Uncovering The Top NYC Retail Experiences
A journey through the reinvented world of retail
There’s a famous tale of an apostate who was fed up with God. As a nod to his parents, he agreed to meet with a priest before abandoning religion for good. “God is dead”, he told the priest, evoking the spirit of Nietzsche and expecting nothing short of a heated rejoinder in response. But the priest nodded along, giving off the impression that his sentiment wasn’t too far off. As he got up to leave, ready to start life as a free man, the priest said one last thing. “Young man, God isn’t dead. The God that you know, Your God, is.”
Reinvention of Retail
As many have said, retail is not dead — boring retail is.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to spend the day with Jordan checking out a dozen or so of the top retail experiences in New York City. Key word — experience. Entering the day, I would have bet that the future of retail was in experiential, interactive, and vibrant physical spaces. And after seeing what we did, I’m even more confident in that future.
A Deeper Look
Our first stop of the day, not including a quick peek inside Amazon Go, which necessitates a blog post unto itself, was the Dyson Demo Store. With Nike, Victoria’s Secret, Gucci, and Rolex as neighbors, it immediately struck me that I was entering a shop that sells… vacuum cleaners. An ugly duck indeed. But Dyson’s store in the middle of Fifth Avenue proves that it is not about what you sell, rather how you sell it. Dyson describes the store as “a place that brings to life the science and engineering at the heart of our machines.”
In their magnificent, almost haunting space, they present fewer than 15 products in museum-style exhibits, with a full exhibit dedicated to each product. When you first enter the store, you see an 8-foot model of a tiny piece of hair-dryer technology that is reminiscent of the giant tyrannosaurus at the entrance of the Museum of Natural History, to stick to the museum analogy.
Another exhibit shows the many layers — one copper, one gold, etc. — of the rim of another hair dryer. Dyson understands that consumers are more likely and willing to buy products when they get a chance to see exactly what the products are made of, and this is why a company that sells vacuums can afford a space in the heart of NYC among to the most successful clothing retailers in the world.
The Team Factor
After Dyson we went to the Nike House of Innovation. Now, though the Nike store fails to live up to its name as the “Innovation House”, with nothing very technologically or experientially innovative to show, they succeed in a different area of engagement. You enter through a tunnel with thousands of soccer fans portrayed on screens all around you, as if you’re Cristiano Ronaldo on the World Cup’s grand stage. You are part of something — of Nike — and you have a role to play — to champion the Nike brand. As soon as you enter the store you make a subconscious decision to join this team, and a conscious one to get your hands on as many products your budget will allow.
Family Fun
Next up, we went to the CAMP Toy Store in Union Square, Jordan’s most anticipated stop of the day, and understandably so. CAMP has nailed it. It’s set up like an old-fashioned general merchandise store filled with toys, candy, and well-curated kids’ products, but then, out of nowhere, a Scooby Doo-esque secret door!
This magical door leads you to a giant room complete with dozens of activities for your kids, or “CAMPers”. They have a sports field, a lake, an arts and crafts center, slides, and a live DJ disco room. Mixed in throughout the camp are the products that they sell, similar to the ones before the secret door, but now much more appealing.
The two faces of CAMP exemplify the two faces of retail, and together show that the experience is what drives the product. Before the secret door is boring, dead retail. How is a mother supposed to schlep her 3 children to an old toy shop in the middle of the day and survive? Easy — make the toy shop like camp! Behind the door is the new face of retail, the retail that’s alive and well and will continue to flourish by engaging people in all sorts of ways. CAMP’s way is by creating a perfect “third place” for families — the kids ride on their electronic pet unicorn, the parents sit back with a CAMP coffee, and they leave together an hour later with some extra toys for home.
All In One
We stopped at many more innovative retail experiences along the way, but none more all-encompassing, coherent, and innovative as Starbucks.
The Starbucks Roastery in Chelsea gives the coffee lover a chance to grow up with his cup by witnessing it evolve from a raw bean to a fresh latte. Well, not really, considering the whole process takes about two weeks, but it does give the customer an opportunity to build a relationship with the product beyond simply drinking it. With a working coffee roaster and tubes carrying freshly roasted beans all throughout the ceiling, it is experiential retail at its finest.
Similar to Dyson, they show customers what’s inside their products, similar to Nike they enhance the customer-brand relationship, and like CAMP they’ve built a hub where customers can enjoy themselves while engaging with the product. Though I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life, if there was one experience that could get me to try it’d be spending time at the Starbucks Roastery.
Winner
Disclaimer: It was 4pm, raining, and at this point we’d walked about 10 miles. There was nothing that would have made me happier than a bed and some Simon and Garfunkel.
And that’s exactly what I got when we reached the Sonos flagship store in SoHo. It’s a small store with little to show for other than its seven triangle-shaped “Listening Rooms.” Resembling miniature houses — each decorated and furnished to represent different style homes — they are effectively sound pods, with layers of acoustic sheetrock and sound-proof doors to ensure the best listening experience possible. The Sonos strategy is simple — don’t make the customer trust our sound, let them experience it as if they were home! Setting up a home speaker system is not something you want to get wrong, so Sonos enables consumers to take no chances by giving them the experience, in full, right in their store.
If bossman didn't make me follow him to Rebecca Minkoff (I know, right), I’d still be in Sonos and this blog post would be far from reality. If only the listening room came with a lock on the door…
If you’re building something cool in the retail space, please say hi! We want to chat with you :)
