New York City recently voted to ban retail businesses from credit card-only operations. City Government has stated that it is discrimination against New Yorkers who either don't have credit cards, or who simply want to pay in cash. Tender Greens and Sweetgreen's -- both millennial-focused food service operations - have been credit card-only businesses and they have been given nine months to change; reports are that the store managers are livid. They are not alone. The trend to cashless retail is growing. Across many cities in Europe and Asia, …
Nordstrom 57th Street Opening Night
A cast of thousands mostly well-dressed New Yorkers poured into Nordstrom's on 57th Street and Broadway on opening night to celebrate and examine the new entrant in luxury shopping in New York City. Those of us from the broader retail pundit community welcome a breath of fresh air and a new standard of service and friendliness to our landscape. That's the Nordstrom promise. On a chilly rainy night that level of friendliness was self-evident. Each Nordstrom interaction started with a smile and sense of genuine interest. Many of us noticed …
Retail as Supporting Cast
At 7:00 AM on a Monday morning, 70 percent of the almost five thousand slot machines at this Indian Casino in South California are occupied. How many stayed through the night and how many arrived after an early breakfast isn't clear. The data collection engines you might find on the Las Vegas strip haven't made it this far - but the latest IGT and Aristocrat slots have. The casino floor is windowless, the noise is loud, and the visual cacophony of screens is overwhelming. For the most part, the participants are seated and singularly focused. …
What Women Want
It is very dangerous in the 21st century for an aging man to talk about the changing status of women. A few years ago, I wrote a book, "What Women Want," on the topic and then hid under my desk. The book did well, now available in 14 languages. One of the feminist reviewers for a major American newspaper said in her review, "I picked this book up expecting to hate it - in the end it was mostly funny and sometimes funny uncomfortable." So please take what I have written below with the best of intentions. Female Decision Makers The most seminal …
The Last Analog 50 Feet of Our Digital World
It started with another miserable Friday night at LaGuardia Airport. The flight from Atlanta was delayed. A 20-minute wait in a taxi line and an hour traffic jam after midnight trying to get through the midtown tunnel. I hit my bed just before 2:00 AM. I was torn from the arms of sleep at 8:10 in the morning with someone leaning on the doorbell of my first-floor West Village apartment. Just another lost delivery person with one of my neighbor's uber-eats breakfast. About 20 years ago, we had a mailman, a FedEx driver, the UPS man and the …
Throwing Rocks Over the Shopping Mall Fence
It's hard to sit on the sidelines and read the dialogue about Hudson Yards and the recent Wall Street Journal story about declining traffic to the American Mall. I am delighted that the prescriptive solution of "adding to the experience" is finally getting debunked. Pixie Dust is not going to solve the problems of your local American shopping mall. Outside of the USA, the mall is doing just fine. Mostly because no one thinks MALL, they think ALL. Convenience remains the driving force in modern consumption. Most of the world is more time poor …
A Tale of Two Cities…or Homes
RH (AKA Restoration Hardware) opened its new flagship this fall in an architecturally spectacular space in NYC's Meat Market across from the Gansevoort Hotel around the corner from Soho House. RH left its old flagship location in Broadway and 22th Street to move to hipster central. The space has a huge atrium, glass elevators, a roof top bar and restaurant and the best trance music on the internal sound system I've ever heard. The bar was packed on an early Sunday afternoon with tourists and visiting groups from the National Retail Foundation …
The Future is in the Heartland
Columbia, Missouri is halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City right smack in the middle of the state. Home to the University of Missouri, staid insurance companies and medically focused biotech firms spun out of the University hospital system. The best hotel in town is a $130 dollar-a-night place and I noticed that very few men on wore wool on an early winter afternoon- fleece is winning the cold war. Columbia is home to the future of shopping. It's hard for those of us who work in Silicon Alley or Valley, or even Brooklyn to understand …