You Know Improved Store Design Helps Increase Sales, But Would You Believe 46%?

Is a blog entry from Retail Design Diva, reporting on an investor conference call by American Eagle Outfitters.

As I mention from time to time, I am working (with others) to open a restaurant, to add to my "social laboratory" repetoire... sometime this year, the damn thing will open. For those of us who are independent, without the plethora of staff (VP for real estate, VP for merchandising, etc.) one of the best things to do is to "copy"-interpret what the large companies do.

'wichcraft is a Danny Meyer operation. He owns many restaurants in NYC. To get imprinted coffee cups, a restaurant needs to buy a minimum of 100,000 cups (per size), or for double the price of stock cups, you can get short runs imprinted. You have to think of this as branding. Or for just $1 more per case, you can get coffee cup sleeves imprinted with your own brand identity, and go with a standard white cup... (from the kiosks in Bryant Park, NYC)

For example, there was a great session on branding at the Coffee Fest expo a few weeks ago in DC, and one of the things mentioned was that store windows are really for branding, not for mucking up. After all, that's what the big companies (Gap, etc.) do.

Dean, 3523 12th Street NE.

A shopper looks at a Macy's display at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, Calif., Wednesday, July 6, 2005. The arrival of summer gave the nation's retailers their best showing in months in June (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Read trade publications, go to conferences, pick the brains of the people who are succeeding, pick up and dispose of trash in front of your store, buy smaller quantities of stock and turn it over, reduce the need for markdowns) create excitement...
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Bismarck was quoted saying "Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit from the experiences of others."
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Speaking of "competition" I guess I provide consulting/advice to a coffee shop a block away from our "to come" retail location. After all, the real point is to recreate the commercial district as a successful destination, not so much to focus on winning all the business, but building the overall customer base for the commercial district.

I'm not afraid that we will be outcompeted, because we know what quality is and the flavor profile that we are working to accomplish.

Betty & Co. is a cool concept in Prescott, Arizona. They sell tiles and plateware with their own designs. They buy the tiles and plateware ready-to-fire, and do their own painting and firing. Great idea. The largest tile I saw was about 20" by 20" but she doesn't like to ship...

I explained to her the concept of "dayparts" and targeting your food and beverage program and promotions in two hour blocks, the six most important words invented by McDonald's #1 "Would you like fries with that?" and #2 "Would you like to supersize that?" for upselling (and suggestive selling), visual merchandising, etc. It's about increasing your average sale and table turn (the bane of coffee shops) as much as it is about getting (and keeping) new customers.

I think I mentioned a few months ago that I sat in on a restaurant consultation on Barracks Row and found frustrating that the DC Main Streets consultant kept suggesting that the restaurant add new dayparts (stay open later, open earlier) when it was clear that they weren't maximizing the opportunities present during the hours they are already open... (Note to self: learn to mask frustration.)

Anyway, restaurants (and coffee shops) need to think "retail." Is there something you know that Starbucks doesn't? Hopefully there is. And there is plenty of room for focusing and reinterpreting.
Pie shop, Grand Central Station, NYC.

Grand Central Market, Grand Central Station, NYC.

Grand Central Market, Grand Central Station, NYC.

Don't these photos scream not just retail, but buy--right now? As my business partner says, why aren't there food market-type shops in Union Station?

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