Capitalist Architecture

I grumble about Chapters, Starbuck’s and Walmart as much as the next guy, but that doesn’t prevent my appreciating a clever turn of physical marketing when I see one. For example, when you enter the Barnes & Noble on Broadway in Manhattan, the escalators are lined up in sequence to shoot you straight to the fourth floor cafe and magazine section. On the way down, though, the escalators are disjointed, so that you have to walk past a few hundred feet of bookshelves to get to the exit. Brilliant.