About Our Work

What do we do here at Haynes & Company?

If we were to boil what we do down into one sentence, it would be this: We assess the health and position of major retail brands by aggregating information widely available to any shopper. 

The information we ask for would be available to anyone who asked for it:

How much does this handbag cost? What shoes are on sale? How many of these shirts do I see out on the sales floor?

 

What information do we want? 

The only information we want is public information. The value of our data is that it comes from the perspective of the everyday shopper. The way we look at it, the data that you, our researchers, provide to us is special, and no one else in the market does it.  However, we only want public information. Using material, non-public information in our work puts everyone at risk of running afoul of securities laws, and none of us at Haynes & Company want any of our researchers (or our clients, or ourselves!) in that position.

 

If you have any questions about what we do, the kinds of information we track, and what kind of information is public or non-public, please ask us! We are happy to help you understand the distinction.

 

Information we do not want

While we are interested in a vast amount of in-store data, we do not want material non-public information. We only want you to collect data that is observable data and that any consumer could see. We do not want you to collect information that any consumer could NOT see. For instance, if a salesperson volunteered that sales were down 2% from a year ago, or if you were to see a merchandising layout chart stamped with the company's logo laying around. These are examples of information that any average consumer could not have access to, and we do not want this information.

If at any time you feel that you may have come across this information, please immediately let us know at [e-mail] and we will work with you to resolve the situation.

 

For all store visits: 

1. Project updates

Stay tuned for email updates on your projects. We try to let you know of any key things to look out for (promotions, new categories, specific in-store happenings, etc.) and/or how to best document them. 

Our goal is to help make your visits as efficient and effective as we can! 

 

2. Data collection  

You can create your own in-store data collection tool or use our datasheets. Whatever tool you choose to use is up to you. 

To help you get started, we do provide the datasheets for every project as a starting point! 

If you want to access our datasheets, here are the directions for downloading them:

1. Download the appropriate datasheet from the Project Details Pages
2. Pay attention to make sure you are downloading the datasheet appropriate to the store you are actually visiting, since the retail, wholesale, or outlet versions do differ. 
3. Datasheets can also be copied over to use in an email or note-taking app. We recommend  using Evernote or Notion, which will work both online and offline. 

Directions for how to download our datasheets onto Evernote or Notion are also listed on the Datasheet section.

 

3. Use your phone! 

For whatever data collection tool you use, remember that we love our smartphones! Saving your data collection tool onto your smartphone is the most convenient way to carry it into the store and record the data, because it simply appears that you are texting while in the store.

Helpful tip: For any tool you choose to use, make sure to have access without needing data connectivity.

We would hate for you to lose your work in progress and have to start over as we only pay for one set of time to collect the data!

 

4. Be ready to check-in. 

Familiarize yourself with the check-in function (see Checking In For Store Visits), as this is a required step in the visit process.

Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and Confidentiality

We take confidentiality very seriously. It is the bedrock of what we – and now that includes you! – do. Thus, as part of the interview process, you completed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with us. Once you signed your contract, you also endorsed our confidentiality statement contained in that document. Each NDA clearly lays out what you can and cannot share about your work with us. If you ever have any questions about what you can/can’t share with others, please refer back to the document, or ask us.

 

As a reminder, you should never share the names of the brands under study with anyone who has not signed our non-disclosure agreement, nor should you ever share our surveys, datasheets, or project specification materials - such as the Zendesk articles - with others.

Common Metrics 

All of Haynes and Company's projects are unique, but there are common themes to our work.  Please take some time and work through the Basic H&Co Data Points articles to familiarize yourself with our work.