Paco Underhill The Science Of Shopping Summary

We live in an era of mass surveillance. The cameras on our phones and computer screens. The data on applications like Twitter and Snapchat, taken for research to advance these products forward. It feels like our every move is being watched and the surveillance doesn’t stop at retail stores. Malcolm Gladwell, a writer for the New Yorker, outlines in his article, The Science of Shopping, the many strategies created by retail anthropologist Paco Underhill, to get shoppers buying more. Paco installs cameras in stores; analyzing hours of footage of the way people walk into stores, observe items, and more to create a perfect shopping experience. But Paco Underhill does this research without our knowledge and consent, a complete invasion of our privacy,

If an aisle is too narrow, the chances of a woman being brushed on her butt increases, this will surely make a woman uncomfortable causing her to leave. The fact that Paco has watched countless video tapes of this happening will also make women feel uncomfortable. This theory encourages store to form their aisles wider, in order to not cause discomfort to potential customers. One more strategy that Paco created is called, petting. Before buying an article of clothing, people like to touch and feel the fabric, to figure out if they like it or not. Paco compares this observation to a dinner table, “tables invite-indeed, symbolize-touching. ‘Where do we eat?’ Paco asks. ‘We eat, we pick up food, on tables’ (Gladwell 97). The table in stores, in effect creates an inviting and warm feeling to customers reminding them of their dinner

Difficult to ignore, Aldi has a contemporary design compared to the old-fashioned Sears beside it. Walking into the market, you will enter the Decompression Zone, an empty lobby that leads to the main entrance. On the right edge, you will see two large advertisement posters placed on the glass wall, promoting special deals and sales to shoppers. Notice how Aldi avoids putting their best products into this zone, since customers would ignore it, having their focus on entering the first aisle, thus dodging the risk of losing a potential sale. Instead Aldi sneaks in advertisement posters at the end of the zone, because they know that you will see it, and likely buy whatever they try to sell you. Gladwell explains this situation perfectly, “beneath the pleasure and the frivolity of the shopping experience runs an undercurrent of manipulation”