Let's start with that ridiculous store layout

In general, retailers design their stores with 3 goals in mind:

1. Intelligibility:Easy to understand the floor plan
2. Accessibility:Easy to navigate
3. A clear visual field:Exposure to products and the lay of the land

Most companies use store layouts that give customers thefreedom to exploreat their own will.

Commonly used configurations grid, racetrack, freeform, and spine don't have defined routes: You can wander down any aisle you please, in any order you want.

Zachary Crockett / The Hustle

Ikea breaks all of these rules.

Inside, customers are led through a preordained,one-way paththat winds through 50+ room settings. The average Ikea store is300k sq. ft. the equivalent of about 5 football fields and their typical shopper ends up walking almost a mile.

Want a lamp? You're going to have to walk past cookware, rugs, toilet brushes, and shoehorns to get there.

This serves several purposes:

1. It forces wider product exposure:At most retail shops, customers onlylay eyes on~33%of all the items for sale; Ikea's layout herds shoppers past its entire catalog.
2. It create--s a false sense of scarcity:When shoppers pass by items they're on the fence about, they'reinclinedto just put them in the cart because they don't want to backtrack through the maze later on.
3. It create--s a sense of mystery:Every 50 feet, the path breaks left. Shoppers never know what's around the next turn,stoking their desireto continue exploring.

Alan Penn, a professor of architecture at University College London who hasstudiedIkea's layout, calls it a "psychological weapon" used to drive unintended consumption.

"Going to Ikea is truly a submissive experience," he toldThe Hustle. "You relinquish control to its maze. And when you've done that, you're more likely to hand over control of your wallet, too."

Zachary Crockett / The Hustle

Ikea has mastered the use of a psychological principle called theGruen effect when the layout of a store is so bewildering that it makes you forget the original reason you came there, leading to impulse buys.

Jeff Hardwick, whowrote a bookon the Gruen effect, toldThe Hustlethat the principle is at play all around you at Ikea.

"You get lost in that maze, and then you are surrounded by nothing but ever-changing fantasies of what your life could be like," he said. "It's like you can walk into a magazine advertisement and pick up the dishes, sit on the couch, try out the desk chair. It's very tactile and participatory."

Lost in this stupor, you might find it easy to fall victim to some of Ikea's other tricks:

• Strategically placed mirrors:When you catch a glimpse of yourself in an Ikea room, you're primed to believe you belong in it.
• Contextual positioning:Rooms are set up exactly as they would be in a natural setting.Familiarityencourages purchasing.
• "Bulla bulla" (dump bins):Ikea places overstuffed crates of dirt-cheap products (plush toys, slippers, pillows) along the route to reinforce the idea that its products are a good deal.

If you look closely, something else you'll likely see at play in Ikea isdecoy pricing: when a retailer throws a less appealing option into the mix to make other products seem like a better deal.

Let's say there are 2 cabinets for sale: a $40 budget unit, and an $80 unit with more premium materials. Ikea might create a 3rd unit one that offers neither the low price of the budget unit, nor the premium materials of the pricier unit to make the others look better.

Studieshave shownthat the decoy effect can increase retail sales by as much as 14%.

Zachary Crockett / The Hustle

Strategies like this help explain why we buy more stuff once we'reinsidean Ikea.

But what brings us there in the first place and what ultimately dictates many of our spending decisions is the allure of affordable prices.

QUESTION: Read the first section of the IKEA article entitled "Let's start with the ridiculous store layout." Describe one strategy behind IKEA's 'maze' layout that induces people to buy more stuff.