Particularidades das ruas comerciais e o comportamento do usuário: fatores que interferem na decisão da escolha do lugar

Streets mainly composed of shops tend to attract a substantial number of pedestrians and potential customers to the retail trade. In the city of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, the biggest concentration of stores is located on the consolidated central zone of the city. Each street has it owns characteristics that may or may not affect the consumer behavior when choosing the place to shop. The aim of this study is to identify whether the street characteristics - traff ic, parking, the presence of public transportation, dimension, location - influence consumer behavior in choosing the place. A nature applied research with qualitative approach, as well exploratory against objectives was carried out. The subjects of this research study are two shopping streets of the city of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil – Acampamento and Dr. Bozano streets, first streets to emerge in the city and also historically known by the strongly commercial character. In order to achieve the overall purpose, the following methodological procedures were conducted: physical survey of the chosen streets, photographic surveys of them and technical notes during exploratory visits to produce behavioral maps focused on places and on people. It was noticed that the presence of bus corridors and car parking are the factors that most influence on user behavior in the analyzed sites. The development of this study brought contributions to the academic field through offering suggestions for future research, as well to guide the traders about the influence of this variable, allowing the search for possible solutions to reach their target public.