Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping

by Paco Underhill

book data

674 ratings, 3.69 average rating, 141 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		19%
4		41%
3		29%
2		7%
1		1%

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published

1999 by Simon & Schuster

details

Hardcover, 256 pages

isbn

0684849135 (isbn13: 9780684849133)

description

In an effort to determine why people buy, Paco Underhill and his detailed-oriented band of retail researchers have camped out in stores over the cours…more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,242)

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Jul 01, 2007

Wayne rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: Beginning retailers

Rather disappointing -- it reads like a book length sales brochure for Envirosell, the company the author founded. Every page follows the same formula: A foolish retailer was doing this. I told him to do this. He did, and he is now more virile, has a better looking wife, has more money than he could imagine, and he thanks me daily.

This gets old. A few fun tricks of retailing are buried here and there, but the book should be subtitled: How to Get Rich Using Common Sense.

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Mar 06, 2009

Danielle rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

bookshelves: 2009, nonfiction

Read in March, 2009

Horrendous, for several reasons.
First, it is outdated, which is my own fault -- he has a newer book and I happened to pick up the wrong one at the library. There are references to dial-up modems and portable cassette players, among other things.
Second, it reads like a sales pitch. The guy is arrogant and self-serving, pitching his company (Envirosell) throughout. That's just plain annoying.
Third, and probably most offensive, it is sexist, making broad generalizations abou...more

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Aug 20, 2007

Jen rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

bookshelves: consumerism, professional

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: everyone

As a consumer, this book frightens me; every display, every sign, every detail in a store is designed to part me from my money. I'm pretty aware of that, but the details in this book will frighten you.

For librarians, this book has a vital message: marketing (and thinking about marketing) is everything. We have something to sell, even if we don't make a profit. The author, from a science-sales point of view, thinks that books should have age ranges; that's scary to me, but understa...more

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2 comments

Apr 21, 2009

Judgeglock Glock rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

Read in April, 2009

Despite its pop-sciency title, this book is written by the world's premier "retail anthropologist," a term the author is happy to admit he more or less invented. He also admits that he remains pretty much the only practitioner. Still, he knows his stuff.

The book doesn't deal with things like advertising, general consumer psychology, or why we purchase, say, cars instead of life insurance. It deals with what shoppers do when they walk into a retail store.
...more

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May 30, 2009

Andrea rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

bookshelves: nerd-stuff

Read in June, 2009

Here is a literary example of "good idea, bad execution." Underhill has lots of interesting little anecdotes, yet presents them in a disorganized, sometimes arrogant, sometimes wistful, and occasionally creepy style.
Some points I found interesting and profoundly true:
-You need to be slowed down when entering a store from a parking lot (caught myself speeding past the section I needed in Target just the other day).
-Despite my mom's vigilant hand-slapping when I was ...more

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Jan 25, 2009

Rachel rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

Read in February, 2009

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Paco Underhill is the founder of Environsell, Inc, a company that consults with retailers by observing shoppers in their environment - the store. The first four-fifths of the book were very fascinating as he shared some observations about shoppers, the shopping environment, and the simply solutions that make shopping better, and as a result yield in more buying.

What I thought was so interesting about his observations was the simplicity of it all: if the shopper can reach the product...more Paco Underhill is the founder of Environsell, Inc, a company that consults with retailers by observing shoppers in their environment - the store. The first four-fifths of the book were very fascinating as he shared some observations about shoppers, the shopping environment, and the simply solutions that make shopping better, and as a result yield in more buying.

What I thought was so interesting about his observations was the simplicity of it all: if the shopper can reach the product, if the shopper can read the signs...the likelihood that the shopper will turn into a buyer increases. This seems so obvious, but he demonstrated with examples over and over again of retailers that just didn't get it. He talked about one of his first clients, a music store, where they had an area in the store that had a posted sign with the Top 40 best songs or albums. The sign was posted at certain height that made it difficult for the shoppers to see. The shoppers were mostly teenagers, and once the store lowered the sign to teenage height, the sales of Top 40 albums immediately went up.

He also talks about dressing rooms, customer service, and the cash/wrap (cash register) sections of stores and how simple modifications can make huge differences. While reading the book, I kept one of my favorite retailers (Target) in mind and ticked off what they were doing right and what they could be doing better.

Before reading the book, I glanced at a review from another Goodreads member and noticed that she was appalled by all the sneaky tricks that retailers played in order to "trick" shoppers into buying. But I didn't feel that way while reading the book. The truth is, we are all shoppers, so why wouldn't we want our shopping experience to be more comfortable, or easier, or enjoyable? Who wants to wander around a store for 20 minutes looking for a knowledgeable clerk? Who wants to be told that they can only bring in 5 items to dressing room when they have 6 items in hand? I saw it as a symbiotic relationship because most shoppers go into a store intending to buy, so I don't see how they are being tricked when they actually do just because their shopping experience has now been made easier.

Overall I enjoyed the book, however, the last fifth of the book, was very poor. This was the section that was "updated and revised for the internet, the global consumer and beyond" and it just didn't fit in with the rest of the book. Instead of concrete observations and actual examples, it was Underhill's personal musings about how the internet could possibly be better and how retailing websites fail. He talks about social networking sites, and then admits that he has never signed up for one and gives up his age as the reason. At that point, I felt he was unqualified to speak about this realm of shopping potential because of lack of exposure and his not so hidden bias.

After the internet chapter, the book falls apart from the "Come Fly with Me" chapter to the end of the book. There he begins to talk about Environsell and how it started to grow and expand into international markets. However, he spent less time talking about the cultural nuances and differences of foreign retailing than he did about his company growth and specific employees he hired to manage each division. It ended up as a rambling mess; here are some excerpts to demonstrate my point:

"Here's a boarding pass. Step on it - the gate's closing. Pop a Xanax, fasten your seat belt, extricate that blue blanket from its shrink wrap. Oh, and the aisle seat is mine, an anatomical necessity for a guy with long legs" (pg 254).

"I won't ever forget the day when Gusi and Kita met for the first time in our New York offices. They were wearing identical outfits. Their purses were the exact same style. They carried them the same way. The owned the same type of car - same color, too, I might add. The similarities extended to the way each woman described her husband. They might have been talking about the same guy, though luckily for all of us, they weren’t.” (pg 259).

So as you can see, he completely veers off course and all of the sudden reverts to this “cute” first person narrative where he invites the reader on a plane trip and then he goes onto describe new employees and their great personalities. Who cares? Future readers should feel justified in reading only 4 of the 5 sections of the book in order to learn the science of shopping from the observational perspective. The last fifth can be left untouched.
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Feb 25, 2009

Tim rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

Read in January, 2009

Underhill, an urban anthropologist, started a company - Envirosell - which uses intensive but unobtrusive observational methods to gather data on human behavior in brick-and-mortar stores. In a sense, his account of shopping, retailing, and human behavior is a model of the enticing, smartly and usably designed shopping experiences his business research aims to promote. Instead of gadgetry, gimmickry, arcane concepts, or ungrounded quantities Underhill recounts a simple observational and compara...more

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Oct 14, 2008

Megan rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

bookshelves: 2008, ajpl, highly-recommended, nonfiction, psychology, science

recommended to Megan by: Caris

I learned about this book from a coworker at the library and am really glad I sat down to read it. This isn't a very long book, and it doesn't necessarily have to be read all the way through to glean the important points. Nevertheless, I really wish we could make every one of my coworkers read this book!

The author uses actual research he's done over years and years to glean new insights into the world of shopping and the people who shop. He researches everything from seat placement t...more

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Apr 28, 2008

Joanne rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in April, 2008

I assign a few pages from this book when teaching about how to observe in social science settings. Underhill invented the science of shopping based on close observation of shoppers, which he then uses to advise retailers on practical steps to take to get us to part with our money. For example, provide baskets halfway through the store to free up a shopper's hand. Except in a bookstore, give a totebag like most book readers would carry anyway. The book is filled with little tidbits like this...more

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Dec 21, 2007

Tracey rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

bookshelves: libraryread

Read in November, 2003

Paco Underhill and his company, Envirosell, apply anthropological-style analysis to shoppers and the shopping environment to help companies (both suppliers and storeowners) become more profitable. Some of the insights I was already familiar with (Americans tend to walk to the right and move to the right once entering a store) but other ideas were new to me. His writing is quite engaging, combining specific examples with the broader concepts they embody.

He touches on the mechanics of...more

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Nov 29, 2008

fbuser675081748 rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

This is a superb look into shopping behavior that is a fun and interesting read. Learn why women are the most important members of our economy, why the Internet will never replace brick-and-mortar shopping (people said the same of catalog shopping, but that never replaced stores, either), and learn about human behavior and how it shapes (or should shape) the most successful stores there are. Even though it was written in the mid-90s, the vast majority of its principles still hold true today.

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May 12, 2009

Martha rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

Read in May, 2009

This book was really fascinating - both as a small business owner, learning how, when, and why people buy the way they do, but also just as an interested consumer. He has lots of interesting stories that just fascinated me. It is written a bit simplistically (he defines the same thing repeatedly in case you couldn't remember from the previous chapters) and he uses a few examples over and over again which gets a little repetitive. A few of the later chapters got a bit long-winded but overall a...more

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Apr 29, 2009

Steve rated it:

(review of isbn 1416595244)

bookshelves: business

Read in May, 2009

This book explains in social science terms why people buy stuff. For example, a man or woman shopping with his/her child will spend less time in a store than a woman shopping alone. The woman shopping alone will spend time in a store than two women shopping together. The last 50-75 pages were added to the "updated" version of the book. They are nothing more than any Introduction to International Business book will give you. These pages can probably be skipped.

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Nov 03, 2009

Mdraeger rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

Read in November, 2009

This is one of those books that illuminate a whole industry I never really thought about - a sort of "retail anthropology." I would love to read a later edition of this book than the one I checked out of the library, because a great many of the author's suggestions, particularly in the arena of online shopping have come to pass and I'd love to see his take on the changes that have taken place in the 9 years since this edition was published.

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Mar 27, 2009

fbuser541185875 rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

Read in January, 2009

This book is full of very useful insights and ideas about retailing. Very lucidly written, very practical. The ideas explained in the book can make a difference, not just to the largest of shopping malls in India, but also the smallest of grocery stores.

However, I felt that Underhill repeats himself a lot of times across the book. Could have been much shorter and concise.

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Jul 31, 2009

Olivia rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

bookshelves: strategic-marketing

This book provides me knowledge about retail shopping behavior, an anthropological study on retail setting through thorough observations. It contains more sets of description rather than sets of argumentation. I appreciate on the writer's attention to what seems to be petty details (but in fact this details are essentially shaping consumers' behaviors on retail settings).

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Feb 18, 2009

TheSaint rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

bookshelves: adult, non-fiction

Read in March, 2004

If you love to shop till you drop, Paco Underhill's book Why We Buy, will give you rare insight as to how retailers encourage, persuade, and otherwise coerce you into parting with your hard-earned cash. The author's firm is hired by stores large and small to help them understand their buyers, and hopefully increase sales as a result. A fascinating read.

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Aug 18, 2009

Kelly Bolin rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

Read in July, 2009

This was more a book about how we shop, rather than why we shop. It was a fascinating look into how stores and merchandise is configured. Some things seem so obvious, but are simply not followed. Book also covers a bit of internet shopping, but is mostly the "science" of how to get people to buy more of certain products or buy more in a certain store.

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Dec 31, 2008

Paul rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

Why I bought it:

Heard about this one on NPR, the author seems interesting and the book goes into the anthropological and psychological reasoning behind consumer purchases.

Thoughts after reading it:

Great read, informative and entertaining - and it will absolutely change the way you walk into a big box store. My only issues with the book had to do with the update - Underhill is great at what he has done in the bricks and morter world of retail - but when he st...more

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Mar 05, 2010

Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 0684849143)

Read in January, 2010

Odd book about why we shop and how we interact with a store set up and store displays. Written for the retailer, not consumer but was still interesting to see the perspective of the retailer. Not a book I would highly recommend, but one that I enjoyed bits and pieces of the book.

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