We continued our field observation today and decided to try out Whole Foods instead of Jewel. We wanted to see the shopping trends in a higher-end grocery store compared to the small, local grocery store that we visited yesterday. There were observations similar to what we saw yesterday, including:

Customer Type: There were more women shopping than men, and mostly solo shoppers. Many of the women were shopping in workout clothes, and we wondered if they came from the gym across the street. There were still not very many list shoppers, and there were far fewer couples shopping.

Shopping Habits: People still seemed to make produce the focus of their visit. Overall the pace seemed much quicker there and people seemed deliberate about what they were looking for. Most people were shopping with the small carts rather than the larger carts and baskets, but even those were not completely full.

Intercepting: We also went to the square in our neighborhood where people will frequently hang out, grab some ice cream, and sit on the benches. A lot of parents come there and let their kids run around. We talked to 4 couples and 1 woman. We were surprised that they all said they enjoy grocery shopping and that they all cook at home at least 3-4 nights per week. Half of them were content with the amount that they cook at home. The others were open to 1 or 2 new recipes per week. Most of them felt like they had access to recipes and good quality food, and that they had a decent quantity of go-to recipes that they make frequently. Every once in a while they say they find a new recipe and are happy with that level of experimentation. They uniformly felt that delivery wasn’t worth an extra cost, however they were interested in the idea when we explained what we wanted to do. As far as time constraints, most people said the average time spent preparing a meal on a weeknight is 30-40 minutes, and they prefer recipes with common ingredients and simple directions. One thing we want to explore is whether single people cook as much as couples. The woman we talked to today said that she does in fact cook 4-5 nights per week, and that was surprising. We also found that all but one person said they shop at multiple stores for all of their groceries, almost like a regular rotation of stores where some are more for produce and some are more for bulk purchases.

All in all this was a useful exercise and reminds us not to assume too much and get hooked on one idea. We may find in the data that a different approach/solution will be necessary.

One of the key aspects of both the Lean Startup Challenge and my UX class is getting out of the building. When creating a new product or service, it’s important to get to know your audience/customer segment, and it’s not enough to just assume you know the customers because they’re like you. For the Lean Startup Challenge, getting out of the building mostly means doing customer interviews. Not just grabbing people on the street and asking them questions, but actually using your network to find people who you know are already part of your customer segment and scheduling time to interview them. For my UX class, getting out of the building can also be field observation.

So with that in mind, Phil and I went to a small grocery store in our neighborhood at 2pm today (Saturday) to see how people shop for food. We made the following observations:

Customer type: We noticed that around 70% were solo shoppers, more women than men. Women outnumbered men around 2 to 1. Of the couples who shopped, they seemed to shop collaboratively and consulted each other on the items they purchased. The majority seemed to be between the ages of 30 and 40. Most of the older shoppers were women. There were not many shoppers with children; we only saw one or two children and they were young in age.

Shopping habits: We thought we’d see many people shopping from lists, when in fact, only around 10% were using a grocery list. Since the store is small, around 75% of shoppers were using a basket rather than a cart. Neither the baskets nor the carts were typically full. People seemed to spend the most time in the produce section, and they would typically spend about a minute deliberating on an item. They would look at and consider that item, but also scan around it before making their decisions. Not many people were shopping in the ethnic foods aisle, however there were a number of shoppers with an unusual combination of items; one lady had a plastic produce bag completely full of limes. Another man had very little in his cart, and the majority of it consisted of different types of meat and many bottles of vitamin water. Another guy was carrying one item along with an armload of lemons. It made me wonder what their diets were like or what they were planning on cooking.

We feel that most people use this store as a means of replenishing perishable items like produce and eggs on a more frequent basis. The overall pace in the store seemed relaxed, no one seemed to be rushing, and we estimate that people probably spend around 30 minutes in the store. Tomorrow we’re going to go to Jewel to see how it compares. Since Jewel is a much bigger grocery store, we expect to see some different patterns.

My husband and I have been working on a business idea and, on a whim, decided to apply to the Chicago Lean Startup Challenge. We were thrilled to have made it into the first round. There was a kickoff event on Saturday, and the months ahead have really started to take shape.

During the next few days, we’ll work on creating our business model, or Canvas. To do that, we’ll look at things like our customer segments, market size, and our core values. Creating our canvas will help to form hypotheses about our business that we will validate via customer interviews out in the field. We’ll aim to do 10-15 interviews per week over the next few months, which will help us in knowing if we are reaching the right customer segments and if our business is solving a big enough problem in their lives. If not, then maybe our business is not a worthwhile venture. That may be a disappointing realization to come to, however in that case we can either change our approach or save ourselves from spending a lot of time pursuing something that will never work out.

Regardless of where we end up in a few months, I know that we will both learn a lot about starting a business and will say that the effort was worth it. Ultimately, the timing is fortuitous for me since I am doing Code Academy at the same time. I plan to apply the skills I learn in my UX and Advanced HTML/CSS classes to the creation of our MVP (minimum viable product). Surely we will come out with a better prototype than we would otherwise.