Our Gruen Experiment

Marie and I headed down to Westfield Marion on a mission to buy some gifts. We decided to experiment in a completely new shopping centre how disoriented we would become, also known as the Gruen effect. I've decided to blog about our adventure with special comments (in italics) from Marie.

For those that don't know Gruen isn't just the popular ABC show about marketing. The current shopping mall layout was first designed by Victor Gruen. It is a highly confusing layout of stores causing consumers to forget exactly what they were there for and increases the likelihood of impulse shopping. It's why there are no windows so you can't see the world outside changing and why there is a distinct absence of clocks so it's easy to lose track of time.

With this in mind Marie took my phone, changed the time (so I couldn't cheat) and we set off. I kept asking Cassie what time she thought it was - to my surprise she actually thought it was later than it actually was. I thought the whole purpose of the "Gruen" effect was that consumers thought they were in the shops less time than they actually were. To be honest I had a few hints, I saw how quiet the food court was and school kids walking around and could determine the time.

I quickly became confused between the major retailers. I thought I was in Harris Scarfe and was in fact in Myer. Crossing the mall, up and down levels combined with the fact I had no idea of the mall layout just added to the confusion. The confusion was also prominent for me despite knowing what time it was, I felt that the shopping centre was ill planned and made it more difficult to shop. Given its supposed to be a large and superior shopping mall I was awfully surprised at how hard it was to navigate.

I love online shopping and for this reason is rare for me to now simply browse a shopping mall without a specific purpose, which allows me to get in and out very quickly. Real shopping, as I discovered, is REALLY tiring. My feet were sore, my brain was aching, I just wanted to go home if I could ever find my way through the maze of stores. I became extremely disoriented to the point where I felt drunk, nothing was making sense and I was losing my mind a little bit. We both almost became impulse shoppers continuously, I wanted to buy lots of junk I didn't need but I have a feeling thats my shopaholic nature and love of material things - not the gruen effect. Leaving Marion, Marie and I had completed our mission of buying gifts although it probably took a lot longer than either of us expected.

Has anyone ever had a similar experience when shopping or is it easy to ignore the so called Gruen effect?