The New Retail Thread

try them on in the store and find the right size and then conduct your internet search
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This is called 'showrooming', and it is rude and parasitic behavior.
 
BosDevelop said:
I am amazed that people buy things at stores like Foot Locker. 9 times out of 10, you can find their products cheaper on the internet often without tax and with free shipping. And if you are concerned with proper sizing, try them on in the store and find the right size and then conduct your internet search. Then again, maybe the target Foot Locker customer doesn't care about saving $10-$15. I'm all for buying in stores to support the local economy but not when I can save a substantial amount of money.
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One of the things that chased me away to Internet shoe shopping is the crazy up-selling that goes on in these stores now. The past couple of times I've been to Foot Locker/Champs, they've tried to sell me shoe inserts by putting the insert in the shoe before I even tried it on. Totally obnoxious.
 
Makerbot now has a store at 144 Newbury Street selling 3-d printers and accessories. I went in and poked around a little bit a few weeks back, pretty cool to see them in action. The store mainly focuses on selling you the $1k+ printers, but you can also buy $5 trinkets and watch them get printed. Apparently you can also show up with a file and pay for time and materials to get it printed, but there are other shops around Boston with better capabilities.

It feels like a pop-up store, I wonder if they're closing after the holidays.
 
Thumbs up on Makerbot. You can buy one of the $2,000 printers and then go home and download pre-made plans to make a bunch of different things. If you buy the "scanner" (not sure of price) you can make your own blueprints and then print from them.

The store on Newbury has set up its 3D studio where you can go in and have your entire face and body scanned - in 3D - and then made into a model of yourself, in 1/16, 1/8, or 1/4 of yourself (I'm not kidding). I think the largest model costs around $60 or so?

The limitations to the printer are 1) large projects are hard to do and must be broken up to fit into the printer (you have to make pieces, basically); 2) while faster and easier than molding a model from clay ... or marble ... it will take hours to get a model made; 3) the models can only be made in one color currently, so you're looking at a lot of green or yellow or orange. You can use Krylon or similar to paint your models but you'll need to be an expert.

Here's the video of the guy who made a model of a hand since he doesn't have several fingers and how a kid was helped by his creation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT3772yhr0o
 
kmp1284 said:
I think it was put on hold(Boston lingo for smothered with a pillow) during the recession. Their plans for the Mandarin called for an 'epicenter' store, which was probably a bit ambitious at least at the time. Prada is another brand that Boston should have and could support but on a smaller scale than what was talked about then.
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Boston has quite a few luxury brands that aren't here...I'm guessing the expansion at Copley Place, and maybe the retail space at the new Millennium Tower (?) will bring in these brands?
 
Oakley said:
Boston has quite a few luxury brands that aren't here...I'm guessing the expansion at Copley Place, and maybe the retail space at the new Millennium Tower (?) will bring in these brands?
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Boston is pretty well represented on the luxury brand front. There are probably only 6, maybe 7 cities/metro areas that match, or exceed it.

I am still surprised a Bloomingdale's has never opened in the city.
 
BosDevelop said:
I am amazed that people buy things at stores like Foot Locker. 9 times out of 10, you can find their products cheaper on the internet often without tax and with free shipping. And if you are concerned with proper sizing, try them on in the store and find the right size and then conduct your internet search. Then again, maybe the target Foot Locker customer doesn't care about saving $10-$15. I'm all for buying in stores to support the local economy but not when I can save a substantial amount of money.
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Finish Line puts products on sale MONTHS before Foot Locker. Also not as trashy and "urban" as Foot Locker/Foot Action.
 
tommym96 said:
Finish Line puts products on sale MONTHS before Foot Locker. Also not as trashy and "urban" as Foot Locker/Foot Action.
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100% agreed...finishline also has a great website with so many selections.

They're usually located in traditional malls though.
 
Ron Newman said:
This is called 'showrooming', and it is rude and parasitic behavior.
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Rude? You're kidding, right? So I walk into the foot locker and see a pair of shoes I have been eying. I try them on and like the way they feel. I see the price tag and notice that the shoes are $100. A 30 second google search on my phone shows the shoes are available via an online retailer for $80 with free shipping. Am I supposed to buy the more expensive shoes simply because I tried them on in the store? Please note that I will almost always give the brick and mortar retailer a chance to match the online price and, if they ask, show them my google results as evidence of the lower price. Up until very recently most places have refused to match the price. But now some brick and mortar retailers are starting to catch on and will make every effort to match the price or come close. I fail to see how that kind of shopping is rude. Feel free to throw your money away. I prefer to save hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year by buying the exact same product for less.
 
One thing about shoes is that I have tried to order the exact same model online after my current pair wore out, and it did not fit the same. As a result, I just don't trust a shoe I haven't tried.

But beyond that, think back to the definition of "store" as a "cache" of some sort. I think this is the future, really, where the showroom is just the front face of the explicit supply-chain. I mean, more so than it is already. It won't make a difference to the company whether you order on-line or take the product that is "cached" in the store.
 
mass88 said:
Boston is pretty well represented on the luxury brand front. There are probably only 6, maybe 7 cities/metro areas that match, or exceed it.

I am still surprised a Bloomingdale's has never opened in the city.
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I still maintain that Bloomingdale's or Nordstrom would make a fantastic tenant in the new Millennium Tower retail space.
 
BosDevelop said:
Am I supposed to buy the more expensive shoes simply because I tried them on in the store?
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Yes, because you are not just paying for the merchandise. You are paying for the salespersons time, the rent and utilities, and most importantly the ability to try on the shoes before you buy them.

Now we're talking about a corporation like foot locker here, so it doesn't really matter much, unless the salespeople are getting paid commission. Where it really is a shitty thing to do is at places like appliance or electronic stores, where they are almost certainly on commission, the profit margin is razor thin, and the products are always cheaper online. The point still stands though; if you go into a store to try something out / get advice, decide on the product based on that experience, and then go buy it online, you're using a service and not paying for it.

Not to mention even if you are buying from a huge corporation at least a bit of your money is staying local in the form of sales tax and the employees wages. Buying online it is almost always going out of state.
 
Matthew said:
But beyond that, think back to the definition of "store" as a "cache" of some sort. I think this is the future, really, where the showroom is just the front face of the explicit supply-chain. I mean, more so than it is already. It won't make a difference to the company whether you order on-line or take the product that is "cached" in the store.
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Bonobos.com

Great online only menswear retailer with a showroom in the Back Bay. You go in, you try stuff on, you place an order with the salespeople and the stuff arrives on your doorstep 2 days later (free shipping, no tax). Turns out it doesn't fit like in the showroom? Free returns.

All the big shoe websites do free overnight shipping and free returns anyway. If you don't guess your size right at first, it takes 2 days and $0 to fix.

I think the showroom model is going to take off - at least in cities where space to carry inventory costs a premium. You carry only one of everything (you don't even need every size/color combination - I tried on neon pink pants at Bonobos and bought olive green in the same size and cut) and you are never out of stock of the size someone needs to try on. Brilliant.
 
dshoost88 said:
I still maintain that Bloomingdale's or Nordstrom would make a fantastic tenant in the new Millennium Tower retail space.
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The chestnut hill Bloomingdales is at most 5 miles west of downtown in a hyperaffluent zip code with convenient auto and T access. Plus the landlord just executed the whole "street" makeover and brought in some more hip satellite tenants. So I just don't see Bloomingdales doing anything other than standing pat. Unless chestnut hill becomes poorer over time, which I don't see happening...
 
DBM said:
The chestnut hill Bloomingdales is at most 5 miles west of downtown in a hyperaffluent zip code with convenient auto and T access. Plus the landlord just executed the whole "street" makeover and brought in some more hip satellite tenants. So I just don't see Bloomingdales doing anything other than standing pat. Unless chestnut hill becomes poorer over time, which I don't see happening...
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It is impossible to walk to The Mall at Chestnut Hill from the Chestnut Hill T stop. I've tried to do it. It is extremely dangerous. The bus does go there, but it's not ideal. Given all the luxury housing stock coming online in downtown Boston, there should be a Bloomies downtown hands down.
 
Bloomingdales is in the Simon mall, not The Street. The latter has relatively ok access to the T. The mall as Data said is a far more dangerous haul.
 
I haven't done it in a while, but why is it dangerous? The T stop and the mall are on the same side of Route 9.
 
But they're on opposite sides of Hammond Pond Pkwy, which is terrible to cross for pedestrians.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
But they're on opposite sides of Hammond Pond Pkwy, which is terrible to cross for pedestrians.
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Much easier to cross Hammond Pond Parkway with the street and light improvements made in connection with the Chestnut Hill Square and The Street developments. However, it is still a bit of a haul to get to the Mall at Chestnut Hill from the T Stop.
 
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