Memes

It demonstrates they have stacks and stacks of towels and that they are to be fully trusted as your local towel authority.

I have seen a doc about Home Depot (not the pictured store) some time ago. Apparently the overstocked facade was a big deal because those big stores want you to think they have everything that can possibly exist in their inventory so you only always go there and make no further stops.

Of course, it's smoke and mirror and a lot of stores adopted the big warehouse style for the same reasons. Some stores have legit empty boxes filled with crap all over. If you ever went into one of those store looking for something very specific tho, it is pretty apparent that they only overstock a few profitable items and the rest is no better, or worse than smaller locally-owned shops inventory-wise. Only exception around here would be Costco, which is a.legit warehouse.

My guess is that you never had the (dis)pleasure of shopping at Bed Bath & Beyond or Linens & Things.

Both stores featured stuff like this. A relatively small footprint for a "superstore", that did a lot by drawing your attention upwards to generate a sense of space. Every "department" had stuff like this, showing inventory 10-20 feet off the floor on very high shelves. Meanwhile the floorplan was rather claustrophobic and not somewhere you want to be on a busy shopping day. But if you needed to outfit a kitchen, bathroom, and a bedroom all on one trip, it was the the place to go.

Anyway, it's no surprise that there was stuff like this going on purely for show. Makes sense, actually. You wouldn't want staff restocking on ladders half the time.