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Much work has viewed retail as analogous to theater, creating memorable performances that communicate brand meanings. This article asks how the theatrical metaphor applies to a further role of retail environments: enabling customers’ social learning. When products are used in a collective consumption context, customers need to learn how to perform in that context. A micro-sociological study of men’s luxury tailoring reveals two ways in which this learning can begin in the store. First ‘mentoring scripts’ help sales associates to coach the customer, using discursive and experiential learning approaches. Second, staff and customers engage in improvisation practices, termed role switching, status asserting, nurturing, and show rescuing. While deeply theatrical, these behaviors are reminiscent not of traditional staged plays but rather of improvisatory and immersive theater, where customers are not an audience but active – albeit novice – performers. The drama of retail contexts is far more participatory than scholarship has yet acknowledged. |
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