A few times a year, I plan for and undertake a serious, challenging expedition. I prepare as anyone would: a good night’s sleep, a healthy, hearty breakfast, and a carefully packed bag loaded with plenty of water and snacks. Thus prepared, I alert my friends and family about where I will be and how long I plan to be gone, so that they can come find me if I’m not back when expected. And then I set out—to Costco.

Wandering the store’s labyrinth aisles can take hours, and products are often hard to find. Sometimes, the challenges associated with obtaining products that Costco wants customers to buy can feel oddly intentional. That’s because it is. Retailers have long understood that the physical layout of stores drives consumer behavior. As a result, most brick-and-mortar locations are designed to complement the products sold.

For big box retailers, like Costco, a central goal of their customer behavior influence attempts is to encourage product discovery and incentivize impulse purchases. In stores, the ends of aisles never feature helpful labels to indicate what shoppers can find down those aisles. The chain also encourages store managers to move merchandise frequently, so that shoppers have to search each time they visit, which increases their contact time with products. Costco stores also have implemented interactive stations strategically, often placing a popular food kiosk at the end of a busy aisle.

Other brands, such as IKEA, lean into the creativity of their products instead. The furniture and home goods store actively seeks to create an immersive customer experience that will encourage exploration and play. Most locations feature large, warehouse-style buildings, with six or seven floors. The winding path to get to the checkout takes customers through every section of the store, exposing them to staged displays in each section. These comfortable scenes of modern living, made available through the possession of IKEA products, encourages a strong emotional connection with the products, such that customers already can visualize the bedroom suite or living room setup in their own homes.

In addition to such established (and largely effective) design choices, some retailers have determined that their layouts need to change to meet shifting consumer demands and preferences. Whereas Barnes & Noble had long embraced a consistent aesthetic, featuring a recognizable palette of hunter green walls and dark shelves, some of its locations have embraced the retailer’s move toward more decentralized decision-making. That is, the executives leading the bookseller today encourage local stores to alter their inventory and displays to reflect local tastes, rather than insisting on a universal, single design. Taking this inducement a step further, some stores are altering not just their inventory but also their store atmosphere, such as covering up the dark walls with white paint and integrating more light wood displays. Such visual changes create more airy, calm environments. Still other locations have stripped back on the décor altogether, revealing the original bones of buildings. In response, customer reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, suggesting that individuality is a priority for these reading consumers.

Such redesigns also carry risk, of course. Imagine visiting a Costco on a weekend to find everything clearly labeled and in a logical order and location. What would we do with ourselves, and all the extra time we would save?

Discussion Questions

1. What traits distinguish stores that purposefully make products difficult to find from those that make it easy? Can you characterize retailers on this basis?
2. What traits distinguish stores that insist on a consistent look from those that encourage local stores to adjust their layouts to meet local customers’ preferences? Can you characterize retailers on this basis?
3. Describe the standard layout of another retailer. Identify how design elements incentivize consumer behavior.

Sources: Maureen O’Connor, “Barnes & Noble Sets Itself Free,” The New York Times, October 17, 2023; OpenAI ChatGPT, “Assistance with Research on Store Layouts and Consumer Behavior,” April 22, 2024; Roger Dooley, “The Most Overlooked Time-Waster For Retail Shoppers,” Forbes, February 29, 2024