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Shopportunity!

How to Be a Retail Revolutionary

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Today's shopping culture is turning the shopper into a zombie—and the thrill of the hunt into the robotic management of inventory. For millions of us, the sizzle of a daily shopping experience has devolved into a relentless acquisition of the okay, available, and cheap. Why are we willing to pay $3.50 for a latte at Starbucks, but bristle at a 10-cent increase in the price of toothpaste? Why do we drive miles out of our way to buy a bag of 100 razor blades for 50-cents less than at our local store, and then spend $3.99 on a tub of pretzels that we don't need? We're wasting our time and money at the cost of our patience and good will.

In Shopportunity!, marketing expert Kate Newlin looks behind the aisles of our best known retailers to reveal that the dopamine rush of getting a good deal is confusing shoppers' wants with their needs. Packed with perceptive reporting, Shopportunity! provides an insider's view of how marketers create a brand, and the overwhelming power of retailers to interfere with the transformational joys that great brands bring to our daily lives. It is time for shoppers to revolutionize their shopping experience and take the power away from retailers. Culminating in a Shopper's Bill of Rights, Shopportunity! will liberate shoppers—as well as the manufacturers and retailers who serve them—from the tyranny of the cheap.

Read by Kimberly Schraf

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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Large retail corporations are not stupid. Using information systems that mine data on shopping habits, they seduce shoppers into mindless buying. (Many of us have lost the ability to see the contradiction in buying a $3.50 coffee yet obsessing over saving pennies on frozen dinners.) The business consultant/author is a painstaking writer who uses vivid images to unfold her thinking. Many listeners will appreciate Kimberly Schraf's elegant vocal tone. However, she interprets the material as an informative audio program rather than a call to arms for bamboozled shoppers. Some listeners will wish for more zip or irreverence in the reading. Schraf's slow pace makes eight hours of listening seem longer but does not diminish the usefulness of the author's revelations. T.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 10, 2006
      The title suggests an acerbic anticonsumerist rant, but marketing consultant Newlin is entirely serious: she wants readers to rediscover "shopping's enduring allure." Decrying the "Big Box obsession with massive quantities of cheap goods," she urges consumers to shop for the right things for the right reasons at the right places—to buy from family-owned merchants that offer pleasant environments for both shoppers and workers. Few readers will be surprised when Newlin visits a dreaded Wal-Mart and finds it "a loud, boisterous, difficult place to shop" with an "essential sadness." But the reason she wants retailers to stop offering discounts and consumers to stop buying products in bulk isn't to create a more just society; it's so we'll be happier with what we buy. Newlin argues that we get little satisfaction out of buying cheap, because "we suspect it's not quite as good"—though anyone who loves outlet shopping will be more than a little skeptical. It doesn't help that much of the book is a confusing assemblage of anecdotes and musings. But there are some useful insights for consumers, retailers and manufacturers, and some readers will certainly strive to see shopping as an experience that "should thrill the senses."

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  • English

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