Sometimes your gut feel is right, sometimes it is not: how to choose

Malcolm Gladwell says he was prompted to write Blink because he grew his hair long and found as a result that he was being stopped by the police more.

“It used to be cut very short and conservatively. But I decided on a whim to let it grow wild as it had been when I was a teenager. Immediately in very small but significant ways my life changed. I started getting speeding tickets. I started getting pulled out of airport security lines. And one day as I was walking in downtown Manhattan a police van pulled up on the sidewalk and three officers jumped out. They were looking for a rapist and the rapist, they said, looked a lot like me.

“They pulled out the sketch and the description. I looked at it and pointed out to them that the rapist looked nothing at all like me. He was much taller and much heavier and about 15 years younger. All we had in common was a large head of curly hair. After 20 minutes or so the officers finally agreed with me and let me go.”

A master story teller, Gladwell turned this pavement encounter into an engaging book on how people make a decision in the blink of an eye. Other African-Americans suffered far worse, he noted. In Illinois, a black person in court for a drugs offence has a 57 times greater chance of being jailed than a white person. And in the case of Amadou Diallo, out taking a midnight breath of air by his front door, being gunned to death by four passing coppers.

Gladwell uses these tales to illustrate his point: That sometimes people make good decisions in an instance and sometimes they make bad decisions.

For an independent retailer Gladwell provides at least two great ideas that could help you operate better. The first is that too much information leads to poor decision making. The second is that people often say they don’t like innovation simply because they don’t understand it.

The first point is underscored by lessons from the US military and from Cook County hospital, the model for the TV show ER. A retired US general Paul Van Riper was hired by the Pentagon to play a rogue middle eastern enemy in a $250million war game held in August 2002. The good guys had analysed every single thing that Van Riper could do. But he still surprised them and sank 16 American warships in the Persian Gulf. The good guys pulled the plug on the game, refloated their ships and proceeded to win.

The head of Cook County hospital used an algorithm based on four measures to determine if patients were having heart attacks or not. Doctors were used to asking if people smoked, were overweight and exercised and so on. But this extra information made their decisions less accurate.

Similarly, if you are managing 4000 SKUs then you may be better off with less information and not more.

The good thing about Gladwell’s books is they get you to think about how the world works and how people work. Essential stuff if you want to be a great retailer. Blink is perfect for the impulse retailer. Read and enjoy.

For more, see www.betterretailing.com

Three secrets of great merchandising

Look at the ceiling and top wall of this McDonalds restaurant. There is a picture of two good looking healthy people having fun and some bright primary colours. Ask yourself what is the purpose of this picture? In the latest issue of Retail Newsagent in a feature on merchandising, Andrew Knight of RI tells its independent readers that they need to think about using sharp pictures of non-packaged products linked to people consuming goods. Perhaps this has been taken to the next level by the fast food chain - that is selling the feeling of being happy and healthy rather than the products. A second, related tip from the same feature is made by most contributors - it is vital to keep windows clean and clear of clutter. "I believe that less is more," says Roli Ranger, a retailer from Ascot, Berkshire. He has posters for promotions in between the windows that are regularly updated and discreet signs in the windows. Third, a highly visible well-stocked promotion at the entranc

Overcoming a price disadvantage

Planning for his speech at the Independent Achievers Academy last week, Theo Paphitis asked an assistant to buy a basket of six essentials from a Tesco, a Londis (independent operator in a symbol group) and a One Stop (Tesco's CTN/convenience chain). Tesco was cheapest by a big margin. Second came Londis. The most expensive was One Stop. Mr Paphitis understands the power of the supermarkets and he says the way to counter them is to focus on how to make the experience of shopping with you more relevant to shoppers or more enjoyable for them. John Heynan, sales director of Molson Coors, told Retail Newsagent at about the same time that occasional beer buyers will pay 13 per cent more for their beer in an independent convenience store, provided the retailer targets them appropriately. Tesco has carved itself out this 13 per cent head start. Looking at pricing, if Tesco is 100, then Tesco Express is 108, One Stop is 112, a good symbol group is 115 and non-affiliated independents

A sign of retail stress perhaps

It must have been four months since this window was broken in the Tesco Express on Pentonville Road and I simply cannot believe that it has not been fixed. This is the sort of lack of focus that independent shops usually get criticised for. The only purpose in sharing this image is to encourage those independents with high standards who are finding the going tough that they can do better than this.

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