They do. Employees mist the clothing and air duct vents all over the store periodically through the day..
It took me a while to figure out that the
smell outside of Hollister in the Eaton Centre was actually intentional, as their sibling store Abercrombie and Fitch farther south in the mall didn't reek to me at all. Reading up on it taught me that it's a very important part of their marketing and that scent will become an even bigger part of retail in time.
Here are some other scents that I'm sure will be used to nauseate us more in the future:
Talcum powder: Feel safe, secure and nostalgic
Peppermint, citrus: Be more alert
Lavender, vanilla, chamomile: Relax
Barbecue smoke: Perceive a room as being smaller
Apple, cucumber: Perceive a room as larger
Leather, cedar: Buy expensive furniture
Fresh baked goods: Buy a home
Tailored floral/citrus scents: Browse longer and spend more
Unpleasant smells (rotting rubbish, air pollution): Develop road rage – although why retail marketers would want consumers to develop road rage in stores is somewhat baffling.
Pumpkin pie/lavender (for men) and the sweat of nursing mothers (for women): sexual arousal
http://airsensenews.com is a neat-o blog which covers a lot of the newest trends in scent marketing. Lord help us all when the internet has smell-o-vision...