Five best books for Paco Underhill of Envirosell Inc.

FIVE BEST

Shopping List
These studies of consumer culture are priceless.

BY PACO UNDERHILL
Saturday, March 4, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

1. “Bobos in Paradise” by David Brooks (Simon & Schuster, 2000).

Good books about popular culture can make us feel as if we are looking in a mirror from a different angle–as David Brooks proved with his brilliant dissection of “bourgeois bohemians” in “Bobos in Paradise.” Many of us who grew up in the 1960s fully enjoyed the freedoms of that era; even though we might have scoffed at respectability back then, our later transition to it seems to have happened quite naturally. We excuse our indulgences in Starbucks by telling ourselves that, after all, it was a soy latte. Old hippies can vote Republican, drive SUVs, live in McMansions and still love “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” These inconsistencies have never been better captured than they are in “Bobos.”

2. “Cheap” by David Bosshart (Kogan Page, 2006).

In the 1920s, Gottlieb Duttweiler founded the Swiss grocery-store chain Migros–and was known from then on as the man who invented über-discounting. He died in 1961, but Duttweiler’s legacy endures in the form of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, or GDI, located outside Zurich. A think tank dedicated to merchant education and research into retail best practices, GDI runs two annual high-powered gatherings, one on retail matters, the other on food service. The events’ focus, increasingly, is on the explosive growth of shopping and retail across Russia and Central and Eastern Europe. GDI’s executive director is David Bosshart, a distinguished political scientist. His book, “Cheap,” points out that the fastest-growing merchants in the First World are mega-discount chains such as Aldi in Germany (owners of Trader Joe’s) and Dollar Store in the U.S. David’s main themes: Consumers’ pursuit of bargains is a victory over the system, and nowadays cheap is chic. A number of books lately have looked at the impact of cutting costs in the supply chain, but it takes a Swiss German to say it elegantly and globally.

3. “Not Buying It” by Judith Levine (Free Press, 2006).

Most of us could live the rest of our lives on fruits, vegetables, pasta, wine, olive oil and yearly doses of socks and underwear. In truth we need little. Judith Levine, in “Not Buying It,” tries with her significant other to spend a year off the shopping grid as they move between their homes in Brooklyn and Vermont. The story swings from asking how crucial Q-tips really are to exploring the fine line between shopping as therapy and shopping as sickness. This is a charming book about trying to live small, and it is a fair-minded look at the “simply living” movement.

4. “FutureShop” by Daniel Nissanoff (Penguin, 2006).

I was not prepared to like “Futureshop” by Daniel Nissanoff. Books about e-commerce tend to be like uninspired sex: a convenient shortcut to a nap. But this one is like the jolt of a double espresso. Who knew that secondary markets could be so interesting? In Daniel’s view, eBay is creating an “auction culture” that is transforming the way we shop on- and offline. After all, when a used car is transformed into a “preowned” Lexus, secondhand status has lost all its stigma. Lee Scott, the CEO of Wal-Mart, is quoted as having no concerns about the threat of Target, but eBay keeps him up at night.

5. “Design for Effective Selling Space” by Joseph Weishar (McGraw-Hill, 1992).

Magic in the retailing realm is not what you sell but how you sell it. From shop windows to catalog photo shoots to the design of an e-commerce site, we live in a world where our visual language is evolving faster than the spoken or written word. Our eyes may be tired, but their connection to our brains has never been better. In retail, making good stuff look great is called Visual Merchandising, or VM, and the master historian of VM is Joseph Weishar. Joe’s gift is an ability to connect fine art and commerce. His slide lectures–this Tiffany window, that assemblage box by Joseph Cornell–are legendary (having a voice like Vic Damone helps). Joe has a new book called “The Aesthetics of Merchandise Presentation,” but “Design for Effective Selling Space” is his classic. My copy, bought used, came complete with coffee stains and Post-it notes–the ultimate testimony to a book’s worth.

Mr. Underhill is CEO of Envirosell Inc. and the author of “Why We Buy” and “Call of the Mall.”