retail formats

TargetExpress, the new smaller retail concept from the folks at Target, is intended to offer “an assortment that is locally relevant to meet urban guests’ quick trip wants and needs at an everyday value.” Check out this video audit and analysis to see how it delivers on that mission.

(Check out my latest “brand experience brief” — a report with insights and analysis of new and interesting restaurant and retail concepts.)

Fast fashion retailer Uniqlo is on a roll. I visited the company’s Herald Square location, one of three stores it has in New York City. Here’s what I thought of the brand experience there:

Marvellous. Fantastic. Terrific.

I thought I was in a minority of one, as somebody who gets frustrated at the waste of time when the supermarket I shop at decides that for my benefit it is going to change the layout. I muse to myself that some silly sod in their HQ has latched onto the latest theory of retail layout and is thinks that by putting the milk where the dishwasher tablets once were it is going to make my life easier.

(The following is the first in a two-part blog-exchange I’m doing with Stephen Denny, author of Killing Giants: 10 Strategies to Topple the Goliath in Your Industry. Because Steve and I are among those teaching the upcoming Marketing Profs University course, Marketing Your Small Business, we decided to address retailers’ issues and opportunities in these posts and focus specifically on small businesses.

(Today’s post is the last in a mini-series of reviews of retail concepts that have caught my eye. I’ve already covered 77kids in Times Square and new Starbucks stores in Seattle. Hope you’ve enjoyed my takes on what makes a store more than a store – a real experience.)

(This is the second in a mini-series of reviews of retail concepts that have caught my eye. Yesterday I introduced 77kids in Times Square, today it’s Starbucks in Seattle, and tomorrow will review one last example of what makes a store more than a store – a real experience.)