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 consumer. For the general public, Why We Buy is a funny and sometimes disconcerting look at our favourite pastime.

Why We Buy is based on hard data gleaned from thousands of hours of field research - in shopping centres, department stores, and supermarkets. 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 knowledgable 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 even more challenging
• What kinds of signage and packaging turn browsers into buyers

Softcover - 255 pages - ISBN 0-684-84914-3