination, in 1959. The Sociological Imagination is a viewpoint from which our worldview is unknowingly filtered through a perspective gained from our daily encounters and situations. Each social interaction impacts other interactions, which, in turn, affects the society as a whole. We judge other situations using our “sociological lenses” and sometimes misinterpret the big picture. The big picture is that all individual factors, whether it be personal troubles, historical conflicts, or natural causes, contribute to the larger society (Mills,
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The picture represents functionalism with the fact that Target is a store that serves to provide the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing, and aids in shelter, as well as wants to the shoppers. The store also provides jobs in the workforce as many employees are needed from managers to cashiers to stocking crews to keep the store readily available to serve customers. Target’s biggest contribution to society through economics. Thousands of dollars per day flow through the many franchises of stores across the United States. There is a constant demand from citizens for products that the store provides which cycles through the home, public, and back into the
According to Kantar Retail, most of Target’s shoppers are younger on average than its rivals, and more educated. That means it has to consistently offer something different and appealing; it emphasizes more on the latest-trend apparel, eye-catching home décor and exclusive designer merchandise than its competitors. This results in a willingness to pay a bit more for items by customers who are willing to pay a bit more. Moreover, this successful
As a result, they are able to cater to and target a larger demographic market. While their standard Nordstrom products provide a higher-end quality, focusing on upscale shoppers who are high class, Nordstrom Rack targets the middle-class, mid-scale shoppers who may not be able to afford Nordstrom products on a regular day. This price decision allows them to target a completely different market segment of customers who are typically younger and focus on value. Much of their target market is also the young millennial generation. Many other similar retail stores, like Macy’s or Sears, have difficulty attracting this market. Because millenials are younger, Nordstrom aims to build strong relationships with these individuals, as then they will continue shopping at Nordstrom as they get older, increasing the customer lifetime value. Through being able to target two major market segments, Nordstrom holds a competitive advantage over store like Target, who target one market of middle-class
Target Corporation being a retail industry, the structure by product grouped to a functional level practices works the best. This is necessary for the other functional levels to collaborate as a single team to produce a positive customer shopping experience. Target Corporation further divided the functional level into a geographic area to exercise management tasks effectively with the given authority. Each structure of the management at the geographic level has a strategy discussion, a line of communication, growth, and progress reporting according to the corporate reporting plan. Jana Potts who manages Target Corporation store has closer to 300, 000 employees working for her and the effective can be improved if the role is broken within domestic into channels, stores into broader segments and a separate global position. The rapidly growing online channel and global expansion are necessary to support Target Corporation's strategy of internal growth and sustain it for long term sustainability. These structural changes will allow Target Corporation to connect with its employee at a functional level and bring changes faster, track and monitor the
What is sociological imagination? Our textbook describes sociological imagination as the ability to see our private experiences, personal difficulties, and achievements as, in part, a reflection of the structural arrangements of society and the times in which we live. The movie entitled Forrest Gump is a great example of sociological imagination. In this paper, I will cite examples from the movie and tell how they correlate with sociological imagination. Sociological imagination allows us examine the events of our lives and see how they intersect with the wider context of history and tradition of the society in which we live. (Hughes/Kroehler, The Core, p. 7)
This past month I made my last visit to the popular teenage/college student retail store Abercrombie and Fitch. Finishing up some back to school shopping, I was on a quest for jeans, and I knew the place to get them. My last two favorite pairs were from Abercrombie and Fitch, and I was planning on buying the same kind once again. Happy and relieved that I would not spend the afternoon ransacking the mall for one pair of jeans, I entered the store to the pulsating beat of techno dance music. In front of me was the teenage Mecca of what is truly hip -- the first thing I noticed were the life-size pictured that covered the walls -- half-clad muscular and glistening young men, frolicking around with pouty faced but beautiful young women who were wearing either size 2 short shorts with bikini tops or 3 layered sweaters. The tables were covered with overpriced shorts, shirts, and sweaters, strewn about by desperate customers searching for the perfect outfit. The sales people who roamed the floors were definitions of cool themselves -- ranging from age 16-22, they modeled their employee discounts in a haughty way which encouraged the customers to strive for their ultra-hip look. And strive the customers did. What was the most noticeable upon entering the store (besides the blaringly loud music which made me wonder if I was at a clothing store or a dance club) were the herds of desperate young men and women, who seemed to range from age 12-25, strutting around the store and searching for anything that had the name A&F on it. I can only imaging how many nights of baby-sitting it would take some of these eager teenagers to buy one sweater. The young custome...
According to sociologist C. Wright Mills the “Sociological Imagination is the ability to see connections between our personal experience and the larger forces of history” (Connelly, 5). In other words, a person must be able to pull away from the situation and think from an alternative point of view. Sometimes we are not the primary contributors to the problems we have. Sometimes the problems we have are structural
This is the foundation of the Sociological Imagination Concept. According to C. Wright Mills, sociological imagination is developed when we can place personal problems in a social situation or environment such that they are no longer viewed solely as individual or personal problems, but instead as social problems. That is problems that are shared by enough peop...
Target Corporation is the biggest discount retailing business in the US which comes just after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The headquarters are located in Minneapolis in Minnesota in the USA. George Dayton founded it. It initially started as a family business with a regional retailer shop and later grew into a national full retailer store. The company’s main aim is to offer retail services at friendly rates and, its main attracting feature is discount rates offed on different products in the business. The company has indicated tremendous growth in the retail business. It has a target to outgrow its market and achieve competitive advantage over its competitors. This essay seeks to discuss the competitive analysis and
The Sociological Imagination speaks to the understanding of our own actions being a part of a larger historical and social picture. It encourages us to see what influences we have and what influences society has over our own individual lives, whether our decisions are determined by sociological factors and forces or are entirely in our own control. The sociological imagination enables us to see the relationship between history and biography. It helps us to understand the relationship between personal troubles and public issues, and as well as this, it addresses the three profound questions that C. Wright Mills asked. The three videos given, offer a range of successful and unsuccessful insight and explanations about the sociological
Target Corporation is a well-known retailer in the world. The company offers multiple products and services and to satisfy every needs of its consumers by offering these products in one destination. Secondly, the company provides their products and services by offering higher valuable products but with affordable prices in most locations within the United States and other countries. The company’s store has multiple divisions to satisfy and to differentiate the needs of its consumers. Other strength includes the store’s large square foot store with attractive design to create an excellent shopping experience for its consumers. Other strength includes strong retail chain distributions, employee diversity, and successful
Sociological imagination is the understanding of relationships between self and society. Anything that happens in a person’s life is an effect of something that has happened in society. Understanding sociological imagination will allow people to see how society can shape a person’s life. People feel that their failures are their own fault when in reality it is caused by what happens in society. If Americans understood sociological imagination they would have a better understanding as to why something happens to them, and how to fix that problem. If they understood why things were happening, from a societal viewpoint, there would look at situations in a different light and then they would hopefully be able
Over the years Target has retailed a large variety of products but has differentiated itself by marketing itself as “cheap chic”. This communications strategy targeted an up-market cachet with quality merchandise at affordable prices. They bring new trends to shelves faster than other discount retailers and integrated “fast fashion” to result in more frequent shopper visits. Advertising campaigns such as “Expect More, Pay Less” work to communicate their target audience of younger, more affluent, and educated market. They have appealed to their markets “category need, brand awareness, brand attitude, and brand purchase intention” with its IMC strategies [482]. Walmart has conveyed a brand as a discount superstore, which consumers perceive
Stores were set up in shopping malls and a catalog was established. The chain grew for much of the 1980s. In 1989, the owners decided to refocus their business on American Eagle Outfitters, selling their other retail chains. They changed to appeal to the population. The company has now been established as “the store” to go to. Teens and young adults can’t seem to stay away. The company has had to change and adapt to the styles of this
American sociologist C.Wright Mills (1959) published a sociological text called ‘The sociological Imagination (1959). C.Wright Mills wrote in his book about ‘the troubles of milieu’ the word milieu means (environment). This was looked at as being where an individual will find themselves in a situation that is of a personal social setting to them and therefore could indeed affect them personally and to some extent the situation be this persons making. Mills (1959), also wrote about public issues of social structure, referring to matters that go beyond the individual and look at society as a whole.... ...
With the national economy stronger than it has been in decades, 1999 was a peak year for good old American consumerism. Timely for a generation of consumers. Nordstrom Inc., one of the nation’s oldest retail legends, approaches its 100th anniversary with over one hundred department stores across the country. Nordstrom profits by targeting untapped consumer resources in cities such as Providence whose shoppers previously crossed state lines to fill their closets and empty their bank accounts. The opening of one of their shiniest new branches, the first in Rhode Island, boasts milky marble floors, the latest in escalator design and Providence’s highest class of designer clad shoppers. Whether you are in Nashville or Anchorage, the quality of merchandise, service, and shopping environment at Nordstrom is set at a high standard. The air is thick with expensive perfume, sales clerks are smartly dressed and excitable, pink cashmere hangs delicately from the racks. Nordstrom Inc, which has done well in the stock exchange and on the internet, attempts to provide a pleasant shopping experience for customers. After a white chocolate mocha at the Nordstrom Café and three expansive floors of warm overhead lighting, most agree. People come for the atmosphere, the fashion, and if they happen to know about Leroy, they come for the music. Sometime in November, a young man from East Providence wandered into Nordstrom with a group of friends, noticed that the black Steinway on the first floor was silent, sat down, and began to play. As his fingers rolled an eclectic mix of gospel, jazz, and blues across the ivory keys, a crowd of shoppers abandoned their purchases, literally dropped their bags, to surround the piano, drawn by the music to this magnetic musician. No one had heard anything like it, especially in a department store. Stephanie in jewelry dialed Merideth on the third floor. Nineteen year old Leroy Robinson landed himself a job.