e instore feel, and include smell, cleanliness, temperature, and noise. Unsurprisingly women reacted more unfavourably than men when there was a bad smell in a store. Similarly, when a store was not clean, when it was too hot, and when the music was too loud. In fact as we proceed, we will find that women are overall more irritable regarding retail elements than men. Design factors This relates to ease of shopping. Men were more irritated than women when they were unable to find what they were looking for, but were less irritated when the arrangement of goods was changed. Women were marginally more irritated if the store was too small and when the signs and directions were not clear. Predictably women were very irritated when there was no mirror in a fitting room. Women were only marginally more irritated when it was hard to find their way around a large shopping mall. Social factors When the store was crowded men and women were equally irritated. Men were clearly much more irritated when there were noisy kids or babies around. When deceived by a sales person, both men and women were equally irritated and similarly when the sales personnel ignored them. Emprical results The factors identified that caused the most irritation were unclean stores and deceitful sales personnel, as well as bad smells and sales staff that ignore customers. Overall, the ambient and social categories were seen to cause more of an irritation than design. As mentioned above, overall, women were found to be more irritable than men with regards to elements in the retail environment Furthermore, men were equally or more affected than women with regards to social factors (with the exception of being able to handle pressure selling better). Men were considerably more irritated than women by noisy children and babies, a possible reason being that men lack the maternal patience displayed by women. So what does this all mean for you as a retailer? Firstly to be aware of the identified irritants and secondly, consider each one in the context of your retail environment. While it is interesting to note the differences based on gender and other factors, the most important outcome is to attend to those irritants that you believe are adversely affecting your customers and if you don’t know, ask them. Stuart Bennie is a retail consultant at Impact Retailing and can be contacted at stuart@impactretailing.com.au or 0414 631 702.