This is the perfume area of a department store, which were often located near one of the major entrances.

Walking through it is usually a bombardment of different smells, and it can be a lot.

The joke is that you have to go through the horrible perfume tunnel to get to where you want to go inside the store (or the mall, if connected). It can be especially bad around the winter holidays and when it’s cold out, which is why everyone has long sleeves in the photo.

A lot of places you could go around, it was just a longer walk.