The Service Industries Journal

Vol. 29, No. 5, May 2009, 635 –652

An empirical examination of perceived retail crowding, emotions,

and retail outcomes
Jiunn-Ger Tony Lia , Jai-Ok Kimb and So Young Leec
a
Department of Textiles and Clothing, Fu Jen Catholic University, 510 Chung Cheng Rd,
Hsinchuang, Taipei County 24205, Taiwan, Republic of China; bDesign Management, The Graduate
School of Human Environmental Sciences, Yonsei University, 134 Shinchon-dong, Seodaemun-gu,
Seoul 120-749, Korea; cDepartment of Housing Affairs & Interior Design, Chung-Ang University,
Ansung Si, Daeduck Myeon 72-1, College of Human Ecology Bldg. #1218, Kyunggi-do,
Korea, Republic of Korea
(In final form 26 May 2007)

Crowded retail shopping conditions can result from many shoppers being present
during a given time and at a given place, as well as from limited customer space
owing to inadequate floor layout design and allocation of fixtures and merchandise
on the floor. This study investigated the effects of the perception of human crowding
and spatial crowding on consumer shopping behavior through mediation of emotions
of pleasure, arousal, dominance, and a feeling of satisfaction in an international
market. A store intercept survey was conducted on 554 hypermarket consumers in
Taipei, Taiwan. The proposed structural relationships among perceived retail
crowding, emotions, and retail outcomes were analyzed by using confirmatory factor
analysis and structural equation modeling with Lisrel 8.54.
The results of the study demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed model in
delineating the relationships of retail crowding-emotions-satisfaction-retail outcomes
under actual retail environments. The study found that while human crowding perceived
during shopping at a hypermarket store positively impacted shoppers’ feelings rather
than negatively, spatial crowding perceived due to high spatial density negatively
impacted shoppers’ positive emotions. The findings supported the view that retail
crowding affected various shopping activities through influencing positive emotions and
summary feelings of satisfaction. Managerial implications of the study were also
discussed.

Keywords: human crowding; spatial crowding; hypermarket retail space; emotions;

retail outcomes

Introduction
The notion that in-store atmospherics affect consumer shopping behavior is widely
accepted in the marketing literature (Areni & Kim, 1994; Herrington, 1996; Kotler,
1973; Turley & Milliman, 2000). Today many retail marketers view the store environ-
ments as increasingly important to satisfying their customers by providing a positive
total shopping experience and use a communication tool to position the store in the con-
sumers’ mind (Levy & Weitz, 2001). Several studies noted that the physical shopping
environments designed by retail stores influence all aspects of the retailing business.
This includes the customer’s patronage decisions on where to go for shopping, their per-
ceptions of quality of merchandise and service and image of the store, and their shopping


Corresponding author. Email: 002781@mail.fju.edu.tw

ISSN 0264-2069 print/ISSN 1743-9507 online

# 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/02642060902720121
http://www.informaworld.com
636 J.-G.T. Li et al.

behaviors of the amount of time and money spent at the store, as well as their satisfaction
with the retail store (Bellizzi, Crowley, & Hasty, 1983; Eroglu & Machleit, 1990; Kotler,
1973).
Much of the previous research has focused on the effects of atmospheric stimuli, such
as music (Herrington, 1996), odor (Hirsch, 1995), color (Bellizzi & Hite, 1992), lighting
(Areni & Kim, 1994), and store crowding (Machleit, Eroglu, & Mantel, 2000; Machleit &
Mantel, 2001) on shoppers’ satisfaction or on their shopping behaviors.
The literature review of retail crowding, particularly suggested that there are two major
groups of research studies in this area. One group of research studies (Eroglu & Machleit,
1990; Hui & Bateson, 1991; Machleit et al., 2000) focused on the antecedents of retail
crowding, particularly the mediating role of individual’s characteristics (e.g., perceived
risk, expectation, time pressure, shopping motives, perceived control) and the retail
setting. Another stream of studies focused on the relationships of retail crowding and its
consequences (e.g., emotional response, satisfaction, time spent, and amount purchased)
(Eroglu & Machleit, 1990; Hui & Bateson, 1991; Machleit, Kellaris, & Eroglu, 1994;
Machleit et al., 2000). A number of studies (Eroglu, Machleit, & Barr, 2005; Machleit
& Mantel, 2001) suggested that the effect of perceived retail crowding on shopping
satisfaction is mediated by emotions. Eroglu and Machleit (1990) indicated that the
perception of crowding while shopping often accompanies certain emotions, thus
influencing customers’ buying decisions as well as their future retail store patronage.
Perceived crowding is a subjective state of psychological stress that arises from a
situation of scarce space (Stokols, 1972). The situation of scare space in a retail setting
can result from many shoppers being present during a given time and at a given place
as well as inadequate allocation of the store space for selling, merchandise, personnel,
and customers. This situation may cause limited space for shoppers’ physical movements
and shopping activities, thereby creating the uncomfortable feeling of crowding. Thus,
the layout design, which refers to the arrangement of the amount or the size of space
for merchandise and fixtures becomes a factor critical to controlling the overall retail
crowding perceived by shoppers at the retail store (Berman & Evans, 1992; Levy &
Weitz, 2001).
Desor (1972) suggested that crowding perceptions vary depending on the character-
istics of the setting and the person. On some occasions like at the bar or at the stadium
for events of sports, people seek out and enjoy highly dense environments. Many
studies (e.g., Hui & Bateson, 1991; Machleit et al., 2000), however, have found that
consumer crowding, in general, has a negative influence on atmospheric perceptions. It
is argued that when consumers experience negative emotions (e.g., unhappy or irritated)
from crowded environments, they generally exhibit unfavorable shopping behavior
(e.g., spend less time in the store) because the shopping activities become incompatible
with their shopping desires, needs, and goals. However, there are possibilities of the
opposite reaction; that is, interplay between perceived crowding and emotion may lead
to a positive shopping behavior in a retail setting (Wakefield & Blodgett, 1994). For
example, a store with a lot of people can create a sense of an exciting atmosphere
(Machleit et al., 2000; Wakefield & Blodgett, 1994). Despite an abundant evidence of
the linkages between perceived crowding, emotions, and consumer shopping behavior,
only a few studies (Oliver, 1993; Westbrook, 1987) have attempted to develop a model that
describes the relationships among these critical environmental retail layout variables –
perceived crowding-emotions-shopping behavioral outcomes in the retail environments.
The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the nature of the relationships
between perception of crowding and consumer shopping behavior in an international
 The Service Industries Journal 637

market, Taipei, using a proposed conceptual model of perceived crowding-emotions-

shopping behavior outcomes. The conceptual framework was developed by integrating
previous models proposed by Eroglu and Harrell (1986) and Machleit et al. (1994).
It empirically tests how perception of retail crowding impacts the selected consumer shop-
ping behavioral outcomes (e.g., time spent at the store, impulse buying, and aisle table
buying). The study aims to increase the understanding of relationships among perceived
crowding and shopping behavior mediated by emotions during shopping, thus providing
further insights to retailers for better design of retail environments to enhance customer
satisfaction. Retailers can alleviate or enhance feelings of crowding through effective
and balanced store layout design and other atmospheric marketing strategies.

Conceptual framework for study of retail crowding

For this study, development of the proposed conceptual framework presented in Figure 1
is based on interdisciplinary literature; retail crowding models by Eroglu and Harrell
(1986), Harrell, Hutt, and Anderson (1980), and Gilbert and Hutt (1976); and the typology
of emotional responses by Mehrabian and Russell (1974). It included the variables of
human and spatial crowding, emotional responses, satisfaction, and behavioral outcomes.
The concepts in the framework suggest that human crowding and spatial crowding
perceived from sets of selected physical layout designs and area crowding factors affect
perceived store crowding in the retail setting. The crowding perceptions will influence
consumers’ ultimate shopping behavior through the mediation of feelings or emotions.
For the analysis of perceptions of crowding, the conceptual framework is divided into
two types of retail store crowding, i.e., perceived human crowding and perceived spatial
crowding. Two dimensions of retail crowding (spatial crowding and human crowding)
identified by Machleit et al. (1994) were selected for this study as these may differentially
affect consumers’ satisfaction with their shopping experience and their shopping behavior

Figure 1. A proposed model for the study of perceived store crowding and consumer shopping
behavior.
638 J.-G.T. Li et al.

in retail settings. Spatial crowding is defined as the shopper’s perceptions of restrictiveness

of physical body movement within limited customer space while shopping at a store.
Perceptions of human crowding appear to arise from high human density of shoppers
simultaneously participating in browsing, transaction, and interaction activities on the
selling floor (Machleit et al., 1994).
Levy and Weitz (2001) and Pegler (1998) suggested that grid layout, free-flow layout,
aisle tables, and cash registers are important physical environment factors that are related
to consumers’ shopping attitude. Thus, perception of spatial crowding is measured by
asking shoppers about their perceptions of crowding at various locations of the store
that are of differently designed layouts. Ceiling height and lighting are additional physical
factors included in the perceived spatial crowding because they are important elements in
store interior design (Hasty & Reardon, 1996), which may affect consumers’ perceptions
of crowding and their emotions while shopping in the store.
The second component of the model illustrates emotional responses under conditions of
crowding. According to previous studies (Baker, Levy, & Grewal, 1992; Bellizzi & Hite,
1992), individual’s non-verbal responses to retail environments was a major determinant
of shopping behavior. The model of Mehrabian and Russell (1974), which has been
widely applied by various marketing studies (Chebat, Filiatrault, Gelinas-Chebat, &
Vaninsky, 1995; Donovan & Rossiter, 1982; Hui & Bateson, 1991; Mehrabian &
Russell, 1974; Swee & Siew, 1997), was used for the present study. The conceptual
model included positive emotions (i.e., pleasure, arousal, and dominance), which have
been found to be conducive to consumer retail shopping (Chebat et al., 1995; Donovan &
Rossiter, 1982; Fiore, Yah, & Yoh, 2000; Yalch & Spangenberg, 1990).
The third component was satisfaction as a universal summary of cognitive and
emotional evaluation of the shopping experience. As the outcome of the shopping activi-
ties can be decided based on the summary emotional response of satisfaction, several
studies (Machleit & Mantel, 2001; Machleit et al., 2000) used this construct as a surrogate
of positive shopping activities and patronage decisions.
The final component, consumer shopping behavioral outcomes, was included in the
model to examine how shoppers adapt to the crowded retail environment and decide
their shopping activities. The shopping behavioral outcomes selected from previous
retail studies (Baker, Grewal, & Parasuraman, 1994; Beatty & Ferrell, 1998; Eroglu &
Machleit, 1990; Grossbart, Hampton, Rammohan, & Lapidus, 1990) included: (a) time
spent in the store, (b) impulse buying, and (c) aisle buying. As the shopping activities
can be decided based on their individual emotional responses and the summary evaluative
emotional response of satisfaction, the impact of perception of crowding on consumer’s
shopping behavior can be studied using the proposed model.

Literature review and hypotheses development

The perceived store crowding, emotional responses, customer satisfaction, and behavioral
outcomes (e.g., time spent in the store, impulse buying, aisle table buying) are discussed
and research hypotheses are proposed in this section.

Spatial crowding and human crowding

Several studies (Stokols, 1976; Stokols, Rau, Pinner, & Schopler, 1973; Zlutnik & Altman,
1972) indicated that when the environments restrict or interfere with one’s activity, the
individual perceives crowding. Thus, crowding can be said to result from a combination
 The Service Industries Journal 639

of the perceived physical, social, and personal factors, and the interplay of these factors
even make the individual more sensitive to actual or potential problems that may arise
from scarce space (Stokols, 1972). It means that crowding results from both the density
stimuli and personal perception to the environment (Stokols, 1972). Extending the
concept, the empirical studies (Harrell et al., 1980; Machleit et al., 1994) identified two
dimensions of perception of crowding, human crowding and spatial crowding. Human
crowding refers to a closed, confined feeling experienced from high human density; and
spatial crowding refers to feelings of restricted physical body movement due to high
spatial density.
The physical environment is an important element to evoking feelings of crowding or
crowding stress (Eroglu & Harrell, 1986; Harrell et al., 1980). The physical environment,
within the retailing context, refers to the store layout, which is the arrangement of the
amount and the size of merchandise and fixtures within a given space (Berman &
Evans, 1992). Appropriately allocating floor space for fixtures, product groupings,
traffic flow, department locations, and the space for merchandise can contribute to an
individual’s sense of privacy, and was a major consideration for store managers in
reducing shoppers’ perceptions of crowding (Greenbaum & Greenbaum, 1981). The
main purpose of the store layout design is to provide customers an adequate space to
navigate and shop easily (Levy & Weitz, 2001). Another purpose is to control traffic
flow on the selling floor (Hasty & Reardon, 1996). Thus, the influence of these layout
patterns on perceived store crowding depends on their density levels, height of fixtures,
type of merchandise, and function of the displays.
Since spatial crowding perceived by shoppers may result from the combined feeling of
crowding experienced when one shops at different areas of the store plus the feeling
evoked by the height of the ceiling and the lighting of the store, it is important to
include the impact of spatial crowding that is measured at various locations of the store
such as grid layout area, free-flow area, aisle table area, and cash register area and by
the effect of ceiling height and lighting.

Emotional responses
In an environmental research study, Stokols (1972) suggested that perceived crowding
under a dense setting can create tension as well as arousal. The present study focuses
on the model of Mehrabian and Russell (1974) since the three types of emotions, pleasure,
arousal, and dominance, used in their model seem more closely linked to the stress or lack
of control felt as a result of perceptions of crowding experienced in the retail setting.
Pleasure is defined as the degree to which an individual feels happy and joyful in a
place. Arousal is the degree to which an individual feels excited and stimulated in the
situation. Dominance is the degree to which an individual feels free to act, or in control
of the environment. Donovan and Rossiter (1982) tested the model of Mehrabian and
Russell (1974) in a retail setting and found that the pleasure and arousal dimension had
a strong effect on customer behavior. However, others argued that the results may
depend on environmental stimuli and the type of retail setting (Turley & Milliman,
2000; Yalch & Spangenberg, 1990). In marketing literature, these three emotions are con-
sidered to be important emotions conducive to positive shopping behavioral outcomes.
Empirical research in a service setting has shown that when the environment is
crowded, customers will experience feelings of stress (Hui & Bateson, 1991) or less
excitement (Wakefield & Blodgett, 1994). Furthermore, the feeling of congestion may
not only evoke some emotional responses, but may also influence shoppers’ shopping
640 J.-G.T. Li et al.

behavior. All of these studies suggest that store environments, such as crowding, can have
a strong influence on the emotion that shoppers may experience and then, the consumer’s
approach would become avoidance behavior. Stokols (1972) suggested that perceived
crowding cannot only affect a pleasure response but also cause tension and affect
arousal in dense settings. Hence, both perceived human crowding and perceived spatial
crowding may cause negative feelings for shoppers and hinder their shopping activities.
Therefore, in the review above, we hypothesized as follows:
H1: Human crowding perceived by shoppers is negatively related to the emotions of (a)
pleasure, (b) arousal, and (c) dominance that shoppers experience during shopping.
H2: Spatial crowding perceived by shoppers is negatively related to the emotions of (a)
pleasure, (b) arousal, and (c) dominance that shoppers experience during shopping.

Consumer satisfaction
Most research studies have used customer satisfaction as an evaluative judgment regarding
a purchasing experience (Oliver, 1993; Oliver & Swan, 1989; Oliver & Westbrook, 1993;
Westbrook & Oliver, 1991). Eroglu and Machleit (1990) and Eroglu and Harrell (1986)
suggested that the perception of crowding is an important store attribute that may affect
customer satisfaction with the retail environment. Hui and Bateson (1991) showed that
perceived crowding decreases feelings of pleasure in a service environment. These
unpleasant emotions that resulted from a shopping experience may influence consumer
satisfaction (Oliver, 1993; Machleit et al., 1994).
The level of excitement experienced by customers has a direct effect on consumer
satisfaction. Machleit and Mantel (2001) found that the effect of emotions on shopping
satisfaction depends on the shopper’s perceived control over the shopping experience.
In a study on leisure service settings, Wakefield and Blodgett (1994) found that the feel-
ings of crowding adversely affected the level of excitement experienced by shoppers.
Machleit et al. (2000) argued that these emotions can partially mediate the perception
of crowding – satisfaction relationships. Hence, it is expected that a positive relationship
exists between the level of the emotions of pleasure, arousal, and dominance and that
of the feelings of satisfaction that shoppers may experience at the store during shopping.
Therefore, it is hypothesized:
H3: Shoppers’ feelings of (a) pleasure, (b) arousal, and (c) dominance experienced during
shopping at a store are positively related to consumer satisfaction.

Behavioral outcomes
In research on the urban experience, Milgram (1970) found that an individual must
react to the excessive stimulus in order to function effectively in a given environment.
This concept implies that several adaptive processes could occur in response to crowded
conditions. For instance, Harrell et al. (1980), Eroglu and Machleit (1990), and Machleit
and Eroglu (2000) found that the level of store crowding perceived by consumers during
shopping affected their overall shopping activity. Therefore, how shoppers cope with
crowded retail environments depends on how perceived crowding is interpreted. Among
several possible consumer behavioral outcomes under the crowded situation in the store,
this study examined three behavioral outcomes that may directly result from the perception
of crowding: (a) time spent in the store, (b) impulse buying, and (c) aisle table buying.
 The Service Industries Journal 641

Time spent in the store

Many researchers have manipulated environmental variables and measured the time con-
sumers spent in retail settings. Yalch and Spangenberg (1990) reported that the style of
music in the store influenced the time that shoppers spent in the store, but Herrington
(1996) found no relationship between time and the music tempo. Besides music, studies
of other variables associated with time spent in a store include color (Bellizzi & Hite,
1992) and lighting (Areni & Kim, 1994). Lighting was found to have no influence on
the time spent in the store. As for the research on the crowding variable, a focus group
interview (Eroglu & Harrell, 1986) also indicated that in a crowded store customers
spent less time on shopping. According to Milgram’s (1970) research on a city environ-
ment, one adaptive mechanism activated by overload output in an environment was that
people allocate less time to each stimulus input. Thus, the attempt at reducing shopping
time in a crowded place might be one of the shoppers’ behaviors resulting from the
feelings of restraint and stress caused by limited space in the store.

Impulse buying and aisle table buying

An impulse purchase, by definition, is an unplanned purchase (Bellenger, Robertson, &
Hirschman, 1978; Cobb & Hoyer, 1986). Rook (1987) addressed impulse buying as a
shopping experience with a sudden urge to buy something immediately. Beatty and
Ferrell (1998) extended this concept of impulse buying to include buying with no pre-
shopping intentions to do so.
The literature suggests that perceived crowding can affect consumer emotions in a
retail setting (Hui & Bateson, 1991; Machleit et al., 2000), and consumer emotions influence
shopping behaviors in a number of different ways, including impulse purchasing (Gardner &
Rook, 1988; Rook, 1987). The feeling of an urge to buy is reinforced in a crowded place
where the atmosphere is exciting. Many impulse purchases are then made by shoppers
with the feeling of joy and excitement. Donovan and Rossiter (1982) also found that pleasure
was positively associated with overspending in the shopping environment.
In all these approaches it is recognized that a shopper’s perception of crowding and his
emotional response in a retail environment affect his desire to spend time in the store.
Shoppers who try to shorten shopping time in crowded places tend to rely on shopping
lists, avoid delay by unnecessary purchases (Jarboe & McDaniel, 1987), avoid approach-
ing the aisle tables, or abandon impulse buying. In addition, it seems reasonable to assume
that emotional responses may mediate the relationships between crowding and these
behavioral outcomes. Thus, it is anticipated that there is a positive relationship between
the level of satisfaction shoppers experienced at the store and their behavioral outcomes
of time spent in the store, impulse buying, and aisle table buying. Based on the above
discussion, we proposed the hypothesis as follows:
H4: Customer satisfaction experienced during shopping at the store is positively related to
(a) time spent in the store, (b) impulse buying, and (c) aisle table buying.

Method
Research site
To explore the impact of store crowding on consumer shopping behavior, surveys were
conducted at two discount stores in Taipei, Taiwan. Carrefour, a large French-owned
642 J.-G.T. Li et al.

multinational hypermarket retail chain stocks groceries, fashion apparel, home fashions,
dry packaged products, and hardware items. Among 27 stores in Taiwan, two branch
stores are located four miles apart in the Taipei city. These two stores were selected to
examine how human crowding and interior physical environments (i.e., grid layout,
free-flow layout, aisle tables, cash registers, and ceiling height) influence shoppers’
emotions, satisfaction, and behavioral outcomes in the crowded discount/grocery type
retail stores.
These two stores are similar in the assortment, quality, and price of the merchandise
they stock. They are also basically identical in their service offering, easy-listening
music, fluorescent-type ceiling lighting, white color walls, and interior signage. The
layout design is of a grid pattern for dry packaged products and of a free-flow pattern
for frozen food/meat/dairy products and fresh produce, i.e., vegetable section area.
Several aisle tables or carts were used to display merchandise for special offer along
the aisles or at the end of the gondolas. In addition, patrons coming from the areas
close to the stores have similar lifestyles, consumption patterns, and economic back-
grounds. There are some differences between the two stores with respect to the scale of
physical facility, store exterior, presence of parking lot, size of selling floor, floor
materials, width of the aisles, and ceiling height, but the overall space design, layout
patterns, and lighting are very similar to each other.

Questionnaire development
The questionnaire was first developed in English, and then translated into Chinese for the
survey. To validate the instrument, scale items written in Chinese were reviewed and
translated into English by a panel of four graduate students attending University in the
USA, who have a good command of both the Chinese and English languages. A pretest
was conducted with about 100 undergraduate college students in Taipei to refine the
scale development and to clarify the wording and meanings of the questions.

Measures
All items except the demographic variables in the model are measured on five-point
Likert-type scales, anchored at 1 as strongly disagree and 5 as strongly agree. For per-
ceived human crowding and perceived spatial crowding by shoppers to be measured,
six items validated by Machleit et al. (1994) were used as shown in Appendix 1.
Among them, the first three items were used for measurement of the spatial crowding
dimension and the other three items for the human crowding dimension.
For spatial crowding, the authors developed additional scale items based on the
measurements of Machleit et al. (1994) to reflect the perceived spatial crowding at differ-
ent areas of the store. Four scale items were developed to measure perceived spatial
crowding resulting from each of the following: the grid area for packaged products, the
free-flow area for the frozen food/meats/dairy product and vegetable section, the aisle
table area, the cash register area, and the ceiling and lights (see Appendix 1). For
ceiling and lights, only three items were applied.
The questions asking for the emotional feeling of respondents during shopping were
adapted from the emotions scale of Mehrabian and Russell (1974). Among the six
items, two items were used for the feeling of pleasure. The item used for arousal was
‘I felt aroused when shopping in the store’. The dominance dimension contained two
items.
 The Service Industries Journal 643

Satisfaction was assessed using the items developed by Eroglu and Machleit (1990)
and Machleit et al. (1994). The shopping behavior variable of Time spent in the store
was measured by asking the level of agreement on ‘I spent more time than I expected
at the store’, and ‘The amount of time I spent was fairly high’. The impulse buying
behavior was measured by using three items modified from Beatty and Ferrell (1998)
and Rook and Fisher (1995).
Aisle table behavior included two items that were developed by the authors based on
observations and interviews. Finally, some demographic information was asked such as
gender, age, education, occupation, family total monthly income, time to shop at the
store, average frequency of shopping at the store per month, and amount spent per
shopping trip.

Data collection
Store intercept interviews were administered to collect a convenience sample of approxi-
mately 600 shoppers within the two chosen retail sites. The data were collected in two time
periods, i.e., in the afternoon (1:00 – 7:00 p.m.) of weekdays and weekends in order to
survey under relatively high retail human density, i.e., the number of shoppers in the
stores. Study respondents were taken from a convenience sample of store customers or
after they completed shopping and exited into the parking lot. The interviewers
approached potential respondents, including all shoppers exiting the store regardless of
evidence of purchase, gender, or age and asked them whether they were willing to partici-
pate in the survey. Upon agreement the shopper was asked to take a few minutes to fill out
the questionnaire on site and returned it immediately when completed.

Data analysis
In order to examine the hypothesized relationships among perceived human crowding,
spatial crowding perceived in the five areas of the store, emotional responses, satisfaction,
and behavioral outcomes, analyses of several factor and the structural equation modeling
(SEM) were employed. Prior to running the SEM, factor analyses were first used to ident-
ify and develop factors representing the various constructs. Data from the two stores were
combined because the relationships among variables were examined instead of comparing
the two groups of shoppers from the two stores.

Results
Demographic characteristics of the participants
A total of 554 questionnaires were obtained from two Carrefour stores in Taipei City,
Taiwan. There were 532 questionnaires usable for the data analysis. The sample was
made up of 290 respondents from the Tam-Hsui store and 242 from the Tien-Mou store.
Slightly more than half (53%) of the sample were female participants. The majority of
the participants (about 63%) were between the ages of 21 and 40. The second largest age
group (19%) was younger, between 13 and 20 years of age, and the rest were at the age
of 41 years and over. Participants with a college/university or higher education back-
ground accounted for approximately 61% of the respondents. The second largest group
(about 30%) was made up of participants who had completed high school. Almost
half of the participants (47%) were professional, and the rest were students (34%) and
homemakers (19%).
644 J.-G.T. Li et al.

About 65% of the respondents indicated that they usually shop at the store on the
weekend. Approximately 16% of the participants shop during weekday evenings and
the rest, about one-fifth, generally shop during the daytime of weekdays. Since there are
always a lot of shoppers in the stores during the weekends and the weekday evenings,
they are typically exposed to the situation of shopping in a very crowded retail
environment.

Reliability test and confirmatory factor analysis

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate measures of constructs using Lisrel 8.54.
Covariance matrices for these analyses were presented in Table 1. The result of
reliability tests indicated that most constructs with multiple items achieved good
reliability.
Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for most constructs were greater than 0.7, factor loading
for each indicator to its respective construct was significant (p , 0.05), and all loadings
range from 0.48 to 0.92 (Table 2). The measurement model showed a moderately good
fit. The ratio of chi-square to degrees of freedom was 2.40. The goodness-of-fit index
(GFI) was 0.93, comparable fit index (CFI) was 0.96, and root mean square error of
approximation (RMSEA) was 0.051.

General results of hypothesis testing

Once the measurement model was acceptable, the structural model in Figure 2 was tested.
As shown in Figure 2 and Table 3, the 10 paths were statistically significant (p , 0.05 or
better). All fit indices were at an acceptable level (chi-square 535.43, df ¼ 227,
GFI ¼ 0.92, CFI ¼ 0.96, RMSEA ¼ 0.051).
Hypothesis 1 (H1) predicted that human crowding perceived by shoppers is negatively
related to the emotions of (a) pleasure, (b) arousal, and (c) dominance that shoppers
experience during shopping. On the contrary, however, the result showed that human
crowding was positively related to two emotional responses, pleasure (0.29, p , 0.01)
and dominance (0.16, p , 0.01). This result suggests that shoppers’ perceptions of
human crowding during shopping do not necessarily evoke negative emotions, but
rather evoke positive feelings of emotion such as pleasure and dominance (i.e., feeling
that one can control the crowded situation) in the discount or hypermarket retail environ-
ment. This finding underlines positive effects of human crowding on the emotions that
shoppers would experience while shopping, demonstrating that crowding is not always
a negative stimulus to human emotion. The finding of this study is not consistent with
those of the earlier studies regarding the effects of human crowding on emotions. The
study of Eroglu et al. (2005) found that human crowding created a positive effect on shop-
ping satisfaction, but also increased negative emotions of feelings of anger and surprise.
The laboratory study of Machleit et al. (2000) in which the researchers controlled
human density to measure the effect of human crowding, also showed that human crowd-
ing was negatively related to pleasure and positively related to arousal. The results of this
current study suggested that human crowding in the grocery– hypermarket setting may
contribute to the liveliness of the retail environment evoking positive emotions in shop-
pers, whereas in the laboratory study setting, human crowding resulted as adding more
people in a given experimental room simply increases unpleasant emotions.
Hypothesis 2 (H2) proposed that spatial crowding perceived by shoppers is negatively
related to the emotions of (a) pleasure, (b) arousal, and (c) dominance that shoppers
Table 1. Covariance matrix of measures of constructs.
hc1 hc2 hc3 sc1 sc2 sc3 sc4 sc5 sc6 p1 p2 a1 d1 d2 sa1 sa2 sa3 ts1 ts2 im1 im2 im3 at1 at2

hc1 0.89
hc2 0.60 0.92

The Service Industries Journal

hc3 0.56 0.68 0.84
sc1 0.07 0.08 0.02 0.71
sc2 20.03 0.05 0.01 0.32 0.62
sc3 0.01 0.04 20.03 0.31 0.27 0.71
sc4 0.08 0.09 0.05 0.30 0.31 0.31 0.66
sc5 0.05 0.06 0.04 0.27 0.22 0.32 0.30 0.84
sc6 0.00 0.00 20.05 0.33 0.25 0.13 0.30 0.18 0.84
p1 0.02 0.10 0.08 20.19 20.16 20.24 20.15 20.24 20.13 0.85
p2 0.05 0.09 0.12 20.16 20.16 20.28 20.17 20.29 20.11 0.65 0.96
a1 20.01 20.07 20.01 20.08 20.12 0.08 20.04 20.01 20.10 20.14 20.06 0.97
d1 0.11 0.07 0.10 20.24 20.20 20.27 20.17 20.20 20.24 0.39 0.37 0.01 0.88
d2 0.11 0.05 0.12 20.20 20.17 20.22 20.14 20.15 20.19 0.33 0.32 20.01 0.64 0.90
sa1 0.21 0.17 0.26 20.26 20.22 20.27 20.12 20.19 20.25 0.26 0.31 0.07 0.38 0.40 0.92
sa2 0.16 0.12 0.18 20.33 20.25 20.31 20.17 20.19 20.31 0.36 0.39 0.13 0.46 0.48 0.67 0.88
sa3 0.15 0.22 0.21 20.24 20.21 20.16 20.17 20.08 20.26 0.18 0.23 0.21 0.30 0.25 0.44 0.42 1.02
ts1 0.06 0.04 0.05 20.09 20.15 0.02 20.08 20.03 20.21 0.05 0.01 0.23 0.14 0.14 0.19 0.23 0.35 1.02
ts2 0.09 0.03 0.04 20.08 20.13 0.01 20.11 20.01 20.14 0.05 0.06 0.16 0.13 0.19 0.23 0.28 0.30 0.75 1.11
im1 0.10 0.11 0.03 20.15 20.13 20.06 20.17 0.00 20.15 20.03 20.08 0.11 0.06 0.03 0.12 0.14 0.21 0.31 0.31 1.36
im2 0.08 0.07 0.05 20.05 20.06 0.05 20.08 0.01 20.05 20.01 20.14 0.21 20.08 20.08 0.08 0.09 0.20 0.12 0.14 0.55 1.10
im3 0.10 0.10 0.08 20.05 20.06 0.00 20.07 20.02 20.05 20.07 20.11 0.19 20.06 20.04 0.11 0.12 0.22 0.11 0.17 0.54 0.87 1.18
at1 0.06 0.01 0.06 20.13 20.13 20.11 20.16 20.06 20.17 0.03 0.07 0.16 0.10 0.11 0.11 0.13 0.16 0.14 0.14 0.36 0.25 0.23 1.08
at2 0.11 0.04 0.07 20.09 20.12 20.10 20.16 20.02 20.18 0.02 0.09 0.11 0.18 0.11 0.12 0.16 0.17 0.15 0.16 0.41 0.25 0.23 0.74 1.21

645
646 J.-G.T. Li et al.

Table 2. Results of confirmatory factor analysis.

Constructs and items Cronbach’s alpha Loadings t-value
Human crowding
hc1 0.872 0.71 19.45
hc2 0.85 24.53
hc3 0.80 23.64
Spatial crowding
sc1 0.784 0.58 16.83
sc2 0.51 15.54
sc3 0.57 16.00
sc4 0.55 16.17
sc5 0.48 11.83
sc6 0.52 12.93
Pleasure
p1 0.834 0.80 20.88
p2 0.82 20.10
Dominance
d1 0.835 0.81 22.33
d2 0.78 20.96
Satisfaction
sa1 0.778 0.77 21.25
sa2 0.65 25.01
sa3 0.54 12.53
Time spent
ts1 0.802 0.81 13.97
ts2 0.92 15.07
Impulse buying
im1 0.778 0.60 12.05
im2 0.92 22.39
im3 0.72 21.21
Aisle buying
at1 0.781 0.84 14.63
at2 0.87 14.40
Note: chi-square ¼ 479.39; df ¼ 200; goodness-of-fit index ¼ 0.93; comparable fit index ¼ 0.96; root mean
square error of approximation ¼ 0.051.

Figure 2. Model of human crowding and spatial crowding in consumer buying behavior.
 The Service Industries Journal 647

Table 3. Results of path analysis.

Path Estimate t-value
Human crowding!Pleasure 0.29 5.57
Human crowding!Arousal 20.02 20.54
Human crowding!Dominance 0.16 3.52
Spatial crowding!Pleasure 20.65 29.04
Spatial crowding!Arousal 20.12 22.48
Spatial crowding!Dominance 20.49 210.00
Pleasure!Satisfaction 0.99 4.45
Arousal!Satisfaction 0.39 4.95
Dominance!Satisfaction 20.22 21.10
Satisfaction!Time spent 0.37 6.58
Satisfaction!Impulse buying 0.22 4.00
Satisfaction!Aisle buying 0.38 5.41
Note: chi-square ¼ 535.43; df ¼ 227; goodness-of-fit index ¼ 0.92; comparable fit index ¼ 0.96; root mean
square error of approximation ¼ 0.051.

experience during shopping. The results of SEM found that spatial crowding was nega-
tively related to pleasure (20.65, p , 0.01), to arousal (20.12, p , 0.05), and to domi-
nance (20.49, p , 0.01) as expected, thus supporting H2 partially. The findings are
consistent with the findings of the previous studies that spatial crowding negatively
affect the positive emotions of pleasure, joy, or interest and satisfaction of shoppers
(Eroglu et al., 2005; Machleit et al., 2000).
Hypothesis 3 (H3) proposed that shoppers’ feelings of (a) pleasure, (b) arousal, and
(c) dominance experienced during shopping at a store are positively related to consumer
satisfaction. The results showed that pleasure (0.99, p , 0.01) and arousal (0.39,
p , 0.01) were positively related to satisfaction, thus partially supporting H3. Previous
findings suggested that emotions can moderate the relationship between crowding and
satisfaction (Machleit et al., 2000). The results of this study support the moderating
effects of emotion, particularly the feelings of pleasure and arousal on perceptions of
crowding and shopping satisfaction in the hypermarket shopping environment. It is
apparent that among the three, pleasure and arousal that shoppers experience are more
important emotions for shopping satisfaction than dominance. Earlier studies (Mehrabian
& Russell, 1974; Russell & Pratt, 1980) indicated that pleasure and arousal are two
important emotional responses that can be elicited during shopping and dominance
was not considered as an important emotion that directly related to satisfaction that
shoppers might experience during shopping at the mall. This study also supported the
findings of these earlier studies that dominance is a less important emotion to shopping
satisfaction.
Hypothesis 4 (H4) anticipated that customer satisfaction experienced during shopping
at the store is positively related to (a) time spent in the store, (b) impulse buying, and
(c) aisle table buying. The results confirm H4: customer satisfaction is positively associ-
ated with time spent in the store (0.37, p , 0.01), impulse buying (0.22, p , 0.01), and
aisle table buying (0.38, p , 0.01). These findings support the finding that satisfaction
is an important summary emotion that leads to various positive shopping activities and
patronage decisions. In other words, it suggests that the more satisfied the customers
are, the longer they shop, with more impulse shopping, that is more purchases of
promotional merchandise, i.e., merchandise that the shoppers did not intend to purchase
before coming to the store.
648 J.-G.T. Li et al.

Discussion
The results of this field study on the impact of crowding on shoppers’ emotions and their
behavior highlighted the roles of human crowding and spatial crowding in a hypermarket
retailing environment. The study found that spatial crowding, i.e., the feeling of restricted
physical body movement due to high spatial density, negatively impacted shoppers’
positive emotions as was found in previous studies (e.g., Machleit et al., 2000).
However, contrary to the common notion of the impact of crowding in a retail setting,
i.e., negative unwanted stimuli or environmental constraints to performing shopping
activities, the results of this study demonstrate that human crowding due to high human
density while shopping at a hypermarket store impacted on shoppers’ feelings positively
rather than negatively. A previous study (Machleit et al., 2000) found that spatial, as well
as human crowding had negative effects on positive emotions and satisfaction, and that
spatial crowding was a more negatively affecting factor on both emotions and satisfaction
than human crowding perceived at discount stores or upscale stores. Results of the current
study different from the previous studies can be attributed to the fact that many earlier
studies employed retrospective survey reports of a self-selected shopping experience
and the level of human crowding was not controlled in these studies, and thus, the
perceptions of human crowding could have been confounded with several situational
factors (cf., Machleit et al., 2000). In this respect, this current study could be said to be
effective in delineating the relationships of human and spatial crowding – emotions-
satisfaction-retail outcomes under the relatively well-controlled actual retail environments
using the proposed crowding-retail activity processing model.
The intriguing findings of this study left one question: how managers may increase
human crowding and yet reduce spatial crowding. It might be impossible to both reduce
spatial crowding and increase human crowding at a place.
However, throughout the retail spaces, managers could employ some strategies so that
people perceive the degree of human crowding and the degree of spatial crowding differently
by locations. For instance, managers could manipulate circulation areas where people gather,
thus increasing human crowding in such locations as the entrance, lobby, hall, escalator areas
and decreasing the degree of spatial crowding in the rest of the shopping areas.
The retail stores often use aisle tables to attract shoppers’ attention and lead them to
unplanned impulse purchases, despite the fact that aisle tables usually create more
spatial crowding. Discount or hypermarket retail stores may have to use many aisle
tables to encourage more purchases. The finding of this study may not be applicable for
upscale department stores since aisle tables create the feeling of cluttering in shoppers
and damage the image, i.e., open and spacious feeling of upscale retail stores. However,
by a positive relationship between human crowding to various retail purchasing activities
through the emotions of pleasure and satisfaction, the hypermarket or discount retailers
should continue to provide various promotional events or activities to attract more
people to the store by increasing the feeling of human crowding in the shopper as a positive
feelings rather than a negative feeling.
Previous studies proposed that loss of control is a primary mechanism on which high
human density has negative effects (Baum & Paulus, 1987; Lepore, Evans, & Schneider,
1992). People experience unwanted and unpredictable interactions under crowded situ-
ations if the physical environment eliminates behavioral options. For example, if people
confront a congested area and they do not have other ways to detour or change their direc-
tion, they may face more of the consequences of crowding. Therefore, it is important for
people to find themselves with a choice of moving around in stores.
 The Service Industries Journal 649

Another important aspect of retail crowding may have to do with geographic or

cultural influences on crowding phenomena (Turley & Milliman, 2000). The consumers
in the cities of Asian countries generally are more accustomed to living in situations of
high population density for their daily life activities. These customers may perceive
human crowding differently than do US consumers, and they may react differently to
human crowding in the retail environment. Thus, future studies could explore the
impacts of human crowding on shopping activities and perception of retail environments
in different international markets.
Several earlier studies have focused on understanding the effects of crowding on
shoppers’ satisfaction, emotions, or retail outcomes, such as time or money spent
during shopping. Limited studies have attempted to examine the impact of crowding on
the whole process of emotions experienced during shopping and its resultant activities.
The model tested in this study was found to be effective in describing relationships
among retail crowding-related variables.
This study supported the findings of Mehrabian and Russell (1974) that pleasure and
arousal are important in determining shoppers’ satisfaction and their shopping behavior at
a hypermarket. The findings of this study also suggest that among the positive emotions
conducive to consumers’ shopping activities observed by Mehrabian and Russell
(1974), the feeling of pleasure was most affected by perceptions of human crowding
as well as by spatial crowding emphasizing the importance of the feeling of pleasure to
shopping activities.
A number of future research ideas have arisen from the findings of this study. First,
since there are two dimensions of crowding, human crowding and spatial crowding,
it is critical to understand how each type of crowding directly contributes to the overall
perceptions of store crowding, customer satisfaction and each of the shopping behavior
outcomes. Secondly, the extent of crowding can vary at different sections of a store
depending on the design of different floor layouts with the intention of controlling
traffic and the density of merchandise displayed in the fixtures. Thus, it would be interest-
ing to examine how each section of a hypermarket contributes to the overall perception of
crowding of the store. Thus, managers can help reduce overall spatial crowding by arran-
ging the layout pattern for easy traffic flow and smooth shopping while increasing human
crowding and providing a stimulating atmosphere. Additional research could be done on
the impact of various consumer characteristics and situation factors by including these
factors in the proposed model since these factors may moderate the relationship
between perceptions of crowding, emotions, satisfaction, and other retail outcomes.
Thirdly, the duration of crowding may affect the perception of the degree of crowding
and satisfaction. For promotional event, activities, or programs, future research could
elucidate the optimal time people enjoy and tolerate a certain degree of crowding.
In conclusion, we have demonstrated that the proposed model clearly delineates the
effects of human crowding and spatial crowding on the process of consumers’ shopping
activities, for example, from the impact of crowding on shoppers’ emotion to overall
satisfaction and their shopping behavior. The findings suggest that while marketing and
promotional activities may be designed to attract large numbers of shoppers to the
store, the store should put effort into the store layout design to help reduce feelings of
spatial crowding, thereby facilitating easy and pleasant shopping. The important finding
in this study is that many shoppers, due to various promotional events or activities, may
perceive human crowding to impact positively on their pleasant feelings during shopping.
In this study, shoppers perceived that human crowding was manageable and that it
translated into more positive emotions.
650 J.-G.T. Li et al.

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Appendix 1. Measurement items

Human crowding
The store was too busy during my shopping trip
There was much traffic in the store
There were a lot of shoppers in the store
Overall spatial crowding
The store had an open, airy feeling to it (R)
The store feels very spacious when I shop in the store (R)
I felt confined when shopping in the store
Grid layout area
The store feels very spacious when I shop in the shelving section for packaged products (R)
I felt confined when shopping in the shelving section for packaged products
It is inconvenient to move around in the aisle of the shelving section for packaged products
The shelving section for packaged products had an open, airy feeling to it (R)
Free-flow layout area
The store feels very spacious when I shop in the frozen food/meats/dairy product and vegetable
section (R)
I felt confined when shopping in the frozen food/meats/dairy product and vegetable section
It is convenient to move around in the aisle of the frozen food/meats/dairy product and vegetable
section (R)
The frozen food/meats/dairy product and vegetable section had an open, airy feeling to it (R)
Aisle table area
The store feels very spacious when I shop near aisle table areas (R)
I felt confined when shopping near aisle table areas
It is inconvenient to move around near aisle table areas
The aisle table areas had an open, airy feeling to them (R)
Cash register area
The store feels very spacious when waiting near cash register areas (R)
I usually felt confined when waiting near cash register areas
It is inconvenient to move around near cash register areas
The cash register areas had an open, airy feeling to them (R)
Ceiling and lighting
The store feels very spacious since the ceilings are high and the light is bright (R)
I felt confined when shopping in the store since the ceiling is low and light is dim
The ceilings and light in this store gives me an open, airy feeling (R)
Pleasure
I felt annoyed when shopping in the store(R)
I felt despairing when shopping in the store
Arousal
I felt aroused when shopping in the store
Dominance
I felt controlled when shopping in the store
I felt autonomous when shopping in the store
Satisfaction
I was satisfied with my shopping experience at the store
Given a choice, I would probably come back to the store
This is my choice of store in which I regularly like to come to shop
Time spent
I spent more time than I expected at the store
The amount of time I spent was fairly high
Impulse buying
When I saw people gathered, I bought things that I had not intended to purchase
When the store is crowded, I often end up purchasing more
When the store is crowded, I feel like buying things
Aisle buying
I enjoyed shuffling the mixed items on the aisle tables
I bought things in the aisle tables even though I did not plan to purchase