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 …
The Feel Better Store
The legal cannabis business is opening up new doors for recreation as well as the healthcare industry. Just below the retail radar screen of Walmart and Target's quarterly performance and Amazon hitting a trillion is the booming legal cannabis industry. Expanding east from Alaska, Washington State, Oregon and Colorado, it's now legal in many other U.S. states. Reaching from Uruguay, Canada, Israel and Australia, it's also now legal in many other countries. We're entering a powerful emerging global retail market. Good Chemistry If you came of …
Field Report from the Frontiers of Shopping
The airport in Doha, Qatar is packed at midnight. The arrivals hall has a huge yellow teddy bear in the center. Duty free stores are full and the line at the currency exchange office is endless. The human landscape is breathtakingly diverse. Tattooed, scantly-clad Euro-trash backpackers, pious Muslim families with multiple chador covered wives, Asian tourists and dazed aging business types like yours truly. Call it the result of geographic fate, but Doha, like Dubai is one the transfer capitals of the global travel industry and the airport …
Why Women Buy Lingerie
I have watched with interest the travails of Victoria’s Secret. The brand, a historic market leader, as well reported is in trouble. The seminal evolution pivot of our species in the past 100 years has been birth control and its impact on the relationship between genders and women’s relationship to the world. That said, the evolution of underwear is an interesting byproduct of our social/sexual history. Some context is needed here. For some 25 years our female researchers at Envirosell have worked on lingerie projects for both brands and …
The Fall of the Berlin Wall, Redux
The world of information gathering and what we do with the data is in turmoil. This article is my attempt to provide context to this very necessary debate. In November of 1989 the Berlin Wall fell and Germany was reunited. One of the most painful parts of that reunion was the opening to the public of the files of Stasi, the much-feared former East German secret police. The extent of whom they were collecting information on, the volume they had, and where it came from was shocking. No, not from social media, but from neighbors, friends, …
Walmart POV Updated
Bentonville is now a brash new American City. No longer can you find a $24-a-night hotel room that includes a hot breakfast. Foreign car dealers and upscale chain restaurants have proliferated. Sushi bars and Korean food, no problem. The shortcut from the airport takes you past housing development after housing development -- from tasteful town houses to obligatory McMansions. The airport taxi can be more expensive than New York City and as a result is often a shared ride. You can find a hip hotel for couple of hundred bucks and the strip …
The Science of Shopping
I closed the heavy curtain and was alone with the mattress in the mock bedroom. The noise of the shopping mall was muted in the background and there was a faint odor of orange peel, by no means unpleasant. I sat on the edge of the bed feeling a bit uncomfortable. But the mattress won me over as I sunk into it’s embrace. It was under $2000 including white glove delivery and a sleep-on-it guarantee for 100-nights. The key to success however, was getting me through the door and closing the curtain. No one likes to lie down in public. Let alone in …