10 books like Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins

I read this book on an airplane and was asked by the person next to me why I needed to learn about why I buy things. Well, this book is for anyone interested in understanding consumer behavior and the psychology of shopping. It’s an in-depth exploration of how shoppers interact with products and environments and provides valuable insights into how businesses can improve their sales and customer satisfaction. Underhill backs up his observations with a wealth of research and data. 

Dan Moe is a savvy former buyer and in this book he explains all of the analysis and decision points that good buyers consider. A great basic primer to help new buyers gain skills or experienced buyers hone their instincts. The examples throughout the book make every concept easy. And it’s a short read at ~140 pages.  

This book on leadership and management is not retail specific – but it contains the fundamentals of good management that every retail leader needs to master. Bob gives great advice on what to do and how to address issues when you can see your company is not living up to the standards for success. It always motivates me to be a better leader. 

As a retailer, you are often critical in a young person’s career. FYI, gives excellent advice for managers looking to give direct feedback and coaching to their team. With outstanding suggestions for how to write clear feedback and suggested development plans, it is the best resource I know when writing performance reviews. 

Because I was a prosecutor on the Enron case, people often ask me what to read about it (or even to explain it to them!). At the time, we used to say that Enron was calculus to every other case’s algebra when it came to corporate financial fraud. Elkind and McLean (McLean had a lot to do with questioning Enron’s narrative before the company’s decline) have done the definitive job of explaining a very hard case in accessible style and detail. The truth is that accounting fraud is a very technical form of corporate fraud, sometimes painfully so. But, as I tell my students, the people who work at companies on these kinds of things are no smarter, and often no older, than my students. They just speak a different language. Don’t let that obfuscate matters. Learn the lingo and follow the money. Smartest Guys allows the general reader to… show more.

As a professor at Harvard Business School, Eisenmann has taught a generation of entrepreneurs how to launch and scale businesses. He has then watched as some of these promising businesses fail. This book explores the 6 major patterns of failure in entrepreneurial ventures, shows how they play out in the real world, and gives you the tool to avoid a similar fate.

Fans of Schitt’s Creek, Crazy Rich Asians, and Little Miss Sunshine will delight in Chang’s debut. At turns bawdy and brilliant, The Wangs vs. The World tells the hilarious story of Charles Wang, a Chinese immigrant who achieves the American Dream by turning waste into wealth only to get hit by the financial crisis and lose his dazzling Bel Air home and everything he holds dear—everything, that is, except his quirky but lovable family. Chang’s razor-sharp humor and bold writing style have made me an instant fan.

It’s the early 1990s, and a “horse crazy” teenager discovers a fantasy novel with a striking white horse and a handsome, dark-haired young man on the cover at her local K-Mart. Okay, so I’ve dated myself, but I’m not going to lie. A horse and a cute boy got me into reading Mercedes Lackey’s tales of Valdemar, and Magic’s Pawn was the first book I discovered. A fantasy novel with a horse that could talk to you and magic powers was the perfect escape for a teenager, and I’m not alone. Many readers discovered Valdemar, and more importantly, a gay protagonist, through these books, and Mercedes Lackey’s work has touched us all in the decades since.

Keep the tissues handy, but this series remains one of my favorite comfort reads. Reading any Valdemar book is like coming home to old, dear friends, and Vanyel’s story sets the stage for so… show more.

It’s not quite clear at first whether the two children who appear one day out of the mist asking for help are ghosts, or whether the word is better used to describe the children who go back in time, as requested, to help them. Either way, this is a cracking story with a very satisfactory solution for all of them. And the amazing Mr. Blunden? For me, he is the best and the most moving part of the story. An old gentleman who made a terrible mistake in the past, but who has now been given a chance to put it right, and earn forgiveness and peace.

Few characters in crime fiction are as charismatic as Charles Paris, a struggling actor whose career has more ups and downs than a seesaw. Simon Brett presents us with a fascinating character, a middle-aged man who is endearing even though he is a drunk and a womaniser. 

There is always a murder whether Paris is acting in weekly rep or has a cameo role in a film. So Much Blood involves Paris appearing at the world-famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Brett skilfully weaves in the drama of putting on a show and the dynamism of the Scottish city with Paris’ occasionally amateurish sleuthing as he tries to uncover who committed the crime. Excellent entertainment.