BBC Books, ISBN 978 1 849 07214

For some unknown reason, I could not get this book in Australia, many thanks to Neil Grant at Ferndale for sending me a copy.

This is a book with a difference.  Mary Portas is a UK retail consultant, ex Harvey Nichols, who is writing a book for the consumer to explain to them the mystery of retailing as understood by retailers, a “Dummies Guide to Shopping” if you like.

Mary specializes in the fashion clothing retail sector and this book concentrates on that market.

It is an easy book to read and exceptionally well presented.  Personally, it was a book I scanned, more than read page by page.  I found a few gems, but would have like Mary to gone into more depth, but having said that, I am not her target market.

One of the gems I did pick up was that when clothes shopping, a woman on her own spends 5 minutes and 2 seconds in a store.  If she is accompanied by a man that time goes down to 4 minutes 41 seconds, but if she takes a female companion it goes up to 8 minutes 51 seconds.  There are some great lessons to be learnt there.

This book has a few ideas in it, but it would not be one of my essential books to have on the shelf.

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