Signs of Life

  After completing the reading listed on this week’s checklist–“The Signs of Shopping” by Anne Norton (83) and “The Science of Shopping” by Malcolm Gladwell (88) both in Signs of Life–complete the following: Visit a local store or supermarket, and study the spatial design. Which of the design strategies that Gladwell describes do you observe, and how do they seem to affect the customers’ behavior? How are some of these techniques similar to what Norton discusses in the section of her essay under the heading “Shopping at Home”? Use at least one quotation from each essay to support or illustrate. Using specific details (like particular stores, websites, techniques), answer the following question: Do you think surveillance of customers by retailers (brick-and-mortar and/or online) is beneficial or destructive to society as a whole?