Last week I had the opportunity to attend RIS News’ excellent conference “Engage 2015. ” We heard from several retailers including Chico’s and GameStop, and a fun panel of shoppers led by WSL Strategic Retail president Candace Corlett. We also heard from a couple of “futurists ” who I’ll discuss shortly.

First, the good news: the store is really not dead at all. In fact, every speaker, including the futurists acknowledged that the bulk of sales will continue to be consummated there. But most interesting was the report from the panel of female shoppers.

Their shopping habits were very varied. A couple of them did 90% of their shopping on-line. One or two were 50/50. And the rest were predominantly store shoppers.

One of their biggest complaints was the lack of good wifi/mobile phone reception in stores. One of them actually said, “Sometimes I think they do it on purpose. ” One also said, “The internet is just not available in the store enough. “

Retailers, we promise, you really, really have to get wifi going in your stores. What they do with their phones was surprising. Every single one of them went looking for coupons. They did some amount of showrooming, but were most interested in retailmenot and other sites where they might get a discount where they are.

Their response to the lack of wifi was rather clever. They’d leave the store and go to a place where they got good reception. Then they’d find a coupon and take a photo of it. Finally, they’d return to the store and present the photo as their coupon. Are we embarrassed yet?

I was surprised at their understanding of mobile phone tracking. They knew that Google knows everything there is to know about them. They know that the mobile carriers track their every move. It made them a bit uncomfortable, but they were more or less resigned to it. They agreed that if a retailer gave them a strong enough relevant offer, they’d be willing to share location information with him in the store, even though they also said it felt creepy to have their phone pop up a “welcome to the store ” message when they walk in.

Click and collect was not at all interesting to any of them. Their attitude was pretty solidly “If I buy it on line, I want it delivered, period. ” They shop online because it’s easier, not because it’s cheaper. I would take that to mean that speed of delivery is more important than lowest price.

Loyalty is foreign to them, except for one, and only one retailer. They all love Nordstrom. Regardless of their economic status, they felt like the retailer made them feel like its emails were reaching out to them personally, and made them feel important.

I learned a lot from these women. They’re bargain savvy, smart shoppers.

Then there were the retailers. Rather than reiterate the most impressive story, GameStop’s here, I invite you tovisit my Forbes blog to read what I learned. It’s an object lesson of a retailer using data combined with old-fashioned customer service to drive results. Plus, it has tremendous recognition (and the data to prove it) that for the most part, digital channels are stops on the path to purchase, not the end-game itself. Why this is important for retailers to understand is GameStop’s customer base – Millennials. We make so many assumptions about this age group that it’s borderline absurd. Yet they have some very distinct and discreet characteristics, and it’s useful to see how GameStop acknowledges and supports them.

Then there were the futurists. I confess that I cringe when someone gets on a stage and says, “Location is the new cookie. ” Perhaps it’s my age showing, but it makes me think “Like heck it is; I’ll turn off my phone first. ” The last thing I want is the equivalent of cookie-based re-targeting while I take my occasional walk through stores.

I worry about “futurists. ” I worry that they lead us as an industry, in the wrong direction by telling us things they think we want to hear. They know we’d like to hear that self-service is better than customer service and that you can accomplish as much with location-based marketing as you can with a knowledgeable sales associate (you can’t!). I worry that fixation on brand, vs. an acknowledgment of the importance of product causes us to forget what it is that drives shoppers to actually buy stuff. If I can make an ironic sweeping generalization, I worry that their sweeping generalizations obscure the reality that retail is STILL detail. It’s still the intersection of price, product, place and promotion. An attractive enough intersection that shoppers are happy to trundle along the path to purchase and appreciate both the journey and the destination.

The store is alive and well. The employee is important. Data helps drive success. These are the basics of a solid retail operation today.

Engage 2015 really did have some fabulous content, and I was quite glad to be a fly on the wall at a great event.