ABSTRACT
In a previous study (Hetzel 1993), we demonstrated just how useful the concept of postmodernity could be in analysing recent developments in distribution concepts within a sector such as, for example, the distribution of women’s lingerie products in France. Indeed, it is clear that, in our ‘display society’, value systems are undergoing radical change. Hence, stores have gradually progressed from emphasising the product offering to displaying the offering as a whole. In the space of only a few years we have gone from the store as a setting for staging the object to the point of sale as the object of the setting. As a result the work of the distributor has become continually more complex since nowadays he must not only stage the products but also beforehand reflect on how best to stage the setting itself through its architecture, spatial layout, etc.
