Retail Recon-Material Investigation case study

In an effort to heighten my awareness on details in the retail environment, I did a materials case study on some of my favorite stores. When trying to decide which stores to look at, I thought about local favorites (anthropologie, gap, apple, etc.) but I wanted to get a more broad range of stores. Over Easter, I went to New York City for the first time with my Mom, and did some major shopping. While most of our time was spent meandering through Macy's, we managed to hit a wide variety of stores, some of which had amazing designs.


The first store I would like to look at in Swatch Watch Times Square. This store catches your eye from the street with it's bright facade and window displays. When you walk into the store through the revolving door you are greeted by bright lights, bright colors, bright displays, and loud music. The only thing sold at Swatch is their line of distinctly unique plastic watches. Shiny plastic displays throughout the store hold the large collection watches. Bold blue terrazzo floors with glitter are accented with cylindrical, plastic displays in a complimentary orange. The metal ceiling, dotted with more recessed cans than I could count, reflects the entire store. The swatch store is just like their watches, bright, fun, and trendy





Another Store in Times Square that I found interesting was the M&M's store. The M&M's store sold all things M&M from the candy itself all the way up to dishes and aprons all while promoting New York City. Concrete floors and a black ceiling left the store's product to be the decor. As the store was on a corner on Broadway, two whole walls were floor to ceiling windows that overlooked times square. The other walls were painted the colors of the M&M's packages and the logo. Other areas of the store had murals painted on them like the one below depicting Time's Square overtaken by the M&M's logo. One of the largest walls in the store was covered in plastic containers that held M&M's in every color imaginable. Giant plastic statues of M&M's were dressed up all around the store, giving the store an almost theme park feel. The most important thing that I noted while visiting this store was that the store itself was a fairly bland space that was made bright and lively by the product inside it. This allows the store to reinvent how it looks by just changing up the product.









Across town, off of 5th ave in NYC was the Coach store on 57th street. The 5th ave shopping district is swanky to say the least, but the stores are beautiful. The all black outdoor facade from the store is a complete contrast from what you see when you enter. White marble floors, white shelves and tables, and white walls. Like the M&M's store, Coach allows the products to decorate the store. The shelving displays are all white, shiny plastic that create rectangular holes to put the purses in. Each hole is back-lit and lit from above with one of each different bag in each hole. This makes the store look more like a gallery, showing off artwork than a retail store. A band of wood paneling underneath the shelving units goes throughout the store, and keeps the white from being too overpowering, and gives the space a more luxurious feel. This is a beautiful store, and one of my favorites that I visited.






One store that I did visit here in Greensboro this weekend was Forever21. I have a love/hate relationship with this store simply because I feel like I am on sensory overload whenever I go in there. Forever21 uses the same principles as Coach in having a completely white space to allow the product to speak for itself. White marble floors, white walls, white ceiling, white tables, white mannequins. The difference here is that while the coach store had subdued lighting and music, giving a soft, luxurious feeling to the store, Forever21 has bright lights and loud music. Everything in Forever21 is trendy and bright, and the store lends itself to the clothes nicely. There is always a quick turn-around of the product in this store, and the blank canvas allows itself to the ever-changing inventory well.





The last store that I looked at for this case study was the Fossil store on Broadway in New York. This store was without a doubt my favorite store (except for Macy's) and not just because I got the cutest bag ever there. I actually did a little sketching while I was waiting on my Mom, and later in the hotel room. I'm not sure why I enjoyed that space as much as I did, but it felt really welcoming. The outside of the store had a large wall of white stone which carried over to the inside of the store as if the store was carved into the side of a mountain of stone instead of being a part of the buildings around it. White wood shelves and wood paneling around the store continued the natural feel created by the rock, which was mirrored in the concrete on part of the floor. The contrast of the natural materials of the store to the view of Times Square out the window gave the store a very unique feel. All of the other stores around Times Square were designed to reflect it, but not Fossil. It was a warm, inviting space, and one of my favorites.