Understanding your customer’s basic, societal, and growth needs should influence your current strategies and offerings. What is the future of retail? A question that has stirred up spirited debate — one we are reminded of with a simple walk to the grocery store or while mulling over a gum purchase. The notion of looking in unordinary places to answer ordinary questions has always inspired me. Triggered by a desire to pursue a consulting venture that provoked positive change and coming off six years in strategy at Lululemon, this trail led me to none other than the field of evolutionary psychology. If that phrase conjures up Psychology 101 and images of Abraham Maslow, you’re on the right track. It is in the posthumous of Maslow’s work and its iterations that lay an undiscovered truth that, if unpacked, can open up a world of opportunity.