Saw this Aeropostale store in the Washington Square Mall today. Wondering if this is one of the scheduled closings as part of their initial bankruptcy actions or part of the liquidation.
Beginning of the end?
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Author Archives: skittel
If I were to buy furniture today…Part 1
On a recent trip to Seattle’s University Village (an outdoor shopping mall), my wife and I decided to make a visit to Room & Board Home Furnishings. We have always liked their product and since they are not now located in Portland, this was our chance to check out their latest selections.
When we walked in the front door of the store we immediately saw two employees. They were strategically positioned next to the front of store featured furniture display and at the edge of the drive aisle leading around the store. I assumed that they were there to greet customers entering the store. That was a rash assumption.
In retail history
On August 18th, 1872, a traveling dry goods salesman named Aaron Montgomery Ward founds his retail company with its first catalog. Not much of an actual catalog, the first issue was a single sheet, 8×12 inches, that listed 163 items available for purchase and ordering instructions. This first catalog was a feat in and of itself since Wars and his partners had lost their first inventory in the Great Chicago Fire of October, 1871.
Spotted at Macy’s
I spotted this on a recent visit to Macy’s. The vending machine was located next to the men’s wear department. The machine contained a variety of small electronics and accessories.
It seems like an interesting way to increase assortment and profitability without requiring the store to have knowledgable staff to sell the items. I imagine a third-party service maintains the machines.
Try to do this with your online store
If you build it(and let them lock their stuff in it), they will come.
I spotted this at the University Village Nike store. The lockers let runners who are out on a Nike+Run Club run to secure their valuables. The video screen above the lockers displays information on upcoming runs and all of this is next to the treadmill where you can have your gait analyzed.
Great examples of a brick and mortar store adding value for in-store customers.
In retail history
IBM introduced the 5150 Personal Computer on August 12th, 1981. They sell 136,000 in the first year.
IBM along with Apple were beginning to change the way people thought about computers in the home and they help create the home computer retail business and set the stage for the internet. The internet enabled the Dotcom retail boom.
In retail history
Mall of America Sign from WikiCommons
The work of Joe Chill 2
August 11th, 1992, the Mall of America (MOA) opens in Bloomington, MN.
At the time of its opening, MOA was the largest shopping mall in the United States with over 2.5 million square feet of leasable retail space inside a building of 5.4 million square feet. Over 520 stores operate in the mall and there is space for over 12,000 cars in the parking structures. 11,000 year round employees work in the mall with another 2000 during the Holidays. MOA generates about $2 billion dollars in economic activity.
Along with the stores, there is the Nickelodeon Universe indoor theme park, the SeaLife Minnesota Aquarium, 24 restaurants, a Mirror Maze, a wedding chapel (that has performed over 7500 weddings), 342 room Marriott Hotel, 500 room Radisson Hotel, a comedy club, Minnesota Children’s Museum and a 14 theater multiplex.
Useful POS
I always appreciate point of sale materials that are both useful and well designed.
I saw this POS display designed for those of us who are a bit “fashioned-challenged” at my local JCPenney. (JCP clearly knows their target audience since not many “fashion-forward” men are shopping at JCP and many of their male shoppers made need some guidance.)
Shoppers do not need to know the lingo of the fashion industry to buy a pair of pants, they can simply look at the illustrations and read the description to decide which pants to buy. Nice job Dockers and JCP.
Too bad it makes no mention of actually taking the pants into the dressing room and trying them on. But that is a different issue.
“Customer service is not a department,
it is an attitude.”
-Anonymous
A nice finish
I stopped at the local Outlet Mall the other day to do some shopping and some observation. It was a warm and sunny day and may of the stores had their doors open to deal with the heat.
Being a fan of the brand and a citizen of the PNW, I stopped by the Columbia Sportswear Outlet where they had a great sale going on. I quickly found several items that I was shopping for so I headed to the registers where there were a number of waiting cashiers.
“I can help you right here,” came a greeting from the nearest register.
The Observant Customer 