When familiar retail experiences feel new: How unfamiliar environments increase enjoyment

Can the same product or service be experienced differently depending on feelings evoked by the retailer’s environment? The current research explores how consumers’ sense of environment familiarity influences retail experiences. A series of eight studies demonstrates that consumers like familiar products more when they sense an unfamiliar (vs. familiar) environment because they become discovery-oriented, whereby familiar items seem more novel under these conditions. Consistent with this explanation, we find that the proposed effect is specific to familiar products and does not apply to products that are inherently new (i.e., unfamiliar), and that this effect occurs due to consumers having a mindset geared toward discovery. The present research reveals the important joint impact of the retailer environment and product type on customers’ experiences, by showing how and why feelings evoked by retailers’ surroundings affect consumers’ judgments and behaviors. Our findings have implications for retailers wishing to improve in-store experiences, as well as for consumer welfare.