It has become increasingly common for retailers to use their stores to communicate sustainability. But what do retailers communicate? And how is this communication accomplished in-store? While these questions have received attention in previous research, (c.f. P. Jones, Comfort, & Hillier, 2009; Arrigo, 2018; Saber & Weber, 2019), the focus of attention has been too limited. Most studies trying to understand or evaluate sustainability communication in-store, have focused on “green communicative artefacts” such as labels, posters, brochures, signs and packaging or the green communication work performed by staff (see for example Fuentes and Fredriksson (2016)). While understandable and not without its merits, these studies narrow focus tend to either overestimate or underestimate the green communication of stores. On the one hand, the communicative effects of an artefact are a relation effect. For example, a single green label may communicate responsible consumption, but when placed in store surrounded by for sale signs or aggressive marketing, its green communicate effects will be greatly limited. One the other hand, not only explicitly “green” communicate artefacts such as green labels communicate sustainability. Sustainability can be communicated by a number of other artefacts such as the use of certain materials (wood for example), language (concepts such as natural), or arrangements (a window display showing). A green message can thus be achieved or strengthen by non-explicitly green artefacts. How can this complex relationships be understood?

Our aim in this paper is to develop a theoretical and methodological approach to explore green communication as a result of material-relational effects. Taking an actor-network theory approach and drawing on an ethnographic study of seven unmanned pop-up stores designed to communicate sustainability, we set out to empirically explore and conceptualize how the communication of sustainability in-store is the result of a complex material arrangement rather than the effect of specific green artefacts.    

Unmanned pop-up-stores are especially suitable from a how-to-communicate-sustainability perspective since the visual impression plays a more important role in the absence of interaction with staff. Visual expressions, products for sale, furnishing, texts, graphic elements, decoration and marketing material must replace staff and work on their own to communicate sustainability in unmanned pop-up-stores. Also, pop-up stores broaden the scope of studies on in-store sustainability communication since previous studies in general have focused on how sustainability is expressed in traditional, mainstream stores.                      

Theoretically, drawing on actor-network theory in-store communication is understood as constructed through the assemblage of objects that is present in pop-up-stores and their contexts. In the study, the compositions of these assemblages are used to trace and discuss objects participating in the enactment of sustainability communication in pop-up-stores.

Empirically, the analysis draws on an ongoing ethnographic inspired study of ReTuna, a shopping mall based on material re-circulation located in Eskilstuna, Sweden. ReTuna was established in 2015 and is run by a municipality owned waste- and energy company. Focus in this paper is on pop-up-stores at the ReTuna mall and the fieldwork and the analyzes centers on how the combination of objects in the pop-upp-stores shapes how sustainability is communicated. The analysis draws on the entirety of the material but focuses particularly on photographs of unmanned pop-up stores at ReTuna, fieldnotes from observations made at these stores, and interviews in which the stores are mentioned.                      

Preliminary findings indicate that a number of implicit interacting objects shape a flexible in- stores sustainability communication. Also, the findings indicate that there are few examples of explicit in-store sustainability communication objects even though the stores and their concepts are part of what is framed as sustainable retail. The enactments of sustainability communication emerge through several assemblages dominated by offered goods, but also formed by textual and graphic signs/symbols/expressions, store fittings, prices, colours, locations and other objects. Participating objects are not restricted to objects within a unique pop-up-store and objects belonging to the (mall) context participate in the enactment too. However, human beholders are also involved by relating the enactments to current societal sustainability discourses. Finally, the preliminary findings indicate that the enactments vary through times as participating objects in the assemblage’s change.

The study contributes to the discussion on in-store sustainability communication by showing that communication in sustainable retail pop-up stores may be less explicit than in traditional mainstream retail. Also, the communication is also less explicit than what is expected in studies evaluating that occurrence of such communication (Peter Jones, Comfort, & Hillier, 2007; P. Jones et al., 2009; Peter Jones, Hillier, & Comfort, 2011; Ekelund, Hunter, Spendrup, & Tjärnemo, 2014; Peter Jones, Hillier, & Comfort, 2014; Saber & Weber, 2019). For example, sustainability related objects like product tags and posters that are common in mainstream retail is almost absent in the pop-up stores. Also, the study argues that similar to how a product can be framed sustainable by its store context (Fuentes, 2011), a [pop-up] store can be framed sustainable by a retail context characterized as a sustainable object (Corvellec, 2016). In this context explicit sustainability communication can be replaced with a black-boxed understanding of the store as sustainable due to the context’s characteristics. Practical implications of the study include an understanding for how objects inside and outside a store collaborate in the construction of sustainability communication. For those shaping stores through layout and visual merchandise, it gives incitement for working with the store as one ensemble in order to achieve a more coherent communication. The findings are also interesting for managers with stores in a sustainable retail context since the findings indicate that sustainability communication does not have to be visible even though the business per see is assumed to be sustainable. This creates incentives for sustainable retail stores to further develop their sustainability communication.