Editor’s note: Retail theater
I have seen the future of mass retail. It is located, perhaps among other places, at a Whole Foods store in the fast-growing and quickly-gentrifying Center City section of Philadelphia.
On a recent Friday night, this store was packed with a wide array of consumers, ranging from those hard-to-capture millennials to older professionals and just about everyone in between. Not everyone there was rich and looking to spend their incremental dollars. Many were simply looking for a place to hang.
What is totally different is that many of these shoppers were not necessarily walking the aisles of Whole Foods buying the usual assortment of grocery products the grocery industry has thrived on for the last 100 years. Rather, they were frequenting the store’s many restaurants and food counters, including falafel, donut and chicken shops, as well as coffee and wine bars, many lounging at these places for hours as they enjoyed a hot brew, a glass of wine and some pretty good pizza sold by the slice or pie.
Whole Foods, at least at this Philadelphia unit, is a destination stop for people looking to spend time talking with friends and family and eating some interesting, tasty and unique foods at the same time. The bottom line is that this is a fun place and consumers actually want to go there.
Can you say the same thing about your store’s operation?
If you cannot today, you better quickly figure out a way to get consumers to start looking at your retail operation a bit differently. And, this has nothing to do with millennials and urban gentrification. Attracting consumers is as important in midtown Odessa, Texas as it is in center city Philadelphia. Consumers just have too many options to choose from, and they will pick the stores — or the digital sites — that make the most sense for them.
For brick-and-mortar retailers, that means offering an entertaining environment to further motivate consumers to come into the store and walk out with paid merchandise.
The Philadelphia Whole Foods that I visited has the right blueprint in place. People visit the store because they want to and not because they need to. It leads to a healthier retail environment, which leads to more sales. Other retailers also can develop their own venue that connects with shoppers. It may focus on the perimeter of the unit or it could focus on such intangibles as customer service, convenience or even store lighting.
The bottom line is now is the time to invest in this philosophy.
On a recent Friday night, this store was packed with a wide array of consumers, ranging from those hard-to-capture millennials to older professionals and just about everyone in between. Not everyone there was rich and looking to spend their incremental dollars. Many were simply looking for a place to hang.
What is totally different is that many of these shoppers were not necessarily walking the aisles of Whole Foods buying the usual assortment of grocery products the grocery industry has thrived on for the last 100 years. Rather, they were frequenting the store’s many restaurants and food counters, including falafel, donut and chicken shops, as well as coffee and wine bars, many lounging at these places for hours as they enjoyed a hot brew, a glass of wine and some pretty good pizza sold by the slice or pie.
Whole Foods, at least at this Philadelphia unit, is a destination stop for people looking to spend time talking with friends and family and eating some interesting, tasty and unique foods at the same time. The bottom line is that this is a fun place and consumers actually want to go there.
Can you say the same thing about your store’s operation?
If you cannot today, you better quickly figure out a way to get consumers to start looking at your retail operation a bit differently. And, this has nothing to do with millennials and urban gentrification. Attracting consumers is as important in midtown Odessa, Texas as it is in center city Philadelphia. Consumers just have too many options to choose from, and they will pick the stores — or the digital sites — that make the most sense for them.
For brick-and-mortar retailers, that means offering an entertaining environment to further motivate consumers to come into the store and walk out with paid merchandise.
The Philadelphia Whole Foods that I visited has the right blueprint in place. People visit the store because they want to and not because they need to. It leads to a healthier retail environment, which leads to more sales. Other retailers also can develop their own venue that connects with shoppers. It may focus on the perimeter of the unit or it could focus on such intangibles as customer service, convenience or even store lighting.
The bottom line is now is the time to invest in this philosophy.