Radical.
April 28, 2023 6:49 PM Subscribe
Last June a rogue time capsule was cracked opened on Imgur: a collection of hundreds of pictures of 90s malls and stores.
The lack of people make these somewhat unsettling.
posted by vanitas at 7:10 PM on April 28, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by vanitas at 7:10 PM on April 28, 2023 [9 favorites]
oh my god I want them in hi-res so badly! one of these HAS to be the chain I worked in.
posted by redsparkler at 7:21 PM on April 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by redsparkler at 7:21 PM on April 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
90s design is soooo 90s. Especially the text designs. I hate it but I also love it. These are so good.
Also omg Fire + Ice Harvard Square!
posted by uncleozzy at 7:50 PM on April 28, 2023 [8 favorites]
Also omg Fire + Ice Harvard Square!
posted by uncleozzy at 7:50 PM on April 28, 2023 [8 favorites]
Also omg Fire + Ice Harvard Square!
Closed 5(?) years ago, and the space is still vacant.
posted by Melismata at 7:53 PM on April 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
Closed 5(?) years ago, and the space is still vacant.
posted by Melismata at 7:53 PM on April 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
I was very relieved when I saw the first human.
posted by Sunflowers Beneath the Snow at 7:54 PM on April 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Sunflowers Beneath the Snow at 7:54 PM on April 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
So much brown Emigre.
posted by migurski at 7:58 PM on April 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by migurski at 7:58 PM on April 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
The color saturation is off the charts.
posted by notoriety public at 8:27 PM on April 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by notoriety public at 8:27 PM on April 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
90s store designs and marketing got totally wild, like everything had to be a Disneyfied theme park and full on multimedia destination experience.
Hi, I just want to buy some decent socks without watching a video or climbing through your Nickelodeon game show TV action adventure set.
Pardon, what? No thank you, I have a cell phone. That's a hell of a trick, how the hell did you learn how to speak in Papyrus? And why are you wearing iridescent mirrored contact lenses? I'm sorry, I didn't know eyes could actually do that.
Oh? You went and saw Lawnmower Man three times in a row after eating a ten strip of double-hit Mickeys and they stayed like that? Is that why everything turning sepia like the sun is setting too fast over a wildfire?
No, thank you, I don't want to buy an aspirational desktop zen rock garden and an even more aspirational full grain leather filofax with granite stone accents.
Look I just want some nice wool socks. Oh that's great, yeah, I see them at the top of the rock climbing wall over by the oversized Hypercolor t-shirts and the shelf full of those weird pin sculptures everyone crams their faces into.
Psst, hey, you got any more of those double hit Mickeys?
posted by loquacious at 9:03 PM on April 28, 2023 [26 favorites]
Hi, I just want to buy some decent socks without watching a video or climbing through your Nickelodeon game show TV action adventure set.
Pardon, what? No thank you, I have a cell phone. That's a hell of a trick, how the hell did you learn how to speak in Papyrus? And why are you wearing iridescent mirrored contact lenses? I'm sorry, I didn't know eyes could actually do that.
Oh? You went and saw Lawnmower Man three times in a row after eating a ten strip of double-hit Mickeys and they stayed like that? Is that why everything turning sepia like the sun is setting too fast over a wildfire?
No, thank you, I don't want to buy an aspirational desktop zen rock garden and an even more aspirational full grain leather filofax with granite stone accents.
Look I just want some nice wool socks. Oh that's great, yeah, I see them at the top of the rock climbing wall over by the oversized Hypercolor t-shirts and the shelf full of those weird pin sculptures everyone crams their faces into.
Psst, hey, you got any more of those double hit Mickeys?
posted by loquacious at 9:03 PM on April 28, 2023 [26 favorites]
Any clues as to where these malls were?
Loved the juxtaposition of a PS1 kiosk and Starbucks counter here.
Then this electronics arena...
posted by JoeXIII007 at 9:32 PM on April 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Loved the juxtaposition of a PS1 kiosk and Starbucks counter here.
Then this electronics arena...
posted by JoeXIII007 at 9:32 PM on April 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
There's a Muji so that has to narrow down the possible locations.
posted by sepviva at 9:36 PM on April 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by sepviva at 9:36 PM on April 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Friends dont let friends Shaq Diesel.
posted by lkc at 9:46 PM on April 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by lkc at 9:46 PM on April 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
oh yeah, the 90s. everybody knew better by then. but they kept on keeping on anyway. and then the internet happened
posted by philip-random at 10:18 PM on April 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by philip-random at 10:18 PM on April 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
This looks like the “oops all flagship stores!” mall from 1998.
posted by montag2k at 11:29 PM on April 28, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by montag2k at 11:29 PM on April 28, 2023 [8 favorites]
This is like the shiny alternative to the Internet K-Hole.
posted by phigmov at 11:33 PM on April 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by phigmov at 11:33 PM on April 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
The year is 1991 and I am going to visit distant relatives in the shoe industry so my mom is prepared to buy me whatever kicks I want, which are these. We go to the Nike flagship store in Portland with TVs in the floor and a some sort of magic computer-controlled shoe-delivery dumbwaiter that brought you the requested model and size. Life-size Michael Jordan sculptures mid-dunk, and room after room dedicated to different sports. In retrospect that experience seems to be peak 90s when others describe the decade. Otherwise I associate the decade more with a Seattle filled with purple, teal and lots of forest green. And polyurethane treated hardwoods. And the graphic design of The Rocket.
posted by St. Oops at 11:34 PM on April 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by St. Oops at 11:34 PM on April 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
Uuugh St Oops my favorite color was forest green in 1995 and I thought it was soooo hip.
posted by potrzebie at 11:58 PM on April 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by potrzebie at 11:58 PM on April 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
my favorite color was forest green in 1995 and I thought it was soooo hip.
IT STILL IS
posted by away for regrooving at 12:03 AM on April 29, 2023 [15 favorites]
IT STILL IS
posted by away for regrooving at 12:03 AM on April 29, 2023 [15 favorites]
If you like this and you're on instagram, I can recommend the @luxurydeptstore account.
The design elements of my childhood are yet another thing I didn't realise was going to fade away until they already did. I love the absurd plush lushness of mid-80s to mid-90s design. Now that everything is metal and grey or a super muted pastel palette with hard edges everywhere, I crave velvet and fountains. I want to go to a fancy restaurant that's all carpet and padded booths and table linens rather than someplace where the noise bounces off every single hard surface and I can see all the guts of the ceiling.
posted by terretu at 12:13 AM on April 29, 2023 [26 favorites]
The design elements of my childhood are yet another thing I didn't realise was going to fade away until they already did. I love the absurd plush lushness of mid-80s to mid-90s design. Now that everything is metal and grey or a super muted pastel palette with hard edges everywhere, I crave velvet and fountains. I want to go to a fancy restaurant that's all carpet and padded booths and table linens rather than someplace where the noise bounces off every single hard surface and I can see all the guts of the ceiling.
posted by terretu at 12:13 AM on April 29, 2023 [26 favorites]
I miss the mid-nineties like the deserts miss the rain.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:32 AM on April 29, 2023 [53 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:32 AM on April 29, 2023 [53 favorites]
eating a ten strip of double-hit Mickeys
Oh, man. I remember them. They were the reason we carried an extra-large duffel bag in the taping gear. So at the end of the show, Plan B was to just throw everything into the duffel bag, then sort it back at the hotel.
posted by mikelieman at 3:27 AM on April 29, 2023
Oh, man. I remember them. They were the reason we carried an extra-large duffel bag in the taping gear. So at the end of the show, Plan B was to just throw everything into the duffel bag, then sort it back at the hotel.
posted by mikelieman at 3:27 AM on April 29, 2023
my mom is prepared to buy me whatever kicks I want, which are these.
Those shoes are banging.
posted by Literaryhero at 4:43 AM on April 29, 2023 [4 favorites]
Those shoes are banging.
posted by Literaryhero at 4:43 AM on April 29, 2023 [4 favorites]
Just show me the arcades. I want to play Darkstalkers.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:18 AM on April 29, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:18 AM on April 29, 2023 [7 favorites]
This place! Star Factory! Recording booth where you go in and record a karaoke track, alone or with your goofy friends. What I would give to have those old tapes today.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 5:21 AM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 5:21 AM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
I just finished up psychonauts 2 and I don't think I'd realized how 90s the aesthetic is. I think Nickelodeon just taught me to accept that design as default kid. I don't think I realized how much the adult world was also going for it.
posted by es_de_bah at 5:24 AM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by es_de_bah at 5:24 AM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
MeFi: Load 885 more images ↓
posted by fairmettle at 5:32 AM on April 29, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by fairmettle at 5:32 AM on April 29, 2023 [8 favorites]
my mom is prepared to buy me whatever kicks I want, which are these.
Those shoes are banging.
So very very seconded
posted by threecheesetrees at 5:42 AM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
Those shoes are banging.
So very very seconded
posted by threecheesetrees at 5:42 AM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
What stood out to me first in these images was the 90s type design. I’d forgotten that whole ‘all the fonts’ aesthetic. Took me right back. Truly a time of excess.
posted by threecheesetrees at 5:45 AM on April 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by threecheesetrees at 5:45 AM on April 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
Uuugh St Oops my favorite color was forest green in 1995 and I thought it was soooo hip.
My bridesmaids dresses at my 1994 wedding were forest green so I have photographic evidence, for the rest of my damn life, of just how unhip I was.
posted by cooker girl at 6:52 AM on April 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
My bridesmaids dresses at my 1994 wedding were forest green so I have photographic evidence, for the rest of my damn life, of just how unhip I was.
posted by cooker girl at 6:52 AM on April 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
90’s Muji! Made me feel so sophisticated, draped in canvas.
posted by q*ben at 6:52 AM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by q*ben at 6:52 AM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
I was too broke while all this was going on to participate very much in the retail exuberance of the time, so it's both weirdly nostalgic but also weirdly... alienating? So much of this was on the other side of an economic wall that wouldn't come down until that wonderland was gone.
posted by majick at 6:54 AM on April 29, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by majick at 6:54 AM on April 29, 2023 [10 favorites]
Bloor Street Hosiery. LCBO. Ontario information kiosk.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:04 AM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:04 AM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
What happened to malls? Well, according to my partner, they are still there, although presumably sans all that sans font signage. I just haven't been, personally, because my Child of the 90's is now a grown-up, plus other circumstances that Father Time has thrown at us.
posted by kozad at 7:11 AM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by kozad at 7:11 AM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
When I look at photos from the 90s, I always notice how cheap and disposable all of the consumer goods look. The shoes, the toys, the electronics – everything.
I think it's partly the garish color schemes and
off-kilter geometry, which scream "Happy Meal toy" to today's sensibilities.
And maybe it's partly because I'm now more used to seeing this aesthetic at yard sales and flea markets.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:11 AM on April 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
I think it's partly the garish color schemes and
off-kilter geometry, which scream "Happy Meal toy" to today's sensibilities.
And maybe it's partly because I'm now more used to seeing this aesthetic at yard sales and flea markets.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:11 AM on April 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
Lacking a context, it looks like these are from a variety of malls. Does anyone know it's purpose? Most people wouldn't take pictures of empty malls for fun, unless absurdly, someone carefully collected these from the internet since (checks watch) 1999.
posted by fiercekitten at 7:25 AM on April 29, 2023
posted by fiercekitten at 7:25 AM on April 29, 2023
What happened to malls?
As best I can tell, they currently exist as either nearly empty 100x oversized infrastructure for an Apple Store; or as one of those "reimagined" outdoor shopping plazas with unusable quasi-public space and desperately insufficient parking.
posted by majick at 7:29 AM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
As best I can tell, they currently exist as either nearly empty 100x oversized infrastructure for an Apple Store; or as one of those "reimagined" outdoor shopping plazas with unusable quasi-public space and desperately insufficient parking.
posted by majick at 7:29 AM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
Malls worked when the middle class had money and time to drive to and spend on the things malls sell. The massive drop in time and spending power of everyone born in the 90s and later eventually hit an inflection point where businesses that cater to 30-and-under are closing their mall storefronts. For recent example, Bed Bath & Beyond.
posted by Callisto Prime at 7:48 AM on April 29, 2023 [12 favorites]
posted by Callisto Prime at 7:48 AM on April 29, 2023 [12 favorites]
If these are all from the same area, they’re either from Houston or So. Florida.
Both areas had an Incredible Universe store and I recognized what has to be a NASA gift shop. (I know there is one in Cape Canavaral. I assume there’s one in Houston.)
posted by oddman at 7:49 AM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
Both areas had an Incredible Universe store and I recognized what has to be a NASA gift shop. (I know there is one in Cape Canavaral. I assume there’s one in Houston.)
posted by oddman at 7:49 AM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
Malls: groups of retirees doing laps together in the morning.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 8:12 AM on April 29, 2023
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 8:12 AM on April 29, 2023
What stood out to me first in these images was the 90s type design. I’d forgotten that whole ‘all the fonts’ aesthetic.
For me, it was also those skinny fonts with the generous kerning that was so much the style back in the 90s.
Lacking a context, it looks like these are from a variety of malls. Does anyone know it's purpose?
Most of them look like they came from print sources, possibly trade magazines. If there's a mall trade mag that existed in the 90s, that might explain it.
If these are all from the same area, they’re either from Houston or So. Florida.
Both areas had an Incredible Universe store and I recognized what has to be a NASA gift shop. (I know there is one in Cape Canavaral. I assume there’s one in Houston.)
Cape Canaveral is in Central Florida. There is a shot from the interior of a Warner Bros. Store that could've been the one in Bayside, in Downtown Miami, though. I don't remember that store well enough to say for certain.
There's some shots of a Virgin Megastore that strongly reminded me of the Times Square location. The Movado exterior looks just like Rockefeller Center.
Many of the stores look fancy enough to be flagship locations. What were the big testing markets for such stores in the 90s, mall-wise?
posted by May Kasahara at 8:28 AM on April 29, 2023 [4 favorites]
For me, it was also those skinny fonts with the generous kerning that was so much the style back in the 90s.
Lacking a context, it looks like these are from a variety of malls. Does anyone know it's purpose?
Most of them look like they came from print sources, possibly trade magazines. If there's a mall trade mag that existed in the 90s, that might explain it.
If these are all from the same area, they’re either from Houston or So. Florida.
Both areas had an Incredible Universe store and I recognized what has to be a NASA gift shop. (I know there is one in Cape Canavaral. I assume there’s one in Houston.)
Cape Canaveral is in Central Florida. There is a shot from the interior of a Warner Bros. Store that could've been the one in Bayside, in Downtown Miami, though. I don't remember that store well enough to say for certain.
There's some shots of a Virgin Megastore that strongly reminded me of the Times Square location. The Movado exterior looks just like Rockefeller Center.
Many of the stores look fancy enough to be flagship locations. What were the big testing markets for such stores in the 90s, mall-wise?
posted by May Kasahara at 8:28 AM on April 29, 2023 [4 favorites]
I was too broke while all this was going on to participate very much in the retail exuberance of the time, so it's both weirdly nostalgic but also weirdly... alienating? So much of this was on the other side of an economic wall that wouldn't come down until that wonderland was gone.
Same. But even when I did have some money in the 90s I found it deeply alienating because of how intentionally psychologically manipulative most of this was.
A couple of the photos reminded me of a "destination" style store I had totally forgotten about, which was The Nature Company. Which was like the weird offspring of The Sharper Image and a large museum gift shop but without the edifying benefits of a museum but retaining the upscale prices.
I remember going in there and wanting to buy so many things and today I can't even remember what any of those things even were. Most of it was just shiny crap like rocks, crystals and desk toys.
In hindsight it was obvious that the whole store concept and design was all about getting people in the door to play with the big ticket items and psychologically manipulating customers to the point they absolutely had to buy something to fill that longing, so instead of buying an overpriced bog standard beginner's telescope you settled on a shiny rock or a somewhat realistically painted plastic dinosaur toy or Koosh ball or whatever, which likely had even higher profit margins and markups.
posted by loquacious at 9:26 AM on April 29, 2023 [17 favorites]
Same. But even when I did have some money in the 90s I found it deeply alienating because of how intentionally psychologically manipulative most of this was.
A couple of the photos reminded me of a "destination" style store I had totally forgotten about, which was The Nature Company. Which was like the weird offspring of The Sharper Image and a large museum gift shop but without the edifying benefits of a museum but retaining the upscale prices.
I remember going in there and wanting to buy so many things and today I can't even remember what any of those things even were. Most of it was just shiny crap like rocks, crystals and desk toys.
In hindsight it was obvious that the whole store concept and design was all about getting people in the door to play with the big ticket items and psychologically manipulating customers to the point they absolutely had to buy something to fill that longing, so instead of buying an overpriced bog standard beginner's telescope you settled on a shiny rock or a somewhat realistically painted plastic dinosaur toy or Koosh ball or whatever, which likely had even higher profit margins and markups.
posted by loquacious at 9:26 AM on April 29, 2023 [17 favorites]
Is it just me or is Ingredients bake shop totally ripping off the Philosophy brand bath products aesthetic with the whole "dictionary syllable pronunciation guide" thing? Or was that just everywhere in the 90s
posted by JauntyFedora at 9:34 AM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by JauntyFedora at 9:34 AM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
What stood out to me first in these images was the 90s type design. I’d forgotten that whole ‘all the fonts’ aesthetic.
I can speak about this.
What happened in the 90s with commercial design was that desktop publishing, design and even CAD/CAM stuff finally became affordable to almost everyone, and TrueType became a powerhouse on both Mac and Windows computers, and so everyone suddenly had way too many fonts to choose from.
I remember sitting in on client meetings and hearing clients specifically ask for and demand too many fonts and many other graphic design tropes and cliches, like "Can you make the logo bigger" and all that kind of crap.
And I can't count how many times we had to talk clients out of using the Papyrus font. Everyone wanted that font.
Meanwhile more and more companies were doing the whole vertical integration dance and brand ID and psychology based market studies and science was getting honed to a razor sharp edge.
Add to that mix new technologies like digital printing, large format inkjets and CAM devices like vinyl cutters, routers and more were getting added to print and design bureaus, so if you wanted expensive full color signage with precisely matched Pantone color callouts it no longer required older, more expensive technology like screen printing and custom mixed inks.
There were also new modern printing substrates and materials like gatorboard, corrugated/extruded plastics, foam boards and more.
So a lot of the complicated and elaborate signage and store decor we see in these pictures are mainly little more than extremely fragile foamcore board with cut vinyl applications, or CAD/CAM milled styrofoam blocks for dimensionally sculpted signage that just looks like it was carved out of wood and painted, or you could stack and layer cut foamcore boards for raised fonts or dimensions, or build actual 3D structures out of cut and glued boards and many other techniques.
Milled or router-cut styrofoam was a big thing and there were various paints available where you could turn a dusty, flaky chunk of milled styrofoam into a hard, glossy surface of any color or mix of colors that was durable enough that it could resist handling. It's still really popular today, and they even use it in construction as architectural details by slapping stucco over it.
I remember working on some signage projects like this and the clients and brand managers were, by and large, thoroughly bonkers with how detail oriented they were about things like color matching, font choices and more.
So, yeah, a lot of this signage in the pictures is often little more than foamcore board, styrofoam adhesive vinyl, inkjets and so on, all using CAD/CAM and desktop publishing techniques.
A whole lot of the very dimensional and robust looking signage and store decorations we're seeing in these pictures could be crumpled and torn up with your bare hands because it's little more than paper, foam, cut vinyl and adhesives.
They only look crisp and dimensionally solid because the people who made them and installed them were extremely careful in handling the materials from production, packaging, transport, delivery and on through installation. and a lot of companies/stores hired contractors that specialized and focused specifically on store deco installations so that it made it from the print house to the walls of the store without a single ding or nick in the materials.
posted by loquacious at 10:04 AM on April 29, 2023 [44 favorites]
I can speak about this.
What happened in the 90s with commercial design was that desktop publishing, design and even CAD/CAM stuff finally became affordable to almost everyone, and TrueType became a powerhouse on both Mac and Windows computers, and so everyone suddenly had way too many fonts to choose from.
I remember sitting in on client meetings and hearing clients specifically ask for and demand too many fonts and many other graphic design tropes and cliches, like "Can you make the logo bigger" and all that kind of crap.
And I can't count how many times we had to talk clients out of using the Papyrus font. Everyone wanted that font.
Meanwhile more and more companies were doing the whole vertical integration dance and brand ID and psychology based market studies and science was getting honed to a razor sharp edge.
Add to that mix new technologies like digital printing, large format inkjets and CAM devices like vinyl cutters, routers and more were getting added to print and design bureaus, so if you wanted expensive full color signage with precisely matched Pantone color callouts it no longer required older, more expensive technology like screen printing and custom mixed inks.
There were also new modern printing substrates and materials like gatorboard, corrugated/extruded plastics, foam boards and more.
So a lot of the complicated and elaborate signage and store decor we see in these pictures are mainly little more than extremely fragile foamcore board with cut vinyl applications, or CAD/CAM milled styrofoam blocks for dimensionally sculpted signage that just looks like it was carved out of wood and painted, or you could stack and layer cut foamcore boards for raised fonts or dimensions, or build actual 3D structures out of cut and glued boards and many other techniques.
Milled or router-cut styrofoam was a big thing and there were various paints available where you could turn a dusty, flaky chunk of milled styrofoam into a hard, glossy surface of any color or mix of colors that was durable enough that it could resist handling. It's still really popular today, and they even use it in construction as architectural details by slapping stucco over it.
I remember working on some signage projects like this and the clients and brand managers were, by and large, thoroughly bonkers with how detail oriented they were about things like color matching, font choices and more.
So, yeah, a lot of this signage in the pictures is often little more than foamcore board, styrofoam adhesive vinyl, inkjets and so on, all using CAD/CAM and desktop publishing techniques.
A whole lot of the very dimensional and robust looking signage and store decorations we're seeing in these pictures could be crumpled and torn up with your bare hands because it's little more than paper, foam, cut vinyl and adhesives.
They only look crisp and dimensionally solid because the people who made them and installed them were extremely careful in handling the materials from production, packaging, transport, delivery and on through installation. and a lot of companies/stores hired contractors that specialized and focused specifically on store deco installations so that it made it from the print house to the walls of the store without a single ding or nick in the materials.
posted by loquacious at 10:04 AM on April 29, 2023 [44 favorites]
This looks like the archive of Visual Merchandising and Store Design magazine. Or, as it was referred to in art school: Evil Architectural Digest.
posted by parmanparman at 10:08 AM on April 29, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by parmanparman at 10:08 AM on April 29, 2023 [7 favorites]
Is it just me or is Ingredients bake shop totally ripping off the Philosophy brand bath products aesthetic with the whole "dictionary syllable pronunciation guide" thing?
Hrrrrng you've just reminded me of the store "Cacique" that does this but wrongly, like it was French instead of Taino-into-Spanish like in the real world. Now I'm going to be irrationally annoyed for like half an hour.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:10 AM on April 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
Hrrrrng you've just reminded me of the store "Cacique" that does this but wrongly, like it was French instead of Taino-into-Spanish like in the real world. Now I'm going to be irrationally annoyed for like half an hour.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:10 AM on April 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
Lacking a context, it looks like these are from a variety of malls. Does anyone know it's purpose?
A lot of these look like brand new installations, and I will agree that many look like flagship locations.
I would also guess that they're documenting a production/printing company's projects, or even a professional store deco installer.
Many of the photos look like they were shot on film by a professional or semi-professional photographer and during hours when the stores weren't open or had not yet opened to the public, which would explain the lack of actual humans in the vast majority of the shots.
These definitely are not the photos of some random fan of malls and chain stores and it had some kind of commercial or professional focus, either cataloging print/production projects or installs or maybe even showcasing overall store designs.
posted by loquacious at 10:11 AM on April 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
A lot of these look like brand new installations, and I will agree that many look like flagship locations.
I would also guess that they're documenting a production/printing company's projects, or even a professional store deco installer.
Many of the photos look like they were shot on film by a professional or semi-professional photographer and during hours when the stores weren't open or had not yet opened to the public, which would explain the lack of actual humans in the vast majority of the shots.
These definitely are not the photos of some random fan of malls and chain stores and it had some kind of commercial or professional focus, either cataloging print/production projects or installs or maybe even showcasing overall store designs.
posted by loquacious at 10:11 AM on April 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
If these are all from the same area, they’re either from Houston or So. Florida.
Not with a Muji, not now, and certainly not then.
posted by Rash at 11:03 AM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
Not with a Muji, not now, and certainly not then.
posted by Rash at 11:03 AM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
2023–28=1995.
This is just more evidence for my theory that the ideal span for "retro" is 28 years, because that's also the interval you can re-use a calendar by. April 29, 1995 was also a Saturday.
posted by wanderingmind at 11:09 AM on April 29, 2023 [10 favorites]
This is just more evidence for my theory that the ideal span for "retro" is 28 years, because that's also the interval you can re-use a calendar by. April 29, 1995 was also a Saturday.
posted by wanderingmind at 11:09 AM on April 29, 2023 [10 favorites]
Hmmm, Wikipedia says "Muji entered the US market in 2002; its products were stocked at MOMA, New York. Muji opened its first American store on November 16, 2007, in SoHo, Manhattan."
posted by gwint at 11:34 AM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by gwint at 11:34 AM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
Muji entered the US market with a store-within-store in the MoMA gift shop.
posted by Rash at 11:43 AM on April 29, 2023
posted by Rash at 11:43 AM on April 29, 2023
> I miss the mid-nineties like the deserts miss the rain.
each year the average age of people on metafilter increases by one year change my mind
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 12:57 PM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
each year the average age of people on metafilter increases by one year change my mind
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 12:57 PM on April 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
To add to what loquacious shared: This looks like post-production photos from an exhibit design firm, and there's at least one photo from the Pacific Science Center in Seattle of a wayfinding sign.
One of the big local design and install firms in Seattle recently closed shop, and I know their trade was museum exhibits and mall displays. I imagine the decline in malls has had a pretty negative impact on the industry as a whole.
posted by Maude_the_destroyer at 1:39 PM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
One of the big local design and install firms in Seattle recently closed shop, and I know their trade was museum exhibits and mall displays. I imagine the decline in malls has had a pretty negative impact on the industry as a whole.
posted by Maude_the_destroyer at 1:39 PM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
This looks like the archive of Visual Merchandising and Store Design magazine. Or, as it was referred to in art school: Evil Architectural Digest.
Seriously. I forgot that that trade mag even existed and there was a period of my life where I was surrounded by these kinds of general commercial design trade mags.
I have a totally obsolete commercial design degree and grew up in a screen printing shop doing a lot of graphic arts work. And I sincerely regret the time I spent in or anywhere near real commercial graphic design and marketing. In my defense I really just liked photography, design and fonts and I just wanted to make pretty and cool looking stuff. I deeply enjoyed doing traditional paper and film and camera manual copy-paste text layouts and kerning and stuff, and then desktop publishing was fun for a while, and then it wasn't so much.
And the more I learned about marketing and marketing psychology over the years the more I realized how chaotic evil it all was.
I really can't rant enough about closely knit marketing and its intended goal of hyperconsumerism is to a whole lot of our social and cultural problems, which definitely includes these kinds of store layouts and designs because the Gruen Transfer is just part of the overall psychological manipulation.
It took me way too long to figure out why I hated being in malls, stores like this, or places like Ikea. Part of it is that I learned I'm probably on the spectrum and sensitive to these intentionally confusing and over-stimulating environments.
Another part of it is if you're sensitive and you spend enough time around marketing and the commercial design that supports it you learn too many fucked up things and it feels like you're wearing the sunglasses in They Live and almost everything that humankind makes, uses, sells, consumes or advertises just starts to look like OBEY and CONSUME and it'll drive you a little batty if you keep wearing the sunglasses because it's fucking everywhere
You can barely buy a cup of yogurt or a spoon to eat it with without being exposed to a number of intentionally manipulative marketing/design decisions ranging from the colors and layout of the store to the lighting on through to printing on the cup of yogurt or box of spoons, the placement and facing on the shelves, so much more, like how you're now very likely also being tracked via bluetooth and wifi beacons and even video for marketing feedback, and so much more. You're absolutely soaking in it.
If you carefully and studiously logged all of the marketing/sales related intentionally designed and planned details and events of the simple act of going into a modern supermarket to buy any one thing, pay for it and leave the event log would be something like hundreds or thousands of points and details. It could easily even be hundreds of thousands of logged events if you included and logged every single bluetooth/wifi beacon and encounter, especially if you had a related store app installed with all of the radios on your phone and GPS turned on.
Which is what we are actually looking at here with these pictures. It's not really a cool catalog or time capsule of 90s malls.
If you look at it a certain way, most of it is a totally fucked up catalog and time capsule of intentionally overwhelming, confusing, overstimulating and application of psychologically manipulative designs and dark patterns.
posted by loquacious at 1:51 PM on April 29, 2023 [18 favorites]
Seriously. I forgot that that trade mag even existed and there was a period of my life where I was surrounded by these kinds of general commercial design trade mags.
I have a totally obsolete commercial design degree and grew up in a screen printing shop doing a lot of graphic arts work. And I sincerely regret the time I spent in or anywhere near real commercial graphic design and marketing. In my defense I really just liked photography, design and fonts and I just wanted to make pretty and cool looking stuff. I deeply enjoyed doing traditional paper and film and camera manual copy-paste text layouts and kerning and stuff, and then desktop publishing was fun for a while, and then it wasn't so much.
And the more I learned about marketing and marketing psychology over the years the more I realized how chaotic evil it all was.
I really can't rant enough about closely knit marketing and its intended goal of hyperconsumerism is to a whole lot of our social and cultural problems, which definitely includes these kinds of store layouts and designs because the Gruen Transfer is just part of the overall psychological manipulation.
It took me way too long to figure out why I hated being in malls, stores like this, or places like Ikea. Part of it is that I learned I'm probably on the spectrum and sensitive to these intentionally confusing and over-stimulating environments.
Another part of it is if you're sensitive and you spend enough time around marketing and the commercial design that supports it you learn too many fucked up things and it feels like you're wearing the sunglasses in They Live and almost everything that humankind makes, uses, sells, consumes or advertises just starts to look like OBEY and CONSUME and it'll drive you a little batty if you keep wearing the sunglasses because it's fucking everywhere
You can barely buy a cup of yogurt or a spoon to eat it with without being exposed to a number of intentionally manipulative marketing/design decisions ranging from the colors and layout of the store to the lighting on through to printing on the cup of yogurt or box of spoons, the placement and facing on the shelves, so much more, like how you're now very likely also being tracked via bluetooth and wifi beacons and even video for marketing feedback, and so much more. You're absolutely soaking in it.
If you carefully and studiously logged all of the marketing/sales related intentionally designed and planned details and events of the simple act of going into a modern supermarket to buy any one thing, pay for it and leave the event log would be something like hundreds or thousands of points and details. It could easily even be hundreds of thousands of logged events if you included and logged every single bluetooth/wifi beacon and encounter, especially if you had a related store app installed with all of the radios on your phone and GPS turned on.
Which is what we are actually looking at here with these pictures. It's not really a cool catalog or time capsule of 90s malls.
If you look at it a certain way, most of it is a totally fucked up catalog and time capsule of intentionally overwhelming, confusing, overstimulating and application of psychologically manipulative designs and dark patterns.
posted by loquacious at 1:51 PM on April 29, 2023 [18 favorites]
A couple of the photos reminded me of a "destination" style store I had totally forgotten about, which was The Nature Company. Which was like the weird offspring of The Sharper Image and a large museum gift shop but without the edifying benefits of a museum but retaining the upscale prices.
Oh man, yeah. As a kid that was my favorite store to browse - my mom would often leave me there while she went to a clothing store. I guess I could imagine something like that existing today in an airport, but it's hard to imagine it working as an online store.
posted by coffeecat at 2:08 PM on April 29, 2023
Oh man, yeah. As a kid that was my favorite store to browse - my mom would often leave me there while she went to a clothing store. I guess I could imagine something like that existing today in an airport, but it's hard to imagine it working as an online store.
posted by coffeecat at 2:08 PM on April 29, 2023
first Mall experience, late, 74' early 1975. Briarwood mall Went to Sears alot even the every other year toughskins® and Keds shopping. I saw Star Wars there 23 times. It was like the city of Logan's Run with water falls, more ferns and a Spencers. My buddy should sometimes hide behind some pillar and yell "RIUNNER" My first D&D module, my first heist. Sky lights leaking sun and rain. Neo cement grey terriam frozen beverage and jewelry stores with plants that lit when you touch it's leaf only $995 1977 money.
I worked my butt off one summer and bought a canoe.
Christmas carols 2-5 Saturday the 23rd.
posted by clavdivs at 2:28 PM on April 29, 2023 [9 favorites]
I worked my butt off one summer and bought a canoe.
Christmas carols 2-5 Saturday the 23rd.
posted by clavdivs at 2:28 PM on April 29, 2023 [9 favorites]
I worked in a mall in the 90s. Right now I am being flooded with so many smells and sounds and physical sensations that I had to stop scrolling through the pictures. I am probably going to have the scent of stale popcorn and damp low-pile carpeting lingering in my nostrils all night long.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:34 PM on April 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:34 PM on April 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
Now we're supposed to be nostalgic for the mall? (Cat and Girl)
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 3:01 PM on April 29, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 3:01 PM on April 29, 2023 [6 favorites]
Right now I am being flooded with so many smells and sounds and physical sensations
This. So much.
I look at these photos and I can feel what it must have smelled and sounded like in these places. The sensations inside each store, outside each store, walking into the food court, etc. are all vividly etched in my mind. Glad to know it's not just me.
posted by Avelwood at 3:10 PM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
This. So much.
I look at these photos and I can feel what it must have smelled and sounded like in these places. The sensations inside each store, outside each store, walking into the food court, etc. are all vividly etched in my mind. Glad to know it's not just me.
posted by Avelwood at 3:10 PM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
so many smells
My first migraine was brought on by a promotion for Poison perfume which involved salesgirls at the department store handing out peacock features doused in the stuff, which people then carried all.through.the.mall. I still get a little sick thinking about it.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 4:48 PM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
My first migraine was brought on by a promotion for Poison perfume which involved salesgirls at the department store handing out peacock features doused in the stuff, which people then carried all.through.the.mall. I still get a little sick thinking about it.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 4:48 PM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
Wow. There’s an image of an opticians that was in my portfolio when I interviewed for my current job.
In 1997.
posted by skyscraper at 5:10 PM on April 29, 2023 [7 favorites]
In 1997.
posted by skyscraper at 5:10 PM on April 29, 2023 [7 favorites]
I feel like I'm looking at the religious shrines of a mass death cult (consumer culture)
posted by latkes at 5:41 PM on April 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by latkes at 5:41 PM on April 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
clavdivs: you ever goto Arborland a little east of Briarwood?
I got to see that in its last 5 years. Loved the Toys R Us ramp room and the sweet roasted almond smelling food court.
Miss the fountains at Briarwood - very nice space. Also miss the Southland Mall food court out in Southgate (now a Best Buy)
posted by JoeXIII007 at 6:03 PM on April 29, 2023
I got to see that in its last 5 years. Loved the Toys R Us ramp room and the sweet roasted almond smelling food court.
Miss the fountains at Briarwood - very nice space. Also miss the Southland Mall food court out in Southgate (now a Best Buy)
posted by JoeXIII007 at 6:03 PM on April 29, 2023
It was like the city of Logan's Run with water falls, more ferns and a Spencers.
I wondered if most of it had actually been filmed in a mall, and Wikipedia helpfully supplied: "Producers saved $3 million by finding readily available locations in numerous Dallas buildings, including the Apparel Mart at Dallas Market Center (The Great Hall), Oz Restaurant and Nightclub (The Love Shop) and Pegasus Place (Sandman headquarters), the Fort Worth Water Gardens, and the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston." So, kind of mall-adjacent. The one time I went to Dallas, around Xmas 1977, I went to Dallas' "Llove Entertainment Complex", a sort of mall thing that had taken over part of Love Field for a few years.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:34 PM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
I wondered if most of it had actually been filmed in a mall, and Wikipedia helpfully supplied: "Producers saved $3 million by finding readily available locations in numerous Dallas buildings, including the Apparel Mart at Dallas Market Center (The Great Hall), Oz Restaurant and Nightclub (The Love Shop) and Pegasus Place (Sandman headquarters), the Fort Worth Water Gardens, and the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston." So, kind of mall-adjacent. The one time I went to Dallas, around Xmas 1977, I went to Dallas' "Llove Entertainment Complex", a sort of mall thing that had taken over part of Love Field for a few years.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:34 PM on April 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
What happened to malls?
They still seem to be doing well around there (Pittsburgh metro) although I haven't been in one mmyself in years and years.
posted by octothorpe at 6:29 AM on April 30, 2023
They still seem to be doing well around there (Pittsburgh metro) although I haven't been in one mmyself in years and years.
posted by octothorpe at 6:29 AM on April 30, 2023
For years now, our local mall has been teetering on the edge. Target is going strong, and the cinema seems to be back to business as usual since the lockdown, but a lot of the space seems to be used for pop-up events (I got my COVID vaccines in an empty store there). I heard a couple of years ago that the mall I grew up going to finally fell to the wrecking ball after years of limping along with only one anchor store open, and is now a Walmart superstore.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:58 AM on April 30, 2023
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:58 AM on April 30, 2023
A couple of the photos reminded me of a "destination" style store I had totally forgotten about, which was The Nature Company.
I know which ones you're talking about, because I stopped to look at a couple for a long time because I thought "I'm almost certain this is The Nature Company" too. I visited the Tysons Corner one regularly. I still have several nice pieces of silver jewelry with tiny animal fetishes and semi-precious stones that came from there. The store was *wildly* popular with my baby leftist high school ecology club/Amnesty International friend group.
posted by jocelmeow at 9:05 AM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
I know which ones you're talking about, because I stopped to look at a couple for a long time because I thought "I'm almost certain this is The Nature Company" too. I visited the Tysons Corner one regularly. I still have several nice pieces of silver jewelry with tiny animal fetishes and semi-precious stones that came from there. The store was *wildly* popular with my baby leftist high school ecology club/Amnesty International friend group.
posted by jocelmeow at 9:05 AM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
I am unable to see a post about malls without strongly recommending the documentary Jasper Mall.
posted by zoinks at 6:51 PM on April 30, 2023
posted by zoinks at 6:51 PM on April 30, 2023
You can barely buy a cup of yogurt or a spoon to eat it with without being exposed to a number of intentionally manipulative marketing/design decisions ranging from the colors and layout of the store to the lighting on through to printing on the cup of yogurt or box of spoons, the placement and facing on the shelves, so much more, like how you're now very likely also being tracked via bluetooth and wifi beacons and even video for marketing feedback, and so much more. You're absolutely soaking in it.
You shouldn't take all that so seriously. It's basically all made up. If it really was as easy to manipulate the public with some random color schemes and lighting plans, then every store would copy it exactly. The 'philosophy' behind all that stuff regularly changes too. It's almost funny.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:37 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
You shouldn't take all that so seriously. It's basically all made up. If it really was as easy to manipulate the public with some random color schemes and lighting plans, then every store would copy it exactly. The 'philosophy' behind all that stuff regularly changes too. It's almost funny.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:37 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
If it really was as easy to manipulate the public with some random color schemes and lighting plans, then every store would copy it exactly.
The biggest stores don't even have consistent design plans for their own stores. You'd think every Target would be the same, but nah. You have your 'home' Target and your 'vacation' Target, and they might be down the street from one another.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:43 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
The biggest stores don't even have consistent design plans for their own stores. You'd think every Target would be the same, but nah. You have your 'home' Target and your 'vacation' Target, and they might be down the street from one another.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:43 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
The biggest stores don't even have consistent design plans for their own stores
Yeah, but that can be by design, as well. They want you to roam around the store looking for the thing you need to encourage impulse buys. When I worked at Barnes and Noble ~25 years ago, we did a "re-lay" of the store every 12-18 months, I think. Fiction paperbacks in the front on the left? Now their in the center on the right. And so on. There was literally no other purpose to this than to get people to wander around.
Edit: So, if you have kids clothes in the front in one store, but you put them in the back of another, people have to look at more stuff and, maybe, buy more stuff.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 9:09 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yeah, but that can be by design, as well. They want you to roam around the store looking for the thing you need to encourage impulse buys. When I worked at Barnes and Noble ~25 years ago, we did a "re-lay" of the store every 12-18 months, I think. Fiction paperbacks in the front on the left? Now their in the center on the right. And so on. There was literally no other purpose to this than to get people to wander around.
Edit: So, if you have kids clothes in the front in one store, but you put them in the back of another, people have to look at more stuff and, maybe, buy more stuff.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 9:09 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
You shouldn't take all that so seriously. It's basically all made up. If it really was as easy to manipulate the public with some random color schemes and lighting plans, then every store would copy it exactly. The 'philosophy' behind all that stuff regularly changes too. It's almost funny.
Eh, I mainly disagree. I mean I do agree it's basically all made up and throw it at the wall until something sticks, but marketers spend a lot of money on serious research and there has been a lot of things that have stuck to the wall and obviously work.
Something that a lot of people don't know about is how many major chain stores are now live laboratories that use modern technology like bluetooth beacons for tracking customer movements or machine vision-augmented video to track how customers respond to things like how long it takes them to make a purchasing decision and other metrics.
I mentioned this in another thread related to marketing but if you really want to be appalled, get a bluetooth device scanner/logger app for your phone, turn it on and walk through a major grocery store or other chain store and watch the logger light up like a pinball machine.
There's a reason why I keep my GPS, bluetooth and WiFi turned off on my phone and even sometimes turn on airplane mode if I'm going shopping. At a minimum this keeps a store from draining my battery by blowing up my BT radio with thousands of pings.
If you've ever noticed your phone battery depleting at a noticeably higher rate while shopping and your BT/WiFi/GPS is on and/or you have a store app installed at the same time, this may be why.
If it wasn't at least marginally effective in driving impulse buys or more sales they wouldn't be spending so much time and money on it.
My complaints aren't solely about whether or not its even effective but more about how intentionally confusing or overstimulating it can be, especially if you're sensitive or atypical - and were this kind of psychological marketing is openly unethical.
And I'm not just talking about colors, decor or store layouts. I'm talking about the whole package woven into our consumer-driven culture, and I don't even know where to start enumerating all that. An easy start would be the fact that the word "consumer" in this working definition even exists.
It's not very funny to me that so much of advertising functions by manipulating people's insecurities or desires to make them feel bad about themselves and that they're not enough unless they have that new luxury SUV, suit, watch, McMansion or whatever. It's not funny to me that advertising and marketing use sexuality or bodies to simultaneously manufacture material desire and need and fuel insecurities about natural appearances, particularly in women.
The list of not funny things in marketing and advertising is so long that people write books about it.
This is so pervasively woven into our total culture and so normalized it's like asking a fish what water is or if they think it's wet.
I think it needs to be taken seriously because it's a major part of how and why of how we be like that and really is the source of a whole lot of the problems we struggle with as humanity as a whole. Climate change and carbon impact. Energy use. Transportation. Housing. Politics. Even governance and war.
posted by loquacious at 1:05 PM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Eh, I mainly disagree. I mean I do agree it's basically all made up and throw it at the wall until something sticks, but marketers spend a lot of money on serious research and there has been a lot of things that have stuck to the wall and obviously work.
Something that a lot of people don't know about is how many major chain stores are now live laboratories that use modern technology like bluetooth beacons for tracking customer movements or machine vision-augmented video to track how customers respond to things like how long it takes them to make a purchasing decision and other metrics.
I mentioned this in another thread related to marketing but if you really want to be appalled, get a bluetooth device scanner/logger app for your phone, turn it on and walk through a major grocery store or other chain store and watch the logger light up like a pinball machine.
There's a reason why I keep my GPS, bluetooth and WiFi turned off on my phone and even sometimes turn on airplane mode if I'm going shopping. At a minimum this keeps a store from draining my battery by blowing up my BT radio with thousands of pings.
If you've ever noticed your phone battery depleting at a noticeably higher rate while shopping and your BT/WiFi/GPS is on and/or you have a store app installed at the same time, this may be why.
If it wasn't at least marginally effective in driving impulse buys or more sales they wouldn't be spending so much time and money on it.
My complaints aren't solely about whether or not its even effective but more about how intentionally confusing or overstimulating it can be, especially if you're sensitive or atypical - and were this kind of psychological marketing is openly unethical.
And I'm not just talking about colors, decor or store layouts. I'm talking about the whole package woven into our consumer-driven culture, and I don't even know where to start enumerating all that. An easy start would be the fact that the word "consumer" in this working definition even exists.
It's not very funny to me that so much of advertising functions by manipulating people's insecurities or desires to make them feel bad about themselves and that they're not enough unless they have that new luxury SUV, suit, watch, McMansion or whatever. It's not funny to me that advertising and marketing use sexuality or bodies to simultaneously manufacture material desire and need and fuel insecurities about natural appearances, particularly in women.
The list of not funny things in marketing and advertising is so long that people write books about it.
This is so pervasively woven into our total culture and so normalized it's like asking a fish what water is or if they think it's wet.
I think it needs to be taken seriously because it's a major part of how and why of how we be like that and really is the source of a whole lot of the problems we struggle with as humanity as a whole. Climate change and carbon impact. Energy use. Transportation. Housing. Politics. Even governance and war.
posted by loquacious at 1:05 PM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
I always think of the sets from Frasier as peak 90s design aesthetic.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:47 PM on May 1, 2023
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:47 PM on May 1, 2023
Something that a lot of people don't know about is how many major chain stores are now live laboratories that use modern technology like bluetooth beacons for tracking customer movements or machine vision-augmented video to track how customers respond to things like how long it takes them to make a purchasing decision and other metrics.
Sure they track that, but it doesn't say anything useful. Maybe it will in the future -someone will have an epiphany, but how long you spend looking at pancake mix doesn't say anything about other products.
If it was useful, then all these mall stores wouldn't be out of business.
And people write books about a lot of stuff. That doesn't make it 'scientific' because it was written by someone with a high degree in marketing. These are extremely soft sciences.
And corporations spend lots of money on lots of things that barely move the needle -that's called taking risks. Marketing budgets are like 2-3% of revenues. That's tiny.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:36 AM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
Sure they track that, but it doesn't say anything useful. Maybe it will in the future -someone will have an epiphany, but how long you spend looking at pancake mix doesn't say anything about other products.
If it was useful, then all these mall stores wouldn't be out of business.
And people write books about a lot of stuff. That doesn't make it 'scientific' because it was written by someone with a high degree in marketing. These are extremely soft sciences.
And corporations spend lots of money on lots of things that barely move the needle -that's called taking risks. Marketing budgets are like 2-3% of revenues. That's tiny.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:36 AM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
« Older She is the girl who has everything / Talent and... | Provocation Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by mykescipark at 6:54 PM on April 28, 2023 [4 favorites]