Chico's Clothing - no dressing room mirrors

Chico's clothing stores purposely leave mirrors out of their dressing rooms so women have to step out and interact with staff and friends to see how they look.

More info in article here.

Best Buy Boutique Stores

In 2006 Best Buy experimented with some boutique store formats.

'Escape' in Chicago was aimed at youngish men with high disposable income, and featured membership which seems to have given access to the stores hangout and game playing areas as well as some ability to preview new products.

'Studio D' also in Chicago was aimed at soccer moms and focused on education and helping people do what they wanted in their life through technology.

'Eq-life' doesn't seem to have much info around, but from the photo above found on Flickr clearly had a 'v2' that was designed by Fitch. Seems to be between Habitat and Brookstones.

An article on Studio D is also available on Amazon.com here.
---
Update - more now seems to be available on good. Article with info and criticising them shutting down: http://therobinreport.com/how-best-buy-blew-the-chance-to-out-apple-apple/

More photos and info from a design company: http://www.esidesign.com/work/best-buy-community-oriented-retail-stores/

More photos as part of a video: https://vimeo.com/32811220
---


Info sources:

• http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/04/best-buy-goes-for-niche-buyers-with-escape-and-studio-d/
• http://gadgetopia.com/post/5017

Photos:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/bking/130930844/sizes/o/in/photostream/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/betsyweber/198045149/in/photostream/

Jordan's Furniture, New England

Jordan's Furniture are the Stew Leonard's of furnture. They have a few stores around Boston, which combine a furniture store with thing like an IMAX theatre, indoor trapeze school etc.

Wasn't convinced until I saw the video clips with the CEO who says:
- Most furniture stores spend 5-10% of revenue on ads, they spend 1%.
- They have very high sales per square foot.

Therefore they can spend millions on installing animatronics etc in their stores, not raise prices and still come out well. Most of the actual selling space looks pretty ordinary, but they did have a feature on the 'sleep lab' where assistants in white coats help you find the right bed - looked decent if not extraordinary.

Sources:
- http://www.jordans.com
- Preview clip of Tom Peters' video case study on http://www.enterprisemedia.com/

Loss Aversion Bias

At Lollapalooza a sign said:

'Drink more water' and

'You sweat in the heat: you lose water'

You was well written, as it invoked loss aversion (people dislike losses more than they like gains).

Nudge, page 245

Emotions wheel

Could be useful.

Source: http://images-mediawiki-sites.thefullwiki.org/05/2/1/9/75280492183434310.png

Japanese Arcades Target Seniors

In light of the falling birth rate, Japanese game centers are targeting older people.

http://kotaku.com/5707005/japans-arcade-seniors-come-for-friendship-stay-for-blankets

Campinmygarden.com

A British site that goes beyond AirBnB - rent space for people to camp in your garden!

PeopleTowels

PeopleTowels aim to get you to carry a flannel with you to try your hands instead of using paper towels. Rather falls down when you think about needing to let it dry - they suggest clipping it to your bag.

More: http://www.peopletowels.com

Cleancut Dispenser - use less kitchen towel!

The Cleancut Dispenser takes any brand of kitchen towel and dispenses it automatically in small strips so you use less!

Metromint Waters - with chill factors

Bottles come marked with 'chill factors' varying with strength of mint flavour
(e.g. peppermint = -9 degrees, lemonmint = -4 degrees)

Image: http://www.beveragesdirect.com/zBeverages/metromint-waters.asp