Smells like shopping

Expect America's malls to soon become orange-scented. A new study by Washington State University researchers suggests that "simple scents" -- they tested orange -- can stimulate a bump in retail sales. This is compared to no smell or "complex scents" like an orange-basil-green tea blend used in this study. From WSU:

The researchers say the (simple) scent is more easily processed, freeing the customer’s mind to focus on shopping. But when that "bandwidth” is unavailable customers don’t perform cognitive tasks as effectively, says (Eric) Spangenberg, (dean of the College of Business)...

"WSU researchers tie simple scent to increased retail sales"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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gandalf23

ugh. I already have to avoid malls around Christmas because of all the smells of the season kicking in my allergies and asthma (i’m insanely allergic to christmas trees!). guess I’ll have to avoid shopping all together! :)
- EH
  
  You’re allergic to pine? Do you have to wear a respirator at all times?
  - http://profiles.google.com/greeneggsandsamuel Sam Archer
    
    Perhaps he lives in a tropical region, or desert? … one of the few that don’t have pines?
  - machinestate
    
    I’m allergic to pine, but if I’m not closed up in a house with one, or camping near pines for more than a couple days then I’m usually OK
    - EH
      
      What about fir?
Jorpho

Bah! This sort of thing gets trotted out every couple of years, and the papers re-write the same articles about the primal suggestive power of scents, and nothing ever changes.

It is only a matter of time before the scent-making PC peripheral resurfaces yet again.
- edgore
  
  What *is* Marc Cantor up to these days?
http://artdonovan.typepad.com Art

I would have guessed it would be “lemon-scented”, as is every damn product on the market.

Well, it’s still the tyranny of citrus fragrance anyway :)
http://www.facebook.com/marc.montoya.5 Marc Montoya

desperate!
http://marjaerwin.livejournal.com/ Marja Erwin

So is this instead of the headache-inducing dizziness-inducing perfume smells, or in addition to them?
- Lupus_Yonderboy
  
  All of them, all the time. Not layered, though – you’ll go from intense orange to intense perfume to intense pine-sol (different from pine, that tends to be tolerable), one after another after another.
http://www.matthewpetty.com/ Matthew Petty

As long as it cloaks the stench of Abercrombie and Fitch.
Ping Kee

Great. Researchers discover a scent that helps humans think more clearly (read the article to which David linked) and conclude the best way to use it is to make people buy more things. What a pity these people didn’t devise, conduct and analyse their research in the presence of said scent.
sean

Old news. Hollister already stinks like salty something, and I remember hearing that those cookie places have the canned scent of baking to attract customers.
IronEdithKidd

Guess I’ll only be doing mall shopping when I have a headcold in the future.