The app for independent voices
Nice take by Piers Fawkes in his brainfood of research and analysis ( PSFK Weekly). This articulates clearly three trends that I’d not put together as succinctly:
Cafes everywhere. In our recent New York “Retail Alchemy” store tour, there were cafes in so many stores - Arcteryx Alpha, Buck Mason Soho, Aime Leon Dore, Leica, Tecovas, Rapha, Muji Market, Kith… I need to add a “with Cafe” tag to the NRF top picks! retailx.net/newyork/nrf…
The customer’s “situationship” with retail rewards that DNA from a Starbucks Reserve - subject-matter expertise, service and hanging-out-ness. Buck Mason, for example, is like hanging out at your cool uncle’s boathouse on a weekend. While Ralph Lauren cosplays lives into luxury, some places seem to inhabit the worlds they create, and seem happier in their own skins
These ‘sector-bending’ spaces are not so much retail, nor leisure, nor fully curated… Neither are they planned ‘third spaces’. The sector definitions and distinctions are blurring, meaning that new partnerships and collaborations/conjunctions are ripe. A little while ago I wrote about AI’s role in accelerating and dissolving boundaries (ianjindal.substack.com/…). This is part of the shift from “attracting customers” to creating and engaging in customer contexts - with new, non-traditional and complementary commercial partners. This and more at customerx.net.
