One department store in Japan use smells proven to induce a sense of dread in their complaints department. Intimidated through scent, an irate customer is more likely to accept the complaint officer’s explanations and leave the store without a refund!
Marketers have spent millions of dollars on “AROMACOLOGY”, the study of how smell affects behaviour. As a result, some shopping places now use potpourri scents to induce their customers to spend their money.
Studies have demonstrated that casinos purposefully scented with new, receptor-specific chemicals derived from plant extracts, insect venoms, and animal hormones boast a 45% increase in slot-machine use.
Other studies have shown that a person believes less time has passed when he waits for service in a chemically scented environment than if he waits in an unscented one.
In the US, some cookie and pastry chains have taken to pumping their oven exhaust through vents over the entrances to their stores. Several studies have proven that cookie sales go up in direct proportion to customers’ ability to smell the location of a cookie store by distance.
In the US, some car dealers even plant a “new car” smell in the interiors of both new and used cars!
The above self-contained environment is created to manipulate the disoriented customer. It is meant to effectively disarm you, and to induce you to change from a customer with a particular product in mind to an undirected impulse buyer.