What it does. Turns a visit to a store into evidence about how its space, range and price architecture actually work — instead of an opinion about how it looks. The same walk, done monthly, becomes a track record.
Inputs. One store, forty minutes, a phone for photos, a notebook. Do the walk as a customer first (no notes for the first five minutes), then as a merchandiser.
Steps.
1. Approach. Note the window: which role is on display — image, fashion or core? Is there a price visible? Does the window tell the same story as the entrance?
2. Decompression zone. What sits in the first three metres? If it is product, it is wasted; if it is nothing, note how the store uses the pause.
3. First look. Where do your eyes go — right, straight, to a wall? What is there: role, price rung, how many options. This is the store's most expensive real estate; write down what it earns.
4. Path. Draw the route the layout pushes you along. Mark hot zones (ends of runs, eye-level shelves, the till approach) and what occupies them. Mark cold zones (corners, low shelves) and what is hidden there.
5. Range reading. Pick one category. Count options and estimate depth on the rail (sizes present, duplicates). Sort what you see into core / fashion / image. Note the price points and group them into entry / core / hero — and name the visible reason for each step.
6. Stock signals. Gaps on the rail (sold out or replenishment failure?), size runs broken, markdown stickers and where they cluster (a table of 50% at the back is a reactive markdown story).
7. Adjacency. What is placed next to what; would a second purchase be natural? Note one adjacency that works and one that does not.
8. Staff. One question: "what sells best this month?" Compare with what occupies the hot zones. The gap is the store's cost of space.
9. Write-up. One page: what the store claims (window, first look), what it sells (staff answer, gaps, markdowns), where the two disagree, and one change you would make with a number attached (a fixture, a rung, an adjacency).
Common errors. Judging taste instead of productivity. Photographing everything and analysing nothing. Skipping the staff question. Counting a single store visit as a pattern — the method earns its value on the third walk.
What a good output looks like. A page a merchandiser could act on: roles and rungs as you read them, three observations with evidence, one recommendation with the fixture and the expected effect. Dated, so the next walk can be compared.