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Mall mavens have long believed in the science of shopping, fromthe preferred places to park to the best direction in which to makethe rounds. Paco Underhill, however, has spent thousands of hoursstudying such mavens and their amateur counterparts to create aclose-to-scientific perspective on shopping.
Underhill is a retail anthropologist who gets paid by clientssuch as Starbucks, the U.S. Postal Service and Gap to study theirshoppers. The goal: to understand why customers do--ordon't--buy. Through countless hours of video footage,observation and customer interviews, Underhill has put together thenew bible of retail sales, Why We Buy: The Science ofShopping (Simon & Schuster, $25, 800-223-2348).
"One of the things about having a small store is that forall the maxims to work, you often have to be creative aboutbreaking the rules," explains Underhill, who runs hisbehavioral market research and consulting company, Envirosell Inc.,out of New York City. A good example: "You may not be able tofit a good chair on your sales floor, but putting a chair outsidemight make sense. If you're selling to women, having a place toplant their [husbands or boyfriends] is just goodbusiness."
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