Dumb Starbucks' shop opened In Los Angeles by local comedian…

 pic: Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters

According to The Guardian, the comedian Nathan Fielder has outed himself as the man behind a parody coffee shop called Dumb Starbucks that appeared to throw down a gauntlet to the real Starbucks, a TV stunt rather than an art installation or business start-up…

Long lines formed as word spread on the street and social media, prompting debate over whether it was Banksy-style pop-up art or an entrepreneur’s audacious attempt to simultaneously mock and purloin the Starbucks brand.

A fact sheet posted inside the shop claimed that by adding the word “dumb” it was technically making fun of Starbucks and so could use their trademarks under a law known as fair use.

It remains to be seen whether Starbucks get the joke and hopefully the coffee tastes as good as the real thing, but meanwhile some food for thought for others hoping to grow at the expense of the competition, in these flat-line times?

Thx Richard

Pop-up Britain - Piccadilly flagship for pop-up shops

Popup Britain, the retail arm of national enterprise campaign StartUp Britain, has opened a flagship store in Piccadilly to offer 30 retail start-ups a week-long opportunity to sell their products.

At No.231 Piccadilly, 20 paces from Piccadilly Circus, pop-up shops are given an opportunity to check out what difference a prime, albeit temporary location will make for their business idea...
Last week's pics express it well:

                                                                                                     pics: Brian Moore

A variety of retail ideas, but the prize for innovation has to go to the SWIG Hip-flask company, a space near the door, and a bespoke title to mark the occasion at Swigadilly Circus...

Worth a pop-in on your next West End store-check? 

Kellogg's new tweet shop - pay with social currency...

                                                                                                pic Retail-focus
According to a report in Retail-focus, Kellogg's have opened a new pop-up 'tweet' shop on Soho's Meard Street in London. The standalone store – thought to be the first to allow customers to pay by Tweet instead of money – marks the company's move into the savoury crisps market and is open until Friday 28 September.

The shop is lined with hundreds of packs of crisps, a 'try before you buy' snacking area, a 'community noticeboard' that captures social media reaction to the unique retail space, and a  packet of new Special K Cracker Crisps can be bought by Tweeting a message about the snack range.

A real fusion of brand, medium and consumer, without retailer intervention..

Another potential use for empty shops in the high street?

Pop-down shops – where train-dodging vendors and shoppers move fast, or else…

                                                                                 vid: Daily Mail
This open air Thai market needs quick wits - because eight times a day a train comes crashing through.
Just seconds before it is a bustling open-air marketplace with stallholders and shoppers haggling over the price of produce.
Then vendors pull back awnings and produce off the railway track, and afterwards restore their ‘pop-up’ shops, as if nothing has happened...

Getting away?
For NAMs who like an active holiday, Maeklong Market is in Samut Songkhram, Thailand, around 37 miles west of Bangkok. (Best book one-way, just in case...)

UK application?
Apart from some regulatory issues, Health & Safety would figure highly, not because of lack of stall-holder flexibility, but mainly due to unreliability of train timings…
Have a hyper-reactive weekend, from the Namnews Team!

Moving away without giving up?

Coping with the Olympics via a pop-up shop has been an escape route to new business for bespoke tailors, Apsley of Pall Mall who have taken over suites at the Edinburgh Caledonian Hilton to attract new customers to the world of bespoke tailoring (makers of a top-end suit at £70k and a more moderate range at £900/suit, clients include  Fulham and West Ham football clubs).

The 120-year-old firm’s fitting rooms are located behind the Olympic beach volleyball security cordons at Horse Guards, and it being no contest, they have sent their four tailors to Scotland.

Running the numbers: At 20 customers /day for August, at £900/suit, realising £360k, less costs, should suit nicely, thank you…and not counting customer lifetime value..

Thanks to Anne Johnstone for the link

Raising the bar via London’s largest pop-up shop?

                                                                                               pic: popupspace blog

Those accustomed to regarding pop-up shops as temporary ad hoc initiatives, and willing to brave the Olympics access restrictions, might be surprised to find retailers like Chanel, Laithwaites Wine, H&M, Liberty, and Tesco combining their Olympics presence with an opportunity to sell, via pop-up outlets…

Alternatively...
For those who cannot make it, a good second best might be to visit London’s largest pop-up shop in Hyde Park. This 12,000 sq ft pop-up shop on Rotten Row is the only location fans can purchase official London Olympic 2012 venue merchandise outside of Olympic Park, and will receive special visits from athletes throughout the games. It offers something for everybody at every price point – from one-off exclusive collectables to children’s toys….

Time to consider the appointment of a pop-up KAM, a temporary role obviously…?
Incidentally, to keep up with pop-ups, visit the popupspace blog.

Pop-up Britain, an answer for UK High Streets?

                                                                                         pic: Business Matters Magazine

StartUp Britain has today opened the first of its revolutionary PopUp Britain shops, offering start-up businesses a unique low-cost opportunity to experience life on the high street.

This unprecedented scheme will help to revive the UK’s flagging high street by making use of co-funded empty shops. StartUpBritain’s first PopUp, opposite Richmond station, will provide retail space for six start-up businesses. The store will get backing from the scheme's sponsors: John Lewis will fit-out the shop, the businesses will be insured by AXA. Each business will also get a Dell laptop, access to PayPal's online internet payment system and a copy of Intuit's Quickbooks accounting software.
StartUp Britain was founded 15 months ago by a group of eight entrepreneurs to encourage small business startups, winning support from government. However they rely for funding from the private sector via sponsorship.

A great idea in unprecedented times, but as David Prosser in the Independent notes, ‘if the state is going to leave it to volunteers to deliver its stated desire of boosting entrepreneurialism, it must at least have the decency to get out of the way. If local authorities play ball, and the scheme gets a fair wind from other public-sector bodies, StartUp High Street is an idea which might just make a real difference. For example, local authorities will need to be supportive about allowing these retailers to trade — waiving planning permission restrictions, say’.

Walmart, P&G QR-Code Initiative, the back-story...

Yesterday’s NamNews’ most downloaded news-item raises some interesting implications:

• This month-long initiative features virtual "pop-up" QR stores at Chicago bus stops and a "food truck"-style mobile hub in Manhattan, featuring P&G products was led by P&G, but in reality attempts to drive sales to Walmart’s online facility
• This innovative combination of mobile, social and real-time commerce appears to be an attempt by Walmart to neutralise Amazon’s increasing dominance in urban areas, a place where quick delivery is more convenient than access to big-box retailers
• (Amazon: think €36bn sales, growing at 46% p.a., 1-click purchase and ‘instant’ delivery…compulsive!)
• For P&G, a way of getting large packs into the hands of consumers, ultra-conveniently…
• ….apart from the peripheral impact of some extra on-street advertising in high-traffic urban areas..

Do you think the WM/P&G initiative is the shape of things to come?
In fact, which supplier-retailer combination will be first in the UK?  

Pop-up shops: the ultimate in suck-it-and-see research?

Pop-up retail originated with fashion designers seeking to showcase new clothing lines. However with consumer spending deteriorating and as suppliers seek to cut the costs of product launches, pop-ups have become an interesting alternative route-to-consumer.

Breakthrough research?

As you know if a supplier’s brainstorming session results in a ‘great idea’, it can take nine months to secure a space on shelf

For a retailer, a ‘great idea’ can be an early morning presentation by a NAM, and with proper co-ordination the product can be on a shelf by noon.  By 1700 on the same day, the retailer can be in a position to double the order or delist the product…!

An instant test-market opportunity for suppliers

An (obvious) exaggeration, but pop-up shops can operate within the same model and time-frame, and can represent a real market-test opportunity for pro-active suppliers.

For those NAMs that get out occasionally, the usage by well-known brands is obvious, with GAP even kicking off a 60's style tour using a school bus as a mobile pop up store in the US.

With empty shops in the high street providing instant accommodation, a recent article lists some useful pros and cons for landlords and retailers

Living with the time-frame 

For suppliers that can operate in limited time-frames, a typical pop-up store can operate for as little as two days up to a period of four to six weeks and during this period the supplier can test-market a new product or brand and thus get first-hand feedback from customers, with an added plus of lower marketing costs compared with TV.

Meanwhile we await the emergence of a pop-up NAM as real evidence of the fact that pop-up shops are becoming a permanent part of the retail landscape…

John Lewis opens its first virtual shop in Brighton

All of the retailer's ‘top 30 things to buy for Christmas’ are included in a QR window display at a branch of Waitrose.

Customers can scan the QR code of the item they want, which will then take them to the John Lewis mobile site to complete their purchase.

After ordering online, customers can pick the item up after 2pm the following day from any John Lewis or participating Waitrose store, if the order is place before 7pm the previous day.

The most famous, and possibly most successful, example was Tesco Korea's virtual supermarket shelf in a subway in Korea, which resulted in a 130% increase in online sales.

The issue will be what KPIs JLP will use to measure success before rollout:

-       Sales per item listed (need to segregate window vs. website sales)

-       Sales per window (aggregation of above)

-       Opportunity cost of window space (Waitrose tends to use blanked-out windows in this location)

This raises several issues:

-       Is it a poster?

-       Is it a ‘shop’?

-       Is it a calalogue?

Either way a worthwhile experiment, but meanwhile a possible temporary/permanent answer to all of those empty windows in the high street?

And the space behind the empty windows?

How about using this now low rent, minimal/zero rates space as back-up storage for healthy shops nearby, thus allowing them to eliminate all instore storage space in in high-cost rental areas?

NIVEA Conversion of an empty shop in Hamburg….

Still think empty shops are just empty opportunities...?

See 'Empty Shop Usage' below