Web Performance Matters

Slow Motion Shopping?

I'm always on the lookout for interesting news about performance, so there isn't much that surprises me. But occasionally performance can mean something rather different from what I have in mind.

Last August, Ben Rushlo wrote about his recent experiences measuring some Online Retail sites, and the performance issues he uncovered. As summer approaches once more, most retailers are busy building and testing their 2007 holiday shopping sites.

Thinking about this, I was searching for articles about slow shopping performance. Among them I found this news item, which comes complete with video coverage. Slowness, it turns out, can be more fun that I ever imagined.

Slo-Mo Home Depot

One of the special challenges of online retailing is that if your store gets too crowded, business can slow down, or even stop altogether. Normally, brick and mortar retail outlets don't experience this problem -- the pace of business speeds up as more customers arrive.

But what would happen if hundreds of customers arrived at a store together, and then began shopping in slow motion? Improv Everywhere, a NY volunteer organization that causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places, decided it was time to find out. On August 19, 2006 a group of 225 of their amateur (but dedicated) secret agents visited a Home Depot store on 23rd Street in Manhattan . The organizer, Charlie Todd, describes their mission for the day:

After everyone had assembled [at a meeting point in a park nearby] I revealed the mission details. We would synchronize our watches and then walk over to Home Depot and shop. At exactly 4:15 we would all begin moving in slow motion. We’d do that for five minutes, and then shop normally for five minutes as if nothing had happened. At exactly 4:25 we would all freeze in place for five minutes. When that was over we would go back to normal and eventually leave the store.

The mission organizers realized that, unless you were actually there, the ensuing scene at Home Depot would be hard to visualize. So an essential aspect of their planning was how to capture it on video:

One thing that is unique about this mission is that the photos are pretty worthless. You can’t show movement or stillness in a photograph so we needed to capture as much video as possible without getting caught. We learned in our Best Buy mission that while corporate chain stores have security cameras monitoring you on every aisle, they don’t much care for you videotaping them. We snuck in six DV cameras and two video capable digital cameras, concealing them in duffle bags and shooting discreetly from the hip.

These plans worked very well, some details even better than expected. To see a summary of what happened, watch the video:

The full story

For the whole story, including even more interesting photos, videos, and comments from participants, check out the full report of the Slo-Mo Home Depot mission on the Improv Everywhere site. It describes in detail just what happened during a 15-minute period when time stood still at Home Depot. And for once, nobody blamed the Internet!

Tags: Home Depot, Improv Everywhere, shopping, slow motion, performance