http://conceptlab.com/simulator/

And, continuing on the theme, here’s something from our
friend Douglas Rushkoff:

A bunch of you have asked, so here’s a copy of something
close to the script that was used for the narration for the CBS Sunday
Morning piece I did that ran last week. As you can see, TV makes for a
more skeletal analysis. But the pictures do help.

Will this year�s buying season be big enough to bail us
out of a recession? Can we somehow get ourselves to consume our way to
economic salvation? Is there a light at the end of this dark night?

    Christmas, like the pagan solstice
holidays that came before it, was put at the end of the year for a reason.
It brings good cheer and some rays of hope to the darkest days of winter.
And now Christmas is being asked to revive not only our spirit, but our
sadly depressed moving averages, daily yields, and GNP.

    We might have days off for Christmas,
but they�re not days off work, at all. In fact, the moment we leave the
office, our real employment as Americans begins: the hard, grueling work
of SHOPPING. It�s time to save the national economy, folks; desperate measures
must be taken.

    Which brings us here. This may look
like an average suburban shopping mall to you — but today�s retail environments
are selling machines engineered to extract the most money per second from
your wallet.

    The science of retail design � what
the industry calls �atmospherics� � was born by accident in 1956, with
the very first shopping mall, �the southdale center� in Minnesota. This
realization of an �indoor main street� provided laboratory conditions for
the study and influence of shopping behavior.

    Psychologists observed that the overwhelming
size and scope of an entirely self-contained universe has a strange effect
on shoppers. It�s called �Gruen Transfer,� named for the designer of the
first shopping mall, Victor Gruen. Gruen Transfer is the moment a person
senses the size the mall � their jaws may open, their eyes may glaze over
for a just a second. And they are transformed from a person who came to
the mall for a purpose, into a shopping drone. Ripe for the next battery
of psychological assaults.

    The first tactic is to keep people
inside the mall � the longer they stay, the more they buy. The key is to
disorient them. At least three turns from parking lot to mall entrance
prevents shoppers from remembering where they�ve put the car. There�s no
way out. Inside, malls are timeless and bland � a strict monotonous palette
throughout.  Early malls were sealed from daylight, like casinos designed
to keep gamblers from realizing how long they�ve been playing. But more
recent testing showed shoppers felt claustrophobic � and stay inside longer
if they are allowed to catch just a glimpse of sky.  Careful lighting
still keeps them from perceiving the passage of time. As the sun goes down,
these lightbulbs slowly fade up. Complex floor plans help keep patrons
from knowing exactly where they are. They�re not supposed to.

    �We want you to get lost,� explained
one leading mall designer.

    You can�t turn right at the ATRIUM
� you have to veer right, each turn disorienting you further. The more
lost you are, the more impulsive purchases you make. What did I come here
for, anyway? So you forgot � it doesn�t matter. As long as you ring up
more total purchases, everyone will be happy.

    Once disorientation is achieved, the
retailers begin their attacks on the senses:

    Start with Sight: Because they�re
lost, patrons use the only images they recognize as anchors: the big-name
department stores. You don�t go �north� � you move towards Macy�s. These
�Anchor� stores are always placed at angles to each other, so that you
can�t see one from the entrance of another. Each anchor presides over its
own section of the mall, like a reigning emperor � and a visual landmark. 
Besides, studies show that a shopper won�t voluntarily travel more than
600 feet, so the hallway has to bend before then.

    Then there�s the sense of Touch: Designers
often use hard floor surfaces in the halls and softer ones inside the store
� gently coaxing customers to come inside if they want their feet to feel
good. Other studies show that women feel more powerful � and buy more �
if they can feel and hear their heels clicking on polished hard wood.

    Which brings us to Sound: We all joke
about �elevator� Muzak � but it works. Dozens of different soundtracks
scientifically engineered to increase the rate at which we purchase products
at any moment of the day � is pumped into the mall and the stores. There�s
a special and tested melody, rhythm and sequence to maximize the efficiency
of any shopping behavior you can imagine.

    Don�t forget taste: Free food lures
strollers into shops. It�s always visible from the corridor.  Eating
food turns customers, quite literally, into consumers.

    They even use Smell: Cookie shops
spread scents throughout the mall, attracting customers from hundreds of
feet away. One study showed that people act nicer � and buy more � when
they can smell baking cookies. More advanced scientists, like those in
the �chemo-reception industry,� test flowers, spices, and synthetics for
their effects on human behavior. Williams Sonoma uses a special holiday
scent. Vanilla helps make people feel sexy � perfect to lower inhibitions
in the lingerie store. But even beyond the fives senses, the most advanced
attacks are on the emotions � and the subconscious.

    Each store has its own carefully researched
theme. They are total environments–stage sets where the brand values become
OUR values. It�s a self-contained world, where retail psychologists can
overwhelm us with the culture of their products. The only way to fit in,
is to buy.

    The stores also hire their own battalions
of behavioral researchers � many of whom use the security cameras to study
consumer behaviors, like an anthropologist studying a tribe in its native
habitat.

    Ever wonder why certain store aisles
are so wide? Chalk it up to the butt-brush. If a woman is brushed up against
while she inspects a product, she�ll get up and move. Items that require
close inspection by women � like scarves and underwear – are put in wider
aisles.

    Want to know why the counters have
gotten so big? Because consumers feel obliged to fill it up with more products
when they�re at the register.

    And that funny way salespeople have
of speaking? It�s all scripted at corporate headquarters. This young man
is doing a technique called GAP-ACT: Greet, Approach, Provide, Add-on,
Close and Thank.

    We�re all just cogs in the machine
�- the shopper, the salesperson, the merchandiser, and even the stockholder
depending on them.  So much for passively earned income. Sorry, friends,
there ain�t no Santa Claus.  We all end up working for it, in the
end. (After all, if people only bought what they actually needed, the entire
American economy would collapse.) I�m Douglas Rushkoff. Happy Holidays.