Merchandising: Don’t Be Boring

4. Mark up your merchandise selection with a red pen. Your customers look to you to be their editors-in-chief, a role you must take seriously. Barry Schwartz, sociologist and author of “The Paradox of Choice” (Ecco, 2004), makes a compelling case against offering your customers too much. “We always think we want choice,” he says, “but when we actually get it, we may not like it. Meanwhile, the need to choose in ever more aspects of life causes us more distress than we realize.”