- Locate your cash/checkout station so that shoppers outside make immediate eye contact with a sales person before they cross the entrance. This will instantly intimidate the potential buyer and give him the message “There’s no one here but me. Keep on walking…do not enter.”
- Create a solid-wall storefront with no display windows or view into the store. This creates an air of mystery and bewilderment in the mind of the potential customer. She may possibly slow down, but most likely she will get away as soon as possible. Although several major retailers have used this method, it is mostly reserved for porn shops and funeral homes (the final level of destination shopping).
- Install mirrors everywhere. This “fun-house” look will keep all but the very adventurous potential customers outside your store. Instant befuddlement is the key to this approach.
- Create a large open space immediately inside the entrance with no merchandise, displays, artwork, television monitors or anything else to permit a nervous potential customer to establish a shopping “psychological beach head” . Few guests will want to be placed in this “spotlight void” as they enter. This method can cause incredible painful tension for the person brave enough to walk alone into this zone of nothingness. Establishing this “sans-retail twilight zone” will almost guarantee that no one will touch the merchandise or scuff the floors.
- Finally, should a person still attempt to shop your store even after you have done your best to keep them out…assign one of your sales people the task of executing a immediate frontal attack. Just have them quickly approach the shopper as soon as he enters and say “May I help you?” These words require no special acting or linguistic skills and once delivered, will assure that potential customer will be banished forever.
