New research by academics in France, Belgium and the Netherlands explores how retailers could have the power to modulate our walking speed in shops. It demonstrates, for example, that changing the distances between lines on the floor can tap into subconscious desires to reach the end of shopping aisles: the closer the end appears, the faster we walk towards the goal. The study by Nico Heuvinck, Bram van den Bergh (RSM), Gaby A. C. Schellekens, and Iris Vermeir is published as a paper ‘Altering speed of locomotion’ in the Journal of Consumer Research (October 2016).