Helpful Score: 1
Thought-provoking, funny, occasionally disconcerting. Invaluable for storekeepers and salespeople, but interesting also for people whose only experience with retail and marketing is through shopping.
Helpful Score: 1
Although much more "how" than "why", this book is a fascinating tale by the head of a company who seems to be the Margaret Mead of the shopping experience.
Anyone who owns or manages a retail store should read this book...twice.
While a very interesting book about our buying habits and how retailers must take a second look at their displays and store arrangements, it was also very repetitive. I agree with Naomi's review that many of the chapters in the middle were just "story telling" and of little use. In fact, I got a bit tired of the author telling us men are different than women, something I was very cognizant of before I left elementary school.
The middle chapters were also full of streams of randomized thoughts about product placement that often didn't make sense. As if the author was tossing out thoughts in a stream of consciousness without really considering them. In fact, there were many I believe would not work effectively.
Still, other reviewers are correct in saying retailers should read this book. In fact, I came across several really good ideas I'd like to see made in the arrangement of items at the thrift store where I volunteer. What made it really interesting was the chapter "The Self Exam," as there were a number of pages about how stores can sell books better, which made for interesting reading.
This book was published in 1999. This means a number of its examples are no longer meaningful in the 24 years since then. The middle chapters contain a lot of these examples, and what I remembered from them was not the sales hints but the dated examples. And I had to chuckle at his statement, "...the internet is never going to seriously challenge reality-based retailing." (page 214)
Well, I dined out this past Friday. On my way home, I drove past the large mall our town has. I realized I hadn't been in there for well over 10 years, so I stopped just to stroll though it. Many of the store fronts were empty, most of the remainder were clothing, shoe or jewelry stores. The last I understood, as I never could understand why someone would buy jewelry online. But there were very few shoppers and the mall was closing at 9 pm. In fact, many of the stores were already closed.
But, as I am an entomologist, what really upset me was a random comment he made on page 167, when he wrote, "You might say that the ant is searching for suitable food. I say he is shopping." What! The only males in ant colonies are the male swarmers which usually emerge once a year. If that ant was out searching for food, then it was a worker ant, and they are all sterile females. So, you see, he doesn't know as much as he says he does. :-)
The middle chapters were also full of streams of randomized thoughts about product placement that often didn't make sense. As if the author was tossing out thoughts in a stream of consciousness without really considering them. In fact, there were many I believe would not work effectively.
Still, other reviewers are correct in saying retailers should read this book. In fact, I came across several really good ideas I'd like to see made in the arrangement of items at the thrift store where I volunteer. What made it really interesting was the chapter "The Self Exam," as there were a number of pages about how stores can sell books better, which made for interesting reading.
This book was published in 1999. This means a number of its examples are no longer meaningful in the 24 years since then. The middle chapters contain a lot of these examples, and what I remembered from them was not the sales hints but the dated examples. And I had to chuckle at his statement, "...the internet is never going to seriously challenge reality-based retailing." (page 214)
Well, I dined out this past Friday. On my way home, I drove past the large mall our town has. I realized I hadn't been in there for well over 10 years, so I stopped just to stroll though it. Many of the store fronts were empty, most of the remainder were clothing, shoe or jewelry stores. The last I understood, as I never could understand why someone would buy jewelry online. But there were very few shoppers and the mall was closing at 9 pm. In fact, many of the stores were already closed.
But, as I am an entomologist, what really upset me was a random comment he made on page 167, when he wrote, "You might say that the ant is searching for suitable food. I say he is shopping." What! The only males in ant colonies are the male swarmers which usually emerge once a year. If that ant was out searching for food, then it was a worker ant, and they are all sterile females. So, you see, he doesn't know as much as he says he does. :-)
Great book with lots of interesting research!
Awesome book about how to configure retail environments to make them most accomodating for shoppers to make purchases. Interesting and very profitable advice.
Related article here:
http://tinyurl.com/enjwu
http://tinyurl.com/enjwu
This was an interesting book for the first couple chapters. I was fascinated by the premise: stores nowadays function as their own advertisement and can affect whether and how much shoppers buy through the judicious placement of signage, merchandise, and staff; however, it's hard to determine what ought to be moved without thorough study of current "traffic patterns" and even then adjustments don't always have their intended effect because "the obvious is not always apparent." Take the "butt-brush effect," for example -- people don't like to hang round a display, no matter how tempting the contents, if they are bumped from behind by through traffic. Therefore, placing a big table of discounts right by the door is not necessarily a good idea; people get jostled out of interest before they can decide what to buy.
After that the book started bogging down in minutiae, and sometimes took on the feel of a bad YA novel, including present tense storytelling. I couldn't see the point being driven at and skimmed the rest of the book, stopping now and then on interesting tidbits like stroller-pushers being effectively barred from many store shelves by the prohibitive narrowness of the aisles. The only other chapter I cared enough about to read mostly through was 18, "The Self-Exam."
In short, I thought the basic point was pretty well summarized up front and the rest was rabbit chasing; I couldn't see the forest (if there was one) for the trees. I recommend reading the first few chapters and then (if your attention drifts) skip over to 18 and close the book. The in-between information doesn't readily distill itself into any basic principles, something you could take away from the book, so I don't think you'd be missing much.
After that the book started bogging down in minutiae, and sometimes took on the feel of a bad YA novel, including present tense storytelling. I couldn't see the point being driven at and skimmed the rest of the book, stopping now and then on interesting tidbits like stroller-pushers being effectively barred from many store shelves by the prohibitive narrowness of the aisles. The only other chapter I cared enough about to read mostly through was 18, "The Self-Exam."
In short, I thought the basic point was pretty well summarized up front and the rest was rabbit chasing; I couldn't see the forest (if there was one) for the trees. I recommend reading the first few chapters and then (if your attention drifts) skip over to 18 and close the book. The in-between information doesn't readily distill itself into any basic principles, something you could take away from the book, so I don't think you'd be missing much.
