The Architecture of Retail Spaces: Ways to Trap the Consumer

“The mall is thus designed as a noncommutative space, and the goal is to trap the consumer in the world of consumption.”

- Jon Goss

In his piece, Jon Goss explores the physical structures of malls and examines the ways in which the architecture and spatial layout breeds behavior that promotes consumerism. After hearing the reports on our assignment to observe retail spaces, a common theme was the layout of the store to encourage impulse buys. A common strategy used by many retail businesses is to place small, relatively inexpensive items, such as candies, magazines, snacks, etc. near the checkout areas for customers to browse through while waiting in line.

While working at Blockbuster Videos a couple of years ago, a major focus throughout the day was to keep the snack and drink displays fully stocked. Blockbuster fully embraced the idea of the “reckless sweet tooth” purchase even using candy and snack displays to form the line. In the picture below, the store has abandoned the use of the black tape to form the line and has instead placed tables displaying sale items, racks containing snacks and magazines, and beverage refrigerators to structure the line.




By using these items to structure the line it guarantees that every customer would pass by it, basically there is no escaping the bombardment of products. Especially weekend nights when most stores experience their peak sales and the lines run into the aisles of the store, the snack display alleviates the customer’s boredom with magazines and even more movies and their hunger with snacks, candies, and beverages.

Another theme that was prominent in our discussion was the structure of the retail space to literally trap the consumer. As Goss writes in the piece, the exits in a retail environment are created to be hidden and hard to find, and therefore should not look too inviting. Many retail spaces have multiple doors that lead to different parking lots and are often tinted and hidden as to not attract attention.

As a result, while trying to find the specific door they came in from, customers are left wandering throughout the store, which can lead to an impulsive purchase. This statement forces me to recall an instance in which I was in a department store and while looking for the particular door I came in through I “stumbled” across the shoe department and just “coincidentally” needed a new pairs of shoes.

Furthermore, the organization of the retail space to trap the consumer brings to mind a particular mall that I’ve been in. The Sawgrass Mills Shopping Mall is an outlet mall located in Sunrise, Florida, and is the sixth largest mall in the United States. Being the sixth largest mall, there is a definite need for an innovative design to keep the consumer in the mall as long as possible. This mall is fascinating to many people coincidentally enough because it is shaped like an alligator.




Not having a strict linear layout, the mall has many curved areas and at the end of each section there are two ways to turn. Even having been in the mall over a dozen times I still frequently get lost. In addition to the ever-changing lineup of stores and additions to the mall, the shape of the mall makes it so easy to take a wrong turn and get lost.

Furthermore, as mentioned in the Goss article, some shopping centers have employed a “narrative” strategy to keep people to keep walking. A “fun” activity for many shoppers in this mall is to guess which part of the alligator they are in by observing the curvatures and length of the section. The decision to shape the mall as an alligator makes it stand apart from all other linear style malls, and also works magnificently in “trapping” the consumer.