Trendsurfing: New York's new shopping (The Times)
By David Rowan
New York - When ad agencies and corporate marketers want to read the future, they pay hip teams of trendspotters vast sums to "immerse" themselves in "influencer" cities such as this. So let's fuel up on cawfee, lace our custom-graffitied sneakers, and begin our own insiders' tour of Manhattan's most talked about retail innovations. You won't even have to pay me a hideously expensive consultancy fee. But yo! Don't even think of not tipping!
First up, a stylish designer emporium they're calling the "un-mall". Emerge NYC, at 65 Bleecker Street in the chic NoHo neighbourhood, is the department store as reimagined by a bunch of small-scale fashion and jewellery designers. The ground floor of a stunning 1898 building - by the modernist architect Louis Sullivan - has been divided into around 60 tiny cubicles and desk spaces, each a sales concession for a dress designer, jeweller, painter or handbag maker. The result, which opened two months ago, is an elegant, buzzing space that works both ways: new talent can find patrons and a like-minded community at an affordable rent, while the Bloomingdale's crowd is ensured one-off creations at a fraction of high-fashion-store prices.
The idea may sound familiar - think Kensington Market or Camden Lock - but this is a far more upscale execution. You won't find too many flea-market bargains here. Whether Emerge NYC represents "the future of retail", as its founder claims, is open to debate. Macy's still seems pretty busy. Yet this comparatively raw creative upstart, packed with seething talent, could certainly become an additional retail destination.
Next on the tour: a high-tech gadget emporium where, try as you might, you're not allowed to buy a thing. That is because we are in an "experience store" - the latest way to promote a brand without pitching anything so crude as a direct sales message. The Samsung Experience opened a year ago in the new Time Warner Centre by Central Park, occupying 10,000 sq ft of some of the city's most expensive real estate. Yet it is defiantly "not a store" in the conventional sense: if you want to buy an 80-inch plasma TV or a top-of-the-range camcorder, they will simply send you off to Best Buy or Circuit City.
How does that make financial sense? Simply by making you lust after the goodies in the first place. The huge, relaxing space is a pick-it-up-and-try-it playroom not only for current stock, but also for kit you may be coveting in the future - from the internet-controlled coffee-maker to the mobile phone with built-in hand heater ("so cold weather doesn't have to get in the way of your mobile life"). Not a single price is displayed, but by the time you ask, you're already sold. This is one clever way to reinvigorate a brand.
That's just human stuff. The latest retail boom is four-legged. The market in luxury dog care has been growing for a while, but now pet resorts are springing up in the heart of fashionable shopping districts. At Happy Paws on Lafayette Street, for instance - a vast store near DKNY and Armani - Fido can enjoy a morning "spa session", lunch on "dog sushi", and then stay overnight in a "VIP themed suite". At $115 per night, the kennel isn't cheap - but that does include "daily turn-down service and individual flat-panel TV and DVD player with choice of movies". But will they remind Fido to tip?
(The Times Magazine, October 21 2005)
. . . AND READ MORE TRENDSURFING COLUMNS HERE . . .
New York - When ad agencies and corporate marketers want to read the future, they pay hip teams of trendspotters vast sums to "immerse" themselves in "influencer" cities such as this. So let's fuel up on cawfee, lace our custom-graffitied sneakers, and begin our own insiders' tour of Manhattan's most talked about retail innovations. You won't even have to pay me a hideously expensive consultancy fee. But yo! Don't even think of not tipping!
First up, a stylish designer emporium they're calling the "un-mall". Emerge NYC, at 65 Bleecker Street in the chic NoHo neighbourhood, is the department store as reimagined by a bunch of small-scale fashion and jewellery designers. The ground floor of a stunning 1898 building - by the modernist architect Louis Sullivan - has been divided into around 60 tiny cubicles and desk spaces, each a sales concession for a dress designer, jeweller, painter or handbag maker. The result, which opened two months ago, is an elegant, buzzing space that works both ways: new talent can find patrons and a like-minded community at an affordable rent, while the Bloomingdale's crowd is ensured one-off creations at a fraction of high-fashion-store prices.
The idea may sound familiar - think Kensington Market or Camden Lock - but this is a far more upscale execution. You won't find too many flea-market bargains here. Whether Emerge NYC represents "the future of retail", as its founder claims, is open to debate. Macy's still seems pretty busy. Yet this comparatively raw creative upstart, packed with seething talent, could certainly become an additional retail destination.
Next on the tour: a high-tech gadget emporium where, try as you might, you're not allowed to buy a thing. That is because we are in an "experience store" - the latest way to promote a brand without pitching anything so crude as a direct sales message. The Samsung Experience opened a year ago in the new Time Warner Centre by Central Park, occupying 10,000 sq ft of some of the city's most expensive real estate. Yet it is defiantly "not a store" in the conventional sense: if you want to buy an 80-inch plasma TV or a top-of-the-range camcorder, they will simply send you off to Best Buy or Circuit City.
How does that make financial sense? Simply by making you lust after the goodies in the first place. The huge, relaxing space is a pick-it-up-and-try-it playroom not only for current stock, but also for kit you may be coveting in the future - from the internet-controlled coffee-maker to the mobile phone with built-in hand heater ("so cold weather doesn't have to get in the way of your mobile life"). Not a single price is displayed, but by the time you ask, you're already sold. This is one clever way to reinvigorate a brand.
That's just human stuff. The latest retail boom is four-legged. The market in luxury dog care has been growing for a while, but now pet resorts are springing up in the heart of fashionable shopping districts. At Happy Paws on Lafayette Street, for instance - a vast store near DKNY and Armani - Fido can enjoy a morning "spa session", lunch on "dog sushi", and then stay overnight in a "VIP themed suite". At $115 per night, the kennel isn't cheap - but that does include "daily turn-down service and individual flat-panel TV and DVD player with choice of movies". But will they remind Fido to tip?
(The Times Magazine, October 21 2005)
. . . AND READ MORE TRENDSURFING COLUMNS HERE . . .
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