What Shoppers Want

JENNIFER NEUGUTH
Cofounder of Oop, a $1.3-million gift and crafts store in Providence, R.I.

"We're opening our second store--the first one is in a mall--and we're making the ceilings higher in this one. They're 14 feet high. I like the feel of a higher-ceilinged store, because we put a lot of product into the space, and we can hang a lot from the ceiling, which creates a dramatic display experience."

KIP TINDELL
Cofounder of the Container Store, a Dallas-based chain of 19 storage and organization stores with annual revenues of $225 million

"We're crazy enough to sell products that are hard to sell. That requires a great deal of interaction between customers and salespeople. We have more salespeople in stores, and we pay them 50% to 100% more than other retailers. If it weren't the case that contact between salespeople and customers increased sales, we'd be bankrupt! That's the stuff that has customers doing a little dance on the way back to the car."

RICHARD DOYLE
CEO of Harpoon Brewery, a Boston brewery with more than $10 million in annual sales

"Decision points are where you like to get the customer, and there are two key decision points in a store that sells beer: at the cooler in the back of the store and at the register in the front. So we like to have our beer displayed at the end of the aisle nearest the register, with a secondary display outside the cooler in the back."

AVA DEMARCO
President of Little Earth Productions Inc., a $2.5-million Pittsburgh company that makes fashion accessories like handbags and belts

"When we used to design products, we'd think about how they'd be used by the consumer. Now we also think about how they'll be merchandised in the store. The worst place for our product is on the floor of a store against the wall, which used to happen with our larger handbags. A few years ago we started putting little handles on the bags so it was easier for them to hang. We also offer in-store fixtures to display our products."

LINDA HEIDINGER
Owner of Alphabets, $4-million specialty shops located in New York City and on Long Island, N.Y.

"The more details a store has, the more you invest on the front end, but I think you make more money in the long run. We put little knobs on cabinets and Italian tiles on the floor. We have a mural in one store and use 15 different colors of paint in the others. Think about the thickness of glass you use for shelves. Products look very different on a half-inch-thick shelf than they do on a quarter-inch-thick shelf."

MARC WEINSTEIN
Cofounder of Amoeba Music, a $15-million music retailer in Berkeley and San Francisco, Calif.

"Each section in our store caters to a different kind of music and has its own look and color scheme. And it's curated by someone who knows that type of music, so it has its own identity. The curators merchandise their section with all the most interesting stuff that comes in. A customer can be interested in a certain subgenre and can find stuff pretty easily, even if he or she doesn't know a lot about it."

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Paco Underhill is founder of Envirosell, a research and consulting firm in New York City. "Retail Tales" interviews were done by Mike Hofman, a staff writer at Inc.

From Why We Buy, by Paco Underhill. Copyright © 1999 by Obat Inc. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster Inc. Available wherever books are sold, $25.