Most attorneys approach a retail injury case by looking at what was on the floor — a spill, a pallet, a piece of broken merchandise. But some of the strongest retail injury cases I’ve worked on involve something less obvious: the store layout itself.
When retail design departs from industry standards for aisle width, display height, product placement, or customer traffic flow, the environment becomes hazardous in ways that aren’t always visible on surveillance footage but are entirely documentable through design analysis and industry standards review.
The design decisions retailers make — and the standards they’re expected to follow
The retail design industry has well-established standards around how merchandise is displayed, how aisles are dimensioned, how promotional fixtures are positioned, and how seasonal or temporary displays must be set to remain within safety guidelines. I spent decades in retail design before becoming an expert witness, which means I know these standards from the inside — not just from reading about them.
When a retailer introduces an end-cap display that narrows an aisle below standard clearance, creates a visual obstruction to an exit path, or positions a floor-level promotional unit in a natural walking path, they’ve created a foreseeable hazard. When someone is injured in that environment, the standard of care question isn’t just “did they know the floor was wet?” — it’s “did this environment meet the standards a reasonably designed retail space is expected to meet?”
What I can establish in a report
An expert witness report in a merchandising or layout case typically addresses: the industry standards applicable to the specific fixture type or aisle configuration, whether the retailer’s own planogram or design guidelines required a different configuration, what a visual inspection or photographic evidence reveals about the as-built condition versus the standard, and whether prior complaints or store-level modification requests indicate the retailer was aware of the issue.
In some of the most compelling cases, the retailer’s own internal standards documents — obtainable in discovery — demonstrate that the hazardous configuration violated their own policies.
When to bring in a retail design expert
If you have a case where the injury mechanism isn’t a simple spill or wet floor, but rather involves something about how the store was built, arranged, or merchandised, it’s worth a conversation. That includes cases involving gondola or shelving collapse, display fixture instability, seasonal decor or signage, and end-cap or promotional displays.
A 15-minute call is usually all it takes to know whether an expert report would strengthen your case. Contact my project manager Gennifer 1-914-907-6044 | genniferbirnbach@gmail.com
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