Mall, Chili pre-class

Today our class took a field trip to Woodland Mall in order to observe how consumers are marketed to - in other words, how do stores attract customers?

We entered the mall on the south side by the food court. As we walked by the various food vendors my nose was assaulted with many different scents, from a vague frying smell, to a pizza smell, and finally the hot pretzel smell. The vendor Sensational Salads had an Istanbul Bazaar-esque food display in their case, showing a bright array of vegetables. Otherwise, the food pavillion was surprisingly bland.

Next we entered American Eagle, which had a noticeable scent of leather and denim. An employee stated that they spray clothing with their brand scent three times per day (if they remember) but I do not know if the AE scent is identical to the leather and denim that I smelled. In the back of the store there was a TV and some seating room. Another feature of AE which held true for all other clothing stores I visited was that the dressing rooms were near the back - presumably, a shopper serious enough to consider buying something gets drawn by more merchandise they may be interested in.

Adjacent to AE was the Buckle, another clothing store. The most interesting feature of this store was the display - essentially all merchandise could be seen from the entrance of the store, as there was a clear path from the front to the back. Along the walls there were racks of clothes, and each article of clothing was lit by its own light, causing the eye to be drawn to the side displays. Buckle didn't seem to have any particular smell.

Yankee Candle Company could be smelled from about fifty feet away from the entrance of the store (a scent radius only rivaled by Hollister, I think). The smell was simultaneously spicy, fruity, sweet, and soft, probably owing to the variety of scented candles in the store. The store itself, though smell, was set up to be visually interesting, as color seemed to play a large role in where candles got positioned. Furthermore, the layout of the store seemed cramped and caused the shopper to walk around little displays.

Williams Sonoma, a cooking store, surprised me by having a very pleasant but thankfully not overpowering smell. Due to the sweet, spicy nature of the smell my initial assessment was that something was cooking - and it turns out I was right. An employee said that they try to always be cooking something in order to make the store smell more pleasant. The lighting worked very well with the shiny cooking equipment in the room - light bouncing off of pots and such was pleasing to the eye, and drew me towards products that I really wasn't even interested in.

Aeropostale was the only store that really surprised me, as it smelled both strongly and downright awful. The overwhelming scent smelled like cheap rubber, and I think it may be given off mainly from the flip-flops in the room. The smell reminded me almost exactly of Old Navy.

Next, we went in Banana Republic. The store, as opposed to Buckle, had lots of nooks and crannies for various sections of clothing, causing the shopper to wander seemingly aimlessly throughout the store. The music here was much calmer and quieter than other stores so far.

Following Banana Republic we went into Tradehome Shoes. This store had two obvious features. First, it smelled strongly of leather. I'm not sure if the scent came from the shoes themselves or if it was added artificially. Second, there were signs advertising sales all over the place. Together these two effects made a convincing case that I ought to buy shoes.

Next was The Body Shop, which was a little store not dedicated to auto repair, but rather to lotions and body washes and such. There was a powerful smell of sweet fruit emanating from the store. Clever use of mirrors, color, and lighting made the store visually interesting as well.

Forever 21, a clothing store for females, was our next stop. There was no distinct scent that I picked up. The only standout feature of the store was that it seemed to use whites rather than colors to light up specifically. This made the store seem more urban and upscale to me.

Lastly, we stopped at Hollister. The smell of So Cal, as the specific Hollister scent is known, was monstrously powerful from well outside the store. But, to be honest, I don't blame that scent for wanting to escape. An interview with an employee revealed that she would expect customers to feel uncomfortable sometimes in the store. The reason for this, she explained, was that the store was very dark except for what they deliberately chose to light up. Specifically, the only things lit up were the only things the customer is meant to look at. Light is used to draw customers to sale items, for example. Furthermore, she explained to us, Hollister deliberately tries to appeal to the senses. I was surprised to learn that the playlist is actually quite varied, ranging from high-energy modern music through slower, older music. Rather than having any central air system responsible for the Hollister scent, employees just spray it all over the clothing throughout the day. She said that some times other scents are obvious. Hollister sells a variety of scented projects, and when lots of people test a product in a short period of time, that smell can overwhelm So Cal. In my experience, Hollister was the only store where the scent changed noticeably - in one area, the store smelled like a beach, and I picked up another unknown fragrance in the girls' section.

Hollister had effectively removed itself from the mall, as the entrance forces shoppers around a corner through which they can no longer see the mall. The various nooks and crannies, darkness, and sounds further disorient the customer and cause him or her to essentially forget the rest of the mall is out there. Surprisingly, Hollister doesn't seem very focused on selling clothes - it's as if they are selling a concept more than a reality, and how that can be profitable, I haven't a clue. Regardless, Hollister wins in terms of being an all-out assault on the senses. As I write this, two hours after having left the store, I can still smell the Hollister scent all over myself. I hate the fact that it is calming and pleasant; I despise myself for starting to like the Hollister scent - but I have to conclude that the scent marketers from Hollister have really achieved a victory.

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Capsaicin is part of the vanillin family, and has a long tail including a polar amide group. Capsaicin is not water soluble and has no fragrance. Capsaicin's non-water soulble nature means that it can't be washed away in water, so drinking water doesn't stop the burning sensation it gives. Instead, drinking milk (which has fat in it) is a good strategy to reduce the burning.

A Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) is the amount of parts of sugar water it takes to neutralize the burning sensation caused by capsaicin.

Pungent molecules have an electron deficient region.

Capsaicin has "moderate to poor efficacy" at pain reduction.

Dihydrocapsaicin adds two hydrogens to the double bond in capsaicin, while homocapsaicin has inverted stereo chemistry at the second carbon from the end of the tail.

Capsaicin has both anticancer properties and DNA destructive properties.

" It has been reported that capsaicin or dihydrocapsaicin inhibits obesity by enhancing energy

expenditure and reducing body fat accumulation in animal experiment." Xiu-Ju-Luo, et al, 2011