[Sigia-l] "white-gloved ladies"

[Listera]

Apparently, the notion of 'usability' has arrived at your neighborhood
department store:
[...]
After years of losing customers, the department stores are trying to become
destinations again by making "the shopping experience," a phrase repeated
like a mantra among store owners, more pleasant. So besides trying to
upgrade and freshen the merchandise they sell, department stores are getting
out the hammers  in an attempt to reclaim the distinctive architecture that
marked the era when white-gloved ladies lunched in roof gardens, eating
Waldorf salads while  models paraded by, price tags hanging, and
honeymooning couples picked out their first mattresses.

The  reconstructions and recalculations, analysts and bankers say, are
unprecedented in the country's retailing history.
[...]
The two most successful innovations were "street signs" giving directions
within the store, and price verification scanners that give the latest
markdown. 

NYT/Looking to Recapture Glory, Department Stores Revamp
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/29/business/29SHOP.html>

So the next time some managers says "Why should we redesign our site?"
remind him of the millions being spent by the department stores.:-)

Ziya
Nullius in Verba