The modern airport has become a version of cold war Berlin -- a city divided. In the biz it’s called landside and airside, separated by the wall of security and our version of Check-Point Charlie. The Stasi-like TSA guards bark about laptops and shoes; the security checks are perfunctory and arbitrary, and the waits are interminable. The entire entry to a flight at an airport could not be more miserable. By Design The starting point for airport design is the aircraft the facility expects to service. It is more engineering than design. …
The Dubai Retail Scene
In the first Star Wars movie there is a scene where Luke Skywalker and Obi-Won Kenobi walk into a bar looking for Han Solo. The bar is filled with exotic space creatures imbibing intergalactic cocktails. It is our first glimpse at interplanetary leisure. In real life, a beach resort hotel in Dubai is as close to that scene as we’ll ever get. Foreign Shores Staying at The Jumeirah Beach Hotel, the newsletter left on my hotel room desk every morning listed the variety of passports registered in that hotel for the previous evening. It never …
A Veteran Researcher Looks at the Subject of Shoes
Flipflops, crocs, sandals, loafers, pumps, boots, sneakers – everybody wears some sort of shoe. Across all cultures, climates, and incomes, the shared experience of buying shoes is more universal that any other apparel item. Have you been to a Kinney Shoes, Footlocker, Payless, DSW, or shoe departments at Walmart, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Selfridge’s or Gallery Lafayette? From self-serve to elegant serve, the culture of how you sell shoes has been a research topic for us at Envirosell for more than 35 years. That the price of shoes can vary from $10 …
The Reinvention of Curation
The display greeting you at the doorway is a huge geode of crystal amethyst; the asking price is $2000. Behind it is a mannequin wearing an American Museum of Natural History T-shirt. Even for a museum store, the amethyst was impressive. “How many blocks have you sold?” I asked. “Quite a few,” the store manager answered. “You’d sell more if there was a sign next to it that said: Happy to ship.” “Done,” she said. The New Museum Store The museum store has gone through a seminal evolution over the past 20-some years. When the renovated …
Hidden Opportunities
Over my career, I’ve worked with a lot of clients that had hidden opportunities to market their products and services, hidden in plain sight. These opportunities come as a surprise to the retail executives I consulted with, and I have noticed that there are still so many ways to deliver meaningful experience to customers that seem elusive to even the most sophisticated and experienced executives. So, I offer some of these observations as food for thought. Anatomy Lessons + Design In 1977 I published my first article on public design in a …
What Are Screens Doing to Us?
At age 16 my first step towards independence was a driver’s license. I failed the first test and was mortified – parallel parking in a manual shift Dodge Dart wasn’t easy. Most of us boomers have similar stories of lusting for that license and the freedom we imagined came with it. How times have changed. Neither of my 20-something stepdaughters has any interest in driving. Part of the reason is ecological concerns, but more importantly their familiarity with Uber. Coming of Age in a Digital Age The first step towards independence for my …
A Perspective on Luxury from a Global Citizen
Let’s talk context. The origins of luxury goods go back to the 18th century when the retail model was developed for an aristocracy – the landed gentry with money to spend. In France, Italy, Spain, and England, aristocratic wealth spawned a category of high-quality expensive goods. Jewelry and clothing were just the entry points. Look at the history of Gucci, Rolex, LVMH, Rolls Royce and you will see the clear link between money and privilege. In their brand origin stories, money had a peaches and crème complexion. First Generation …
Reimagining the Supermarket
Note: The following has been excerpted from “How We Eat, the Brave New World of Food and Drink.” Copyright © 2022 by Peckshee, LLC. All good businesses gaze into their crystal ball in an attempt to arrive at the future an hour or two before everyone else. In Italy, “The Supermarket of the Future” has existed for some time. It was the name of a project that the design firm Carlo Ratti Associati created in 2015 for the Milan World Expo. The experimental store was part of a “future food district pavilion” sponsored by Coop Italia, the country’s …