Friday, April 24, 2009

Making a trip to Lowe's ? Have you noticed the signs?

I recently made a trip to the Lowe's Home Improvement Store in Meridian, ID. It is located at the corner of Ustick Road & Eagle Road. I went there to get some plumbing supplies for a leaking drain pipe under the kitchen sink. As I was entering the store, I noticed some offical looking signs at the entrance that were printed in English and Spainish. These signs looked so official that I assumed that these signs may been mandated by the government to be located at the entrance. As I read them it seemed that they had more to do with store policy. It informed the reader that the store is handicap accessible. Service dogs are permitted in the store and if assistance is needed in shopping, loading or filling out a job application, just go to the service desk and someone will help you.

A little further into the store there was this "Low Prices Guaranteed" poster. It was a very large sign and it gave both Spainish and English an equal billing. Maybe the maketing departments of these "Big Box" stores know something that normal consumers do not know? With the large number of Hispanic customers that visit these stores, they want get in on their buying power.
The Hispanic buying power is up 356 percent from its 1990 level through 2008. In the past three years, Hispanic buying power increased nearly 30 percent, more than any other U.S. group.


There have been studies conducted on the spending habits of minority groups. Hispanics spend more on groceries, telephone services, furniture, small appliances and housewares and children’s apparel and shoes. But they spend less on healthcare, entertainment, education, life and personal insurances, pensions and tobacco products.

Furniture, small appliances and housewares are what Lowe's sells. It makes sense for them to try and bring Hispanic customers in.














I would assume that this bilingual signage is put in place for Hispanics that frequent this store. There are a large amount of high-end subdivisions with manicured lawns around this part of Meridian. They are the cleaning crews, landscaping, maintenance people that help make these "Starter Castles" look their best. These manual laborers might not be fully fluent in English and these bilingual signs make their lives so much easier as well as increasing their productivity.




2 comments:

  1. Targeting Hispanics is a great business move in our area. With more and more Hispanics moving into this are it makes sense to target them if they do not speak English. I think that English should be national language in America, but I understand why they would want to target them. Having signs in Spanish or being able to speak Spanish helps you sell more products by targeting two different groups. When I went to Canada they had English signs and French sings. It is the same thing; they can get more costumers and make more money.

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  2. I think the signage in Spanish is not just there for people who read Spanish. I think it's a great way to pick up some phrases and vocab while you're just out buying stuff.

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