Edgars Canal Walk is a puzzling disaster that requires user instructions.
The layout of the store is fluid which would work if Edgars Canal Walk was not trying to create a “store-in-store” experience. They have given every brand they house a different section, which requires additional visual merchandising to create separation between the brands. However, they have failed miserably to do so. You have no clue where one brand ends and the other starts.
Due to the lack of distinction between brands, and the store not being particularly arranged according to product, makes it difficult for the customer to find something without assistance. Assistance is also something that is pretty hard to find in this store.
Sales assistants are few and far between. The few sales assistants that you can find only know about the products and brands to which they have been assigned, not that their knowledge on their own brand helps in any way. Assistance in this store leaves you feeling like you should’ve just helped yourself.
The manner in which the merchandise is housed is even more devastating than the service. It looks as if clothes went out for a night on the town, came back and hung themselves. It is clear that not a single soul there knows anything about the merchandise they stock, because clothes in very unforgiving fabrics were found mangled, meaning the customer is effectively buying reject stock at full price.
There are two floors to this store – one being the women's section and the other the men’s. Going from one floor to the other leaves you wondering which one is worse. It is as if they are competing to see who can lose customers faster.
The only saving grace to this store is the cosmetics section. The store-in-store experience has been implemented flawlessly. The sales assistants in this section know their product very well and they have perfected the subtle science of shoving product down your throat.
The point of sales is another puzzle that you are left to figure out. Firstly, you have to find it. Thereafter, you are left with the decision to continue with your purchase. You are given the world’s amount of time to think about this because everyone at the point of sale works at a glacial pace.
Edgars Canal Walk looks like it was designed during an Arts and Crafts convention. Everything about this store feels thrown together and disjointed. This store is truly a thousand piece puzzle, problem is, most of them don't fit.
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