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Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping
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List Price:
$15.00
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$10.20
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Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.834
EAN: 9780684849140
ISBN: 0684849143
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2000-06-02
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editorial Reviews:
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In an effort to determine why people buy, Paco Underhill and his detailed-oriented band of retail researchers have camped out in stores over the course of 20 years, dedicating their lives to the "science of shopping." Armed with an array of video equipment, store maps, and customer-profile sheets, Underhill and his consulting firm, Envirosell, have observed over 900 aspects of interaction between shopper and store. They've discovered that men who take jeans into fitting rooms are more likely to buy than females (65 percent vs. 25 percent). They've learned how the "butt-brush factor" (bumped from behind, shoppers become irritated and move elsewhere) makes women avoid narrow aisles. They've quantified the importance of shopping baskets; contact between employees and shoppers; the "transition zone" (the area just inside the store's entrance); and "circulation patterns" (how shoppers move throughout a store). And they've explored the relationship between a customer's amenability and profitability, learning how good stores capitalize on a shopper's unspoken inclinations and desires. Underhill, whose clients include McDonald's, Starbucks, Estée Lauder, and Blockbuster, stocks Why We Buy with a wealth of retail insights, showing how men are beginning to shop like women, and how women have changed the way supermarkets are laid out. He also looks to the future, projecting massive retail opportunities with an aging baby-boom population and predicting how online retailing will affect shopping malls. This lighthearted look at shopping is highly recommended to anyone who buys or sells. --Rob McDonald
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Well worth your time
Comment: This book is insightful, intelligent, and provides an invaluable view at the commercial world we live in. Paco Underhill is an amazing writer, the book is an easy & an enjoyable read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It's a swindle!
Comment: First, as already pointed out in previous reviews, the title is totally misleading.
Second, there is no info you can use and Underhill knows it. "Why We Buy" is just a bunch of stories about how the author's company supposedely solved specific problems of specific clients through primary research.
"Primary research (also called field research) involves the collection of data that does not already exist. This can be through numerous forms, including questionnaires and telephone interviews amongst others." (Wikipedia). If you know anything about research you know you can't safely extrapolate these "discoveries" to your particular case or, in other words, use them as guidelines.
Underhill knows his stories have no value because primary research is what he does for a living. That's what Underhill writes about, i.e. that the only way to solve the problem is through field research in that particular store.
(A small note: yes, primary research is the best way to get the right answer, but also is the most expensive way. You may get the same results at only a fraction of a cost through secondary research.
"Secondary research (also known as desk research) involves the summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing research rather than primary research, where data are collected from, for example, research subjects or experiments." (Wikipedia)
So why was the book written? Hm...let me guess: to promote the author and his company and to exploit gullible uneducated readers.
When you purchase this stuff you pay for something you may not want to read for free. It's like paying $15 to watch an infomercial. Hey, I'm glad I never paid for that kind of enlightenment!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Must read
Comment: Paco Underhill is a MUST read for anyone working in a retail store environment. Brilliant.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interior Architect Learns Secrets of Shoppers
Comment: This book provides excellent insight into the minds of retail shoppers. I would recommend it to anyone involved in the design, marketing, manufacturing, or business fields...it's pretty interesting even if you don't make a living off of it. Muy bien.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A classic book
Comment: As any classic thing, this book have the problems of the "classics". Like a Cadillac El Dorado, is beautiful, interesting, but have some problems due to old age. Althoug book is presented as "scientific", it is not. The research have not a scientific method because is led by commercial interests that not allows ask all questions about. Just those whose answer allows increase sells. The questions that try to solve the book were not asked by author but her clients. Then is not a scientific book, but is great, like El Dorado.
The book shows how we move inside the stores, what kind of expressions we make, how many time we spend inside, and other variables. All that items are procesed from data bases and graphic film bases gathered by author in many years. Is a magestic effort!. But, althoug book tries to explain the move, never shows that a in store map. Is not presented the technic that today is a modern tool helped by geographic information systems: the "in store dynamic" or also calle "store wath", that allows show conceptual maps about client moving and microgeogrpahic patterns of several kind of people.
But that lack is just because the book is a classic. A very great classic.
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