What Google is doing with its first physical store

Every part of Google’s first physical store, in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, invites hands-on interaction with the company’s products and services, according to head of store design and special projects Nathan Allen.

Macy’s Backstage expands from store-within-a-store to freestanding

Macy’s Inc. opened its first freestanding, off-price Macy’s Backstage store with a 27,500-square-foot unit at Texas’ Village at Allen. Macy’s has expanded its off-price business to more than 200 Macy’s stores, including six store-within-a-store locations in Dallas-Fort Worth, allowing customers to shop both Macy’s full line and its off-price offerings in one stop. A second Macy’s Backstage freestanding store is slated to open in Dallas-Fort Worth this fall. Macy’s Backstage customers can pay their Macy’s bills and pick up online orders inside the store.

Neiman Marcus will buy high-end customer service tech

Neiman Marcus wants its online experience to match the luxury service available in its stores and thus has agreed to acquire tech firm Stylyze. Neiman Marcus first hooked up with the platform in 2018, enabling sales associates to engage with customers remotely. It facilitates personal appointments in-store, curbside pickup, virtual events to learn about trends and designers, and video chats with personalized Style Advisors. The retailer ramped up use further while stores were shuttered during the pandemic, helping keep sales stronger than expected. Now that it is purchasing Stylyze, Neiman Marcus will further integrate it with other digital tools, including e-commerce, mobile apps, messaging, chat and phone calls. The acquisition is part of a three-year plan to invest more than $500 million to fortify its digital business.

Unmanned grocers reach rural areas

Unmanned supermarkets are an increasingly popular way for grocers to serve customers in rural markets that have no full-service supermarkets. Main Street Market, an unmanned grocery store offering 24-hour access to members who pay a $75 annual fee, opened this month in Evansville, Minnesota. The store also offers staffed checkout three days a week. Proponents say the model could allow mom-and-pop grocers to offer convenience with low overhead and offer other retailers cost-effective ways to reach rural markets. Last week, SCT reported on an unmanned, refrigerated locker concept that answers a similar need in unserved parts of southwestern Iowa.

Supermarket chains shopping for new markets

Regional supermarket chain Global Food inked a lease with Atlantic Realty Cos. to open its first store in the Baltimore market. Owned by Sterling, Virginia-based Supermax Enterprises, the international foods retailer will open a 36,360-square-foot store in the former Price Rite anchor space at Meadows Shopping Center in Woodlawn, Maryland. Meanwhile, San Francisco-based Grocery Outlet will open its first New Jersey store this fall in a former Kmart in suburban Mercer County’s Hamilton Plaza.

Hermes says bonjour to top malls

Luxury label Hermes believes in the future of the U.S.’s top malls. The high-end French brand recently opened a 5,000-square-foot store at Somerset Collection, in Troy, Michigan. Hermes will open stores in Florida’s Aventura Mall and East Rutherford, New Jersey’s American Dream in September. The retailer also is expanding its store at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California, from 7,000 to 11,000 square feet. Beyond 2021, Hermes will continue to roll out new mall stores across the country, including Naples, Florida’s Waterside Shops. And a second Los Angeles store and stores in Austin, Nashville and Phoenix are in the works. Hermes currently operates 306 stores including 30 in the U.S.

Coffee is essential, isn’t it?

Some of the country’s biggest chains selling coffee are seeing a sustained recovery from the pandemic, according to foot traffic analytics firm Placer.ai. January 2021 foot traffic at Starbucks was down 21.6 percent compared with two years prior, before the pandemic. Dunkin’ was down 20.6 percent and Panera 38.2 percent. But the recovery is unmistakable. By April, the gap had tightened significantly. Starbucks visits were down only 4.2 percent from two years prior, flat at Dunkin’ and down 17.6 percent at Panera.

According to Placer.ai’s foot traffic data, coffee shop locations in cities hit hard by the pandemic like New York and San Francisco are recovering more slowly than those in growing cities like Raleigh, North Carolina, and Tampa, Florida. Lockdowns impeded recoveries in some states. For the week of May 17th, visits at Starbucks locations in Texas and Florida — two states where reopenings were in full swing — grew 6.5 percent and 13 percent, respectively, compared with the equivalent week in 2019. Visits were down 14.2 percent in California, however, and down 7.5 percent  in New York.

Selfie central moves make mall an experience

Go Pixel Yourself, an experiential exhibit for the Instagram age, has popped up in Massachusetts’ CambridgeSide. For $30 each, visitors spend an hour winding through 13 rooms across 13,000 square feet of colorful, kitschy and high-tech backdrops for gifs, selfies and videos. Similar concepts like the Museum of Ice Cream have proven hugely successful in boosting properties’ appeal.

Bye-bye Black Friday?

Best Buy, Foot Locker, Target and Walmart will close on Thanksgiving, signaling that Black Friday is losing its significance. The decision comes as year-round discounts and the rise of e-commerce reduce the pressure for consumers to take advantage of one-day, in-store savings. Commentators and analysts noted that shoppers no longer want to wait in long lines and preferences have changed as omnichannel services become more prevalent.