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Marketing

Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping

Is there a method to our madness when it comes to shopping? Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "a Sherlock Holmes for retailers," author and research company CEO Paco Underhill answers with a definitive "yes" in this witty, eye-opening report on our ever-evolving consumer culture. Why We Buy is based on hard data gleaned from thousands of hours of field research -- in shopping malls, department stores, and supermarkets across America. With his team of sleuths tracking our every move, from sweater displays at the mall to the beverage cooler at the drugstore, Paco Underhill lays bare the struggle among merchants, marketers, and increasingly knowledgeable consumers for control.
In his quest to discover what makes the contemporary consumer tick, Underhill explains the shopping phenomena that often go unnoticed by retailers and shoppers alike, including:
How a well-placed shopping basket can turn a small purchase into a significant sale

What the "butt-brush factor" is and how it can make sales plummet

How working women have altered the way supermarkets are designed

How the "boomerang effect" makes product placement ever more challenging

What kinds of signage and packaging turn browsers into buyers
For those in retailing and marketing, Why We Buy is a remarkably fresh guide, offering creative and insightful tips on how to adapt to the changing customer. For the general public, Why We Buy is a funny and sometimes disconcerting look at our favorite pastime.

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 course of 20 years, dedicating their lives to the "science of shopping." Armed with an array of video equipment, store maps, and customer-profile sheets, Underhill and his consulting firm, Envirosell, have observed over 900 aspects of interaction between shopper and store. They've discovered that men who take jeans into fitting rooms are more likely to buy than females (65 percent vs. 25 percent). They've learned how the "butt-brush factor" (bumped from behind, shoppers become irritated and move elsewhere) makes women avoid narrow aisles. They've quantified the importance of shopping baskets; contact between employees and shoppers; the "transition zone" (the area just inside the store's entrance); and "circulation patterns" (how shoppers move throughout a store). And they've explored the relationship between a customer's amenability and profitability, learning how good stores capitalize on a shopper's unspoken inclinations and desires.
Underhill, whose clients include McDonald's, Starbucks, Estée Lauder, and Blockbuster, stocks Why We Buy with a wealth of retail insights, showing how men are beginning to shop like women, and how women have changed the way supermarkets are laid out. He also looks to the future, projecting massive retail opportunities with an aging baby-boom population and predicting how online retailing will affect shopping malls. This lighthearted look at shopping is highly recommended to anyone who buys or sells. --Rob McDonald

Geeks on the web tend to gravitate to elaborate lists to break down competing gadgets. In the case of Apple, they usually break out a list that features a lot of what's missing from a Apple product, without mentioning what's missing from a competing product.

For instance, I've seen many lists that compare the Nexus One to the iPhone. While the lists always seem to mention the fact that the iPhone doesn't have multi-tasking (for third party apps) they seem to omit the fact that the Nexus One doesn't have a good native music app or support Multi-touch for native apps. And if you bring up the Multi-touch flaw, the Android Fanboys will argue that you can get Multi-touch for third party apps, which to them, makes the point irrelevant. Of course, I invariably counter with the fact that the iPhone does have multi-tasking for NATIVE APPS, the logic being that if you're going to omit one flaw for the Nexus One based on a technicality, then you got to do the same for multi-tasking on the iPhone. Fair is fair.

But I digress. I present the 10 Reasons to buy an iPad. To prove that I'm not a total Fanboy (even though I am), I've included 5 things missing from the current iPad.


10 Reasons to buy the iPad.

1) 3G. The 3G plan is great. $15 for a plan with a 250 MB cap or $30 for unlimited. The iPad comes with a built-in mic and headphone jack, which means you can connect the default headphones that feature the mic that people use to make Skype calls on the iPod Touch. That means the iPad can replace my cell phone and unlike the iPod Touch, I can use it anywhere, not just in places that have Wi-Fi.

2) The Mac-Like Apps. The default apps on the iPad are actually more like Mac apps, but optimized for Multi-touch. I've watched several videos of people using the iPad and the apps are more fully featured than the ones on the iPhone or iPod Touch. The apps in iWork would have never worked on an iPhone for instance. The iPad apps have new features like Popovers and Split Views, which again, take advantage of the larger screen real estate. The faster processor speed means more robust apps. Maybe the iPad won't be able to run the 2009 version of Photoshop, but it definitely will be able to run something equivalent to the 2001 version of Photoshop. This is huge and will create a variety of apps that are a vast improvement over the current apps available in the App Store, to say nothing of the fully featured games that will now come out for the iPad.

3) The App Store. There are 140,000 apps available from the start. You don't have to wait for apps, like say, the people who are waiting for stuff to come out on Android. And the SDK has already been released, which means many developers will have enhanced their apps specifically for the iPad before it even launches.

4) The Bigger Screen. Multi-touch is going to be much easier to manage on the iPad than on a little screen. The reading is going to be much easier than an iPhone screen. You don't have to pinch to enlarge as often on the iPad screen.

5) Video. Because of the bigger screen, the movies and video will be desktop resolution. Also, one of the less talked about features are the external speakers. Assuming you use the dock or a third party stand, the external speakers will allow you to watch video or movies like you would a regular TV.

6) The Battery Life. The battery is 10 hours for constant use, with 30 DAYS of standby time. That's good enough for me. I don't plan on reading e-books more than 10 hours. Maybe 5, tops. Steve Jobs made a similar comment the day of the iPad Keynote to Walt Mossberg, saying in effect that no one would be reading for more than 10 hours, which for some reason enraged a lot of people. My question, who are these people who have more than 10 hours of time to read? What kind of jobs do you people have? Please send me an e-mail and let me know where to sign up.

7) The Weight. The iPad's weight is much better than a Laptop. If I got to bolt from the house for a few minutes, maybe wait in line at the post office, I would much rather have an iPad with me. A laptop is just not feasible in situations where you're waiting in line somewhere with nothing to rest the laptop on and the availability of iWork on the iPad means that I'll actually be able to do some real work.

8) The iPhone OS. Because Apple decided to use the iPhone OS instead of the Mac OS, we actually have a large selection of games, which means the iPad is the largest portable gaming device on the market. The iPhone OS also happens to be so simple to use that babies have been given the device and were able to figure it out, but now we have that same easy to use OS on an oversized device. This will be huge for people who are scared of computers. Apple is ushering in a new era of computer as appliance. It doesn't surprise me in the least that geeks don't quite get it yet (or maybe they DO get it and are angry that their tec

With the completion of the new Union Station Terminal at Pershing Road and Main Street in 1914, the need for affordable lower class hotel space was realized. The hotels in the Midtown area, specifically those of 19th and Main Street, Kansas City, reflect an important aspect of the city's cultural history and development. With the completion of Union Station in 1914, investors took advantage of the opportunity to construct convenient, comfortable, and efficient hotels in the area surrounding the new railroad terminal. During the ensuing years, Midtown catered to train passengers and employees. The hotels in the area provided a mixture of transient and more permanent residential lodging.

Raymond H. Sanneman, architect for the Dixon Hotel (1912), designed the Monroe Hotel in 1920 for the Dubinsky Brothers. Elelman-Fleming Construction Company was hired as the general contractor. The Building is of reinforced concrete with brick and terra cotta. The five-story hotel was desined to carry an additional three stories. Concrete Engineering was awarded the structural steel contract. The cost of the hotel was estimated at $150,000.

In 1924 Thomas J. Pendergast, boss of the Democratic Machine in Kansas City beginning in the early 1920s, bought the Monroe Hotel. Pendergast hired Sanneman to design a two-story building adjacent to the south side of the hotel at 1908 Main. This building served as the headquarters for the Jackson County Democratic Club. It also served as Pendergast's office where much of his business was conducted until the late 1930s. Sometime after he purchased the hotel, a doorway was installed between his second floor office and the hotel giving Pendergast a convenient, if not clandestine, entry. Out of town visitors to Pendergast's office frequently stayed at the Monroe Hotel. After Pendergast's release from prison for income tax evasion, a Federal Court ordered the doorway to be sealed and barred Pendergast from any further political activity. With its link to Pendergast and the Democratic Party, this hotel is highly representative of working class hotel accommodations.

The hotel ceased operations in 1971 and was unused for over 30 years. It will now be turned into 8 luxury condominiums.

Once housing 20 hotel rooms on each floor, there will be just two condos per floor, each with 22 to 28 windows per unit to provide abundant natural light. Standard unit finishes include top-of-the-line appliances and cabinets. Outdoor space, in the form of a deck or metal balcony comes with each condo. Indoor parking is supplied in the buidlings first floor.

The units range in size from 1,930 to 2,500 square feet, with initial prices from $405,000 to $670,00. HOA dues will run about $0.25 per square foot.

Want to build long-term, sustainable wealth? Then stay out of the stock market!

That’s radically different advice from what the "experts" have served up for decades… but look at the miserable results those pundits have delivered! Investors who’ve chosen equity-based buy-and-hold approaches have seen their assets decline dramatically: not just for a year, but often for decades. Fortunately, there are better ways to invest — and Never Buy Another Stock Again reveals them.
Renowned Reuters financial journalist David Gaffen first explains why stocks are an even worse short- and long-term investment than you realize. Next, he shows how to create a balanced portfolio that reflects a "big-picture," holistic approach, intelligently incorporating cash, real estate, retirement funds, savings, and other holdings. Gaffen’s strategies rely primarily on investments outside the stock market, while identifying strictly limited roles for mutual funds and ETFs. Readers will learn how to: dramatically reduce investing costs that can kill your returns; invest in an environment where double-digit returns can never be expected; overcome huge flaws in conventional diversification strategies; and offset risks associated with existing equity ownership.