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Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping by the Author of Why We Buy
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$14.00
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$11.20
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Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.30973
EAN: 9780743235921
ISBN: 0743235924
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2004-12-21
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editorial Reviews:
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Paco Underhill, the Margaret Mead of shopping and author of the huge international bestseller Why We Buy, now takes us to the mall, a place every American has experienced and has an opinion about. The result is a bright, ironic, funny, and shrewd portrait of the mall -- America's gift to personal consumption, its most powerful icon of global commercial muscle, the once new and now aging national town square, the place where we convene in our leisure time. It's about the shopping mall as an exemplar of our commercial and social culture, the place where our young people have their first taste of social freedom and where the rest of us compare notes. Call of the Mall examines how we use the mall, what it means, why it works when it does, and why it sometimes doesn't.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointing followup to "Why We Buy"
Comment: Underhill's Why We Buy was required reading for my marketing class, and after opening it up, I was hooked by his research and insight into buying behaviors. By contrast, I struggled through 70 pages of Call of the Mall before coming across some of the more interesting aspects of what retailers could do differently. Overall the book presents few compelling insights; it almost feels that he used up all his juicy bits for the first book and really had to dig at the bottom of the barrel for this one.
Final word: Don't bother...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fun examples, but limited take-aways and too NYC-loving
Comment: I teach Consumer Marketing and love social science interpretations of 'real world' behavior. Hence I picked up "Call to the Mall" with personal and professional excitement. Overall, I was disappointed. On the plus side, there are some wonderful examples of behavior that we all do or have seen. However, the is sadly little data to back these up for being more than informed opinions of the author or his companions. He has a company that does this, he must have access to great descriptive stats that would increases both the richness and credibility of his observations. The breezy style makes the book fun and easy to read but I found Mr. Underhill strong personal bias toward urban (especially NYC)shopping repeatedly annoying. I have lived in 8 states in both urban (including Manhattan) and suburban settings and the urban (even NYC) shopping isn't all glorious and the mall shopping all tacky, although you might think so after this book. It reminded me of my students in NYC who had so little breadth of experience that they thought all the world wished it could be like NYC. Finally, the walk-through-the-mall structure of the book emphasizes its lack of themes or theses. Not clear what you take-away about understanding shopping behavior, other than Mr. Underhill's opinion that malls are tacky, out-dated and not well designed (very possibly true but not supported by evidence other than his observations). While I understand that he is not an academic, he is a world-renowned expert on descriptive shopping behavior so I was looking for more richness of analysis and insight beyond the examples.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Controvertial Review of Shopping Malls
Comment: "Call Of The Mall" follows on from the most fascinating, entertaining and useful retail research book ever written, "Why We Buy. The Science of Shopping" which is a must read for everyone involved with retail.
"Call Of The Mall" is also easy to read, though it has far more of Paco Underhill's opinions and far less actual research to back up his conclusions. It examines how Americans use the mall, what it means, why it works when it does and why it often doesn't work at all well.
I have the feeling with this book that Paco Underhill has been reading too much of his publicity and now believes he is a witty, entertaining writer. So, in some ways it's a bit of a let down. However, for anyone involved in a management role within shopping centres it's still a `must read'.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It's Alright
Comment: I had to read this book for a consumer-behavior class. The subject matter is so interesting and full of unique little insights about our consumer culture, but Underhill gives only a cursory analysis; in reality, most of the book seems to be a mechanism for name-dropping clients and touting the glorious magic that is...Paco Underhill.
Underhill's writing style is flippant and annoying, but having said that, it is a quick and easy read and a good intro to anyone interested in the topic.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Somewhat engaging but not very informative
Comment: "The Call of the Mall" is a book that is sure to please the "minority" of Americans who do not favor the big box/stripmall/fashion mall culture of mainstream America. I am among that growing group of people seeking more sustainable, more humane geographical models of existing and getting along with one another. As an introduction to this notion, "Call of the Mall" is indeed "engaging" as another reviewed described it. However, it does not really address the underlying WHYS of the physical structure of modern America, nor does it propose realistic solutions.
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