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Literature in the field generally only considers consumer participation in commercial outlets in terms of their use of technologies provided by retailers. This is problematic because it does not take into account other dimensions of the outlet (e.g., spatial, symbolic, or social elements) or participation initiated by the customer. Based on an ethnographic study in a Parisian restaurant, this article identifies three types of participation that influence the positioning of the commercial outlet and that vary in terms of materiality and customer initiative: “participation-appropriation,” “participation-contribution,” and “participation-transmission”. The study contributes to our understanding of customer participation, and specifically in the case of emotionally laden commercial sites.