Yes, we'll always have stores. Part of what will come out of the Web, though, is an interesting muddying of what is physical space and what is cyberspace. What if I can walk to the market here in Union Square, go shopping for vegetables, and then drop off my order at a cybercafé? Or do the same for laundry soap or toilet paper? That lets stores shrink their footprints dramatically -- to get out of unprofitable commodity categories, to present the public with a relatively small front end for a much bigger warehouse and distribution operation. Part of what we're looking at, then, is the Net's future as an integrated part of our brick-and-mortar existence. Just as I can use my store to drive traffic to the Net, I can use the Net to drive traffic to my stores.

Everyone is out there searching for magical technology solutions, and I'm sure there will be better ones than those we have now. Technology may have answers. But let's start with the basics and see whether we can get them right! I'm still amazed by how far businesses get down the e-commerce road without understanding their consumers. What will always be true is that having a good pair of eyes and spending a little time out on the floor are valuable. As much as technology may be able to capture transactions and a mechanical system may be able to generate numbers, it's hard for such technologies to capture the rhythm of real life.

When you go shopping, what grabs you? How do merchandisers reach you?

To some extent, my approach to stores has been spoiled. Everywhere I go, I'm engaged in deconstructing the store. I love doing it -- don't get me wrong. But it often makes me angry. When I see something done wrong, and when the solution is so obvious, I want to grab the manager and shout, "You'll make more money if you just turn it around! Why did you do it this way? It doesn't make any sense! Don't you know that about 85% of the world is right-handed? Put that on the other wall!"

Keith H. Hammonds (khammonds@fastcompany.com) is a senior editor at Fast Company. You can reach Paco Underhill on the Web (www.envirosell.com) or by email (info@envirosell.com).

Sidebar: The Paco Principles

In a short period of time, Paco Underhill's "Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping" (Simon & Schuster, 1999) is fast becoming a business best-seller. Here, adapted from the book, are some of Underhill's key lessons on shops, shoppers, and shopping.

Bring 'em in; then keep 'em there.

The amount of time shoppers spend in a store is perhaps the single-most-important factor in determining how much they will buy. The majority of advice we give to retailers involves ways of getting shoppers to shop longer.

Honor "the transition zone."

On entering a store, people need to slow down and sort out the stimuli. Which means that whatever is in the zone they cross before making that transition is pretty much lost on them. If there's a display of merchandise, they're not going to take it in. If there's a sign, they'll probably be moving too fast to absorb its message. If the sales staff hits them with a hearty "Can I help you?" the answer is most likely going to be, "No, thanks."

The hand bone's connected to the wallet. The fact that most shoppers have two hands is well known. But the implications of that are often ignored. It's hard to overemphasize the importance of the hand issue to the world of shopping. A store can offer the finest, cheapest, sexiest goods, but if the shopper can't pick them up, it's all for nothing.

Mirrors versus banks. People slow down when they see reflective surfaces. And they speed up when they see banks. Bank windows are boring and so are banks. Mirrors, on the other hand, are never dull. So never open a store next to a financial institution -- by the time pedestrians reach you, they'll be moving too fast for window shopping. If you can't help being next to a bank, make sure to have a mirror or two on your facade to slow shoppers down.

Take men. Please. Men always move faster than women do through a store's aisles. Men spend less time looking, too. In many settings, it's hard to get them to look at anything they hadn't intended on buying. Men also don't like asking where things are -- or any questions at all, for that matter. If a man can't find the section he's looking for, he'll wheel about once or twice, then leave the store without ever asking for help.

Behold the geriatrics. By 2025, nearly one-fifth of the American people will be 65 or older. All of retailing is going to have to cater to seniors because they'll have the numbers and the dollars. But we're going to need a whole new world. For starters, the words on packages will have to be large enough so people can read them.