29 Jul 2004 | Blake Scarbrough said...

At first glance, I wouldn't want to remove a product. I think it would depend on the forum they were presented in too. If all booth's around it gave away products than i would assume the same.

If I wanted people to handle the display I would be a sign next to it stating, "Feel free to take a sample" or whatever....

So in the end it depends on the forum and purpose of the display.

29 Jul 2004 | Randy Peterman said...

I don't believe that consumers in an observed setting would touch those bottles. Similarly people feel uncomfortable picking something up off of a white shopping display because they're afraid that they'll mess up the display by dirtying it.

29 Jul 2004 | Jay Zipursky said...

Just remember that the photo was taken in Japan. I imagine the behaviour of Japanese consumers will differ from what we'd expect North Americans to do.

Given that and the fact I've never been to Japan, I wouldn't try to guess what a typical Japanese customer would do.

I'm not sure I've seen such a display in North American shops (unless it was inaccessible in a window display or something).

29 Jul 2004 | Chris from Scottsdale said...

I'd say it would work if you put a nice sign in front that says "On Sale, anything here 10% off" or even just having a prominent price displayed. Then again, when I buy shampoo I get it at the grocery store and I have to hunt around about 100 different products to find what I want.

29 Jul 2004 | but that's just me said...

I don't know where you guys have been shopping, but in my experience, most people don't give a second thought to disturbing product displays. Maybe in your more fancy-smancy high-end stores, shoppers would be less prone to pick an item up for fear of messing up the design. But in your typical department store, let's say, a meticulously designed display such as this would likely be destroyed within hours...minutes if there's a sale going on...seconds if it's a clearance sale.

30 Jul 2004 | Cade Roux said...

In England, I believe a shopkeeper would quickly re-arrange the items within seconds. I have never seen such a successful "full employment" program as on my last trip to the UK, where stores seems to have plenty of staff with plenty to keep them occupied. In the US, by comparison, the staff seem downright slovenly (and more sparse).

30 Jul 2004 | Mike D. said...

I think this sort of display would decrease workplace productivity because every time I walked by, I would knock it over, requiring it to be rebuilt once again.

30 Jul 2004 | Tomas Jogin said...

For a moment, I would hesitate to take one, perhaps looking for some shelve to pick one from.. but only for about a second, after which my cynicism would kick in and remind me that I'm the goddamn customer.

30 Jul 2004 | ~bc said...

Context. That would tell me whether to take or not. Is there another pile of them somewhere? If so, perhaps that says "take me." If not, the museum becomes "hands-on."

30 Jul 2004 | Kevin N said...

Most people here would fiddle with one bottle, put it back and ask for another one from a saleslady. If they see no one touches it first... on average, they won't touch it at all.

30 Jul 2004 | Caleb Jaffa said...

I know you might all realize this, and transcended to the hypothetical situation brought up by this post. However I read that it was a shop window. My experience has been that the shop windows are all about nicely displaying the products available inside. No one except employees could disturb it. I've found even if the area behind the window displays is 'open' to the customer area it is pretty easy to deduce it is off limits. If however I was shopping for something and I saw this display in the middle of the store I might be inclined to grab the product off the clearly visible shelf of it nearby, or if it is what I want and the only place I see it nearby then by all means I would just grab it off the table.

30 Jul 2004 | Caleb Jaffa said...

Beautiful another case of late night posting. Hmm don't drink and drive, don't post when tired. Just ignore the first part, though I think the stores get it to just put the product in an efficient manner which maximizes product on the table. One of those cases where all the whys don't have to be understood to hit on a good design.

30 Jul 2004 | Kelby said...

Well. I'm British, and I'd take one from the middle. Just in case people had removed the lids of the front ones to 'test' them.

30 Jul 2004 | Brenton said...

It definitely has a certain "do not touch me, I'm on display" stigma about it.

30 Jul 2004 | Michael Spina said...

In Paco Underhill's Why We Buy, he recommends displaying merchandise to like like it should be picked up. Even if it means the employees should purposely mess up neat displays like this to make Jane Customer think she wasn't the first to pick it up. The basic premise is that customers feel more comfortable purchasing something if they can pick it up, touch it, and even better yet, try some of the product (or at least open it up and smell it). So the sooner you get it into their hands, the better! According to Underhill, a neat display such as this one is an obsticle.

30 Jul 2004 | Vaughn said...

This is a more expensive example of those huge displays of soda cases in supermarkets. For some reason, I don't mind messing one of those up.

31 Jul 2004 | Jennifer Grucza said...

Well, I wouldn't take any because they don't have any labels! How are you supposed to know what they are?