A man who finds out why we buy what we buy

PACO Underhill's name may not ring a bell to most Filipinos but to many retailers, Underhill holds the key to making their cash registers ring.

Underhill is the guru of shopping. He studies how consumers shop and wrote "Why We Buy"—a bestseller which talks about The Science of Shopping. He and his group, under the firm Envirosell, "track" consumers as soon as they walk in a shop—follow them and see what they touch, try on, and eventually buy or not buy. They time how long a purchase takes, or how the buyer looks at an item. They put cameras in a shop (with the permission of the owner of course) and record consumers shopping. Yes, they have videotaped pickpockets and shoplifters along the way.