Ever have a moment where something you're living is mirrored by something you're reading? I just did.

While shopping for a new computer, I happened to be reading Paco Underhill's new book "What Women Want: The Global Marketplace Turns Female-Friendly."

One chapter examines Best Buy, a survivor in a space where competitors like Circuit City and Comp USA have gone bankrupt. Their secret? Creating a female-friendly shopping experience, complete with curvy home-staged displays, hustle-free employees not paid on commission, and over-sized photos of people -- not just products. As Mr. Underhill explains: "Men buy instruments of technology, whereas women buy instruments of relationship."

So true!

Guess where I ended up buying my MacBook? At Best Buy. The experience there differed so dramatically from my shopping experience at Fry's.

Words cannot describe how reluctantly I cross the threshold of Fry's. The creepy dated Western decor (complete with horse-hitching post out front), the lack of English-speaking help, the mystifying store layout, the snack food labyrinth leading to checkout, the depressing cafe (who eats there?), the world's slow deforestation via multi-page invoices issued even for purchases of a pack of gum, the guilt-implied inspection of your items upon exiting. Ick, ick, triple ick!

It's just so painfully obvious when a company has thoughtfully altered their stores to appeal to female shoppers...and when they haven't.

What stores strike you as female-friendly? Why?

Labels: Book Review, Retail, Sales Help

Please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below, even if -- no, especially if -- you don't agree with what I've written.