Rating: 
Summary: Shopping or Shlepping? Lots of Bad Ideas in one Book.
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing Book About Something We All Do--Shop!
Review: I, for one, will never enter a store again & view shopping in the manner I did before I read this fabulous book. As Underhill points out, it's unfortunate that the people who lay out store floor plans & market products in the stores fall far short of common business sense when it comes to the ins & outs of understanding how consumers shop. Although the book becomes a tad stagnant in the middle, it is well-worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: If only he had asked a librarian.
Review: 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 :-)
Rating: 
Summary: Utterly Fascinating
Review: A thorough and well-written exploration of something we see every day but never think about in detail. You'll recognize your own behavior! This is a MUST read for anyone who thinks men and women are identical inside -- the huge differences between male and female behavior in stores and malls is entertaining and enlightening. An excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Really gets you thinking about the tactics of marketing
Review: This book taught me that implementing an environment which promotes the consumers impulsive purchasing nature requires a scientific approach. I dont think I'll ever walk into a store with blinders on again. The author gives examples of changes/results that were made based on projects his consulting company EnviroSell worked on. However, these are very small tidbits of information. They serve to make points, not as a general framework of the science. Overall, I think the book is designed to raise awareness to a new field of study--the Science of Shopping. If applied, retail environments will increase sales, and consumers will be better served. I would have liked to see little sidebars with statistics relating to the authors consulting experiences.
Rating:
Summary: Revised Commentary
Review: I would like to ammend an earlier review I had written about this book, criticizing Envirosell's website, and how little Underhill had written about e-commerce,I had knocked his company's website for not providing the most basic information such as names, contacts. etc. After another Amazonian e-mailed me, I realized that, for whatever reason, the first page of his website did not download when I wrote my review. Now I have seen that all the points I had made about his company's website are wrong. And I sincerely apologize for my earlier remarks about his website, and am taking this step of rewriting my commentary to be more fair to Underhill and his colleagues in this regard. The book was very well done, and, who knows, maybe his next book will be all about e-commerce! I hope it is
Rating:
Summary: A Very Entertaining Read
Review: I eagerly awaited the release of this book. Although not quite the source of revelations I was anticipating, it's a good read nonetheless. Makes one want to start in retail to use the suggestions offered.
Rating:
Summary: Shoemaker's Child
Review: All in all an interesting book, but particularly lacking on e-commerce. Take a look at his own website, Envirosell.com is worse than he criticizes in his own book. No address, phone number,or function to email him about retaining his services.
Rating:
Summary: From a psychology major and now business editor...
Review: I take my hat off to Underhill's methodology, the examination of human behavior and then crunching out the numbers to cross-match patterns. However,I have criticisms: who is the reader: the consumer, the retailer, pysch majors, business editors, or future clients? I suspect future clients, which is cool. In some instances he told us a whole lot of nothing: most notablly, way too many pages devoted to signage, yawn. So having said that,I'm going to auction off his book on amazon.auctions, see if I learned anything from his insights into merchandising and pyschology and see if I can get more money for this book that amazon is selling for retail! Afterall, he painstakingly dissed e-commerce and had little to contribute to the topic. But all in all, he sounds like a nice guy, with a great business model.
Rating:
Summary: An introduction to motivation 101
Review: The WSJ gave a very accurate review of this book. Mr. Underhill unearths a few new terms and ideas, i.e., "butt brush", but little more. The subject of "why we buy" has eluded marketers since day 1. He has not got to the root of "why". For example, BA (before Amazon) I would go into my book store and choose titles in a rapid counter-clockwise sweep. Then I would take them off the shelf in a clock-wise route and end up at the cashier. Why? I'd like to know. Perhaps Mr. Underhill could really dig into this in a deeper way.
| 
