shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

design, the Gruen transfer (also known as the Gruen effect) is the moment when consumers enter a shopping mall or store and, surrounded by an intentionally confusing layout, lose track of their original intentions, making them more susceptible to making impulse buys. It is named after

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n architect

Victor Gruen Victor David Gruen, born Viktor David Grünbaum
retrieved 25 February 2012 (July 18, 1903 – February 1 ...

, who disapproved of such manipulative techniques.

Description

The Gruen transfer is a psychological phenomenon in which an idealised

hyperreality Hyperreality is a concept in post-structuralism that refers to the process of the evolution of notions of reality, leading to a cultural state of confusion between signs and symbols invented to stand in for reality, and direct perceptions of co ...

is realized by deliberate reconstruction, providing a sense of safety and calm through exceptional familiarity. In a speech in London in 1978, Victor Gruen disavowed shopping mall developments as having "bastardised" his ideas:Malcolm Gladwell
The Terrazzo Jungle
''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', March 15, 2004, Accessed June 12, 2009. "I refuse to pay alimony for those bastard developments." The psychologists involved in these studies found that the size and appearance of such a shopping center have a special pull effect on customers. The moment a customer enters a mall and is overwhelmed by the size, intentional clutter, and glitz of the mall, they forget their original goals and become susceptible to sales manipulation. They become an impulse buyer. Supermarkets, for example in the food industry, also use the experience of the Gruen effect to slow things down, to direct attention when placing products, or to confuse the business through frequent remodeling.

References in other media

A television program on Australia's ABC TV network, called ''

The Gruen Transfer ''Gruen'' (previously known as ''The Gruen Transfer'') is an Australian television program focusing on advertising, which debuted on the ABC on 28 May 2008. The program is hosted by Wil Anderson and produced by Andrew Denton's production comp ...

'', is named after the effect. The program discusses the methods, science and psychology behind advertising.

History

In 1952, Dayton Company commissioned

Victor Gruen Victor David Gruen, born Viktor David Grünbaum
retrieved 25 February 2012 (July 18, 1903 – February 1 ...

to build the first indoor,

climate control Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC ) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. H ...

led shopping mall,

Southdale Center Southdale Center is a shopping mall located in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. It opened in 1956 and is the first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in the United States. Southdale Center has of leasable retail spac ...

, in

Edina EDINA is a centre for digital expertise, based at the University of Edinburgh as a division of the Information Services Group. Services EDINA front and back ends, front-end services (those accessed directly by the user) are available free at ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. Southdale Center held its

grand opening An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

in 1956. Shopping malls became very popular from the 1960s on. In many cases, they were the only air-conditioned places in a town. Numerous shopping malls opened using similar design features, and were very popular until the 1990s.

References

Shopping malls Consumer behaviour Marketing techniques Retail processes and techniques {{Marketing-stub