Underhill has also observed shoppers invariably turn to the right when they enter a store and require a "decompression zone" of anywhere from 5 to 15 paces inside the front door before they can focus on the merchandise. Putting something of importance on the left or in that zone is a complete waste of space. Today's consumers are focusing more and more on labels and are unforgiving when a brand doesn't deliver quality. "They want to see what the content of the clothes are," says Underhill. "They've learned enough to know that maybe they should look at the washing instructions before they buy it." What frustrates many consumers is not being able to easily find those labels and instructions on the garment. "We're an older and wiser consumer and we realize that it's not how it looks when we take it home," adds Underhill. "It's how it looks after we've washed it three times." Underhill has also observed "petting" or feeling the goods as an important part of shopping. "We have published some calculations on the number of times a garment has to be touched before somebody buys it. It's enough to make you want to either shop with rubber gloves or to disinfect everything as soon as you get it home!" Clothing laid out on tables rather than wrapped in plastic or crammed into upright racks invites the customer to touch, feel and hopefully buy it.

Whether it's an apparel department at Bloomingdale's or Target, Underhill believes certain rules should apply. "In both places there are couples shopping, and a place to sit outside a fitting room is not an amenity, it's a marketing tool." Another aspect of buying a garment, particularly for women, is having enough of a mirror to spark the fantasy of how the garment will look when it's on. Underhill says the mirror issues is just one of the "simple tricks" in closing a sale.

Service is also an important word in retailing as we head into the next century. A number of cosmetic counters are taking down the barriers and modeling themselves after the self-service giant, Sephora. "We want to be able to get to it, and if we have questions, we want to turn around and have someone there to answer them," says Underhill. In the IMRA study, consumers complained about too few sales associates walking the floor, not enough staff at cash registers, and unattended departments.

The Century of the Consumer has arrived, and consumers around the world know they are the ones who can make or break a company and they are demanding that retailers meet their needs and expectations.