4A Forming an Opportunity Belief

1.      People are more likely to use the self-checkout stations at Walmart than the traditional checkout stations.

2.      There needs to be more of the self-checkout stations at Walmart’s than the traditional checkout stations that take up the majority of the space reserved for checking out items. The need belongs to all the customers that go to Walmart to do their everyday shopping. This need has been in place for some time. They started by adding a few stations over in one of the corners of the store, but that addition is still not enough to supply the demand for this method. Right now, people are choosing to wait in line for the self-checkout stations than using the traditional checkout stations.  

3.      Prototype Customer 1

·        My first prototype customer is a student at the University of Florida that lives off campus and does all his grocery shopping at Walmart since the prices are cheap and it allows him the financial freedom to pay for other things in his life. He tends to use the self-checkout stations more often than the traditional stations because of the convenience and speed aspect. Sometimes he walks in and only needs to buy a few items. The self-checkout station allows him to check out quickly and efficiently without dragging one of the Walmart employees to only check out a few items. He feels that if these self-checkout stations were the prominent method then the employees they use for the traditional method could be used to do other more important tasks.

4.      Prototype Customer 2

·        My second prototype is a single mother around her late 40’s. She has two kids and a dog at home while her husband is gone 6 months of the year working as an airline pilot for a mid-tier airline in Miami. She typically shops at Walmart and other grocery stores around once or twice a week depending on the events of that week. She decides to use the self-checkout stations only when the wait for the machines is under around 5 minutes or she doesn’t have a whole cart full of items. If either of those factors are present she would prefer to use a traditional station because she personally doesn’t want to wait a long time for a machine, or she would rather have someone else scan and bag her full cart of groceries rather than doing it herself. However, she does rave that the self-checkout stations seem to be more efficient compared to the traditional stations which is one of the reasons she chooses to use them as often as she can.

  

5.      Prototype Customer 3

·        The third prototype customer I chose to evaluate was an elderly woman who I met in line waiting to use a self-checkout station while I was grocery shopping at Walmart. She typically goes shopping at Walmart about one to two times per week. She doesn’t need to purchase a lot of items to support herself and her husband throughout the week, so the self-checkout station is great for her because she can quickly and easily go through the line and get back to her home without all the frustration and long wait times that come from the traditional checkout stations. There was one point she emphasized numerous times in her responses. She wished there would be more of these self-checkout stations because for most of the days when she goes shopping there are maybe 5-10 traditional stations open at any given time. With the remaining stations not being utilized. She made the point that these closed stations are a waste of space that could be fixed by adding more of the self-checkout stations. You can add around 6 self-checkout stations in the same space as 3-4 of the traditional ones. This makes the Walmart more efficient and better for the customer experience.

  

6.      Summary of the Process

·        I believe my original opportunity is still completely intact based on the feedback that I received from the three prototype customers I interviewed. They all three saw the beneficial aspects of the self-checkout station but they also realized that there are some aspects to the current system that could use some retooling. I think after the conversations I’ve had with these three individuals that this opportunity has a lot of validity within our current society. I think entrepreneurs should take customer feedback to account at least on a general perspective. As a business owner, you’re never going to make every customer happy. There are going to be a few that think things that go completely against your company’s vision. If you changed your vision every time one customer wrote a negative comment then you would constantly be changing and that’s not good for business. Obviously, I would still take feedback into account anyway but on a general scale not on an individual basis because if there is a negative trend with multiple people then it might be a problem.