@article{8b9f3396-d65f-4707-879a-b67a4bfa5573,
  abstract     = {{Purpose – To explore the cultural embeddedness of (un)welcome experiences among ethnically<br/>marginalized consumers in retail spaces.<br/>Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on Appadurai’s (1990) notion of the ethnoscape, the<br/>study is empirically grounded in critical-incident interviews with consumers from multiethnic<br/>backgrounds in Sweden.<br/>Findings – Three dimensions through which (un)welcome is negotiated are identified:<br/>interpersonal recognition in service encounters, cultural resonance in visibility encounters, and<br/>atmospheric conviviality in material–sensory encounters. The research theorizes the Retail<br/>Ethnoscape Framework, conceptualizing (un)welcome as interpersonal, representational, and<br/>spatial zones of disjuncture between the retailer’s official mind and the consumer’s lived<br/>ethnoscape. The study introduces retail proprioception—a learned bodily attunement through<br/>which marginalized consumers detect these disjunctures—revealing the somatic origin of the<br/>inclusionary labor they perform.<br/>Research limitations/implications – The framework calls for culturally sensitive service scripts,<br/>strategic workforce diversity, and integrated inclusion design. For consumers, understanding<br/>retail proprioception enables more effective marketplace navigation, while societally, genuinely<br/>welcoming retail environments foster multiethnic engagement, well-being, and social cohesion,<br/>advancing human-centric retail. The small Swedish sample limits generalizability.<br/>Originality/value – The paper advances retail welcome research by showing (un)welcome as<br/>culturally embedded rather than determined by discrete cues; extends atmospheric scholarship by<br/>demonstrating that environmental elements are perspectival constructs; reframes consumer<br/>vulnerability as a contextually activated state rather than a trait; and contributes to marketplace<br/>inclusion/exclusion scholarship by identifying retail proprioception as the embodied mechanism<br/>through which inclusionary labor falls disproportionately on marginalized consumers.}},
  author       = {{Shahriar, Hossain and Ulver, Sofia and Johansson, Ulf and Bixo, Sofie and Lundqvist, Sara K}},
  issn         = {{0959-0552}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{04}},
  pages        = {{1--1}},
  publisher    = {{Emerald Group Publishing Limited}},
  series       = {{International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management}},
  title        = {{The Retail Ethnoscape Framework: Cultural Embeddedness of (Un)Welcome}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}