Thursday, January 08, 2015

#JeSuisAhmed ; je ne suis pas Charlie Hebdo

"A man is either your brother in Islam, or your brother in Humanity" - Sayidina Ali (RA).

"None of you truly believes, until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself" - Hadith of Rasul(SAW).


Know that the media all around us is full of us and them, of disunity, not unity.
There is a purpose to this. It is to make us feel that there are many conflicting voices everywhere and
that we are part of this conflict and disunity. It also makes us accept this conflict and disunity.

Everywhere you look, you see debates and discussions, where the boundaries of debate and discussion
are predefined. You are always left with in this manner, where opposing views are shown, they are voiced,
but never reconciled. A lot of the time one dominates another unfairly.

Inline image

Imagine if all the media was focused on unity, on people discussing in civil dialogue to come together,
in mutual compassion and cooperation instead? If such examples were repeatedly shown 24/7 all over
the world, do you not think the world would be more united and peaceful? Who wouldn't want that?

Well the Dajjal and it's adherents are not here for that. The ruling elites that are of the smallest minorities
on Earth, do not rule the majority of us using order, they use disorder. Hence perhaps it should be called
the New World Disorder.


Our Prophet (pbuh), the one who is meant to have been denigrated and avenged at two extremes here,
he was of the Middle Path and he always sought to bring people's together. Even the hearts of enemies
were reconciled through his love, wisdom, mercy and compassion.

For the first 13 years of his mission, the Prophet Muhammad experienced demeaning abuse, mockery and torture on a daily basis in Mecca. Not only did he resist engaging in violence, he did not respond to a single insult with another insult. At one point in Mecca, his enemies twisted his name to call him 'Mudhammam' (The Disgusting One) instead of 'Muhammad' which deeply offended his followers. But the Prophet calmly comforted them by stating, "Doesn't it astonish you how God protects me from Quraish's abuse and cursing? They abuse and curse Mudhammam while I am Muhammad." 

On Wednesday, January 7, extremists in Paris reacted to a magazine's satirical cartoons which profanely portrayed the Prophet Muhammad. Their response was the cold-blooded murder of 12 journalists and civilians (one of whom was even a Muslim). Their barbarism completely contradicts the character and message of our beloved Prophet. In a famous Islamic tradition, he stated: "It is prohibited to cause harm to others, and to avenge harm with harm." The Quran instructs believers to respond to evil with good, and when dealing with enemies, to "disagree with them in the most courteous way."

"When our Prophet is mocked, we should respond as he did: with truth and kindness. Violence, no matter how angry you are, is not right in any religion. By killing innocents, these extremists in Paris have done more to offend the Prophet Muhammad's legacy than the cartoons could have ever done. The Prophet taught that killing a single person is equivalent to killing all of humanity," said Tarek El-Messidi, founder of CelebrateMercy. 

"A small minority of Muslim extremists have shown enough anger to the world, supposedly in the Prophet Muhammad's name. It's time for the world to see Muslims' love for him instead, by embodying his beautiful character every day. The Quran already assures us that the Prophet is constantly praised by God and His angels; even a million cartoons cannot threaten his status nor diminish his love in our hearts."
You should also remind yourselves of what Sheikh Hamza Yusuf said before during the Danish Cartoon Controversy



from a link tweeted by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf's twitter account, most of the article I do not agree with: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/07/charlie-hebdo-murderers-cannot-define-islam
In seventh-century Mecca, it was the prophet Muhammad who fought for free speech to proclaim one God as the creator of life and worthy of worship. The city’s pagans were his violent persecutors.

Unable to observe Islam freely in Mecca, the prophet migrated to Medina. There his first act was to build a mosque, the most sacred structure for a believer. An Arab man entered the mosque and urinated in front of the prophet with no care for the sanctity of the mosque. How did the prophet respond to this deepest of insults to Islam and himself? He cleaned the mosque, stopped Muslims from expelling the man and explained the inviolability of a place of worship.


Ahmed is the name of one of the two police officers whose job it was to protect these offices which had come under attack from many directions due to their provocative publications.

Inline image


Inline image



Here's a theory. Terrorists aren't offended by cartoons. Not even cartoons that satirise the Prophet Muhammad. They don't care about satire. For all I know they may not even care about the Prophet Muhammad.
Instead, they merely pretend to be offended by cartoons, in order to give themselves a pretext to commit murder. Murder so horrifying, on a pretext so unWestern, that non-Muslims – blinded by grief and rage – turn on Muslims. Blame them. Persecute them. Burn their book, attack their mosques, threaten them in the street, demand their expulsion from Western societies. Actions that, in turn, scare Western Muslims, isolate them, alienate them. And thus drive some of them to support – and even become – terrorists.

Result: terrorists swell their ranks for a civil war they long to provoke non-Muslims into starting.

In our angry innocence, however, we persist in thinking this is somehow about cartoons. In thinking that the terrorists "win" if we don't reproduce those cartoons, and "lose" if we do. As if, at this very moment, terrorist leaders across the West are privately wailing in anguished disbelief because satirical cartoons have been reproduced this morning in several European newspapers.("Disaster! Our plan has backfired in a way we couldn't possibly have foreseen! Ink really does beat Kalashnikovs! Satire defeats us once again!")
On the whole, I'm not sure that's very likely. I don't think the terrorists "win" if we fail to reproduce cartoons. I think the terrorists "win" if we leap up, gulp down their bait – and hate Muslims.

This is not about satire. This is beyond satire.

"The Right to Offend" never brings people together, rather pits one against another. We should instead point people to a higher principle, which is the obligation to civil dialogue with the intention of bringing people together.

Imagine you had two schools. One that attempted to teach children about the "right to offend" and allowed them to practice it even?
The second school taught children to respect differences, especially those that you do not agree with. To find ways of cooperating and communicating differences and disagreements that never went into being offensive or insulting.
Which school would have teachers having an easy time to teach and in which are children more likely to have no respect for teachers or education?
Which school would produce children that fight more and which would have less fights?

There are two schools in the adult world. It's just that the dominant school in the adult world is contradictory to the school most of us were privileged to have gone to when we were children.

If one were to believe in liberal democracy that allows the freedom and right to offend whoever and whatever, then truly such a society should not punish children who are abusive in language or art. For art and literature that is offensive is just expression, whether from a child or an adult.

A clear example is the New Atheists (popularised by Dawkins et al) versus the Faitheist movement (popularised by atheist interfaith worker Chris Stedmann et al).
Now both are expressions of atheism, which involves showing reasons for atheism, which largely though not entirely are based on perhaps errors of religion and the religious.
Yet one does not want to make friends with the religious, but either marginalise them or convert them. The other, though will happily live side by side with those of religion, as long as they are also accepted in kind.

(Chris Stedman has his own blog where he expresses his opinions on the matter : http://chrisstedman.religionnews.com/2015/01/08/charlie-hebdos-cartoons-support-free-expression/)



The slogan thrown about not long ago, was the 1% versus the 99%. What people don't see, is how the 1% that rules, is not fighting the 99% to keep them down. In reality, the top 1% just made sure that the 99% is more busy fighting itself, everyone fighting each other.

One more thing. What all the press ignores, is that Islamic Extremists such as Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS, were supported and propped up by US/UK. ISIS is the child of the extremists that David Cameron and co supported to oust Assad from Syria. Al-Qaeda was supported to oust USSR out of Afghanistan. The Taliban were US Allies for a long time before 9/11.

Paris massacre: Lessons that need to be learned by our war-making governments - Stop the War Coalition
 




Below you will find more links and quotes showing examples of double standards when it comes to freedom of expression.
These are good to be informed about, but don't use them to further alienate people and just argue. Use them to bring common ground with people for the sake of unity.

Inline image

Inline image

Don’t have these double standards and just target the weak people. And this is why I said to the chief editor of Charlie Hebdo, "What you are doing are is"—you know, in French, I said, "This is the humor of the people who have no courage. You have a lack of courage in the way you are dealing, because you know who you are targeting." So my point is not your freedom of expression. It is the freedom that you have to target the people who are weak within your society, and I don’t think that this is the right way of using your freedom of expression. Now you have the right to say whatever you want to say. Principles are principles, but decency and responsibility are also important in this discussion.


TARIQ RAMADAN: No, look, I cannot agree with him on one point, the way he is describing Charlie Hebdo. He’s talking about Hara-Kiri, that was much before Charlie Hebdo became what it is now. Why don’t you say in 2008 that one of the cartoonists was fired because he dared to say something about the—connecting this to the son of Sarkozy and making a joke about the fact that, you know, he was a Jew? And he was fired. So, tell me and give me one example over the last few—two years, for example, coming from Charlie Hebdo targeting another community than the Muslim community, because it’s easy.

Yes it is true, if you look at the link whose top paragraph with headline and heading I have pasted below. It's a lot harder to insult Judaism especially in the context of Israel.

French cartoonist Sine on trial on charges of anti-Semitism over Sarkozy jibe

A Left-wing cartoonist is to go on trial on Tuesday on charges of anti-Semitism for suggesting Jean Sarkozy, the son of the French president, was converting to Judaism for financial reasons.

6:00AM GMT 27 Jan 2009
Maurice Sinet, 80, who works under the pen name Sine, faces charges of "inciting racial hatred" for a column he wrote last July in the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The piece sparked a summer slanging match among the Parisian intelligentsia and ended in his dismissal from the magazine.
"L'affaire Sine" followed the engagement of Mr Sarkozy, 22, to Jessica Sebaoun-Darty, the Jewish heiress of an electronic goods chain. Commenting on an unfounded rumour that the president's son planned to convert to Judaism, Sine quipped: "He'll go a long way in life, that little lad."


ART SPIEGELMAN: Why were they targeting Muslims? Do you think it’s—
TARIQ RAMADAN: I’m not—you know why? You know what? You know why? It’s mainly a question of money. They went bankrupt, and you know this. They went bankrupt over the last two years. And what they did with this controversy is that Islam today and to target Muslims is making money. It has nothing to do with courage. It has to do with making money and targeting the marginalized people in the society.
The point for me now is just to come with you, as somebody who is involved in this, and to come with the principles that you are making now, and to come and to say, look, now, in the United States of America as well as in the West, everywhere, we should be able to target the people the same way and then to find a way to talk to one another in a responsible way, not by throwing on each other our rights, but coming together with our duties, our responsibilities to live together.
I think that what you are saying now could be dangerous if you are not coming to the facts, but just with the impression that their past is similar to the present. Charlie Hebdo is not the satirical magazine of the past. It is now ideologically oriented. And Philippe Val (editor of Charlie Hebdo), who was a leftist in the past, now is supporting all the theses of the far-right party, very close to the Front National.

And from one of my favourite comedians:



Just read the excerpt from its first few paragraphs to read how it is okay for our governments to massacre journalists of countries we are warring with.

Friday, April 23, 1999 Published at 15:29 GMT 16:29 UK


World: Europe

Nato defends TV bombing

Nato says TV station was "the brains of Milosevic's military apparatus"

Nato has defended its bombing of Serbia's state television station, saying it was a legitimate target and a "ministry of lies".
Kosovo: Special Report
State TV went off air for several hours overnight after a Nato missile hit its headquarters in Belgrade, reportedly killing at least ten people and wounding 18.
The UK Government said the TV station had been a legitimate target because Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's media machine was part of the military machine.
Officials said it was a "ministry of lies" that over the years had been a recruiting sergeant for the Yugoslav leader's wars, stirring up ethnic tension and creating the climate for atrocities.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Please COVER your camera's!

I cover both front and back camera's on my phone with blue tack, which enables easy removal for taking pictures and also its easy to move it back to cover the camera. I would advise everyone who wishes to protect theirs and everyone else's Awrah to do the same to every camera, on laptop, tablet, pc, etc.


Does everyone remember News Of The World being shut down,
because they hired hackers to hack the phones of celebrities and
other innocent people for the sake of scoops and gossip?

This was mainly voicemails and inboxes of various kinds.

Then Snowden's NSA leaks showed how the worlds most powerful
Spy Agencies, not just NSA, but also UK's GCHQ, plus other's
around the world, have allied together along with the most powerful
IT companies in the world that produce nearly all of the technology we use
on a daily basis; to constantly monitor every single thing that we do
with our technology that we purchased from them.

All our phones, microphones, camera's, computers, are all tools used
to spy on us and collect very private elaborate information on each of us.

Now recently I noticed something about celebrities phones and computers,
mainly iOS (Apple, iPhone, iPad and iPods) have been hacked, releasing very
intimate photographs and videos for the world to see.

Now I am sure people don't usually take naughty pictures of themselves, but maybe perhaps you have taken a picture of yourself or someone else without their hijab on? Or perhaps exposing a part of their awrah?
You don't even need to take pictures, as your phones are able to take photos and videos, send them to someone anonymously, without you even knowing.
Now this may seem speculation, but when Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and many hacktivists confirm this, I find it difficult to ignore.

"The event dubbed by the internet as “the Fappening” is the largest celebrity nude photo leak in history"
 - from http://www.computerworld.com/

"There are 60-odd naked pictures of Jennifer Lawrence circulating around the internet. No matter how much people like Lena Dunham beg the world not to look at the photos, we all know that thousands, probably millions, are staring at them right now."
 - from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

"The FBI is currently investigating the leak of nude photos and videos of more than 100 celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst and Rihanna."
 - from http://www.independent.co.uk/

Now these are celebrities, however we are unlikely to hear about all the non-celebrities whose personal lives have been so casually invaded.

So what are we waiting for? Why do we need more warnings? Why are we so casual in taking photos on our phones of anything and everything, a tiny percentage of which we will keep for longer than a month and even smaller percentage that we would be looking for and viewing in a years time.
Even the ones you delete, someone has access to them in the world.

When you share anything on WhatsApp, it is automatically saved on everyones phone that you share it with and becomes also the property of FaceBook to do whatever they wish with it.

"Facebook terms and conditions: why you don't own your online life"

-Did you read the terms when you joined Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn? Oliver Smith explains how social networks effectively own your online content."

"Specifically for photos and video uploaded to the site, Facebook has a license to use your content in any way it sees fit, with a license that goes beyond merely covering the operation of the service in its current form. Facebook can transfer or sub-license its rights over a user’s content to another company or organisation if needed. Facebook’s license does not end upon the deactivation or deletion of a user’s account, content is only released from this license once all other users that have interacted with the content have also broken their ties with it (for example, a photo or video shared or tagged with a group of friends)."

 - from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social-media/9780565/Facebook-terms-and-conditions-why-you-dont-own-your-online-life.html

For more on how to protect yourself with technology see my previous post:
http://realisationprocess.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/measures-of-protection-post-edward.html

 

Sunday, July 06, 2014

The shops that make us buy : What tricks of the trade do shops employ to make us dig deep into our pockets and spend our hard-earned cash?

source: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/people-politics-law/politics-policy-people/sociology/the-shops-make-us-buy
Supermarket

An illustration of a supermarket Creative commons image
 
  • Illustrations of key features found within in a supermarket Creative commons image

    Aroma and Authenticity

    Freshly baked bread is an example of an essential everyday item that is often placed at the rear of the store. You need to walk through many enticing aisles in order to reach it! However, you may wonder how the smell could be so strong especially when the bread is cold, and there is no sign of recent baking in the oven area. Supermarkets have found a way of venting desirable smells, directing them through the store using the air conditioning system. This recirculates air from the baking section into the shopping aisles. In fact, most supermarket bread (despite being marketed as ‘just baked’) is cooked weeks or months before in a factory miles away. It is then sent frozen to be re-heated in the ‘in-store’ bakery.
    Have you ever noticed that some shops give place names to their food stuffs? Like the use of baking smells to suggest the presence of a real baker, these names are designed to make us think the food we buy comes from an identifiable and specific location. This, in turn, makes us feel that the food is personally produced rather than being the product of an industrial process. However, Tesco’s ‘Willow Farm’ chickenExternal link  gets its chicken from all over the UK, and M&S’s ‘lochmuir’ salmonExternal link  does not come from a special farm on a Scottish loch but from farms all over Scotland. These often 'rural' and 'nature-related' names are brandnames for products built on fictitious places.
  • Illustrations of key features found within in a supermarket Creative commons image

    Product layout and pricing

    You will often find low-cost products, such as sweets and magazines, neatly displayed by till points. Magazines are attractive if you are bored from waiting in a queue, and if you are about to spend £100 on groceries, a few more pounds may seem negligible. The most profitable brands are placed at eye level (or children's eye level if they're targeted at them). However, profitable goods tend not to be the best deals. Supermarkets know that shoppers form their impression of whether a chain offers good value on a few staples, such as bread or milk or apples. Those ‘price-sensitive’ lines appear cheap and pull you into the store, often in the belief that everything else is equally as cheap. But supermarkets hike up the prices on other items, operating an internal subsidy. So, the price of specialist bread will be much higher while the standard white loaf will remain low in price. This will also fluctuate within shops in the same chain – supermarkets are allowed to use ‘dynamic pricing’ so that they will charge more where they can get away with it. For example, ciabatta bread may cost more in a Chelsea branch of Tesco than in Clacton!
    Supermarkets love to put organic and fair trade products on their shelves as these items retail for a premium price. Supermarkets expect to make a profit margin of at least 36% on anything they sell, the higher the price the more profit they make. The placement of products is not random, it has been thought through by market researchers, accountants, interior designers and psychologists. Ever wondered why fruit, vegetables and flowers are by the entrance? It’s supposed to make (particularly) female customers feel healthy and wholesome – if they stock up on this first then they won’t feel guilty about buying the less healthy stuff later. Big name brands are positioned in the middle of aisles so that you have to pass everything else on your way, and likewise ‘destination’ goods such as milk and eggs are often hidden at the back of the shop.
  • Illustrations of key features found within in a supermarket Creative commons image

    Discount signs

    In almost every supermarket you will see signs – often red or orange and on a ‘gondola end’ – advertising multibuys such as ‘3 for the price of 2’ or ‘buy one get one free’. Sometimes you will find ‘special promotions’ advertised through the use of  '£1' stickers on products. Under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations Act, the lower price sale should not last longer than the time the higher price was available. But there is plenty of evidence that supermarkets regularly flout this. Do you have the time and commitment as a consumer to play the supermarket game? Can you become knowledgeable about the price over time of products so you can avoid being out of pocket?
    Whether discounts are really a bargain depends on whether you know the normal price of these goods. Supermarkets use arbitrary pack sizes so it can be difficult to tell if the pack size has been reduced. This can result in you paying the same price by weight as before while thinking you have bought yourself a bargain.
    Some shops are using ‘discounts’ to ease in and mask inflationary price rises; that is, the brands return at a higher price once the promotion draws to an end. In general, sales goods are often poorly organised, with unclear pricing and layout. This presents a barrier to customers who would ideally want to spend time working out if there are real benefits to buying them. They are more likely to impulse buy and just take the signs for granted rather than investigate further.
  • Illustrations of key features found within in a supermarket Creative commons image

    Big trolleys

    The shopping trolley or cart allows you to move large quantities – up to 240 litres – of consumer goods from store shelves to checkout to the boot of your car. Trolleys belong to the era of self-service shopping, which the supermarket invented. Rather than relying on the product expertise of the grocer salesperson, information is communicated via the product itself, in the words and colours of its packaging, branding and display. With the elimination of the counter and the free movement of customers along aisles and shelves, the amount that was bought began to increase. Trolleys created new consumer habits, encouraging you to think of a ‘weekly’ rather than ‘daily’ shop. Perhaps the trolley has something to do with the fact that a staggering 40% of all food in the UK is thrown out uneaten, as we end up buying far more than we actually need.
    Baskets were first given to self-service shoppers in the 1920s, but shopkeepers noticed the constraint that the size of the basket put on the volume of purchases. One shopkeeper’s early solution to this was to offer the customer a second basket while keeping the first behind the counter. In the 1930s, the trolley was invented and became, after a few hiccups, wildly successful. Store owners had to use pretend customers to walk the floors with the trolleys because shoppers were resistant at first. Women thought that the trolleys were like prams, another thing to push around; whereas men felt it emasculating to rely on wheels rather than carry their shopping.
    There were earlier, unsuccessful attempts at creating wheeled containers, such as a store in the US that had a raised track fitted with rails which ran along the shelves, carrying baskets with tiny wheels. However, shoppers were forced to walk down the aisles following the tracks, often moving at the same pace as their neighbour. More like the car than the train, the modern shopping trolley allows full mobility for the shopper to work the shelves at his or her own pace, as an individual.
  • Illustrations of key features found within in a supermarket Creative commons image

    Lulling music

    Supermarkets often play soft tempo music with no vocals, so there is no distraction from lyrics. You will have noticed a seasonal dimension throughout the year, for example, from mid-November onwards, Christmas songs are played continuously. Despite many complaining that this ‘drives them mad’ when shopping at Christmastime, all the evidence points to the desired outcome - inducing such madness by creating a frenzied shopping atmosphere that typically results in good sales. The hypnotically regular beats and circuitous tunes of Christmas pop songs played at high volume excites the flow of adrenaline, raising the speed of the heartbeat, and producing a 'flight or fight' syndrome. Therefore, music is a key contributor to the consumer aggressiveness that is Christmas shopping. It tempts people to depart from their shopping lists and lose their normal sense of self-control.
    Music was first made available in shops in 1920s US where a way of piping music into shops using a telephone system was devised by a company that became the Muzak Corporation, now known as Mood Music. The company had psychologists and musical experts on their staff and discovered that specific types of music have psychological effects: slower, more relaxed music makes people slow down and browse for longer. They also discovered that when shops play French music, sales of French wines rise and when they pipe German music, shoppers buy more German wines. The term ‘musak’ though once a brand has now become a generic noun to describe any background music that is ‘easy listening’. It has a simple melody so that it can be unobtrusively looped back to the beginning. A key feature of musak is that it appears to come from no one source. It feels as if it's coming at you from every direction; no one seems to control it or has any responsibility for it. This is unlike other shops where it is important for the brand that the shop assistants express their own individuality through music.
 
 

Online shopping

An illustrated scene of someone using an online shopping website Creative commons image
 
  • Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website Creative commons image

    'Add to basket'

    Is virtual shopping anything like shopping in a physical shop? This ‘Add to basket’ function allows the customer to take a serious step towards buying, without ultimate commitment. As long as you have created a login username and password, you can pursue many separate browsing episodes that result in you putting items in your basket. Plus, the system remembers your selection for when you return and login again. In this way, virtual shopping was invented as an environment that would mimic being in a physical shop. It creates a staged approach to commitment, putting items in your basket one at a time. However, you can easily remove them if you change your mind before you get to the checkout.
    In the early days of e-commerce, companies such as Amazon had ‘point-of-action assurances’ to reinforce the idea that ‘adding to basket’ did not mean you were at the point of no return - ‘you can always remove it later’. Later on, Amazon and other companies downgraded the ‘Add to basket’ step so that now the ‘buy straightaway’ option is equally visible.
  • Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website Creative commons image

    One-click buying

    Have you noticed how easy it is to purchase items online? Payment options include those that are instantaneous and require minimal effort on behalf of the customer. Amazon developed the first ‘one-click’ payment: by storing your payment card details, if you are logged into the website you do not need to re-enter them. This concept has reached its zenith in PayPal, a global online money transfer and payment company which is available in 103 countries and 16 currencies.
    In 2002, eBay bought PayPal and has over one million users. Now 90% of sellers state that they prefer you to pay with PayPal as well as making it the default payment option. Free to the buyer, once you set up your PayPal account, you can make secure payments from a variety of sources (credit card or bank account) to a variety of recipients (such as eBay, online stores or your landlord) without sharing your financial information. The recipient never sees your account number or banking information and once you have entered those details to PayPal, you don’t need ever to re-enter them. PayPal brought about a speedier process in which there is less time to stop and reconsider, and where there is hardly any time lag between wanting something and having it.
  • Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website Creative commons image

    Embedded marketing

    Embedded marketing is a way of customising and personalising your shopping experience through tailored recommendations. The items on offer appear to be chosen just for you based on some knowledge of your shopping preferences. It’s called ‘embedded’ as they are not a separate adverts, but a method of building into your shopping process a relationship to you and your online customer history. In this way, companies such as Amazon proactively encourage customers in a further purchase when they next login.
    These recommendations also show you what other customers who bought the same products as you went on to purchase. This makes you feel you are part of a social community, a network of people with shared tastes and similar minds.
    Online supermarkets automatically create a shopping list with items that reappear, based on what you routinely bought before – milk, bread and so on. That way, your time and effort is reduced and you are relieved from the burden of having to make so many decisions about what to buy.
  • Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website Creative commons image

    Targeted adverts

    The most effective use and placement of adverts have been thoroughly researched by marketing companies. Examples include a pop-up you have to click on to close before proceeding, or an animated banner advert you need to click on to view. The ‘click-through’ rate, the amount of times someone actually clicks on a banner advert – the most widely used measure of online advertising effectiveness – has declined rapidly. But research shows that adverts can have an impact on consumers even if they don’t click through. You may not remember seeing the advert but familiarisation with it over time creates a more positive attitude to the product afterwards – is called the ‘mere exposure’ effect.
    There are a number of systematic methods by which advertisers implement online targeting. One ‘static’ approach places adverts related to the content types of web pages. For example, in the banner space at the top of a financial services web page you will find adverts relating to financial products such as loans – regardless of who is using the page. But it is the dynamic targeting methods that are becoming increasingly used. These use information about an individual customer’s online browsing behaviour collected via data analytics. One such method is ‘user profile-based targeting’ which uses your profiles, such as membership information, subscription data and online survey results to select the adverts for an online user. So, if the data held about you indicates you live in Ibitha, when you surf the net you won’t see any adverts for fur coats!
    Another method is ‘behavioural’ targeting based on user real-time behaviour, which companies placing adverts on Yahoo and Google will pay for. For the user, it means that adverts will come onto your screen tailored for you, based on a personalised profile the system has created of your interests from a variety of sources – prior search results, expressed interests, demographic and geographic information. For example, if you have previously used a search engine to find clothing from an online shop, when you next conduct a search into something quite different, you will find related products from that shop placed next to your search results.
    Facebook and other social network sites are now partnering with data vendors to match data from consumer loyalty programmes (e.g. Tesco Clubcard or Nectar) with their own Facebook user profiles in order to target adverts by offline purchase habits. Email addresses or other membership information can be matched with the information in users’ Facebook accounts. 
  • Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website Creative commons image

    Review the brand

    Have you ever posted a review of a product or service on a shop’s website, or been influenced by a review you’ve read? Shops opting for this kind of ‘user generated content’ are conveying the grown up relationship they have with their customers. You are encouraged freely and independently to express your views of a product. You find this function especially in online clothing stores, where reviewers supply a service to other customers by giving valuable customer advice about things like sizing accuracy or a good customer services department. Whether or not the reviews are good, the culture of reviewing helps to make a brand come over as honest. It acts counter-factually to the marketing. Studies have shown that consumer recommendations are the most trusted form of advertising.
    n some online shops customers can also rate the reviews as to whether they are useful or not. At Amazon, reviewers are honoured for the ‘help’ they have given other Amazon customers via a peer-ranking system that awards them a yearly Hall of Fame recognition and a badge.
 
 
 
 

Clothing boutique

Illustration of a women's clothing boutique Creative commons image
 
  • Illustrations of key features of a women's clothing shop Creative commons image

    Personalised assistance

    Have you ever reflected on how you relate to shop assistants in different kinds of clothing shops? When you enter high-end clothing boutiques, you are likely to be welcomed and asked whether you need any help. Assistants really are acting as assistants to the customer, and are not there to simply stock the shelves, or stand in rows behind a large counter (as is common in some larger chain stores). Assistants appear to be almost as interested as you are in finding that illusive item you’ve been searching for, and will encourage you to try on clothes as soon as possible. They will demonstrate their knowledge of the clothes, how they reflect current trends or how they represent an innovation in the shop’s own clothing lines; that is, the materials they are made from and how you can put clothes together to make an outfit.
    It is hard not to try on clothing once you have established a relationship with the assistant who appears to have invested him- or herself in your clothing decisions. And you are one major step along the process towards making a purchase if you can proceed to the changing room.
  • Illustrations of key features of a women's clothing shop Creative commons image

    Displays and interior decor

    The boutique as a whole – its layout, lighting, use of furniture and display methods – creates a distinct image and personality for the product and an identity for the customer. Boutiques typically convey a feeling of spaciousness and sense of luxury. They do this by adopting a free-form layout so that customers meander around the perimeter of the shop – the whole store can easily be viewed as one space. This is in contrast to the cluttered ‘pile them high’ approach of the larger chains, with their many aisles of densely packed clothing that emphasises huge quantity and choice of styles to suit different kinds of people. While national chain stores are about low price, achieved through bulk buying and spending as little as possible on ‘extras’ like interior décor, boutiques need to impress you with the high quality of their finely selected clothes. Often, each garment in a high-end boutique has had far more labour expended on it and is made of superior quality textiles. You are addressed as a discerning customer who knows why you have chosen this shop and the items it specialises in. So it is assumed you don’t need to be presented with the large range of the chains.
    The impression of personally chosen items for display is conveyed by making most of the clothing visible, and displaying it in unique ways. No standardised lines of deep racks used here; rather, sweaters might be folded and stacked on an antique mahogany desk. A retro light might stand on a side table next to a long mirror, to mimic your bedroom at home where you will dress for that special night out. A dresser might have its top drawer open wide to show smaller products, such as accessories. Comfortable, deep chairs allow you or friends to linger or rest. The place where sales transactions take place is often discrete so there is no imposing ‘shop counter’. Instead, a desk or an antique chest of drawers in keeping with the shop style is used. It’s all about creating a relaxed and intimate mood so that the buyer perceives unique added values.
  • Illustrations of key features of a women's clothing shop Creative commons image

    Shop assistants' clothing

    Shop assistants present themselves as individuals; there are no identical uniforms as there are in the larger chains. While they may wear clothing of their own choice (in keeping with the shop’s brand), it is more likely that they will wear the shop’s own clothes. Their clothing will however be muted and not extreme; they are not expressing themselves, so much as the values of the shop. This gives them some authenticity when dealing with their customers as they are walking manikins, demonstrating the clothes to their aspirant customers.
    Assistants who have the wrong accent and body size, or who are the wrong age (whether too young or old) are likely to be filtered out in the applicant process because they need to be able to match the demographic and self-image of their target customer. This is not so important in the chain shops where the relationship between the customer and the shop assistant is not critical to the brand or to the ability to sell merchandise.
  • Illustrations of key features of a women's clothing shop Creative commons image

    Changing rooms

    In larger chain stores there is often a shop assistant who gate keeps the changing room, checking how many items you have and issues you with a plastic sign. On the whole they will not help you with any kind of personal service, such as fetching different sizes. Boutiques operate very differently. You are expected to try on your highly expensive purchases, so the changing room is designed as a 'proper' room, which is easily visible from the main shop area. Large boudoir-like changing rooms circle around a main room area with sofas and armchairs for friends or family and multi-mirrors. This contributes to a womb-like and relaxing atmosphere. In very expensive boutiques, there will be a personal assistant on hand for each customer who will make suggestions or collect clothes so that the customer does not have to leave the changing room. Lighting will be as naturalistic as possible – no fluorescent lights, no green- or yellow-toned lighting as it doesn’t flatter. Flooring will be ‘natural’ or ‘luxurious’ – either carpet or wood flooring, not the linoleum or harsh tiles of the chain shops.
  • Illustrations of key features of a women's clothing shop Creative commons image

    Refined music

    Some boutiques play no music as it is considered at odds with the need to establish a quieter, refined environment. However, if there is music it will not be ‘musak’ invisibly piped through the shop, but carefully chosen and targeted to the demographics of the shop's customers. There might be a high-quality hi-fi system in the corner of the room so that it comes from one identifiable source. The music is low though, so as not to interfere with the need for customers to communicate with the shop assistants. The kind of music chosen in upmarket clothing boutiques will be used to create a feeling of sophistication and relaxation. It will not be fast tempo; it may be classical but not ‘difficult’; if popular music it won’t be chart music, but mellow, slightly romantic-style female vocalists such as Dido.
 
 
 

Coffee shop

An illustrated coffee shop scene Creative commons image
 
  • An illustrated coffee shop scene Creative commons image

    A home from home

    Coffee shops often aim to create a home-like environment. You will find an arrangement of upholstered sofas and chairs and, in the chain coffee shops, these are often offered in 'chocolatey'-coloured leather-effect washable material. Wood panelling hints at the dark interiors of 18th Century coffee houses and wooden flooring completes the look. Trendy independent coffee shops may have distressed or bric à brac furniture, stripped pale floors and quirky ornaments. Clusters of sofas, armchairs and low coffee tables create intimate spaces for larger family-like groups. Very often these are visible from the street to entice customers in.
    However, coffee shops have to strike a balance between making it attractive to linger and the need for a fast turnover, so that they can sell more coffee per person. Lounge areas will be therefore be balanced by small café tables and less comfortable seats for one or two people. Other domestic touches are free newspapers, to convey the generosity of the owner; and the works of local artists on the walls to convey a community spirit.
  • An illustrated coffee shop scene Creative commons image

    Loyal customers

    At some time you may have been given a ‘loyalty’ card which is stamped by a cashier to encourage repeat custom. Sometimes you will receive a free coffee or cake for collecting a certain number of stamps. But at least two big high street coffee brands have decided to move away from the cardboard stamp system and towards the plastic electronic loyalty cards akin to supermarkets. To obtain one, you will need to provide identifying details, such as your email address, so that you can ‘benefit from special offers’ and be sent vouchers and so on. This is a great way for the shop to bombard you with marketing offers, reminding you of their brand and to help you form the view that you are a loyal customer who will want to return.
    But where is the balance between the rewards offered to customers and the use the company makes of your data to increase their profitability? A recent test case showed that the coffee stamp card gives you proportionately five times the saving as a plastic loyalty card. Loyalty cards can make you feel as though you are getting a discount, but you may often save more money by shopping around to see if you can get a coffee for less than the tiny reduction the loyalty scheme gives on each cup.
  • An illustrated coffee shop scene Creative commons image

    A place to work

    Coffee shops have adapted themselves to the needs of those who ‘work from home’ or need a temporary office away from home. They are also attractive to those who are travelling and need access to email or the internet. The availability of plug sockets for laptops and mobile devices as well as free wifi encourages people to remain longer and creates an alternative environment to the office or home. You will find people holding meetings in their local coffee shop as a way of legitimately being able to leave the office but remain at work - and with better coffee than they can get from the kettle in their own office! Coffee shops may be part of a culture where the boundary between leisure and work is less obvious.
  • An illustrated coffee shop scene Creative commons image

    A feast for the senses

    Prominently placed, shiny Italian-made coffee-making machines create noise and steam and, together with the clattering of crockery, suggest the presence of a busy and efficient service. At the same time it creats an atmosphere reminiscent of an Italian cafe. Depending on the kind of shop it is, a background soundtrack, perhaps of Jazz music, encourages customers to imagine themselves as participants in a scene of mellow urban sophistication. There are no televisions or screens in these environments, unlike pubs.
  • An illustrated coffee shop counter Creative commons image

    Counter culture

    Creating a brand identity for the shop means that owners have to do much more than think about making coffee and selling it. The building blocks of the brand are in all the small details: the logo, menus, counter furniture, lighting, service style, range of products and so on. You queue up to order and pay for your coffee, being forced to pass a counter full of tempting snacks and cakes. You can also buy the shop’s own coffee beans, ground coffee, branded mugs and other paraphernalia but often these are placed away from the queuing area to encourage free browsing. In this way, you are being encouraged to take a bit of the identity of the coffee shop away with you and into your own home.
 
 
 
 Car boot sale

An illustration of a car-boot sale Creative commons image
 
  • Illustrations of key features of a car-boot sale Creative commons image

    Selling in bundles

    Often, stall holders will sell large bundles or groups of things for one price; for example, 10 pence for one bag of mixed items or a basket of different items all priced the same. This may reflect the fact that the vendor sources a lot of his or her merchandise from one place, including taking on some much cheaper items as part of a deal. Selling lots of things cheaply at the front of the stall creates a sense of generosity and entices the customer in.
  • Illustrations of key features of a car-boot sale Creative commons image

    Haggling with stall holders

    For the customer, the car boot has a less anonymous, more social atmosphere. There are no extra or hidden costs such as marketing, advertising or packaging. The transactions are not formal and the prices are fluid, so it is entirely up to the stall holder what he or she sells and at what price. Negotiating with customers emphasises the importance of the relationship with stall holders. Many participants feel the need for a ‘bargain’ and will make a point never to pay the asking price. Prices may fluctuate over the course of a session and deflate towards the end of the day.
  • Illustrations of key features of a car-boot sale Creative commons image

    Positioning of goods

    Plentiful toys and very cheap items placed at or near ground level can easily attract children to the stall. And where the children go, the parents often follow.
  • Illustrations of key features of a car-boot sale Creative commons image

    Savvy stall holders and canny customers

    At car boot sales you see a diversity of goods including ‘new/unused’ branded goods, such as toothbrushes and shampoo. The latter will only sell if the asking price is lower than the retail price – shoppers know how much these items cost in the shops and will not pay the same in a car boot context. Accordingly, vendors will have very tight mark-ups and a bottom price beyond which they will not go.
    Some vendors may specialise or sell collectable items, for example guitars, tools or retro furniture, and provide useful information about the item that is ‘added value’ for the purchaser.
  • Illustrations of key features of a car-boot sale Creative commons image

    The fun of the unexpected

    Going to a car boot is not like buying in a shop. It has the thrill of the unexpected – customers go with the anticipation of finding a bargain and a chance psychologically to sidestep shop prices. But, at the same time, they don’t know in advance what exactly they will come find, if anything. It has a childish, treasure-hunt aspect. Barriers to entry are low; anyone can be a vendor and a great many stall holders are regulars and get to know each other over the years. Stall holders are also often obsessive car boot buyers, buying up the merchandise of other stall holders to sell on at a lower price. This is a cash-only economy, with no credit cards.
What tricks of the trade do shops employ to make us dig deep into our pockets and spend our hard-earned cash?
  • Published on: Monday 2nd December 2013
Supermarket
<![if !vml]>Description: An illustration of a supermarket<![endif]>Creative commons image
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features found within in a supermarket<![endif]>Creative commons image
Aroma and Authenticity
Freshly baked bread is an example of an essential everyday item that is often placed at the rear of the store. You need to walk through many enticing aisles in order to reach it! However, you may wonder how the smell could be so strong especially when the bread is cold, and there is no sign of recent baking in the oven area. Supermarkets have found a way of venting desirable smells, directing them through the store using the air conditioning system. This recirculates air from the baking section into the shopping aisles. In fact, most supermarket bread (despite being marketed as ‘just baked’) is cooked weeks or months before in a factory miles away. It is then sent frozen to be re-heated in the ‘in-store’ bakery.
Have you ever noticed that some shops give place names to their food stuffs? Like the use of baking smells to suggest the presence of a real baker, these names are designed to make us think the food we buy comes from an identifiable and specific location. This, in turn, makes us feel that the food is personally produced rather than being the product of an industrial process. However, Tesco’s ‘Willow Farm’ chicken<![if !vml]>Description: External link<![endif]>  gets its chicken from all over the UK, and M&S’s ‘lochmuir’ salmon<![if !vml]>Description: External link<![endif]>  does not come from a special farm on a Scottish loch but from farms all over Scotland. These often 'rural' and 'nature-related' names are brandnames for products built on fictitious places.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features found within in a supermarket<![endif]>Creative commons image
Product layout and pricing
You will often find low-cost products, such as sweets and magazines, neatly displayed by till points. Magazines are attractive if you are bored from waiting in a queue, and if you are about to spend £100 on groceries, a few more pounds may seem negligible. The most profitable brands are placed at eye level (or children's eye level if they're targeted at them). However, profitable goods tend not to be the best deals. Supermarkets know that shoppers form their impression of whether a chain offers good value on a few staples, such as bread or milk or apples. Those ‘price-sensitive’ lines appear cheap and pull you into the store, often in the belief that everything else is equally as cheap. But supermarkets hike up the prices on other items, operating an internal subsidy. So, the price of specialist bread will be much higher while the standard white loaf will remain low in price. This will also fluctuate within shops in the same chain – supermarkets are allowed to use ‘dynamic pricing’ so that they will charge more where they can get away with it. For example, ciabatta bread may cost more in a Chelsea branch of Tesco than in Clacton!
Supermarkets love to put organic and fair trade products on their shelves as these items retail for a premium price. Supermarkets expect to make a profit margin of at least 36% on anything they sell, the higher the price the more profit they make. The placement of products is not random, it has been thought through by market researchers, accountants, interior designers and psychologists. Ever wondered why fruit, vegetables and flowers are by the entrance? It’s supposed to make (particularly) female customers feel healthy and wholesome – if they stock up on this first then they won’t feel guilty about buying the less healthy stuff later. Big name brands are positioned in the middle of aisles so that you have to pass everything else on your way, and likewise ‘destination’ goods such as milk and eggs are often hidden at the back of the shop.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features found within in a supermarket<![endif]>Creative commons image
Discount signs
In almost every supermarket you will see signs – often red or orange and on a ‘gondola end’ – advertising multibuys such as ‘3 for the price of 2’ or ‘buy one get one free’. Sometimes you will find ‘special promotions’ advertised through the use of  '£1' stickers on products. Under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations Act, the lower price sale should not last longer than the time the higher price was available. But there is plenty of evidence that supermarkets regularly flout this. Do you have the time and commitment as a consumer to play the supermarket game? Can you become knowledgeable about the price over time of products so you can avoid being out of pocket?
Whether discounts are really a bargain depends on whether you know the normal price of these goods. Supermarkets use arbitrary pack sizes so it can be difficult to tell if the pack size has been reduced. This can result in you paying the same price by weight as before while thinking you have bought yourself a bargain.
Some shops are using ‘discounts’ to ease in and mask inflationary price rises; that is, the brands return at a higher price once the promotion draws to an end. In general, sales goods are often poorly organised, with unclear pricing and layout. This presents a barrier to customers who would ideally want to spend time working out if there are real benefits to buying them. They are more likely to impulse buy and just take the signs for granted rather than investigate further.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features found within in a supermarket<![endif]>Creative commons image
Big trolleys
The shopping trolley or cart allows you to move large quantities – up to 240 litres – of consumer goods from store shelves to checkout to the boot of your car. Trolleys belong to the era of self-service shopping, which the supermarket invented. Rather than relying on the product expertise of the grocer salesperson, information is communicated via the product itself, in the words and colours of its packaging, branding and display. With the elimination of the counter and the free movement of customers along aisles and shelves, the amount that was bought began to increase. Trolleys created new consumer habits, encouraging you to think of a ‘weekly’ rather than ‘daily’ shop. Perhaps the trolley has something to do with the fact that a staggering 40% of all food in the UK is thrown out uneaten, as we end up buying far more than we actually need.
Baskets were first given to self-service shoppers in the 1920s, but shopkeepers noticed the constraint that the size of the basket put on the volume of purchases. One shopkeeper’s early solution to this was to offer the customer a second basket while keeping the first behind the counter. In the 1930s, the trolley was invented and became, after a few hiccups, wildly successful. Store owners had to use pretend customers to walk the floors with the trolleys because shoppers were resistant at first. Women thought that the trolleys were like prams, another thing to push around; whereas men felt it emasculating to rely on wheels rather than carry their shopping.
There were earlier, unsuccessful attempts at creating wheeled containers, such as a store in the US that had a raised track fitted with rails which ran along the shelves, carrying baskets with tiny wheels. However, shoppers were forced to walk down the aisles following the tracks, often moving at the same pace as their neighbour. More like the car than the train, the modern shopping trolley allows full mobility for the shopper to work the shelves at his or her own pace, as an individual.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features found within in a supermarket<![endif]>Creative commons image
Lulling music
Supermarkets often play soft tempo music with no vocals, so there is no distraction from lyrics. You will have noticed a seasonal dimension throughout the year, for example, from mid-November onwards, Christmas songs are played continuously. Despite many complaining that this ‘drives them mad’ when shopping at Christmastime, all the evidence points to the desired outcome - inducing such madness by creating a frenzied shopping atmosphere that typically results in good sales. The hypnotically regular beats and circuitous tunes of Christmas pop songs played at high volume excites the flow of adrenaline, raising the speed of the heartbeat, and producing a 'flight or fight' syndrome. Therefore, music is a key contributor to the consumer aggressiveness that is Christmas shopping. It tempts people to depart from their shopping lists and lose their normal sense of self-control.
Music was first made available in shops in 1920s US where a way of piping music into shops using a telephone system was devised by a company that became the Muzak Corporation, now known as Mood Music. The company had psychologists and musical experts on their staff and discovered that specific types of music have psychological effects: slower, more relaxed music makes people slow down and browse for longer. They also discovered that when shops play French music, sales of French wines rise and when they pipe German music, shoppers buy more German wines. The term ‘musak’ though once a brand has now become a generic noun to describe any background music that is ‘easy listening’. It has a simple melody so that it can be unobtrusively looped back to the beginning. A key feature of musak is that it appears to come from no one source. It feels as if it's coming at you from every direction; no one seems to control it or has any responsibility for it. This is unlike other shops where it is important for the brand that the shop assistants express their own individuality through music.
Online shopping
<![if !vml]>Description: An illustrated scene of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
 
<![if !supportLineBreakNewLine]>
<![endif]>
<![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
'Add to basket'
Is virtual shopping anything like shopping in a physical shop? This ‘Add to basket’ function allows the customer to take a serious step towards buying, without ultimate commitment. As long as you have created a login username and password, you can pursue many separate browsing episodes that result in you putting items in your basket. Plus, the system remembers your selection for when you return and login again. In this way, virtual shopping was invented as an environment that would mimic being in a physical shop. It creates a staged approach to commitment, putting items in your basket one at a time. However, you can easily remove them if you change your mind before you get to the checkout.
In the early days of e-commerce, companies such as Amazon had ‘point-of-action assurances’ to reinforce the idea that ‘adding to basket’ did not mean you were at the point of no return - ‘you can always remove it later’. Later on, Amazon and other companies downgraded the ‘Add to basket’ step so that now the ‘buy straightaway’ option is equally visible.


<![if !supportLineBreakNewLine]>
<![endif]>
<![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
'Add to basket'
Is virtual shopping anything like shopping in a physical shop? This ‘Add to basket’ function allows the customer to take a serious step towards buying, without ultimate commitment. As long as you have created a login username and password, you can pursue many separate browsing episodes that result in you putting items in your basket. Plus, the system remembers your selection for when you return and login again. In this way, virtual shopping was invented as an environment that would mimic being in a physical shop. It creates a staged approach to commitment, putting items in your basket one at a time. However, you can easily remove them if you change your mind before you get to the checkout.
In the early days of e-commerce, companies such as Amazon had ‘point-of-action assurances’ to reinforce the idea that ‘adding to basket’ did not mean you were at the point of no return - ‘you can always remove it later’. Later on, Amazon and other companies downgraded the ‘Add to basket’ step so that now the ‘buy straightaway’ option is equally visible.
<![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
One-click buyingHave you noticed how easy it is to purchase items online? Payment options include those that are instantaneous and require minimal effort on behalf of the customer. Amazon developed the first ‘one-click’ payment: by storing your payment card details, if you are logged into the website you do not need to re-enter them. This concept has reached its zenith in PayPal, a global online money transfer and payment company which is available in 103 countries and 16 currencies.
In 2002, eBay bought PayPal and has over one million users. Now 90% of sellers state that they prefer you to pay with PayPal as well as making it the default payment option. Free to the buyer, once you set up your PayPal account, you can make secure payments from a variety of sources (credit card or bank account) to a variety of recipients (such as eBay, online stores or your landlord) without sharing your financial information. The recipient never sees your account number or banking information and once you have entered those details to PayPal, you don’t need ever to re-enter them. PayPal brought about a speedier process in which there is less time to stop and reconsider, and where there is hardly any time lag between wanting something and having it.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
'Add to basket'
Is virtual shopping anything like shopping in a physical shop? This ‘Add to basket’ function allows the customer to take a serious step towards buying, without ultimate commitment. As long as you have created a login username and password, you can pursue many separate browsing episodes that result in you putting items in your basket. Plus, the system remembers your selection for when you return and login again. In this way, virtual shopping was invented as an environment that would mimic being in a physical shop. It creates a staged approach to commitment, putting items in your basket one at a time. However, you can easily remove them if you change your mind before you get to the checkout.
In the early days of e-commerce, companies such as Amazon had ‘point-of-action assurances’ to reinforce the idea that ‘adding to basket’ did not mean you were at the point of no return - ‘you can always remove it later’. Later on, Amazon and other companies downgraded the ‘Add to basket’ step so that now the ‘buy straightaway’ option is equally visible.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
One-click buying
Have you noticed how easy it is to purchase items online? Payment options include those that are instantaneous and require minimal effort on behalf of the customer. Amazon developed the first ‘one-click’ payment: by storing your payment card details, if you are logged into the website you do not need to re-enter them. This concept has reached its zenith in PayPal, a global online money transfer and payment company which is available in 103 countries and 16 currencies.
In 2002, eBay bought PayPal and has over one million users. Now 90% of sellers state that they prefer you to pay with PayPal as well as making it the default payment option. Free to the buyer, once you set up your PayPal account, you can make secure payments from a variety of sources (credit card or bank account) to a variety of recipients (such as eBay, online stores or your landlord) without sharing your financial information. The recipient never sees your account number or banking information and once you have entered those details to PayPal, you don’t need ever to re-enter them. PayPal brought about a speedier process in which there is less time to stop and reconsider, and where there is hardly any time lag between wanting something and having it.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
Embedded marketing
Embedded marketing is a way of customising and personalising your shopping experience through tailored recommendations. The items on offer appear to be chosen just for you based on some knowledge of your shopping preferences. It’s called ‘embedded’ as they are not a separate adverts, but a method of building into your shopping process a relationship to you and your online customer history. In this way, companies such as Amazon proactively encourage customers in a further purchase when they next login.
These recommendations also show you what other customers who bought the same products as you went on to purchase. This makes you feel you are part of a social community, a network of people with shared tastes and similar minds.
Online supermarkets automatically create a shopping list with items that reappear, based on what you routinely bought before – milk, bread and so on. That way, your time and effort is reduced and you are relieved from the burden of having to make so many decisions about what to buy.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
'Add to basket'
Is virtual shopping anything like shopping in a physical shop? This ‘Add to basket’ function allows the customer to take a serious step towards buying, without ultimate commitment. As long as you have created a login username and password, you can pursue many separate browsing episodes that result in you putting items in your basket. Plus, the system remembers your selection for when you return and login again. In this way, virtual shopping was invented as an environment that would mimic being in a physical shop. It creates a staged approach to commitment, putting items in your basket one at a time. However, you can easily remove them if you change your mind before you get to the checkout.
In the early days of e-commerce, companies such as Amazon had ‘point-of-action assurances’ to reinforce the idea that ‘adding to basket’ did not mean you were at the point of no return - ‘you can always remove it later’. Later on, Amazon and other companies downgraded the ‘Add to basket’ step so that now the ‘buy straightaway’ option is equally visible.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
One-click buying
Have you noticed how easy it is to purchase items online? Payment options include those that are instantaneous and require minimal effort on behalf of the customer. Amazon developed the first ‘one-click’ payment: by storing your payment card details, if you are logged into the website you do not need to re-enter them. This concept has reached its zenith in PayPal, a global online money transfer and payment company which is available in 103 countries and 16 currencies.
In 2002, eBay bought PayPal and has over one million users. Now 90% of sellers state that they prefer you to pay with PayPal as well as making it the default payment option. Free to the buyer, once you set up your PayPal account, you can make secure payments from a variety of sources (credit card or bank account) to a variety of recipients (such as eBay, online stores or your landlord) without sharing your financial information. The recipient never sees your account number or banking information and once you have entered those details to PayPal, you don’t need ever to re-enter them. PayPal brought about a speedier process in which there is less time to stop and reconsider, and where there is hardly any time lag between wanting something and having it.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
Embedded marketing
Embedded marketing is a way of customising and personalising your shopping experience through tailored recommendations. The items on offer appear to be chosen just for you based on some knowledge of your shopping preferences. It’s called ‘embedded’ as they are not a separate adverts, but a method of building into your shopping process a relationship to you and your online customer history. In this way, companies such as Amazon proactively encourage customers in a further purchase when they next login.
These recommendations also show you what other customers who bought the same products as you went on to purchase. This makes you feel you are part of a social community, a network of people with shared tastes and similar minds.
Online supermarkets automatically create a shopping list with items that reappear, based on what you routinely bought before – milk, bread and so on. That way, your time and effort is reduced and you are relieved from the burden of having to make so many decisions about what to buy.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
Targeted adverts
The most effective use and placement of adverts have been thoroughly researched by marketing companies. Examples include a pop-up you have to click on to close before proceeding, or an animated banner advert you need to click on to view. The ‘click-through’ rate, the amount of times someone actually clicks on a banner advert – the most widely used measure of online advertising effectiveness – has declined rapidly. But research shows that adverts can have an impact on consumers even if they don’t click through. You may not remember seeing the advert but familiarisation with it over time creates a more positive attitude to the product afterwards – is called the ‘mere exposure’ effect.
There are a number of systematic methods by which advertisers implement online targeting. One ‘static’ approach places adverts related to the content types of web pages. For example, in the banner space at the top of a financial services web page you will find adverts relating to financial products such as loans – regardless of who is using the page. But it is the dynamic targeting methods that are becoming increasingly used. These use information about an individual customer’s online browsing behaviour collected via data analytics. One such method is ‘user profile-based targeting’ which uses your profiles, such as membership information, subscription data and online survey results to select the adverts for an online user. So, if the data held about you indicates you live in Ibitha, when you surf the net you won’t see any adverts for fur coats!
Another method is ‘behavioural’ targeting based on user real-time behaviour, which companies placing adverts on Yahoo and Google will pay for. For the user, it means that adverts will come onto your screen tailored for you, based on a personalised profile the system has created of your interests from a variety of sources – prior search results, expressed interests, demographic and geographic information. For example, if you have previously used a search engine to find clothing from an online shop, when you next conduct a search into something quite different, you will find related products from that shop placed next to your search results.
Facebook and other social network sites are now partnering with data vendors to match data from consumer loyalty programmes (e.g. Tesco Clubcard or Nectar) with their own Facebook user profiles in order to target adverts by offline purchase habits. Email addresses or other membership information can be matched with the information in users’ Facebook accounts. 
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
'Add to basket'
Is virtual shopping anything like shopping in a physical shop? This ‘Add to basket’ function allows the customer to take a serious step towards buying, without ultimate commitment. As long as you have created a login username and password, you can pursue many separate browsing episodes that result in you putting items in your basket. Plus, the system remembers your selection for when you return and login again. In this way, virtual shopping was invented as an environment that would mimic being in a physical shop. It creates a staged approach to commitment, putting items in your basket one at a time. However, you can easily remove them if you change your mind before you get to the checkout.
In the early days of e-commerce, companies such as Amazon had ‘point-of-action assurances’ to reinforce the idea that ‘adding to basket’ did not mean you were at the point of no return - ‘you can always remove it later’. Later on, Amazon and other companies downgraded the ‘Add to basket’ step so that now the ‘buy straightaway’ option is equally visible.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
One-click buying
Have you noticed how easy it is to purchase items online? Payment options include those that are instantaneous and require minimal effort on behalf of the customer. Amazon developed the first ‘one-click’ payment: by storing your payment card details, if you are logged into the website you do not need to re-enter them. This concept has reached its zenith in PayPal, a global online money transfer and payment company which is available in 103 countries and 16 currencies.
In 2002, eBay bought PayPal and has over one million users. Now 90% of sellers state that they prefer you to pay with PayPal as well as making it the default payment option. Free to the buyer, once you set up your PayPal account, you can make secure payments from a variety of sources (credit card or bank account) to a variety of recipients (such as eBay, online stores or your landlord) without sharing your financial information. The recipient never sees your account number or banking information and once you have entered those details to PayPal, you don’t need ever to re-enter them. PayPal brought about a speedier process in which there is less time to stop and reconsider, and where there is hardly any time lag between wanting something and having it.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
Embedded marketing
Embedded marketing is a way of customising and personalising your shopping experience through tailored recommendations. The items on offer appear to be chosen just for you based on some knowledge of your shopping preferences. It’s called ‘embedded’ as they are not a separate adverts, but a method of building into your shopping process a relationship to you and your online customer history. In this way, companies such as Amazon proactively encourage customers in a further purchase when they next login.
These recommendations also show you what other customers who bought the same products as you went on to purchase. This makes you feel you are part of a social community, a network of people with shared tastes and similar minds.
Online supermarkets automatically create a shopping list with items that reappear, based on what you routinely bought before – milk, bread and so on. That way, your time and effort is reduced and you are relieved from the burden of having to make so many decisions about what to buy.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
Targeted adverts
The most effective use and placement of adverts have been thoroughly researched by marketing companies. Examples include a pop-up you have to click on to close before proceeding, or an animated banner advert you need to click on to view. The ‘click-through’ rate, the amount of times someone actually clicks on a banner advert – the most widely used measure of online advertising effectiveness – has declined rapidly. But research shows that adverts can have an impact on consumers even if they don’t click through. You may not remember seeing the advert but familiarisation with it over time creates a more positive attitude to the product afterwards – is called the ‘mere exposure’ effect.
There are a number of systematic methods by which advertisers implement online targeting. One ‘static’ approach places adverts related to the content types of web pages. For example, in the banner space at the top of a financial services web page you will find adverts relating to financial products such as loans – regardless of who is using the page. But it is the dynamic targeting methods that are becoming increasingly used. These use information about an individual customer’s online browsing behaviour collected via data analytics. One such method is ‘user profile-based targeting’ which uses your profiles, such as membership information, subscription data and online survey results to select the adverts for an online user. So, if the data held about you indicates you live in Ibitha, when you surf the net you won’t see any adverts for fur coats!
Another method is ‘behavioural’ targeting based on user real-time behaviour, which companies placing adverts on Yahoo and Google will pay for. For the user, it means that adverts will come onto your screen tailored for you, based on a personalised profile the system has created of your interests from a variety of sources – prior search results, expressed interests, demographic and geographic information. For example, if you have previously used a search engine to find clothing from an online shop, when you next conduct a search into something quite different, you will find related products from that shop placed next to your search results.
Facebook and other social network sites are now partnering with data vendors to match data from consumer loyalty programmes (e.g. Tesco Clubcard or Nectar) with their own Facebook user profiles in order to target adverts by offline purchase habits. Email addresses or other membership information can be matched with the information in users’ Facebook accounts. 
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrated features of someone using an online shopping website<![endif]>Creative commons image
Review the brand
Have you ever posted a review of a product or service on a shop’s website, or been influenced by a review you’ve read? Shops opting for this kind of ‘user generated content’ are conveying the grown up relationship they have with their customers. You are encouraged freely and independently to express your views of a product. You find this function especially in online clothing stores, where reviewers supply a service to other customers by giving valuable customer advice about things like sizing accuracy or a good customer services department. Whether or not the reviews are good, the culture of reviewing helps to make a brand come over as honest. It acts counter-factually to the marketing. Studies have shown that consumer recommendations are the most trusted form of advertising.
n some online shops customers can also rate the reviews as to whether they are useful or not. At Amazon, reviewers are honoured for the ‘help’ they have given other Amazon customers via a peer-ranking system that awards them a yearly Hall of Fame recognition and a badge.
Clothing boutique
<![if !vml]>Description: Illustration of a women's clothing boutique<![endif]>Creative commons image
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features of a women's clothing shop<![endif]>Creative commons image
Personalised assistance
Have you ever reflected on how you relate to shop assistants in different kinds of clothing shops? When you enter high-end clothing boutiques, you are likely to be welcomed and asked whether you need any help. Assistants really are acting as assistants to the customer, and are not there to simply stock the shelves, or stand in rows behind a large counter (as is common in some larger chain stores). Assistants appear to be almost as interested as you are in finding that illusive item you’ve been searching for, and will encourage you to try on clothes as soon as possible. They will demonstrate their knowledge of the clothes, how they reflect current trends or how they represent an innovation in the shop’s own clothing lines; that is, the materials they are made from and how you can put clothes together to make an outfit.
It is hard not to try on clothing once you have established a relationship with the assistant who appears to have invested him- or herself in your clothing decisions. And you are one major step along the process towards making a purchase if you can proceed to the changing room.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features of a women's clothing shop<![endif]>Creative commons image
Displays and interior decor
The boutique as a whole – its layout, lighting, use of furniture and display methods – creates a distinct image and personality for the product and an identity for the customer. Boutiques typically convey a feeling of spaciousness and sense of luxury. They do this by adopting a free-form layout so that customers meander around the perimeter of the shop – the whole store can easily be viewed as one space. This is in contrast to the cluttered ‘pile them high’ approach of the larger chains, with their many aisles of densely packed clothing that emphasises huge quantity and choice of styles to suit different kinds of people. While national chain stores are about low price, achieved through bulk buying and spending as little as possible on ‘extras’ like interior décor, boutiques need to impress you with the high quality of their finely selected clothes. Often, each garment in a high-end boutique has had far more labour expended on it and is made of superior quality textiles. You are addressed as a discerning customer who knows why you have chosen this shop and the items it specialises in. So it is assumed you don’t need to be presented with the large range of the chains.
The impression of personally chosen items for display is conveyed by making most of the clothing visible, and displaying it in unique ways. No standardised lines of deep racks used here; rather, sweaters might be folded and stacked on an antique mahogany desk. A retro light might stand on a side table next to a long mirror, to mimic your bedroom at home where you will dress for that special night out. A dresser might have its top drawer open wide to show smaller products, such as accessories. Comfortable, deep chairs allow you or friends to linger or rest. The place where sales transactions take place is often discrete so there is no imposing ‘shop counter’. Instead, a desk or an antique chest of drawers in keeping with the shop style is used. It’s all about creating a relaxed and intimate mood so that the buyer perceives unique added values.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features of a women's clothing shop<![endif]>Creative commons image
Shop assistants' clothing
Shop assistants present themselves as individuals; there are no identical uniforms as there are in the larger chains. While they may wear clothing of their own choice (in keeping with the shop’s brand), it is more likely that they will wear the shop’s own clothes. Their clothing will however be muted and not extreme; they are not expressing themselves, so much as the values of the shop. This gives them some authenticity when dealing with their customers as they are walking manikins, demonstrating the clothes to their aspirant customers.
Assistants who have the wrong accent and body size, or who are the wrong age (whether too young or old) are likely to be filtered out in the applicant process because they need to be able to match the demographic and self-image of their target customer. This is not so important in the chain shops where the relationship between the customer and the shop assistant is not critical to the brand or to the ability to sell merchandise.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features of a women's clothing shop<![endif]>Creative commons image
Changing rooms
In larger chain stores there is often a shop assistant who gate keeps the changing room, checking how many items you have and issues you with a plastic sign. On the whole they will not help you with any kind of personal service, such as fetching different sizes. Boutiques operate very differently. You are expected to try on your highly expensive purchases, so the changing room is designed as a 'proper' room, which is easily visible from the main shop area. Large boudoir-like changing rooms circle around a main room area with sofas and armchairs for friends or family and multi-mirrors. This contributes to a womb-like and relaxing atmosphere. In very expensive boutiques, there will be a personal assistant on hand for each customer who will make suggestions or collect clothes so that the customer does not have to leave the changing room. Lighting will be as naturalistic as possible – no fluorescent lights, no green- or yellow-toned lighting as it doesn’t flatter. Flooring will be ‘natural’ or ‘luxurious’ – either carpet or wood flooring, not the linoleum or harsh tiles of the chain shops.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features of a women's clothing shop<![endif]>Creative commons image
Refined music
Some boutiques play no music as it is considered at odds with the need to establish a quieter, refined environment. However, if there is music it will not be ‘musak’ invisibly piped through the shop, but carefully chosen and targeted to the demographics of the shop's customers. There might be a high-quality hi-fi system in the corner of the room so that it comes from one identifiable source. The music is low though, so as not to interfere with the need for customers to communicate with the shop assistants. The kind of music chosen in upmarket clothing boutiques will be used to create a feeling of sophistication and relaxation. It will not be fast tempo; it may be classical but not ‘difficult’; if popular music it won’t be chart music, but mellow, slightly romantic-style female vocalists such as Dido.
Coffee shop
<![if !vml]>Description: An illustrated coffee shop scene<![endif]>Creative commons image
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: An illustrated coffee shop scene<![endif]>Creative commons image
A home from home
Coffee shops often aim to create a home-like environment. You will find an arrangement of upholstered sofas and chairs and, in the chain coffee shops, these are often offered in 'chocolatey'-coloured leather-effect washable material. Wood panelling hints at the dark interiors of 18th Century coffee houses and wooden flooring completes the look. Trendy independent coffee shops may have distressed or bric à brac furniture, stripped pale floors and quirky ornaments. Clusters of sofas, armchairs and low coffee tables create intimate spaces for larger family-like groups. Very often these are visible from the street to entice customers in.
However, coffee shops have to strike a balance between making it attractive to linger and the need for a fast turnover, so that they can sell more coffee per person. Lounge areas will be therefore be balanced by small café tables and less comfortable seats for one or two people. Other domestic touches are free newspapers, to convey the generosity of the owner; and the works of local artists on the walls to convey a community spirit.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: An illustrated coffee shop scene<![endif]>Creative commons image
Loyal customers
At some time you may have been given a ‘loyalty’ card which is stamped by a cashier to encourage repeat custom. Sometimes you will receive a free coffee or cake for collecting a certain number of stamps. But at least two big high street coffee brands have decided to move away from the cardboard stamp system and towards the plastic electronic loyalty cards akin to supermarkets. To obtain one, you will need to provide identifying details, such as your email address, so that you can ‘benefit from special offers’ and be sent vouchers and so on. This is a great way for the shop to bombard you with marketing offers, reminding you of their brand and to help you form the view that you are a loyal customer who will want to return.
But where is the balance between the rewards offered to customers and the use the company makes of your data to increase their profitability? A recent test case showed that the coffee stamp card gives you proportionately five times the saving as a plastic loyalty card. Loyalty cards can make you feel as though you are getting a discount, but you may often save more money by shopping around to see if you can get a coffee for less than the tiny reduction the loyalty scheme gives on each cup.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: An illustrated coffee shop scene<![endif]>Creative commons image
A place to work
Coffee shops have adapted themselves to the needs of those who ‘work from home’ or need a temporary office away from home. They are also attractive to those who are travelling and need access to email or the internet. The availability of plug sockets for laptops and mobile devices as well as free wifi encourages people to remain longer and creates an alternative environment to the office or home. You will find people holding meetings in their local coffee shop as a way of legitimately being able to leave the office but remain at work - and with better coffee than they can get from the kettle in their own office! Coffee shops may be part of a culture where the boundary between leisure and work is less obvious.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: An illustrated coffee shop scene<![endif]>Creative commons image
A feast for the senses
Prominently placed, shiny Italian-made coffee-making machines create noise and steam and, together with the clattering of crockery, suggest the presence of a busy and efficient service. At the same time it creats an atmosphere reminiscent of an Italian cafe. Depending on the kind of shop it is, a background soundtrack, perhaps of Jazz music, encourages customers to imagine themselves as participants in a scene of mellow urban sophistication. There are no televisions or screens in these environments, unlike pubs.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: An illustrated coffee shop counter<![endif]>Creative commons image
Counter culture
Creating a brand identity for the shop means that owners have to do much more than think about making coffee and selling it. The building blocks of the brand are in all the small details: the logo, menus, counter furniture, lighting, service style, range of products and so on. You queue up to order and pay for your coffee, being forced to pass a counter full of tempting snacks and cakes. You can also buy the shop’s own coffee beans, ground coffee, branded mugs and other paraphernalia but often these are placed away from the queuing area to encourage free browsing. In this way, you are being encouraged to take a bit of the identity of the coffee shop away with you and into your own home.
Car boot sale
<![if !vml]>Description: An illustration of a car-boot sale<![endif]>Creative commons image
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features of a car-boot sale<![endif]>Creative commons image
Selling in bundles
Often, stall holders will sell large bundles or groups of things for one price; for example, 10 pence for one bag of mixed items or a basket of different items all priced the same. This may reflect the fact that the vendor sources a lot of his or her merchandise from one place, including taking on some much cheaper items as part of a deal. Selling lots of things cheaply at the front of the stall creates a sense of generosity and entices the customer in.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features of a car-boot sale<![endif]>Creative commons image
Haggling with stall holders
For the customer, the car boot has a less anonymous, more social atmosphere. There are no extra or hidden costs such as marketing, advertising or packaging. The transactions are not formal and the prices are fluid, so it is entirely up to the stall holder what he or she sells and at what price. Negotiating with customers emphasises the importance of the relationship with stall holders. Many participants feel the need for a ‘bargain’ and will make a point never to pay the asking price. Prices may fluctuate over the course of a session and deflate towards the end of the day.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features of a car-boot sale<![endif]>Creative commons image
Positioning of goods
Plentiful toys and very cheap items placed at or near ground level can easily attract children to the stall. And where the children go, the parents often follow.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features of a car-boot sale<![endif]>Creative commons image
Savvy stall holders and canny customers
At car boot sales you see a diversity of goods including ‘new/unused’ branded goods, such as toothbrushes and shampoo. The latter will only sell if the asking price is lower than the retail price – shoppers know how much these items cost in the shops and will not pay the same in a car boot context. Accordingly, vendors will have very tight mark-ups and a bottom price beyond which they will not go.
Some vendors may specialise or sell collectable items, for example guitars, tools or retro furniture, and provide useful information about the item that is ‘added value’ for the purchaser.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]><![if !vml]>Description: Illustrations of key features of a car-boot sale<![endif]>Creative commons image
The fun of the unexpected
Going to a car boot is not like buying in a shop. It has the thrill of the unexpected – customers go with the anticipation of finding a bargain and a chance psychologically to sidestep shop prices. But, at the same time, they don’t know in advance what exactly they will come find, if anything. It has a childish, treasure-hunt aspect. Barriers to entry are low; anyone can be a vendor and a great many stall holders are regulars and get to know each other over the years. Stall holders are also often obsessive car boot buyers, buying up the merchandise of other stall holders to sell on at a lower price. This is a cash-only economy, with no credit cards.