Change Or Die.

If you see an empty restaurant or an empty store, you're less inclined to try it out. Outside of Valentine's Day and Christmas, perfume sales are slow, but what is the first thing you encounter in a department store? That's right the empty perfume counters with their bored staff.

That doesn't seem the most obvious way to draw in passing shoppers does it? I was told recently that the reason for this was historical. The aroma of the perfume kept the stench of the street out of the store.

Your mother asks why those nice old department stores keep going out of business doesn't she? Not so much a case of the times changing, more a case of marketers not changing.