Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping

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148 Reviews

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I found this book to be interesting, if not mind-blowing, with a lot of basic observations about the shopping experience and the need to make measurement a fundamental part of the way we approach business. The book treads a line between feeding you specific anecdotes and findings from Mr. Underhill's research and giving you a framework for thinking about measuring and tuning your business, but it doesn't commit fully to either path. You may be left feeling like there were not actually that many interesting examples nor was a methodology sufficiently fleshed out to be useful.

I view this book as the non-scientific underpinnings of a science (contrary to the sub-title of the book). Mr. Underhill seems like the gentleman scientists of a couple hundred years ago, making excellent and valuable observations, but not having clearly articulated a scientific method that can be applied broadly. This book is certainly worth reading (and for some it may be a real eye-opener), but I feel that a definitive text on the study of buying behavior has yet to be written (or, at least, discovered by me). In favor of this book, it is a fairly easy and quick read, where perhaps a more comprehensive book would not be as accessible. Consider it ...

If you've read some of the reader reviews for this book you'll probably detect a bit of a trend. If you're a scientist or student in search of a tome that provides insight into the causes of specific purchasing behaviours this is not the book for you. If, on the other hand, you are a practitioner (i.e. someone who works as a marketer or perhaps owns or manages a retail establishment) "Why We Buy" provides many, many anecdotes that you will find useful in your everyday life.

This is something that few business books can claim -- immediate practical benefit. Plus, Mr. Underhill's casual writing style is easy to read. My only critique is that the middle third of the book gets a bit dull and repetitive, but the first and last thirds are wonderful.

In short, I would highly recommend "Why We Buy" to anyone who works in retail, whether you're in the front office or on the front lines. I would not recommend it to people in academia as it probably will not provide the "scientific" substance that you're looking for.

When the author sticks to reporting on the things he's observed over many thousands of hours of watching actual shoppers shop, this is an informative useful book. My partner sells pottery out of a studio/gallery and we found much of the data Underhill presents relevant to our experience selling.

However, once he runs out of facts a couple of chapters into the book, Underhill pads the rest of the book out with opinions, and this is where the problems begin. While he may be an excellent observer, Underhill is a poor business analyst. He doesn't understand the dynamics of many of the businesses he comments on. Many of his suggestions are embarassingly ignorant of the realities behind the businesses he discuss, or, worse, suggest--as if he invented the concepts-- that companies should do things that they have already been doing for years.

His chapter on the Internet is a perfect example of both of these criticisms. As someone who has designed and run a successful internet sales site for 5 years I wasn't sure which was greater--his ignorance or his condescension to those of us who have actually done the pioneering work he snipes at.

So read this book with the understanding that Underhill is a pretty good anthropologically-trained note taker,whose observations have turned up several things of interest to the retailer, at the same time that he is a pathetically bad business consultant and would-be futurist, with a pathological need to self-promote and a very annoying prose style.

This is a book both McDonalds and Ralph Nader would love. In this book, Underhill suggests different methods to maximize retail sales. Some include, for example, common sense solutions such as raising or lowering products so as to fall within the person's view range. Others are based on his research, such as putting a product you're pushing to the right of the best-seller. Many people will gravitate to the desired product (think of it as the magician's trick of "forcing" a card).

The book further discusses the different age groups, family configurations, and genders, and how they shop, maximizing the efficacy of signage and packaging, etc. It has many hints to increase sales over short and long periods of time.

It also advocates making stores more family-friendly. As a parent that has failed to successfully negotiate the Gap Kids' fixtures with a stroller and thus decided not to shop there again, I heartily agree with Underhill's suggestions.

Consumers should also read this book to understand the insiduous (and fascinating) means retailers are using to manipulate them into further purchases. We all know how playing Christmas music is supposed to get you in the mood to buy more. This book details different subtle ways in which retailers are modifying their stores to entice you to buy. My favorite: placing a hopscotch game on the cereal aisle, forcing parents to slow down and become more vulnerable to kids' requests for the latest Sugar Bombs. If you feel that retailers are the enemy, this book will provide further proof.

This had been a great book. I have worked in the book retail business for more than 3 years and I found the book to be full of practical advice. It has made me look again at the business and see how it can be improved further.

The author has mentioned about some changes he would like to see in bookstores in Chapter 18. While there are some interesting comments there like blow-up displays of book jackets and availabilty of bestseller lists, there are 2 things which I believe are not feasible.

Firstly, book stores need to have shelves that are arranged in rows. While I agree that wide aisles and creative arranging of the shelves can make a better shopping experience, the standard arrangement of rows must remain.

I have seen a public library where the shelves where arranged in a circular fashion. Besides experiencing it myself, I have seen irritated readers walking in circles to find the book they want. It created a very dizzying experience.

The second thing is that books must be arranged alphabetically despite what the author said about lower shelves being Siberias of retailing. This is because book buyers are already accustomed to searching for books alphabetically. They were trained by bookstores and libraries all over the world practising this same standard. As the author said in the last chapter, the environment must adapt to the customer.

When Tower Records first started operating a book store in Singapore, they arranged books according to the first names, like the CDs that they sell. Stephen King books were placed in "S" and not "K" like in other book stores. This created confusion for many book buyers and eventually, they realised that the convention for books is to place it alphabetically by the last name. The environment must cater to the consumer.

I have seen a very creative retailer that seems to have solved this Siberia problem. HMV in Singapore have shelves that have a stock area at the bottom and actual selling space about 1 metre off the floor. This allows customers to see all the displayed CDs easily and to reach them without difficulty. A customer can also check for titles that may have been sold out in the stock area. He does not have to check with retail staff if there is stock in the back room. For the business, this means easier replenishment of stock and smaller stock area. The Siberia area is thus converted to useful space. I believe this can be done by book retailers too.

Overall, this has been a very useful book. I recommend it to existing retail managers who wants practical advise on improving the retail business.

Mr. Underhill and his company are pioneers in studying the retail environment in a methodical and 'scientific' way. The whole methodology depends on observation, thorough observation; which is later subjected to analysis and from that analysis they come up with valuable conclusions and suggestions for their clients.

The book does, however, contain parts in which Mr. Underhill wanders off his area of expertise and starts projecting into the future without solid basis; therby losing some credibilty.

It also seems that Mr. Underhill is not well versed on Marketing and I quote from Page 206, "But since the early '80s, PoP has really become a player, & now commands a seat at the selling table right next to marketing's", Any apprentice of marketing knows that PoP (point of purchase) is one of the many sales promotional tools that are only one part of Marketing Communications which is but one of 6 main categories of tools at the marketer's disposal. In actuality, PoP does in fact have a chair on the Marketing Table along with many other tools, such as the internet. I think Mr. Underhill shares a common misconception held by many non-marketers that marketing = advertising; while in fact advertising is still only a tool and only part of Marketing communications just like Sales Promotion is.

The book is full of useful and insightful retail information. The essence of the book is how to keep the customer in the store longer, at a greater level of comfort and easy navigation.

Mr. Underhill is backed with years of observation and study of how a shopper interacts with the retail environment; an essential read for anyone in retailing and FMCG brand management.

A great reference book.

It is the very first time that I read a book devoted to shopping, and I must admit it was a good experience. I think I'll never walk again in a mall without checking if someone isn't writing things about me, standing in my back. Underhill is a very good anthropologist, he knows how to study shoppers ' behaviour, and he knows how to give us the chance to study it too. Many remarks should be taken seriously by a large number of retailers, but sometimes it seemed very obvious. Many of the changes he suggests are already applied in our supermakets. I also have to admit that many chapters were too long: why does he keep on repeating things? Moreover, I pretty much disliked the chapter about internet. I have the feeling Mr Underhill doesn't know a lot about internet sites, and the building of a site: he only criticises. According to him,people who buy on line today are simply having fun, or wasting their time, because the sites are so badly designed. People like me, who shop on the internet, are used to computers and to the rules of the internet, and I think we are not completely lost when a picture does not appear on the screen. Very nice book to read anyway.

The title suggests that the book discusses the psychology and science of shopping and consumerism. It doesn't. At best, it provides some practical advice to retailers on how to catch the customer's eye, where to position product displays, etc.

If you're looking for a book that actually digs into the psychology and science of consumerism, you might try "How Customers Think: Essential Insights Into the Mind of the Market" by Gerald Zaltman.

This book explores the psychology, sociology, and ergonomics of shopping and retail display in depth. During the first several chapters of this book I was fascinated by some of the facts and anecdotal stories that the author presented. This fascination lasted for about half the book however. As the book progresses the author drifts from his presentation of the science of shopping to his endless, but often unsupported, suggestions on how shipping can be improved.

The early chapters contain more descriptions of actual studies on shopping that Underhill's consulting firm has done. Whether you're a casual shopper or the owner of a retail store, these chapters are loaded with useful information. The author explains how simple changes to product display or packaging can make dramatics changes in the volume of product purchased. In the later chapters, it almost seems as though the author has run out of material. Instead of describing actual case studies, the author goes on a length with his personal opinions on how shopping could be improved today and how it will change in the future.

Some of his suggestion seemed pretty wild. Designer toilet paper?? Other suggestions he makes just don't seem to be reasonable to me as a consumer. Example: He suggests that computer stores don't put all of the software, printers, monitors, etc in separate sections but rather disperse them throughout the store. I don't know about Mr. Underhill, but when I go out to buy a monitor or printer, I want to see them all side-by-side so I can compare them. I don't want to run around the store trying to find them all. He has countless similar suggestions that seem dubious to me and are not backed up by any of his research.

His predictions for the future also seem rather odd. Example: As baby boomers age we'll see companies like Harley Davidson making sporty wheelchairs so upscale boomers can transition from their Harley cycles to their Harley wheelchairs.

It is clear that the author is not thrilled about online shopping. Although some of his suggestion for how to change it indicates that he has not had much experience with it. He recommends that sites do things that they are actually doing today. Example: Why can't we order groceries online? - You can in most major cities Mr. Underhill.

If you're in the retail business, you can probably learn a lot from this book despite the negatives I mentioned. I'd recommend it for anyone in this line of business. If you're just looking for an interesting book about shopping, I think that you too will have mixed feelings. It starts out interesting, but soon becomes tedious to read.

This a review of the unabridged Audible.com version of this book (downloadable audio). This is an excellent audio version and the reader was one of the best I`ve heard.

I am a college student studying psychology & urban studies. When I picked up this book, I thought it would be a perfect read for me--it's a (self-proclaimed) study of "urban anthropology" and also is about shopping, a necessity of virtually every urban citizen. A nice break from the heavier books required for class. I was taken in by the shiny cover and largely titled "WHY WE BUY: The Science of Shopping." Thinking that the author might actually make an attempt to answer his question, why we buy, I longed for the hour I lost reading about anecdotal evidence (which, by the way, didn't even attempt to find causal relationships in why people might buy a certain object) and the author's egotistical musings on proving wrong his clients. (See p. 34-5 for an example of this egotism if you need proof.)

In sum, this book is not worth the $15 cover price unless you care to read about how Mr. Underhill told a department store manager to move the ties from a display near the entrance/exit to a place slightly farther away, and how he named this "phenomenon" the "butt-brush factor." It is boring, unintellectual reading. There is no science, no causal evidence. Mr. Underhill doesn't take into account that people often shop differently--I will be more likely to make an impulse buy if I've thought of purchasing the object before I see it in the store. Is that the same as every college student? No. These personal differences, anything in the mind of the shopper, and issues important to the subject (i.e. socioeconomic status, marital status, race, preference, etc.) are left undiscussed. To me, that's the first step in trying to discover "why we buy."

Since I have never been an avid shopper (usually once or twice a year besides the grocery), I found this book absolutely enlightening! I find I "shop like the guys" in the stores the few times I go each year. Usually I give my neighbor money and she buys my clothes, etc., during her very frequent shopping trips.

However, about a year ago I opened a Holistic Clinic and have started carrying items to fill needs of my bodywork clients and yoga students, etc. Paco's book really made a BIG difference in how I have done the presentation of products, signs, customer checkout, etc. My sales did indeed increase significantly!

I'm in a Business Networking group and have recommended the book to the other 20 people in that group and loaned it to a few. I also recommended it to 3 of our local bookstores (including a very large chain), the post office, and have given it as a gift to two friends who are starting their own businesses.

My husband teases me about "Well, what does Paco say?"

This book is fun to read, extremely informative, and has made a great difference in my sales - and a newfound enjoyment in shopping for me!

Thanks Paco!

Two kinds of people will really like this book. You'll like this book if you're responsible for the merchandising in a retail store anywhere. You'll also like this book if you're fascinated by human beings and how they act in their natural habitat.

Why We Buy is as much an anthropological study as it is a business book. Paco Underhill describes what the title implies: Why We Buy. He looks at all of the elements that go into merchandising, such as the signage in a store, the width of the aisles, waiting times, and more.

That might be enough, but he also will give you insights into different kinds of shoppers and the differences in the ways that men and women - as well as adults and children - shop. Along the way, you'll pick up interesting tidbits, such as the distinction between marketing and merchandising.

To Underhill, marketing is increasing the number of people who come to the door with interest, while merchandising is everything you do after that and leads to selling on the floor. He has insights to share, based on his research, about both.

This is an excellent book except for one part. The section on the Internet and Web are simply weak. They show a lack of understanding of the Web as a retail medium and of how the Web, catalog operations and physical stores will each function in the Digital Age.

It seems to me like this section was inserted because "there has to be something about the Web." I would have preferred that Underhill either lavish the kind of attention and effort on Web selling that he so obviously has spent on physical stores, or had left the Net material out of this book all together.

Even with that problem, this is an excellent book. If you're responsible for a retail store, this book is a "must read." If you're a customer, you may want to recommend it to the owners of stores where you shop especially the ones where you love the merchandise, but hate the shopping experience.

Underhill seems to believe that children were put onto this planet to be consumers. Children are first people, not consumers. He makes a cynical and demeaning assumption in denying this fact.

Underhill has absolutely no concept of non-commodified public space and seems to think that every flat service is a space where an ad should be. It doesn't seem to matter to him that our spirits and minds might need uncluttered and quiet spaces to inhabit.

I resented the author's constant assumptions that consuming is paramount to our economy and that it is an inherently healthy practice. Overconsumption is killing our culture and our planet.

Underhill contradicts himself constantly (e.g. First saying that the entrance to a store is no place for shopping baskets and then stating later that the tote bags/baskets placed there by a book store were in just the right place...) This makes much of his book nonsense.

Underhill repeats himself ad nauseum ... how many times do I want to hear about products and posters failing until he advises the business person to shift them up, down, left, right...? I got the message the first time he made this point.

And, yes, this book is one long informercial. It offers nothing useful to anybody not prepared to buy his service.

Finally, shopping is not a science and Underhill is no scientist. He has, by standing around and looking like he knows what he's doing, apparently been able to convince enough people over the years that he's performing legitimate, valuable research. He isn't. And he won't until he can present his methods and findings to credentialled social scientists for review and challenge.

Judging by this book, my only knowledge of Underhill, ... and his claim to real-world sociological/retail expertise based on his "research" is nothing more than the ... squawking of a wannabe authority.

Why We Buy is shallow, vapid and insulting. But it does illustrate well the inner workings of the unthinking mind.

Underhill's anthropological approach brings a lot to the study of retail environments and how we interact with them. In the first 50 pages alone, he lays out scores of great nuggets from his decades of retail research and consulting, some obvious (provide chairs for shoppers' companions, put more than just sizes 2, 4, and 6 on the rack for womens' clothes) and some less so (signage in drug stores should be geared to people walking from the back of the store to the front, etc.). Unfortunately, in later chapters the book strays from hard data and solid observation to cliche generalizations. The worst offenders are the chapters on women and on kids, where there is definitely a lot to be said, but where Underhill comes up short.

Nonetheless, I find myself studying every Starbucks and clothing store I walk into. The examples Underhill gives, and the framework he constructs for analyzing the retail environment, should be instilled into the head of anyone who runs a facility open to the general public. And I'm not just talking stores -- libraries, airports, etc. could learn a lot from this book!

The teacher in a marketing class that I'm taking provided us a list of possible books to review. Having often been accused by my spouse of having poor shopping habits, I thought that "Why We Buy" might provide some personal insight. Although there were some interesting anecdotes in "Why We Buy", two factors lead me to conclude that this book was of little personal value.
The first factor lead diminished the value of this book to me was that, while the subjects touched upon and the anecdotes given were interesting, the treatment is rather cursory and does not deal with the matter of causality (i.e., "why" we buy!) Any insights I gained were as the result of my own ruminations and reflections on the subject. The book itself didn't provoke these insights-it may as well have just said, "Think about how you shop," and left it at that. A couple of other reviewers have come to the same conclusion.

The second factor is that, on a professional level, this book was not useful to me as it deals with a paradigm separate from that in which I operate. My position in managing software development projects for large organizations is far removed from the spatial concerns (e.g. tie-rack placement) that dominate the retail world. Another choice of book might have provided more professional enrichment-as would be the case for any individual who is not involved in the sale of retail goods.

In terms of content, there is quite a bit about how Mr. Underhill got started in the business of studying shoppers, how "trackers" (people who follow shoppers) are recruited and perform their duties, and how Mr. Underhill's firm often gets to say to clients, "I told you so." We are treated to 70% ego, and 30% information on shopper behavior. It quite surprising that the purchase of this book does not entitle one to membership in the Paco Underhill fan club-though any really insightful information about Mr. Underhill (such as the origin of his unusual name) is absent. Although in later chapters that deal with particular segments of the population (e.g. senior citizens, kids) there is some interesting trivia on habits of these buyers, it is more likely that your bookmark will find its final resting place around page 35.

If you are especially adept at wading through the pointless, "Why We Buy" contains *some* interesting trivia about shopper behavior. Despite the title, there is no examination of causality, very little insight, and (besides a methodical approach) very little science. Furthermore, anyone not directly involved in retail will find little in the way of professional interesting. Unless you are interested in how Paco Underhill came into his profession, how he spends his days, and what conclusions he has arrived at, I cannot recommend this book.

I heard the tie rack-butt brush story on TV and Faith Popcorn, someone I particularly enjoy and respect, called it brilliant in a blurb so...

As an small business person who is about to open a retail store I was drawn to a title which might help me make design, marketing, advertising and positioning decisions which would replace gut feelings with scientific evidence.

Things like how do shoppers respond to color, to floorcoverings, various types of music? What are the best ways of displaying various types of goods? What is the best way to appeal to a variety of socio-economic groups? Buzz words and wants for different VALS profiles. That kind of stuff.

What I got instead was the same huge retailer, grocer, bank, fast food and drug store stories repeated over and over again.

There was enough good information here to fill a free pamphlet.

If you like to shop, this book is for you. You'll recognize yourself in the shoppers Underhill describes, and find yourself laughing at how fickle you really are in your shopping preferences.

I am surprised at the venom displayed in many of the other reviews. While Why We Buy isn't the best book ever written (not many nonfiction books are), it certainly is entertaining.

Although the subject matter is undeniably interesting, the book's aggregate content is unquestionably remedial. Underhill accomplishes a 200-page sales brochure...want to learn more, read on?!?....no....hire our consultants!!! tacky, tacky, tacky.

A better title for this book would be "How we Shop and Why We Don't Buy." We don't buy because the aisles are too narrow, we can't reach the product, we can't try the product, there are no baskets to carry purchases, the lines are too long, etc., etc. There's absolutely nothing here that shoppers don't know.

I enjoyed reading the book. I also think that after reading it, one can build frameworks of observation and improve the way to evaluate the company's retail environment. One of the major achievements of the book is to teach marketing people that much of the customer research needs to be done in the store and that the small details may lead to amazing tactics to improve customer satisfaction and also to upsell him. However, I was disappointed as I was searching for some new guidelines of theory of action and I didn't found any. The book is not structured in order to teach a new science it is rather anecdotical. Compared to the book why people buy (Oxford press, John O'Shaughnessy) the book stays far, far behind to bring on a new proposal. I think that, after reading the book, there is thirst. I'm sure that the author managed to promote his consultancy and certainly, he will grow his database.

I really didn't get much of value out of this book. Long winded, little actual data. A book to skim through. Most of the book is spent on impressing you on how great the author is for figuring things out. Ah, how I hate books written for money and not substance.

I read Mr. Underhill's book and must admit that I could identify with many of his suggestions and observations, and were I a brick-and-mortar retailer, I would find this book indispensable. The book's value is derived primarily from the mindset created during reading ("watch your customer, and try to understand his motivations and challenges in your store"), rather than from the value of the specific observations themselves ("aging baby boomers have eyesight that is deteriorating so make your type larger on product packaging").

If you are interested or work in retailing, you will likely find the methodology interesting, the observations useful at times, and will no doubt find something useful to implement. If you are a large retailer, it may even inspire you to hire the author's company to study your stores and provide insight and recommendations on how to improve your business.

The chapter devoted to the Internet is dated, but primarily because of the speed at which the Internet and its retailers are moving. With several years' experience in a web analytics company, I can say that the online retailers have much better and more accurate information about shoppers' behavior, and on the whole, are improving the overall shopping experience very rapidly as a result. Reading about real world shopping behavior was interesting because of my position in assisting very large retailers study their online customers.

The book will appeal primarily to retailers, or those interested in the behavior of the shopping public. Personally, as a consumer, I wish every retailer and product manufacturer would read this and make my life easier. I have thought many of the same things that Mr. Underhill suggests for retailers, such as "give me a chair to sit in while my wife finishes her shopping".

Strong title and little substance.

An example of the uneasy quality of reasoning on display in this book:

People buy more - the author has found out via his in -store research - when they spend more time at the store, so keep them longer at your store.

Perhaps, but why there is no attempt to clarify if and how the above actually is a causal relation, no attempt to prove that it is not a simple co-relation or even a casual effect though of the opposite kind to that suggested by the author i.e. he/she who buys more needs more time at store and not the other way around (wouldn't we expect people who buy to spend more time at a store as they need to try the clothes compared to people who just do some window shopping ?)

The thesis behind this book is that by making the process of shopping easier and more desirable, and the choices clearer, the consumer will buy more. That's very similar to the observation that Taylor made about manual labor. Make it simpler and easier, and more work will get done. The methods are remarkably similar. Measuring the actions that the person under study makes, and changing the environment and process to see how the productivity is affected. I think this work is an important extension of behavioral economics, and hope it will be applied to more areas of business.

Although a book like this could be written in a very technical way, the voice and perspective are quite approachable. Also, the book is written to be equally interesting to shoppers and retailers. I'm sure you notice a lot of new things about your own behavior and that of others the next time you go shopping.

I also thought that the book was a good example of the way that stalled thinking holds back progress. For example, without this kind of observational measurement of shoppers, most retailers would never know which shoppers leave without buying and why. Or, why some merchandising experiments succeed or fail. In both cases, there are opportunities to accomplish more, if you can only grasp how your own decisions and behavior are helping and hurting your sales.

One of the sections I enjoyed was an evaluation of why many book stores miss sales. I often notice the inconveniences mentioned when I am in a book store, and wondered why the stores persist in doing things that make the store hard to shop in. There's a lot of stalled thinking in the industry, which is why we are fortunate to have Amazon.com to help us.

The book does a nice job of discussing how people with different perspectives shop differently. You'll probably get a laugh or two when you find yourself there. Do you secretly dig a sample out of the lipstick or the men's deodorant gel? Do you browse and rarely buy in Laura Ashley or in a computer store? When do you look at yourself in the mirror in a store? When do you not even go into a store because you can see long check out lines?

Ultimately, almost everything in this interesting book is common sense. But chances are that your needs are not often well served in areas that are important to you in retail outlets. My favorite was the problem of people only having two hands, and all of the times that we need three or four to negotiate the retailer's set-up.

A particular strength of this book was that it also pointed out that behavior is subject to change, as social patterns and values change. Men's jeans need to be in areas of wide aisles or fathers pushing their children in strollers will have to choose between looking at jeans and abandoning their children. That was not a very important problem 50 years ago.

I have often noticed how much people like to sample things before buying them, and how difficult it is to sample in many situations. Do you really want to go through what it takes to take a test drive of 20 different cars in 20 different dealers? Probably not. Yet, I would certainly buy a car more often if I had an easier chance to try the new ones out. You are probably the same way.

The main weakness of the book is that much less work has been done in looking at consumer behavior on the Internet, so the findings will hardly surprise you. You probably noticed these things years ago, like sites that are hard to navigate, have no site maps, and won't let you use the forms to buy.

I encourage anyone who has an interest in being more customer oriented to read this book, and use it to reexamine what your customers have to go through to do business with you. How could you improve?

Eliminate your stalls that make buying from you difficult, and rapid profitable growth should quickly follow.

I finally picked this one up after about a year of "meaning to buy it." I'm glad I did. It's a lighthearted and fun book that will make you analyze every store you set foot into and make you want to avoid many others. There are no earth-shattering ideas in here, but it does point out many of the obvious things you'd probably miss, ie: product placement, who the decision-makers are and traffic flow of the stores. It's written clear and concise, but recycles many of the examples. I read it over the course of 2 planetrips (with layovers) and will probably pass it along to a store-owner I know - meaning I won't be referencing it for the rest of my life, but I'll probably keep an eye to see what stores have read it and who should

Paco Underhill's book utilizes observational research to determine why people buy. The book starts off with a detailed description of the shopping behavior of a customer in the towel section of a store. Underhill carefully writes down the customers every move, from the number of towels touched, to checking the price tag, nothing gets by without being recorded. He does this same type of observation on hundreds of customers, and from the observations recorded; he makes very thoughtful suggestions to the management of the firm.

I found many of his observations very common sense. For example, "transition zone" as Underhill calls it. Many businesses fail to recognize that it takes time for customers to make an adjustment from being outside of the store to being inside the store. A customer will ignore a simple item like a shopping basket if it is placed in the transition zone. Hanging signs and posters in front doors go unnoticed, because customers are concentrating on opening the door, rather than looking at signs. In a later chapter he goes on to discuss how natural human movement motivates customer purchasing. Because humans walk and look in a forward motion, a lot of items that are on the shelves go unnoticed. If a customer is familiar with the stores environment, then he or she is more likely to roam with his or her eyes as they are passing through the isles.

I found the most interesting topics later in the book. Underhill gives a very insightful description of why men and women shop differently. Underhill states, "Men are from Sears Hardware, Women are from Bloomingdale's." I found some of his research findings very fascinating. He gives a wonderful statistic on men's buying behavior. When a man try's items on at the store there is a 65% chance that he will purchase the item vs. a woman 25%. There is one observation Underhill makes I definitely have to agree with is that idea that men almost always pays. However, I do not agree with his idea that men get a thrill out of purchasing their female friends items.

When I started reading the chapter about what women want, I found a lot of his research findings not too surprising. It is almost common knowledge that women tend to shop faster if a male companion accompanies her. Also nothing new about how ritualistic women shopping patterns is. From seeking and comparing, to trying on and leaving items behind, it is all part of a days shopping for women.

At the end of the book there is an insightful chapter called "The Self-Exam." One idea that he mentions repeatedly through out his book, and emphasized again in this chapter is that shoppers need baskets when their hands are full. Which is not surprising, however when was the last time you saw a stack of baskets sitting in the middle of a store? This book is very thoughtful, interesting and gives any person in the marketing field excellent insight on buyer behavior. This book is a must read for anyone managing in the retail.

From start to finish, Why We Buy is very interesting read. Underhill goes over the behaviors people exhibit while they are shopping and points out how retailers do things both correctly and incorrectly. His conclusions are based on years of observational research.

The book is written in a light, conversational manner that makes it a quick, easy read. However, it excludes an enormous amount of detail about Underhill's research. The book makes references to his research over the years, but does it at such a high level that it is difficult to fully buy into his argument. I want to believe what he says, but he just doesn't provide the necessary level of detail.

He also seems to draw conclusions that just can't be made (based on the information he presents). For example, he will relate a story of how a particular rack was being used in a store and then say "obviously it should have been placed like this.. and after the store took my recommendation the items on the rack sold much better...". He doesn't account for other factors that could have caused better performance -- such as seasonal effects, etc. One could assume he controlled for all of these things, but it isn't stated in his discussion.

Also, he tends to go on rants about the way stores should be and offers all kinds of suggestions about his view of the world. Great.. amusing at first, but they get a little tiring.

Finally, I don't agree with his assessment of online shopping (note, I am biased on this one). He takes his observations about shopping and applies them to the online environment when it isn't clear this is a reasonable thing to do. Some of his points are good, but in general they are very near sighted.

All criticism aside, I think Why We Buy is a worthwhile read. Just set your "suspension of disbelief" threshold higher while you are reading it.

Don't waste your time reading this book if you are looking for concrete ideas to better operate your retail store. Underhill presents a hodgepodge of concepts and ideas about the retail environment. If you operate a book store, drug store or computer store you might find some helpful information, but if you are looking for a general guide to heip you figure out the shopper a retail operation other than those listed above you'd better look elsewhere for information. As they say, the author is a legend in his own mind. On a final note I found Underhill's crude language when describing his own shopping experience in a drug store (see page 209) in quite poor taste.

An excellent book. It's interesting that it has been criticized by shoppers for simply explaining why shoppers don't buy, which isn't news to shoppers. But the book wasn't really written for shoppers-it was written for sellers, who understand little of the shoppers predicament.

Now if someone would just give this book to the powers that be at Blockbuster Video and the other stores where the staff bends over backward to say "hi" as you walk in (who cares?) but disappear as soon as you have picked your video...

I enjoyed this book immensly, because it examined a practice which we all seem to enjoy, yet we never stop to think about the different theories and practices within the industry. For example, we never think to ourselves how the merchandise is placed so that it is perfectly in our view, and how the store is laid out so that we take in all of the atmosphere and stimulents which are directed towards us. As with all books, the reader will find some parts of this book to be somewhat "boring", but you will find plenty of instances where you find yourself saying "so that is why they do that" and "gee, i never realized that".

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an advance copy of Paco Underhill's new book on shopping. Now, like many people I am often recommended to "how to" & "why" books on various business subjects -and I find that they are usually quite ponderous and dry and I generally last about a chapter --not so with this book --Underhill presents a POV on a subject that many of us take for granted --how people shop and why they do what they do when they are in a bank or a store. Obviously, since his business is studying this subject in all its minute details, he has had ample opportunity to study and probe vast amounts of film and this experience has provided him with insights that are both fascinating and, at times, quite humorous as he explores the human condition in that very American -- and now increasing global activity of shop 'til you drop. In short, it's ainteresting and informative read and every store manager should be given thisn bookm as required reading --as well as "civilians" who frequent these establishments--large and small.

For nonspecialists (that is, those who are not involved in the retail industry on the inside), this is a quick read that will provide explanations for things perhaps not hitherto pondered, such as why shopping baskets are placed where they are or why clothing shops employ low tables/shelves for display.
Underhill and team's research methods seem in keeping with many standard anthropologic ones, although it may be difficult for those without experience in observational and interpretive research to guess the details of those methods. This, perhaps, is to be expected, given that Underhill needs to balance keeping the reader interested with keeping confidential the methods used to differentiate his business from others'. Most of the evidence here is anecdotal even though it preports to be based on quantitavely analyzed observations. Readers are not given sufficient numbers (error estimates, for examples) to evaluate whether the research results reported on here are supported by the results to the extent acceptable in, say, academic publication. Again, for a casual reader this is not problematic.
As a long-time communist (though not necessarily anti-consumerist and decidedly non-Marxist), I found the book simultaneously compelling--it's written breezily, and, though it is repetitive and boring in parts, has a decent "Huh, I didn't know that..." coefficient--and repulsive, as I would, I guess, a book of recipes for cooking human flesh. As someone forced to shop, reading this book has made me even more wary of being manipulated. Some 30 or so pages into the volume, I made a promise to myself to not go shopping again without both a shopping list I will not allow myself to deviate from and a strict time limit.

I have no idea why I decided to read this book. It may be because I hate pretty much everything commercial because of manipulative processes like the ones explained in this book.....But I think mostly it was because it was on sale for $3.

Don't get me wrong this book is worth reading. It's very interesting and even for someone who hates every aspect of marketing....I found this book very informative. If you're into marketing it's deffinately worth your time. Even if you're a waiter who's looking to add that extra dollar here and there this book will probably have some techniques that can help out. Another plus is this is a simple book, and it's not a complicated read.

The problem I had with this book is that it's very basic. It points out his companies findings but it doesn't explain how or why people act the way they do. It's like reading the effects of scientific research without the causes. I would have liked a little more Pyschology and Sociology research to back up his findings. The other issue with this book is that even though it's short as is, it could have been even shorter. By about the halfway point of the book it seemed like I was re-reading stuff I'd already read that was just being placed in a different store or context.

My only complaint is that this book could have used a better editor. The same examples are rehashed throughout the book, so much so that you'd think the author assumed that readers would skip around the book and only read certain chapters (i.e. ones geared toward them). A good example of this is in one of the later chapters the author is explaining adjacencies in bookstores. He then goes on to explain that books should be grouped according to how they might appeal to certain categories of shoppers (men and women in this case). He says books on computers, sports, and business should be grouped together as should books on nutrition, self-help, etc. The author then teases us to guess which groupings are targeted at which gender. The glaring problem here is that the author used this exact same example earlier in the book, and at that point he explicitly told us which was which. I felt like shouting, "Hey, you already told us that."

Another shortcoming is the chapter on internet retailing. The book having been written in 1999, this chapter is really dated. It talks as though one can't e-shop without having an power outlet and a phone jack (as one of internet shopping's shortcomings, he states that you can't surf the web on a commuter train - so much for that point).

All in all, however, this is a fun and informative book that will cause you to view your shopping experiences of the future in a different light.

It is interesting to note people's reactions to this book. I'm reminded of the adage about the stages of acceptance of an idea. At the first stage people say it's wrong, at the second stage they assert that that it's right, but also trivial (common sense perhaps?), and at the 3rd stage (final acceptance) they claim the idea as their own. Many of the negative reviews fit into stages 1 or 2. I would concur with several reviewers that the author's ego interferes with the presentation, but this does nothing to diminish the observational detail that he manages to share, if you are in a place where you can think about it. It takes a little effort to step back from the detail and consider some of the ideas about our behavior that are cloaked in the author's descriptions. Yet many of the notions about what we notice and why and how we move about in a space could be applied (with some reflective thought) to the whole process of "arriving at" and "navigating" a web site (to purchase something or to get information).

If you are looking for a book that correlates characteristics of people (socieconomic status, sex, etc) with purchases you will be sorely disappointed. I assume that many of Underhill's clients have contemplated charateristic type marketing data with an eye toward some causal connection between characteristics of people and purchasing behavior. But what Underhill notices is that the act of going to a store and buying something is a sequence of behavior that can be derailed in a variety of ways. And this, ultimately, is why characteristics (socieconomic status, gender, etc) that predict purchasing are also not causal (I don't know of any 100% correlations between characteristics and purchasing behavior that would suggest a causal relationshp). There is instead a process that starts with purposefully going to a store, or arriving their fortuitously, and a subsequent sequence of steps that may or may not result in a purchase. In detailing this process he also takes note of differences related to gender and other characteristics. If you want to understand something about how people must get to a place, enter, move about, notice things and think in order to buy things you will intrigued by the Underhill's anthropological musings. If you want some definitive "cause" for why people buy you might look elsewhere, though I suspect you would be hard-pressed to argue that the processes Underhill takes note of have nothing to do with a successful retail environment.

It's interesting that Underhill's group was the one that advised Subway Sandwiches to print specific nutritional comparisons to other brand-name fast food items on their napkins. This was genius!
After reading this book, you will never enter a store or restaurant without examining its design and displays. Underhill describes the "zones" of a store or restaurant.
There's a time or two when Underhill gives contradictory opinions. One time, he says that computers should be displayed set up with their peripherals, ready to work, so that customers can try them out. But, another time, Underhill says customers want to see all similar $300 printers lined up together for comparison.
There are several things Underhill doesn't mention which are major sales inhibitors. Stores may have the best designed signage displaying the menu items or identifying aisles, and then put up large advertising banners a few feet in front of those signs, so that customers can't read the original signs without getting right under them. Many fast food outlets also neglect clearing and wiping tables. Yes, customers are expected to clear their own tables, but if they don't, the staff should promptly do so. Otherwise, the company spends millions in advertising to get customers into a restaurant, and the negligence of a manager chases the customer out. Many a time fast food customers will find napkins, straws and utensils stuffed into dispensers so tightly that it's near impossible to retrieve them.
Likewise, Underhill barely mentions the effects of employees' broken promises and faulty information. How many of us have shopped at a Orchard Supply-type hardware store, to have an employee promise to send someone to help you and never return? Or have an employee tell you they don't sell such an item in the store, and it turns out later they do? Frequently the reverse happens, when the employee swears the item can be found waaay across the store in aisle 3, where it doesn't exist.
Underhill says video stores should play movies suitable to all audiences, but it's often the case, especially later in the evening, that customers will have to shop under blaring rock music. In some stores, such as a mall Radio Shack I visited recently, the teen employees were engaged in such an animated conversation among themselves that customers didn't feel welcome to interrupt them, for the purposes of getting help or ringing up a purchase.
This book is worth reading. In reading the book, you'll see that some stores have incorporated his suggestions in the four years since publication.

I didn't get a heck of a lot out of this book. Telling me to put something at eye level in a store and it will sell better was just a waste of my time. I actually found all the examples rather juvenille and the research foolish.

I thought this was a clever and artfully written book that should not be treated as the scientific DOGMA that it has been taken for. The author's background and credentials are questionnable at best, and his research methodolgies are no-brainers, not to mention UNscientific. He is an "urban planner", "retail anthropologist" who has added "best selling author" to his list of titles. Make no mistake, THERE IS NO "SCIENCE" OF SHOPPING and Mr. Underhill is no retail rocket scientist.

As a business student writing a 20-page thesis on product packaging, I picked up this book as a source of insight on the effects of packaging on consumers. What I found was pleasing; a book that not only told me what I needed to know but also gave me an entertaining education in Marketing that few classes at my school have paralleled. Students are forced to read incessantly, but this book was a pleasure to read, and I was not surprised to find out that many professors in the Marketing department already had it. I would consider this book a must-read for anyone involved in Marketing activities.

I surprised myself a bit as I found myself reading this book front to back, actually enjoying its style (based on some of the reviews, I thought I'd tire of it quickly; as a PhD empirically trained scientist, I also thought I'd have to struggle through it as a lot of quasi-science fluff). I do think this volume will fail for readers who are seeking black and white answers to consumer behavior. Those who recognize and can accomodate the qualitative and experiential side of our daily lives, will likely tolerate the ambiguity and reflexive demand that comes with Underhill's approach (an approach that's really, centuries old). He correctly states that his approach needs to be combined with many, in the design research, marketing toolbox. I agree, yet also would be willing to trust the softer field data over the numbers, or hard data - if push came to shove. This is certainly against the grain of businesses who operate from their offices rather than from the field (or in Underhill's case, the showroom floor). But times have changed, and with a proliferation of choice and demand for 1-to-1 "experience," his angle is, IMO, valuable, and possibly even a year or two ahead of it's time. Nordstrom has been doing a variant of this, in-house, for years. Peter Drucker and Tom Peters (despite their rather unique standing), have spoken to some of Underhill's ways, long before 1999, the books publish date. I'd say find a used or paperback copy of this book and enjoy it on the beach or by the fireplace.

WHY WE BUY should be required reading for anyone enrolled in Marketing 101, and recommended reading for anyone who has disposable income. Author Paco Underhill, the founder of a research and consulting firm that advises businesses on how to boost sales, has written an engaging revelation on the ways vendors can design their merchandising operations and locations to better relieve you of your fluid assets. (It's not quite as cynical as I've made it sound, because, after all, shoppers are willing participants in the retail dance. We all like to acquire Stuff.)

Underhill covers a lot of ground, most of which shoppers rarely notice or consider: the placement of signage, the width of shopping aisles, the height of shelving, the importance of having two hands free, the shopping habits of men vs. those of women, the influence of kids, the critical importance of the five senses in evaluating goods, buying habits of the youthful vs. the aged, the point size of type on packaging, traffic flow patterns within stores, the location of the cash/wrap stations, the placement of promotional materials, the advantages/disadvantages of Web selling, and more.

The subject matter could've made Underhill's narrative, however informative, also as dry as peanut butter-covered graham crackers without milk. Happily, the author exhibits a wry sense of humor that makes WHY WE BUY worthy of casual reading. Two examples follow to give you the flavor of it.

When discussing the reinvention of certain household products so as to appeal to men: "The manliest monikers used to go on cars; now they go on suds. A very successful soap introduction in the `90s wasn't anything frilly or lavender. It was Lever 2000, a name that would also sound right on a computer or a new line of power tools. I'd drive a Lever 2000 any day."

Regarding the absence of seating for the use of menfolk while their ladies shop in a certain apparel store, and the male solution: " ... they gravitated toward a large window that had a broad sill at roughly the height where a bench would be. And where exactly was this ad hoc bench? ... It was immediately adjacent to a large and attractive display of the Wonderbra ... On the day we visited the store, there were two elderly gents loitering there, unabashedly discussing the need for Wonderbras of every woman who was brave enough to stop and shop. Did I mention that few Wonderbras were purchased there that day?"

I doubt if having read this book will raise my awareness of the subtle stratagems by which retailers hope to have the opportunity to swipe my plastic, but it was worth a chuckle nevertheless.

I was dissapointed with this book - there is plenty of HOW provided through observation, but really no WHY - after all, Why is about what we do when we get the stuff home (will the kids use Brand X toothpaste as it was discounted or will this pack size remain fresh until we consume it all ?) rather than the process of how we pick it up and drop it in the shopping trolley.

The observation stuff was interesting but failed to provide a decision making model of Why we do buy stuff. Read it in the library if you can find a copy.

An amazing book if you're a business CEO, marketing manager, or just an avid shopper. Paco does an incredible job of analyzing shopper habits, tendencies, and patterns. Learning these patterns can help businesses better position, market, and arrange their products for maximum conversion of browsing to closing sale. His chapters on male and female shopping tendencies is intriguing with Paco noting that women enjoy browsing clothes as part of the "process" of shopping while men tend to go directly into a store with an item in mind, find it, and get out as quickly as possible. Nothing striking yet except Paco noticed that the pattern changes when it comes to electronics. Men like to browse and play as part of the process whereas women walk in with something in mind, go to a sales clerk, and get out with a purchase. Other fascinating glimpses into people's purchasing patterns are covered as well. The only disappointing element was the lack of attention given to e-commerce. It would seem that there are similar purchasing patterns online (such as Amazon's recomendation engine) but Paco only skims over e-commerce. Maybe that will be an upcoming book...

Mr. Underhill's book provides for entertaining reading and gives many tips for retailers on how to capture and retain consumer loyalty. That is where his book stops short for me. Manufacturers need to conduct much deeper research about consumer and brand loyalty. Product and service attributes (such as those described by Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry in their book, "Delivering Quality Service")--reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles--provide a much better framework for me in understanding the drivers behind consumer brand loyalty. I'd recommend QFD (Quality Function Deployment)over Underhill's research methods if I were trying to understand my consumers. The fact that a car has a vanity mirror, a bathroom has fancy soap/wallpaper, or aisle width reduces the "butt-brush factor" will not influence or drive my shopping or brand preferences. (On a side note, I and several of my colleagues also found Mr. Underhill's description of women shoppers to be somewhat chauvinistic and bordering on the offensive.) Frankly, meet my consumer needs in the aforementioned attributes, and whether shopping online or in-store, I'll be loyal.

The book has a lot of interesting information in it about consumer behavior and why retail environments are laid out as they are. By all means read the book to find out a little about how you are being marketed to. My only complaint is that this is another article that got hammered out wordily into a book, because books get more respect than articles. In other words, it's a bit thin and too chatty.

The retail industry has and will continue to face monumental challenges when it comes to getting customers to shop and purchase. As a consultant who has spent 20 years working with all types of retailers this book offers real tools and real life issues that this industry must face. No one has ever stepped out and quantified with hours of videotape how customers shop in such a realistic and engaging way as Paco Underhill. I applaud you for sharing your many years of research with us and supporting the research with commen sense! There is much to be learned by reading this book. For retailers of all kinds this book should be read before you re-merchandise your floor, make new signage, sign on for the next advertising campaign or send your staff to a training program. The most important aspect of this book is the concept that the store=brand. What happens within the four walls will make or break it. Read this book with the intention of trying something new or at the least, read this book and believe the greatest asset any retailer has is the store! If a book like this was not needed we wouldn't have 50% of retail businesses fail every year.Thanks Paco. Mindy Thompson, founder, Simply Retail Inc Mpls, Minnesota

Simply a book full of self-serving, brochure-ware material. The author's research techniques are sophmoric and obvious and his conclusions are predictable and bland. The entire treatise is self-promoting and less than enlightening.

If you would enjoy having a shallow and superficial tour of retail stores, this is a great book for you. If you are looking for in-dpeth analysis of why people buy,how people shop,what people do when they shop, etc. so that you can understand shopping patterns, then look else where (like Daniel Millers book - A Theory of Shopping). But for easy answers to difficult problems, this book can't be beat.

Did I miss something?

Call me crazy, I thought this book was to be about "Why We Buy". I think I can count about two pages of gender specific characteristics on purchasing, otherwise this book was anecdote after anecdote of "stupid" things retailers do. The book's title was extremely misleading. Perhaps "How to Sell" would have been more appropriate. "How to Sell" and "Why We Buy" are two totally different animals.

And what's with our author telling us, time and time again, the simple solution to those "stupid" retailer mistakes while offering no quantitative results to back up his suggestions (which is kind of interesting based on the fact that's what he does for a living).

Overall, I feel cheated because our author has insight and knowledge to share that he simple chooses not to. I guess I'll have to hire Envirosell to get those answers I thought would be in the book. But then again, that's probably why he wrote the book.

While I don't agree with all of Underhill's conclusions, I think that what makes this book a valuable resource for anyone in the business of selling is his methodology. Instead of putting together focus groups or doing market surveys, he took the revolutionary step of watching HOW PEOPLE ACTUALLY SHOP. A lot of his deductions struck me as sheer common sense, but how "common" is that in the retail business? (For example, one of my local department stores has a Women's Plus Sizes department that should be a big draw: the buyer has excellent taste, the merchandise is high quality, and there's a very good selection. But I hate to shop there because it's crammed into a small area of the store, so a Plus Size woman can barely force her way between the racks!) This book is a real eye-opener, as well as fun to read, and I hope merchants (in the mall as well as online) pay attention to it.

Underhill is a consultant who conducts field work for retailers. His book consists of a great many anecdotes drawn from years of experience, many of them fascinating and revealing. However the book is misnamed: it should be titled "How We Shop: the Art of Retail Persuasion" or something like that. It largely fails to discuss why we, as shoppers, buy the things we buy and concentrates instead on how we can be lured into considering new purchases as we browse.

Underhill clearly has lots more ideas left in him--the book is littered with suggestions for retail strategies that, it would seem, he hasn't yet been able to convince any of his clients to try. The structure is loose and largely arbitrary. He gently derides academics for a reluctance to but theory into practice yet his book fails to construct helpful theory from his practice and is weaker for. Because the text is largely anecdotal it's harder for the reader to draw out principals that might apply to their own circumstances.

An interesting book but not quite what it purports to be.

Underhill creates a compelling, readable reference for anyone interested in retail shopping and merchandising. The focus on shopper behavior is particularly useful; what I found most valuable from a sales training standpoint is:

+ superb insights on optimal signage, pathing and display combinations
+ dozens of insights into commonly-overlooked, yet critical to sales success, retail tips and concepts (eg seating, placement of displays, lighting, and other factors)
+ very readable with dozens of anecdotes from actual client case studies.

Superb book, highly recommended for *all* retailers to study. I found this one of the more useful, insightful books on retail sales training and retailing of all the dozens I've read.

Excellent book - if you sell retail, you need this. Buy it now.


Ken Calhoun

If you are in retail or you distribute your products through retail, this is a MUST read.

Paco Underhill has hit the nail on the head with Why We Buy. It was assigned to me in a college marketing class and since then I purchased a copy for my own and given away copies to some merchant freinds of mine.
If you are in retail you must read this book before you put together your next display.

Loved the book, all the tips and insight into buyers. Have employed many of the suggestions with great success.

Paco Underhill, the author of Why We Buy, fancies himself a Margaret Mead of sorts, unobtrusively observing and reporting on the shopper in his native habitat. But in additon to contributing to our understanding of our own behavior, his observations and conclusions will (for a price) help retailers to make more money. In this case what's sauce for the retailer is sauce for the consumer, so if it results in a more comfortable shopping environment in which we more easily find what we came for, everyone wins.

But to call it a science is a bit of an exaggeration. A lot of what Underhill divulges is no more than common sense, such as that shoppers don't like it when the aisles are too close together and other shoppers bump into them. Sometimes the information is contradictory. He tells of a bookstore in which a sale table is placed near the entrance. Shoppers bought lots of sale books, but few ventured further into the store where the more expensive items were located. So a discount table near the entrance is a bad thing. But then he tells of a department store that places a discount table near the entrance to great success.

If there's any lesson that a retailer can draw from Why We Buy, it may be to pay attention to the shoppers. Watch how they flock to certain displays and avoid other areas of the store. Adjust accordingly. There's a lot of trial and error involved, and a fair amount of just putting yourself in the shoppers' shoes. And if there's a lesson for the consumer, it's that someone may be watching you.

Paco Underhill's Envirosell has carved out a healthy and valuable niche in retail consulting - loosely, it's the 'science of shopping,' and Paco and team do impressive legwork to round up secret shopper-based observation and hidden video analysis.

But, don't expect to read 'Science of Shopping' and come out with a gameplan for your small- or medium-sized chain (although there's certainly a fair share of pointers). 'Why We Buy' is more a walk through Paco's life work, the evolution of the science. And kudos to Paco for that: he literally invented the field. My hats off to him. Coming out with the book was a brilliant piece of marketing. Want proof of that? When I pulled up 'Why We Buy' here on amazon to write this review, I was met with a sponsored link to Envirosell. Sweet.

Great if your anywhere in retail sales. Just what the cover says. Easy read. Won't be dissapointed.

There are very few books that I read over and over, but 'Why We Buy' has earned a spot in my top ten all time favorites. Through this book, the author takes us on an informative and entertaining journey into the world of retail marketing. However, the beauty of the book lies is that while it is a must-read for any retailer, it will appeal and intrigue the average consumer.

When you shop, you aren't just shopping -- you are performing a science. From the way you move your eyes, to what path you take through the store, even items you touch on the shelves, is all part of how each individual consumer makes a purchasing choice. Through this book, you learn how retailers have studied shoppers -- like yourself -- and why certain items are on the top shelfs, why two items are never on sale at the same time, and a wealth of other retail secrets.

Have you ever stopped to think about what happens the moment you walk into the store? Probably not, but you'll learn about what happens from the parking lot to the checkout stand in this book. You'll find out, for example, why shopping carts are usually always on the righthand side, and why the days of plastering windows with advertisements are all but over for many stores.

Overall, this book is just fascinating in the depth of knowledge it presents, and in such a manner to make it entertaining and informative. Even the most casual reader can find something of interest.

One thing is for sure, once you read this book, you'll never view a grocery store or mall the same way again.

All about shopping behavior. There are tons of insights to be gained for anyone in retail, esp store planning and merchandising. Certainly not written as a how to book for retailing, but worth it all the more for valuable perspective.

FRANKly, the review about it being contradictory--BOGUS because retailers very often show both printers bundled with PCs and printers by themselves in separate locations--it's called cross-merchandising. Also, the claim that Underhill omits any mention of obstructed signage--simply not true. But, I totally agree that more should be said about the impact of employees on shopper behavior.

And yes, there is repetition, even some word for word repetition. That's because lot of the book is compiled from journal articles and other publications. In my opinion this adds credibility. At the outset it claims to be a brief anthropological survey of shopping behavior, and that's exactly what it is.

All in all a compelling read for seller and shopper alike!

a book i definately recommend despite the criticisms to follow. an engaging and thought-provoking read but:
1. it could have shorter
2. there is a lot of self-promotion for the author's company that i could have done without.

I don't typically work with clients who have anything to do with retail, nor am I likely to be opening a retail store myself. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed Underhill's book for the following reasons:

1. The approach is useful to anyone in any field: Don't make decisions based on assumptions, question what you think you understand, and think from the point of view of the customer.

2. It's fun reading. He includes a lot of anecdotes which made me laugh out loud (rare in a business book, I think). Even where he does resort to generalizations, you hear it coming from his years of experience in the field and I, at least, was willing to forgive him.

A pretty great read, in total.

The author had written this book based on his many findings on buyers' behaviour inside different stores (quite detailed research studies done), and I'm glad he had always substantiated his sayings with one or few case studies, though sometimes leaving them open-ended. Nevertheless, the examples raised up make the whole reading interesting, and provoke my chain of thoughts.

As a retailer, it sometimes easy to overlook certain factors, especially when a store is designed in favour towards the owner, instead of the shoppers. For example, it makes sense to give more space to display merchandise (more range, more stock, thus more sales) and less for cashier counters. However, if there're too few cashier points or that they're too cram, that may still be a turn off to customers, who might experience difficulties in searching where to pay and frustrations in long queues.

No doubt the author gave many useful pointers on various aspects to remind oneself on ... things like signages, shelves display, and so on, I would think my best gain from reading this book is the way I now look at things. I learn to be more observant towards how customers react in the store where I work, and continuously try to pinpoint areas which require rectifications in its environment to better suit customers, hence creating an enjoyable shopping experience.

I can't imagine a retailer not buying this book. In fact, it would make a great gift for the proprietor of your favorite store. There are lots of insights (many simple common sense, but too often ignored) for a shopkeeper not to find SOMETHING which will increase both sales and customer satisfaction.

And that's why this book is worthwhile for anyone in business. After reading it, you can't help but look at your operations ion a new light. For example, are brochures important to your business? If so, read about the needs of different demographics and the importance of signage. It's all easily translated to collateral development.

This book won't change the world. And it does seem to reflect an attitude that we were all born to shop -- which many will question. But what makes the book worthwhile is its fresh perspective, meaningful observations and solid advice.

A lot of interesting information, but it seems like an 80 page book was expanded to fill a full 220 pages - a lot of "as I said in chapter X, blah blah blah blah."

Okay, so you're thinking (unless you're a retailer like me) that you have absolutely NO interest in a book about shopping? Read this anyway; I guarantee that you will be not only entertained, but also educated about people's shopping habits -- and people. The author -- a self-proclaimed "urban geographer" -- is unusual in his approach to examine the shopping EXPERIENCE. And it's fascinating. For instance, he says people always look to the right when they enter a store. (Test yourself!) And, for the first 15 feet inside, they are somewhat disoriented (meaning oblivious to any products or signs). As others have said, this book DOES read like a long magazine article -- but I think that's a GOOD thing. And so did The New Yorker, which excerpted it. In fact, it's because of Underhill's great storytelling ability that this book is as much about people and human nature as it is about shopping. Truly enjoyable.

This review is from The Consumer Trends Institute. Underhill's book is at the top of our recommended summer reading list for executives in the retail and consumer products industry. Underhill creatively utilizes his anthropology background to observe consumers while they are engaged in shopping. His approach is refreshing and original: the bottom line is that merchants must focus on the consumer and the consumer's total experience from the parking lot to the home page. A must read!

On the plus side, this book had alot of fascinating observations about a whole field of study about which I previously didn't really know even existed, much less had given any thought to. In addition, next time I go shopping, I will probably stop and consider the extent to which some of the author's recommendations have (or have not) been implemented. On the other hand, the book seemed much too long to me, and rather than hoping it wouldn't end, I more or less had the opposite reaction: after awhile, I found myself skimming over quite a few paragraphs, because I felt that the interesting points could have been stated in a more concise way. Repetitiveness was a problem too. Finally, it seemed as if the majority of the author's recommendations could be summed up as: Give the shopper lots of elbow room (e.g. for strollers, to avoid the butt-brush effect, etc.), and put all of the merchandise within easy reach (no stooping for older people, no unneeded reaching for children, etc.). This sounds fine in theory, but it would seem that, in practice, the author is effectively suggesting that in order to accomplish the above two goals, all retailers should either (1) double the size of their leasehold space, or (2) reduce the amount of their inventory in half. I doubt that either of these options would be feasible for most retailers, and that the reason that some of them don't follow the author's recommendations to the letter is not because they are unaware of them, or even disagree with them, but simply because neither of the above solutions would be considered feasible.

Paco Underhill has a firm grasp on the past, but no clue about the future. He could sell cigarettes to people on food stamps, but he has no idea how the upper 1 % of the population (who have 50% of the descretionary income) thinks. He does not understand the internet. He does not understand important trends like vegetarianism and how these trends will effect the way people buy. In short, this book is a great way to understand why people did things the way they did in the past, but this book will lead you astray in the future.

The internet is the most important emerging retail force on the planet today. Understanding the internet is the key to retail survival in the future. Paco Underhill does not understand the internet, and his woefully simplistic statements about it (e.g., that only things that don't have a smell or a touch can be sold on the internet) are dangerously misleading to anyone who might actually depend on this book for useful information.

Underhill is an antrhopologist. He should stick to the stone age, because that is the only thing he understands.

I do not recommend this book.

An awesome new business book I read was Why we Buy - The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill. This one is a business book primarily of interest to retailers (although I see similarities in retail and online habits). Paco (and his researchers) followed and recorded the behavior of tens of thousands of shoppers. From this he is able to run a consulting business that makes recommendations to retailers on minor changes they can make to increase their sales.

Examples include - Provide a spot for people to sit, especially the person who brought the shopper. Leave parking spots for people at fast food places since 10% of the customers buy then go eat in their car. Children and old ladies are the primary buyers of doggie treats - put them where they can seen and reached.

He gives many examples of simple changes that can be made to increase sales.

As with all brilliance, many of his observations are obvious.

This book is a must read for any retailer.

Underhill has created a groundswell of interest in 'retail anthropology,' but is it science?

Yes, considering that observed consumer interactions are categorized, measured and lastly quantified. What percent of consumers stopped when they saw the display? How many interacted with the display? How many walked away? This is better decision support than most available research methodologies. Qualitative research (focus groups) are good at raising questions and notoriously dangerous when used to try to answer them. Quantitative research (questionnaires) are great, assuming that the respondent has an opinion at all; often, these are highly sophisticated analyses of often random data.

Marketers, there is no substitute for observing consumers in the act. Anthropological observation touches upon the simple point that consumers just can't tell us what they can't tell us. Asking doesn't always work. But consumers may be able to show us what they like -- if we watch carefully.

My book arrived quickly and was in great condition.....better than promised. I would readily do business with this group again.

Paco Underhill and his consulting firm have made a study of the psychology of shopping--watching and taping people as they make their way through stores, determining how the layout and placement of fixtures and items encourages or discourages sales. He lays out his conclusions in Why We Buy, in language accessible to a lay reader, heavy on anecdotes rather than charts or stats.

This is a must-read if you are a retailer yourself, of any kind, and even if you aren't, will give you ideas for your next garage or rummage sale! And even if you are merely a shopper, it will change your shopping experience as you become more aware of the tricks of placement that are maneuvering you into buying more (or fleeing the store). I've also enjoyed doing a small imitation of Underhill's researchers and watch others shop. It's fascinating! This is a book that will change your experience of an important part of every day life, well worth reading.

A very interesting book and a very easy book to read. The content flowed well. It brings up lots of interesting items that many consumers don't think of. It has certainly given me many things to think about as I visit retail establishments. Every now and then it seems as though it seems like a plug for the authors company.

The chapter on Internet selling feels very dated, and it is, even though it is only 4 or 5 years old. Many of the criticism that the author had have been changed and many of his conceptual ideas are common practice. Then again, maybe on-line retailers took the author's suggestions and implemented them.

Overall it is a thoroughly enjoyable book that I would recommend to anyone.

This book was an interesting peek inside how many decisions about shopping are made, and how the author changed that business in profound yet amazingly common sense ways, simply by watching what shoppers really do with the products, displays, aisle placement and packaging around them. The author's company used cameras and unobtrusive observer shoppers to see how frustrated shoppers would rip into packages to smell soaps or deodorizers, because the packaging left no way to sample them. Shoppers are inveterate samplers, touchers, sniffers and it was funny and illuminating to read about how we behave on the hunt. I'm not in advertising or retailing, but was very entertained by it all.

There was definitely some really useful information in this book, and I learned some really cool things about how stores ought to be laid out. If I were opening up my own store I'd make sure to read this. I think a lot of stores need to be more deliberate about where they place items, info. they want read by consumers, racks, baskets, and chairs. It's all the obvious stuff in here that people just don't seem to think about. My local CVS could take the hint about putting baskets elsewhere in the store besides the very front. As Underhill points out, I don't know whether I'll need a basket until I'm in the middle of the store and have picked out a few things. And I'm more likely to buy more if my arms don't get filled up. I admit to not being able to go into a store now without analyzing it, but this book repeated itself an awful lot. I felt like the whole thing could have been condensed into an article, or might have been more fun if it was presented as a series of case studies. Just my .02.

Why We Buy brings to light the hows and whys of store set-up and design, I was intrigued right from page one. It gets into the psyche of shoppers by explaining why things are done the way they are and simple changes you can make to increase sales. They all make perfect sense! In understanding the psychology of consumers, one can increase sales by working together with the consumers' mind.

After spending a whole semester studying consumer psychology, marketing and advertising, this is the book that I enjoyed the most. You will never look at the shopping experience the same way again.

Real-life examples are what sets "Why we buy" apart from other marketing books. McDonald's, Starbucks, etc. Of course if you are a retailer, this book is a must: Paco Underhill demonstrates how even a few tweaks in your layout or merchandising can have dramatic results on your bottom line. His recap of retail changes he recommended, and the results, are valuable for any place-based marketing effort: from employee marketing to trade shows.
Underhill also brings unexpected joy with his breezy writing style. This is truly a good read, and will also give you lots of cocktail party tidbits.

Buy this and find out why you did!

What an awesome book, I am a retail manager who' marketing just wasn't working till I read this book, peoples behaviour and reasons to buy total took me off guard, after reading this book I changed my store to suit the customer and made a profit. If you are a shopper or in retail this book is an eye opener, and the humor wiil get you thinking, 'do I do that'.

You'll learn a lot of little interesting things from this book. Definitely worth the money and the time to read. However, the utility of this book was greatly decreased by its poor organization. Just another sea of dense, unformatted text.

Why we buy is one of the best books on marketing and sales I have ever read. Even if you don't hav much to do with mass market or stores, you can learn different ways of the way to present a product to your customers. Understand the different habits of women and men, the fact that the purcharsing process is not analytical but emotional are lessons you can apply to your everyday selling, no matter if you are in one-to-one sales or retail. In one word, the book is superb!

Paco Underhill has written a humorous book with lots of common sense about the whole experience of shopping. He shows us how different men & women are when they shop. He also talks about the neglected shoppers: children and senior citizens. Many retailers should take note of this book and offer it to all their managers. Many of the initiatives he mentioned are so easy to implement and yet people do not have the common sense to see them through. Most of his ideas will increase sales for the retailers that apply them. A very interesting read this Why We Buy.

Yes, this book has good things, but they could have been delivered in far fewer pages. Using 255 pages to discuss the same topic over and over again doesn't help.

Sometimes I felt insulted by the way the author repeated the same information and advice several times. I wished he could be more to the point and say one thing only once.

Another thing that bothered was that the author did not miss any opportunity to advertise his company and to point out that he did this first, that first, etc. Yes, his company may do good things, but the book should not read as an advertisment for his company.

Don't get me wrong. The book has useful information, but it is not worth buying it. Try to borrow it instead and skip over some paragraph when you think you read that before. You probably have. Also, be patient with the author's ego.

"The science of shopping" is somewhat misleading too. I thought the book would explore how people decide when and what to buy. Instead, the author explains how to sell. Perhaps "The science of selling" would be more appropriate for this book.

Underhill has undermined his own defense of retail anthropology as a respectable scientific discipline by issuing a popular-styled assemblage of entertaining anecdotes. The clutter of information and opinion is fine for casual shoppers of merchandising ideas, but does little to build a body of professional knowledge. While disappointed, I still recommend WWB because it is the only Underhill title to date.

Anyone connected with selling to the public should check this out. It gets into how our heads work. Have you ever looked for something that was supposed to be in a certain place and somebody had moved it 2 ft. You couldn't find it! Then began searching everywhere! Finally you found it only 2 ft. away. That is how it works in stores for stuff we don't know we are looking for it. If product is nor organized properly we do not see it and it does not sell. Association is all wrong in most of retailing. We sell shower curtains with shower curtain rods, drapes with drapery rods, candle sticks with candles, but we do not sell towel racks, with towels. We sell belts with pants, but no pant racks with pants, we sell earings, scarfs, coats, exercise clothes, socks, shoes together, but not clothes trees or clothes hooks. Retailers are missing HOME RUNS by association. They could run them as props in the same ads and get full margin.

While Underhill has some good insights, these nuggets are buried beneath the author's self-promotional advertising--repeatedly telling us how his is the "only company doing this kind of research" and congratulating himself on his well-done job. Why would I pay for HIS advertising?

The approach taken in the book is either shallow or insidious. On the shallow side, it looks like Envirosell tries to remove barriers in the shopping experience;it is an interface approach to the problem. Rather than trying enhance the customer experience, the major concern of Envirosell seems to be modifying unarticulated barriers without radically improving the service.Unlike Norman who was trying to improve the design for the user, Underhill is trying to improve the design simply to sell more for the store owner. The shopper/user experience and satisfaction is mostly irrelevant, after all they are not paying for his services. Yet the customer experience is crucial. Helping the shopper and the client uncover unarticulated needs and bring them into the shopping experience would ensure happy shoppers and more profits for the client. The book rings like a 250 page infomercial for Envirosell and unlike infomercials on TV, we are actually stupid enough to pay for this one,

I enjoyed Mr Underhills book; however, I would have enjoyed it more if it had had graphics. I have noticed that non-fiction books with graphics in them go out more often than ones with out the visuals. Perhaps a picture of the butt-brush effect :-)

Nutshell review - This is a very interesting look into the psychology of why we buy (or not) by one of the original researchers into this field. A great book for the layman and will help you become more aware of the various ways in which we are being influenced to spend! A great read, well written and really fascinating.

I haven't finished reading this book, but have picked up some good ideas so far.

I would think that most retailers could learn a huge amount about maximizing profits from this book. It was an eye-opening read for me. I am almost sorry that I am not a retailer so that I can't use this information. I wonder if the author has done any writing for professional journals. As others have noted, there isn't enough information on technique for anyone to really critique his methods. Still, though, that would be important mainly for an academician. The ideas themselves are what would be important to a retailer.

From store layout and design to how and why your customers behave the way they do in your store, this book reveals a ton of information that you can use to increase your sales.

It also gives you advice on what changes you can make to help you make the buying experience easier and faster for your customers.

In my marketing consulting practice I concentrate on "guerrilla marketing" strategies that retailers can use to quickly, easily and inexpensively increase their sales and reading this book is one of the ways. I recommend it to all my clients.

I had never thought upon this until I got this book in my hand.
The information given in the book is based on practical studies conducted in different retail shops, departmental stores. Data gathered has been analyzed thoroughly and findings put in the book. The stuff is kind of hilarious and mind boggling. While you are reading the book you will take some time to think ..Is Paco talking about me?
Paco for instance, discusses the implication of the trolley/baskets on the shopping experience, what happens if your shelves are oriented at an angle of 45 versus 90, what is the sales boost in having a merchandise displayed at the entry of the store versus in some middle section, A kid coming with his/her father is a better customer versus when he/she coming with mother and so on.
Paco has touched base on very common things which can significantly change the shopping and sales.

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This is a witty, easy-to-read book full of insights into how shopper behave in stores. It'll get you thinking from the customer's point of view and give you a framework for innovating on the retail experience. A must read for retail and marketing professionals. I definitely recommend it.

This books gives an insight on how people decide to buy, mostly intuitively. The stories that are the basis for the book are very entertaining making it very easy to read.


Actually this is my second copy of the book, as I loaned the first one and never got it back., For me it is a must in my library.

Definitely not the author for me,(Sanguine temperment. If you enjoy science blended with retail knowledge then have at it.

For newcomers to selling, this is probably helpful. But it is only quaint, not fascinating, due to its outdated information. And the section on internet selling is just plain embarrassing.

If he were to ask me tomorrow, I would marry Paco Underhill. I have read both his books, this one and Call of the Mall, and quite frankly I have fallen in love.

Fun and informative Why We Buy will put everything about the retail enviroment into perspective. Like the "Butt Brush Effect". It seems so obvious, who likes to touch or be touched by strangers? but you'll have never thought of it, I assure you. Or what about the strategic placement of mirrors? How many times have I had to hunt down a mirror in a store? How many times did I simply give up when the hunt became too time consuming?

This book has become one of the driving motivators to my switch to a Merchandising minor, and one day I hope to use some of his ideas in my own store.

i read the book because of the title, i'm kind of interested in how we tick, and though i don't think a book would be able to answer this question, attempts amuse me. however. this was not about why we buy, but about how stores position things so that you might want to buy them, a marketers perspective on the retail store if you will. and it was interesting for the most part, but it was only a passing fancy interesting, not a stop what you're doing and read this book interesting. things like who shopped with who was taken into consideration and a hypothesis on how merchandise or where to put the store was given accordingly. pretty much the whole book right there. ok i might be simplifying, but still, this book could've been a lot more, or i was expecting a lot more than what was given, so it was a disappointment i suppose. still, i think it should be read, even if it's only bathroom reading, because there is definitely something to be taken away from the book. nothing ground breaking, but something none the less:P

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.

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!

Paco Underhill is a MUST read for anyone working in a retail store environment. Brilliant.

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.

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.

Interesting and insightful with some good tips for people setting up an interactive environment like a shop or a library. It seemed more like an ad for his services and/or his other books but it was a good introduction to the principles behind his business.

A good read if you are a marketing or advertising professional who wants to get some insight into the retail psychology and its operations. However, there is no magic formula or scientific methodology given in this book.

Besides making a lot of publicity for his company, Paco Underhill gives a lot of very interesting & practical examples of the consumer's shopping psychology and how it all translates in the retail environment. Paco will tell you why shoppers intuitively steer to the right upon entering a store and how retail managers can use that information to increase their revenues. Overall, not an extraordinary book by any means, but full of interesting examples and stories that could come in handy for any business professional.

Not only is this book interesting to the lay reader, it is a must read for retailers, marketers, and market researchers. There are gems within the pages!

This book gives you concrete suggestions for increasing sales.

It was a really easy book to read and it gives you insides on strategies to set a retailing space, having a lot of things in mind, that might seem obvious when you read it, but they really aren't. It was a great; I highly recommend it for people on the retiling industry.

If you are in the marketing/communications/advertising/design business (or in any business for that matter) you must read this. It is full of insight and valuable information. I highly recommend this book.

From a laymen's view, it seems like Paco Underhill's methods have merit. Because this book reads like a how-to for retailers, it makes me wonder why more companies don't use or at least study Mr. Underhill's findings. The information in the first few chapters is fun, after that it's a little redundant.