This guy actually used a legitimate social anthropology degree to figure out human behavior while shopping. Sort of evil but totally interesting:
* If a woman is brushed on the behind while examing something, she will bolt from the store.
* When people enter a store, the *always* do a quick turn to the right to see what's there. (I'm going to test this one)
* Human beings walk the way they drive, which is to say that Americans tend to keep to the right when they stroll down shopping-mall concourses or city sidewalks. This is why in a well-designed airport travellers drifting toward their gate will always find the fast-food restaurants on their left and the gift shops on their right: people will readily cross a lane of pedestrian traffic to satisfy their hunger but rarely to make an impulse buy of a T-shirt or a magazine.
* The human downshift period to be anywhere from twelve to twenty-five feet, so if you own a store, he says, you never want to be next door to a bank: potential shoppers speed up when they walk past a bank (since there's nothing to look at), and by the time they slow down they've walked right past your business.
* The downshift factor also means that when potential shoppers enter a store it's going to take them from five to fifteen paces to adjust to the light and refocus and gear down from walking speed to shopping speed.
* People increasingly want to touch clothes when they look at them. This is why Banana Republic and Gap have their clothes on tables more and more. They have a manaquin with the "look" then a table for "petting."
* The chances that a shopper will buy something is directly related to the amount of time they spend shopping. Supermarkets will often put dairy products on one side, meat at the back, and fresh produce on the other side, so that the typical shopper can't just do a drive-by but has to make an entire circuit of the store.
* Generally, dads are not as good as moms at saying no.
* Men tend to be more impulse-driven than women in grocery stores. They tend to shop less often with a list. They tend to shop much less frequently with coupons, and they can be marching down the aisle and something will catch their eye and they will stop and buy it.
* Women don't get spooked navigating through apparel of the opposite sex, whereas men most assuredly do. Men like to feel comfortable that they will not buy women's clothes by mistake.
* Store put "destination items" in the back so you have to walk all the way through. That's where Gap keeps denim.
Posted by bluprnt at January 20, 2005 04:55 PM