So cool. Your writing remember what I was taught and learned about merchandising.
I remember being a grocery store manager by the time I was 18. Produce, meat, dairy, grocery, general merchandise, pharmaceuticals, dry goods, fresh goods, frozen goods, and specialty items. Customer service and end of day processing.
Merchandising, examining the placement of products, staple items placement and availability, impulse items, and services offered.
I could probably write an entire guide on how to run a store effectively and serve people. I learned from people who defined what it meant to put their customers first. Then corporations took over and they targeted profitable activities and worker productivity and implemented more of that slave labor mentality that generates a better rate of return on the few services left they provide.
Even the placement of items in the advertisements. Seasonality. Holidays. Surplus items. Cross merchandising.
Then I went to work for consulting with a very large mall and learned and organized a lot of retail space and common space and systems that operate and function in these establishments.
Kudos to you and your work, it’s sometimes detective work to trace and recreate scenarios of what once was. You got me back into this world which I learned about humanity.
Always nice to hear from you, Leonardo. Thank you! :)
You’re totally right, visual merchandising and placement really are their own science. It’s cool to hear you’ve worked across all of that, especially so young. That kind of hands-on experience sticks with people. I actually work hand in hand with visual merchandising teams A LOT.
And yeah, I agree, something definitely shifted once corporations took over and everything became about optimization and productivity instead of people. You can really feel that change when you’re in a space.
Some of my favorite projects so far have been with smaller, independently owned businesses that still care deeply about connection and the sanity of the people who make the whole operation work. I recently designed a toy store for a small business and it was so refreshing. Everyone involved was focused on fun, curiosity, and how people actually experience the space. In addition to that, the owner was bent on creating a space that didn't exhaust employees and prioritized their comfort.
You said it well! At its best, it really does feel like a bit of detective work about human behavior and care. but it can also be a let down when the bigger corps get involved.
I cannot even imagine designing for something like a mall. It had to be intense thinking at that scale
When you described your experience, I was thinking, I remember what it was like to manage people twice my age. The duty was there, and it was either accomplished and served, or not. I would take the duty to task.
Make a list. Walk through. Evaluate. Update. Understand needs. Serve wants. Anticipate safety. Mark up costs to pay bills. Examine cyclical operations and determine if any cycles need attention.
I like your work with Independent business. I believe in small businesses and people who serve communities. It’s what the foundation of our country is based on.
The toy store design is very interesting to imagine. Improving space. Improving land. Imagining space and experiences people relate to. Play areas. Lighting. Learning. Laughter. Joy. Organization. Displays. Happiness. Appeal. Curiosity.
I had no idea a role like this existed. Beyond the initial architecture and layout I didn’t think much about the space I was in. But now illl never walk into another bookstore or museum without asking myself “I wonder what the story they are trying to tell is.”
This is a tremendously interesting career. It calls for so many subtle human skills (intuition, empathy, sensibility), as well as musical taste and subsequent situational awareness, a problem to be solved. And the writing is smart and bold. Nice going, look forward to reading more.—Wayne R.
As a fire safety engineer by trade I often look at living space layouts and working space layouts as we have privately discussed before about our work.
I work in the context of safety and functionality and where human psychology in crisis and evacuation procedure management comes into play. You’ll often find the organic sometimes overgrows the functional and these popular new types of downstairs fancy speakeasy cocktail bars illegally chuck their used beer kegs in the fire isolated stairwell which serves as the only functional entry and exit.
As you rightly document, people love to interact with space in their own way. But it’s sometimes beyond ways which are originally intended.
This project reminds me a lot of some of the work I did in the intro to cataloging class for my MLIS program. At some point in the course I even read an article about a guy who collected old photographs of people and tried to figure out who the people in the photos were and what happened to them and your post reminded me of it. I think it’s really interesting to know you took up a project like this in your spare time. I also appreciated learning more about the work you do. Up until now I never realized just how much thought goes into that.
Wow! Sincere thanks for sharing this. I was curious. I remember a prior exchange when you mentioned what you did was similar to architecture. This sounds fascinating, makes the mind wander to think about all that could go into it.
Fun bit about the bookmarks. Makes me want to have some custom ones made to tuck into some library books or books I give back to a used bookstore. Message in a bottle kinda thing.
Ha! I wanted to tell you then in the comments but I had no idea how to wrap it up nicely and not sound like an idiot. Thank you for reading! (you should absolutely do the bookmark thing)
wow, and the update really sells it. I will leave another comment later on probably, when I have something more coherent to say — I am enraptured by the way you explain things, ideas. I am always sad to have scrolled all the way to the bottom
I don’t find it silly, at least in an unserious kind of way. Somehow I manage to find time to read your work when I’m not playing Rock Band 3 or forcing the kitten to love me
And I've had my eye on a copy of "Sometimes my mum drinks too much." I asked my mum to get me a copy for Christmas, but I doubt she'll remember. She's an unreliable mess.
Your job sounds amazing! That sort of stuff is right up my street. How is AI changing the way you do your job? Surely it must be easy to use AI to track people moving through a building?
Thank you!! I really do love it. I’m one of the lucky few whose work has been streamlined by AI rather than replaced. Where I’m at, it’s very much a tool and so much of the job relies on hands on production work. Though that might not always be the case.
Right now we use it to aggregate things like foot-traffic counts, dwell time, queue behavior, and repeat paths, usually anonymized and abstracted into heat maps or flow diagrams. In environments with digital displays, that kind of data is often passively collected through devices people already carry, which helps us understand how spaces are actually used.
The upside is that it frees up me and my team to spend more time on the creative, craft-heavy parts of the job. That said, a lot of the work still relies on old-fashioned observation. Standing in a space, watching people move through it, and paying attention to the things AI data can’t explain. When the two work together, they tend to validate each other, or occasionally surface something we never would have thought to look for
I would **kill** to have a job as interesting as yours! So what is the overall goal of your job? Do you have to reduce traffic? Spread people around so they see everything? What is it that you are doing with your data? What are you converting it into?
I really would kill for a job as interesting as yours. I love all those deep psychology things when it comes to marketing and advertising, and I once went down a crazy rabbit hole about how color affects psychology. I find all these sorts of things incredibly fascinating.
AI must be incredibly exciting for you as it's so easy to get data now. I was going to code a little app for my company that used the security video footage to track the people wandering around my workplace. I thought it might be interesting to see where people went, how long they stayed in certain places, what they interacted with...crazy that you have a job like this.
Well it makes total sense that you're naturally into this stuff because app development is experience design too! There are experiences you walk through and there are experiences you scroll through. The app you had in mind sounds a lot some of the tech we use for heat mapping! There are totally free versions of it out there. If you end up developing something based on that I'd love to hear about it and nerd out about it (srsly lol)
and It sounds a little silly, but the job really is "experience curation" relative to what a company or client wants that season.
In museums, that usually means shaping story, pacing, and immersion to focus on the main parts of an exhibit.
In retail, it’s about guiding attention, reducing friction, and creating an environment where people want to stay, explore, and buy.
The data helps us understand how spaces are actually used. Things like where people slow down, where congestion happens, what, if any of those things, is contributing to a *bad* experience and reducing the likelihood someone might come back and buy things. Then we go and all these creative elements that'll change that flow up.
A client might say, “We want this to feel like the happiest place on earth,” and our job is to break that down into very practical decisions about layout, lighting, sound, and interaction. The color theory psyop stuff is totally real!
You are making your job sound better and better! So you do retail as well? What I would give to learn more about those sorts of stats! My buddy used to own a second hand games store and I used to help him out there...I became obsessed with all the things you are talking about here. Don't laugh, but I'm such a weirdo that I read a bunch of books on creating signs and how to map the layout of spaces....yeah, as you already know, I'm super weird. I became fascinated by the layouts of supermarkets—the displays, signage, shelf locations. It is a very interesting subject.
Well, I liked you before, but now you are ridiculously cool! I certainly know who to talk to when I write my app. Part of the reason I wanted to do it is because the software kits are already done for you. You wouldn't even need to do that much coding to create a usable app. Ahh, project for next year.
Yes! Retail is honestly my bread and butter. I love museum work more but it's few and far between for me. You sound like you were made for experiential design, Mike! Way finding is such a big part of it. The pipeline has room for so many subject matter experts I didn't even know existed until I landed here. I am sure there would be overlap with what you do if you ever saw yourself changing your niche if you ever wanted to get into it. I think I mentioned the best creative director on our team is a dude with aphantasia. He's got a process and way of working I could never in a million years replicate. Anyway, just a testament to how you would do. I'm excited about this potential project- please keep me updated *EEEEK*!
So cool. Your writing remember what I was taught and learned about merchandising.
I remember being a grocery store manager by the time I was 18. Produce, meat, dairy, grocery, general merchandise, pharmaceuticals, dry goods, fresh goods, frozen goods, and specialty items. Customer service and end of day processing.
Merchandising, examining the placement of products, staple items placement and availability, impulse items, and services offered.
I could probably write an entire guide on how to run a store effectively and serve people. I learned from people who defined what it meant to put their customers first. Then corporations took over and they targeted profitable activities and worker productivity and implemented more of that slave labor mentality that generates a better rate of return on the few services left they provide.
Even the placement of items in the advertisements. Seasonality. Holidays. Surplus items. Cross merchandising.
Then I went to work for consulting with a very large mall and learned and organized a lot of retail space and common space and systems that operate and function in these establishments.
Kudos to you and your work, it’s sometimes detective work to trace and recreate scenarios of what once was. You got me back into this world which I learned about humanity.
Always nice to hear from you, Leonardo. Thank you! :)
You’re totally right, visual merchandising and placement really are their own science. It’s cool to hear you’ve worked across all of that, especially so young. That kind of hands-on experience sticks with people. I actually work hand in hand with visual merchandising teams A LOT.
And yeah, I agree, something definitely shifted once corporations took over and everything became about optimization and productivity instead of people. You can really feel that change when you’re in a space.
Some of my favorite projects so far have been with smaller, independently owned businesses that still care deeply about connection and the sanity of the people who make the whole operation work. I recently designed a toy store for a small business and it was so refreshing. Everyone involved was focused on fun, curiosity, and how people actually experience the space. In addition to that, the owner was bent on creating a space that didn't exhaust employees and prioritized their comfort.
You said it well! At its best, it really does feel like a bit of detective work about human behavior and care. but it can also be a let down when the bigger corps get involved.
I cannot even imagine designing for something like a mall. It had to be intense thinking at that scale
It’s always refreshing to read your work Celeste.
When you described your experience, I was thinking, I remember what it was like to manage people twice my age. The duty was there, and it was either accomplished and served, or not. I would take the duty to task.
Make a list. Walk through. Evaluate. Update. Understand needs. Serve wants. Anticipate safety. Mark up costs to pay bills. Examine cyclical operations and determine if any cycles need attention.
I like your work with Independent business. I believe in small businesses and people who serve communities. It’s what the foundation of our country is based on.
The toy store design is very interesting to imagine. Improving space. Improving land. Imagining space and experiences people relate to. Play areas. Lighting. Learning. Laughter. Joy. Organization. Displays. Happiness. Appeal. Curiosity.
Happy holidays and have a very merry Christmas!
You would be the perfect lead in a William Gibson cyberpunk novel. He'll, you *are* the lead in 2 of them.
Ha, you are doing far too much for my ego right now. I LOVE WG!!!
I had no idea a role like this existed. Beyond the initial architecture and layout I didn’t think much about the space I was in. But now illl never walk into another bookstore or museum without asking myself “I wonder what the story they are trying to tell is.”
This is a tremendously interesting career. It calls for so many subtle human skills (intuition, empathy, sensibility), as well as musical taste and subsequent situational awareness, a problem to be solved. And the writing is smart and bold. Nice going, look forward to reading more.—Wayne R.
Whenever I go to a store or museum I like I am going to loudly say thank you Celeste to show my appreciation.
Perfect! And could you also kiss the floors? Please? If you don’t mind
I gotchu queen 👑
As a fire safety engineer by trade I often look at living space layouts and working space layouts as we have privately discussed before about our work.
I work in the context of safety and functionality and where human psychology in crisis and evacuation procedure management comes into play. You’ll often find the organic sometimes overgrows the functional and these popular new types of downstairs fancy speakeasy cocktail bars illegally chuck their used beer kegs in the fire isolated stairwell which serves as the only functional entry and exit.
As you rightly document, people love to interact with space in their own way. But it’s sometimes beyond ways which are originally intended.
Some pretty cool work there Celeste! Did not know!
This project reminds me a lot of some of the work I did in the intro to cataloging class for my MLIS program. At some point in the course I even read an article about a guy who collected old photographs of people and tried to figure out who the people in the photos were and what happened to them and your post reminded me of it. I think it’s really interesting to know you took up a project like this in your spare time. I also appreciated learning more about the work you do. Up until now I never realized just how much thought goes into that.
This is soooo cool!!!! I have been fascinated by how people design experiences (especially sensory experiences) especially over the last couple years
This is a whole art form I’ve never really thought about. Thank you for sharing!
Why thank-you for reading, Miss Grover!
Wow! Sincere thanks for sharing this. I was curious. I remember a prior exchange when you mentioned what you did was similar to architecture. This sounds fascinating, makes the mind wander to think about all that could go into it.
Fun bit about the bookmarks. Makes me want to have some custom ones made to tuck into some library books or books I give back to a used bookstore. Message in a bottle kinda thing.
Ha! I wanted to tell you then in the comments but I had no idea how to wrap it up nicely and not sound like an idiot. Thank you for reading! (you should absolutely do the bookmark thing)
woah, this is really cool.
Thank you kindly <3
wow, and the update really sells it. I will leave another comment later on probably, when I have something more coherent to say — I am enraptured by the way you explain things, ideas. I am always sad to have scrolled all the way to the bottom
You flatter me! Thank you for always taking the time to read this silly stuff
I don’t find it silly, at least in an unserious kind of way. Somehow I manage to find time to read your work when I’m not playing Rock Band 3 or forcing the kitten to love me
Haha. Nice.
I own a copy of "A month in the country."
And I've had my eye on a copy of "Sometimes my mum drinks too much." I asked my mum to get me a copy for Christmas, but I doubt she'll remember. She's an unreliable mess.
Your job sounds amazing! That sort of stuff is right up my street. How is AI changing the way you do your job? Surely it must be easy to use AI to track people moving through a building?
Thank you!! I really do love it. I’m one of the lucky few whose work has been streamlined by AI rather than replaced. Where I’m at, it’s very much a tool and so much of the job relies on hands on production work. Though that might not always be the case.
Right now we use it to aggregate things like foot-traffic counts, dwell time, queue behavior, and repeat paths, usually anonymized and abstracted into heat maps or flow diagrams. In environments with digital displays, that kind of data is often passively collected through devices people already carry, which helps us understand how spaces are actually used.
The upside is that it frees up me and my team to spend more time on the creative, craft-heavy parts of the job. That said, a lot of the work still relies on old-fashioned observation. Standing in a space, watching people move through it, and paying attention to the things AI data can’t explain. When the two work together, they tend to validate each other, or occasionally surface something we never would have thought to look for
I would **kill** to have a job as interesting as yours! So what is the overall goal of your job? Do you have to reduce traffic? Spread people around so they see everything? What is it that you are doing with your data? What are you converting it into?
I really would kill for a job as interesting as yours. I love all those deep psychology things when it comes to marketing and advertising, and I once went down a crazy rabbit hole about how color affects psychology. I find all these sorts of things incredibly fascinating.
AI must be incredibly exciting for you as it's so easy to get data now. I was going to code a little app for my company that used the security video footage to track the people wandering around my workplace. I thought it might be interesting to see where people went, how long they stayed in certain places, what they interacted with...crazy that you have a job like this.
Beyond jealous!
Well it makes total sense that you're naturally into this stuff because app development is experience design too! There are experiences you walk through and there are experiences you scroll through. The app you had in mind sounds a lot some of the tech we use for heat mapping! There are totally free versions of it out there. If you end up developing something based on that I'd love to hear about it and nerd out about it (srsly lol)
and It sounds a little silly, but the job really is "experience curation" relative to what a company or client wants that season.
In museums, that usually means shaping story, pacing, and immersion to focus on the main parts of an exhibit.
In retail, it’s about guiding attention, reducing friction, and creating an environment where people want to stay, explore, and buy.
The data helps us understand how spaces are actually used. Things like where people slow down, where congestion happens, what, if any of those things, is contributing to a *bad* experience and reducing the likelihood someone might come back and buy things. Then we go and all these creative elements that'll change that flow up.
A client might say, “We want this to feel like the happiest place on earth,” and our job is to break that down into very practical decisions about layout, lighting, sound, and interaction. The color theory psyop stuff is totally real!
You are making your job sound better and better! So you do retail as well? What I would give to learn more about those sorts of stats! My buddy used to own a second hand games store and I used to help him out there...I became obsessed with all the things you are talking about here. Don't laugh, but I'm such a weirdo that I read a bunch of books on creating signs and how to map the layout of spaces....yeah, as you already know, I'm super weird. I became fascinated by the layouts of supermarkets—the displays, signage, shelf locations. It is a very interesting subject.
Well, I liked you before, but now you are ridiculously cool! I certainly know who to talk to when I write my app. Part of the reason I wanted to do it is because the software kits are already done for you. You wouldn't even need to do that much coding to create a usable app. Ahh, project for next year.
Yes! Retail is honestly my bread and butter. I love museum work more but it's few and far between for me. You sound like you were made for experiential design, Mike! Way finding is such a big part of it. The pipeline has room for so many subject matter experts I didn't even know existed until I landed here. I am sure there would be overlap with what you do if you ever saw yourself changing your niche if you ever wanted to get into it. I think I mentioned the best creative director on our team is a dude with aphantasia. He's got a process and way of working I could never in a million years replicate. Anyway, just a testament to how you would do. I'm excited about this potential project- please keep me updated *EEEEK*!