Store Systems

A consumer electronics giant is making a move to grab some wallet share from the home category.    Starting in August, Best Buy is adding Dyson Demo Experiences – dedicated spaces that will let customers try out Dyson products. Approximately 90 Best Buy stores in the United States will feature the new interactive sections, which will be designed for shoppers to test merchandise.   

The Bon-Ton Stores is speeding up how it restocks merchandise.   The department store chain is replacing its manual, paper-based restocking process with a radio frequency identification (RFID)-based system. The solution, from Zebra, enables store associates to fully restock merchandise displays in a fraction of the time — a move that increases productivity and enables associates to spend more time servicing shoppers.  

Don’t expect Amazon to stop experimenting with cashier-less grocery stores anytime soon.   Despite announcing in June it would acquire Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion, the online giant will continue evolving its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go concepts, among other efforts. Its goal: to reinvent the way consumers shop for food, according to Business Insider.  

Finally, an experiential retail breakthrough for the guys!   The 3 million-sq.-ft. Global Harbor Mall in Shanghai, one of Asia’s largest, has installed “husband pods” to keep men occupied while their wives or other domestic partners shop.   Each pod is padded out with a comfortable gaming chair, state of the art monitors, computer, and gamepad where the retail-weary can while away an hour playing vintage games from the Nineties.   

Trending Stores: No two stores are exactly alike at Warby Parker. But the popular eyewear company’s new store in Los Angeles, above, is a particular standout for its celebration of Hollywood’s moviemaking history. The store combines Warby Parker’s signature library-style design and fixtures with such location-specific elements as a classic movie theater-styled marquee with rotating titles, a Hollywood-themed mural, and a display of movie clapboards behind the checkout.

Mackage

Toronto

Design: Burdifilek, Toronto

A premium brand born from the celebration of colder climates, Mackage (Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Toronto) received Store of the Year honors in the Retail Design Institute’s 46th annual International Store Design Competition.

Home improvement start-up is dedicated to healthy, sustainable homes

A start-up home improvement retailer with a green conscience has expanded out of its Austin, Texas, home with a first-of-its-kind store that’s generating lots of buzz.

TreeHouse has opened the nation’s first home improvement “energy positive” (meaning it will generate more energy than it uses) store, at The Hill, a shopping center in Dallas. It’s the start-up retailer’s second location — but not for long. An additional store, planned for the Plano, Texas, area, is due to open this fall.

Excessive heat gain and sun glare through store windows can create challenging situations for customers as well as store associates. James Beale, managing partner of NGS Films & Graphics, discusses trends and tech advances in window films withChain Store Age.

What trends are you seeing in solar films and safety/security films in the retail space?