Everything in the mall is designed in a way to lull the customers into spending state of mind.

[alpacinou]

I want to say a mall tries to encourage people to spend. Can I say "lull into spending state of mind"? Is this correct and natural?

Everything in the mall is designed in a way to lull the customers into spending state of mind. They just want to convince shoppers to part with their pounds and pennies.

 

[Barque]

The words "in a way" in the first sentence make it overly wordy. You can just say "designed to lull".

You need "into a spending state of mind", but it still doesn't sound natural.

"Lull" generally refers to making someone more relaxed or less wary. Yes, I guess a customer might spend more money if he's relaxed but "lull" doesn't sound right in this sentence. I don't think a "spending state of mind" is something that you can be "lulled" into.

Everything in the mall is designed to make you want to spend/to take your wallet out.

 

[alpacinou]

Is this okay?

Everything in the mall is designed to lull the customers into spending state of mind. They just want to convince shoppers to part with their pounds and pennies.

 

[Barque]

Is this okay?

Everything in the mall is designed to lull the customers into spending state of mind.

I pointed out that you need an article.

into a spending state of mind = into a state of mind where they want to spend. (I believe this is what you want to say.)
into spending state of mind = into spending something called "state of mind". (Impossible, because "state of mind" isn't money.)

Having said that, the sentence still doesn't seem ok to me for the reasons mentioned in my earlier post.

 

[alpacinou]

Could a teacher please comment on this?

Everything in the mall is designed to lull the customers into spending state of mind. They just want to convince shoppers to part with their pounds and pennies.

 

[5jj]

I agree with what Barque said in post #2.

 

[tedmc]

Everything in the mall is designed to get shoppers into the spending mood.

Everything in the mall is designed to arouse the desire of shoppers to spend.

 

[alpacinou]

I agree with what Barque said in post #2.

What I use "get"?

Everything in the mall is designed to get the customers into a spending state of mind. They just want to convince shoppers to part with their pounds and pennies.

 

[5jj]

What if I use "get"?

Everything in the mall is designed to get the customers into a spending state of mind.

I prefer ted's first sentence.

 

[Tarheel]

I suppose you know that people go the mall in the first place with the idea of spending money. While the designers no doubt built the mall to encourage that, and the operators no doubt do the same (encourage spending), it is no surprise to anyone that they are built to make money. (Nobody runs a business to lose money.) What's my point? Their efforts to get people to spend money don't constitute some kind of trick. Everybody knows the idea is to get people to go there to spend. There is no lulling involved.

 

[Barque]

That's right.

They just want to convince shoppers to part with their pounds and pennies.

As far as your second sentence's concerned, "just" implies that they pretend that they are out there for a different purpose but all they want to do is make you spend your money. I don't think there's much pretense involved.