Chair 2- Know your Consumer

I just looked down and noticed that the chair levers (on my new chair) come with labels.  I don't think that manufacturers can underestimate the low level of attention creative people give to machanical devices.  We, creative folk, simply do not go around mind-melding with metal and plastics.  For 18 days now, I've been sitting on this chair, pulling at any lever I can reach under the chair adjusting height and forward tilt by trial and error . For the first time today, I actually looked under the chair and noticed (clear as a new email in the in-box), the levers are labled:  tilt, up/down, back, slide.  Groovy man.

It makes me think of all the other things employers don't know about shoppers and consumers.  Take for example, the need for shopping carts and baskets placed around stores.  Impulse purchasers stop inpulsing once their arms get full and they are at the back of the store.  Game over, unless a basket/cart miraculously appears. Same goes for hand baskets.  Game over once you have filled up.  Who wants to go all the way to the front to switch from a basket to a cart.  Eeeek.  It makes you feel guilty that you have overspent.  Don't remind me I'm a compulsive spender.  Ease my spending upgrade, don't thwart me by requiring me to do a 3 minute walk to the front of the store. That's just enough time for the angel in my mind  to lecture me about my saving's plan I just implemented. 

I wish I could remember the title of the  book I read over Christmas.   Something about "How we Shop."  The most fascinating anthropoligcal study on consumerism I have seen.  Probably at the center kiosk at your local Barnes and Noble.  Excellent Read!!!