SAVE THE BRAZILIAN RAIN FORESTS?????

Caught my retail eye whilst walking through South Moltonstreet, London W1. “Cheeky-ness” and apparently professional quality in this Singapore originated WAXING SALON CHAIN  with a difference.

Look up their website and chuckle …..

www.ministryofwaxing.com

CHOCOLATE & LONDON,UK 

During a short visit to london, UK I noticed a growing number of new and challenging chocolate stores that opened up all over the City. Here are a few chocolate stores I saw:

Hotel Chocolat, nice UK concept ( also 2 stores in Boston,US). Very much a Fashion store in Chocolate. The chocolate is ok, I suppose – more the Cadbury level – but packaging is great as is the stores fantastic merchandising. They have some 50 + stores all over the UK. www.hotelchocolat.com


Jeff de Bruges, Mayfair, London, UK
 Their first in London and  they’ve  got some 200 + stores. The bulk in France and a number of emerging markets. Very few in the more developed countries ……….begs the question whether by necessity or is it smart marketing? I met their London Franchisee, Raks Shah, great and above all passionate retailer of chocolate. 

Nice fit out but here in contrast to Hotel Chocolat I tasted some real top end chocolate…. Also fantastic packaging but merchandised in a less exiting fashion than at Hotel Chocolat. Liked particularly that they package “fresh” and at store level. www.jeff-de-bruges.com



Artisan du Chocolat, London.  A UK start up (three stores in London) developed by an Irish / Belgian team for UK taste. Their interior is unusual and above all their drinking chocolate is a must! Gives a very artisanal handmade feel with great taste and like before nice packaging. Here a little more attention to staff and its attitude would improve the overall impression. www.artisanduchocolat.com

VIENNA, AUSTRIA  A SHORT RETAIL TRIP!

Toilets can also be fun...
Came across this great public toilet in a subway close to the Vienna State Opera.
Viennese waltz music, chrystal chandeliers and warm, cozy colours -  your visit to a memorable experience, fitting the City with a naturally an obliging and courteous toilet assistant, that greeted everyone with :

Gruess Gott! The proper Viennese greeting!!!

The “Fauchon” (famous 18th century gourmet retail store) of Vienna is the ultimate stroll through "great gourmet land". Lovely Fin de Siecle architecture, great and obliging – well groomed –staff a fine restaurant for Viennese coffee and pastry, makes this ( notwithstanding the prices ) a great visit . Great service and selection coupled with style and presentation has a future. www.meinlamgraben.at
 


Hotel and Restaurant Sacher, Vienna
Tradition and the best Cake in the world(?) the famous Sacher Torte. www.sacher.com



My next short retail business stop this week will be in the UK .... Every time I go on business I'll write a short or lengthy post on remarkable retail trends and retail stores so keep in touch with Retail is Detail.

This market has all organic, wild and artisan foods to offer. Good to see the (organic) wine selection flourish. With some small foodservice inside, you are able to combine shopping with a light lunch.

• Whatever happened to the thrill and excitement of food shopping? 
• Where did the animation and bustle of traditional markets disappear to? 
• Why has the high street experience become so clinical and uninspiring? Where are the smiling faces, the unbridled enthusiasm for real food?

Pure and Authentic
These questions the founders have been asked themselves while setting up The Natural Kitchen. They are obsessed with wanting to bring the best food that is out there to their clients. Food that is produced as purely and authentically as possible, sourced from hand-picked suppliers who care passionately about what they do and whose values we share. Above all, they want to encourage food biodiversity in all its glory, celebrate the renaissance for real food, and show you just how good food and shopping for food can really be.


They stand for: taste, quality, seasonality, integrity, authenticity, traceability and pleasure. In a nutshell, if it is not fresh, healthy, tasty and produced in the right way, it simply does not appear in The Natural Kitchen.

www.thenaturalkitchen.com

* courtesy of Shoot my Food

Thousands of food professionals spent a week sifting though 80,000 products from more than 1,000 exhibitors at the 35th annual Winter Fancy Food Show. From all those choices, some trends emerged.

Organic Chocolate
Health nuts cursed with an insatiable sweet tooth have begun seeking low-fat alternatives to decadent desserts. “People are looking for good-for-you foods so that when they do indulge, they feel better about it because the ingredients are better or organic,” says Desiree Mimlitsch, director of marketing at Big Train, Inc., which manufacturers organic chocolate syrup. Though Hershey’s is the indisputable market leader, this organic alternative has a “similar taste,” says Mimlitsch, plus it boasts organic and all-natural ingredients.
Coconut
Coconut flavors have taken off in the last year, largely because product makers have figured out a way to keep the fruit pure and natural while retaining its taste. “People are just embracing that flavor. It’s one of the biggest things that’s happening here,” says The Fancy Food Show’s Ron Tanner, who listed coconut water, ice cream, and yogurt among the most popular products. “There’s been an ongoing consumer shift away from carbonated beverages and that’s no secret,” adds Arthur Gallego, communications director for Vita Coco, which manufactures coconut water. “People are looking for a noncarbonated water-type alternative that does more,” he added, describing the beverage as “thicker, milkier, more syrupy” than water.

Gluten-Free Food
Gluten-free products are not just for those unfortunate folks dealing with hypersensitive allergies. “So many people have wheat allergies, and even if they don’t, they just feel better if they don’t eat wheat,” The Fancy Food Show’s Ron Tanner says. While it used to be difficult, if not impossible, to make pasta without gluten (which is essentially the glue that holds the dough together) companies like Conte’s Pasta have figured out how to produce gluten-free dishes like ravioli and pierogies. It’s a good thing, too, because it can be “devastating” to give up anything containing wheat, barley, or rye, says the company’s Judy Sabella, who claims she often receives phone calls from teary-eyed customers, thanking her for bringing them back to the world of pasta.


Exotic Citrus
Ever since a summer craze for blood oranges, food makers have been looking to infuse exotic citrus fruits into as many dishes as possible, not only juices but also cooking sauces (think Hawaiian-style chicken and pork), candy and ice cream. “Citrus is always kind of a nice palate cleanser,” says Angela James from Silver Moon Desserts, whose new lavender limoncello sorbet is a big hit thanks to its “sharp flavor” that doesn’t overwhelm the palate. “It can be really flavorful without being overpowering and it’s just a very clean flavor.”

Nostalgic Comfort Food
During difficult times, history shows that people turn to old-fashioned sweets like peppermints, peanut butter cups, and Oreo cookies to feel better. More sustainable alternatives include homemade meatloaf and mini hamburgers, most popular during the 1950s and '60s, because they offer a sense of “hominess and comfort.” Companies are catching on to this belly-pleasing remedy for stress and are coming up with foods that honor the classics. At Daddy Cakes, the makers of cake and pancake mixes are taking this trend a step further by pairing up with designer Paul Frank to add a little monkey cheer to their products.


Anything Pickled
A “renaissance in pickling” is responsible for the onslaught of pickled products that were featured at the Fancy Foods Show, explains Ron Tanner. “Years ago, farmers used to pickle their own products and now you see people beginning to pickle green beans and coming up with different kinds of cucumber pickles.” There has also been tremendous growth in pickled Asian products, like this pickled ginger from the Baycliff Company. People are realizing that they can develop “really tasty things” just by pickling them, Baycliff’s Adam Johnson says. “Virtually every kind of culture pickles things.”

Smoked Fish
White fish and smoked salmon are favorite staples at New York Sunday brunches, where they are regularly mixed with mayonnaise, onions and capers. But the smoking technique is spreading to other products, too, explains Adam Caslow of Acme Smoked Fish, which showcased this “delicate” smoked Bering Cisco at the Fancy Foods show. “People are looking to be wowed by food, and adding smoke flavor really intensifies the natural flavors. It adds a whole other layer of flavors and smells that are interesting and get people thinking in the same way that they’d think about a fine wine,” he says.

Bacon Sweets
“Bacon is one of those foods that everyone, even vegetarians, like,” claims Katrina Markoff, founder of Vosges Haut-Chocolat. Markoff has been adding bacon bits to chocolate-chip pancakes since she was 7 years old, and now sells them, along with dozens of other bacon-infused treats, across the country—everything from bacon coffee to bacon caramel. “There’s something to that salty, smoky with sweet [taste]. It just works so well.” The combination is so popular that Markoff has begun receiving requests to create a vegan alternative to her most famous concoction, the bacon chocolate bar. “We can’t keep any of them in stock.”

Tricked-Out Popcorn
Rural Route 1 Popcorn in Wisconsin is best known for mixing chocolate and nuts with homemade popcorn—and giving the combinations whimsical names like K’nuckle Popcorn (white fudge over popcorn and whole almonds) and C.C. Winkle (milk chocolate fudge over popcorn with cashews). “Most people have a taste for chocolate, and then when you mix it with all that extra crunch that popcorn gives you, and then you throw in the nuts, it’s the snack that has at all,” says store manager Peggy Biddick. Why the timeless addiction? “Every generation loves popcorn and I don’t know if it’s nostalgia… but it gives people nice warm feelings about snacking with their families.”

Spicy Snacks
Though snacking habits know no age, adults are craving bigger flavor variety than, say, plain ol’ potato chips. “We were finding that people were really looking for things that gave them a kick,” says Debbie Marden of Deep River Snacks, which recently came out with three types of ultra bold-tasting chips. “These combinations contain plenty of garlic, ginger, onion to keep the mature palate happy,” and the ingredients “entice you so that you actually have to eat more.” Chocoholics, too, can partake in spicy snacking with treats like Super Chile Toffee Squares that are manufactured by Poco Dolce. This “sweet heat” is “slow-building” and “complex,” qualities that older customers tend to enjoy, the company’s Candice Beltz explains.

Courtesy: The daily beast

For a successful retail store there are ten basic rules which you should always apply ...

1. Good routing and an inviting environment.
   Too often we see that stores have looked at everything expect at a logical routing and an environment that gives an experience to the customer. Experience means a visit that is memorable in many ways, it must be: Inviting, Stimulating and above all invigorating only then can you be successful.
2. Good lighting
   Many retail stores and even retail store giants seem to put good and effective lighting as one of the last financial posts on their budgets when they design a new or revamped store.When the money runs out, as it invariably does, the lighting becomes the balancing item! What I also often notice, is that there are light bulbs missing and or broken. Shows a distinct lack of eye for attention and tells the customer ... we don´t really care too much ...
3. Good and simple graphics (that sticks in customer minds).
   Helps to tell the story and creates in an easy way a good feeling. Don’t do family heirlooms or mom’s handy work…. Use good signage and don’t do handwritten stuff. Make sure the  your retail stores are not cluttered with graphics and signage as it will lead to customers switching off. Flat screens that show nothing, tell nothing and do nothing!
4. Coordinate and tell a story
   Make sure that you realise that the average customer is not overly creative and has far less time and inclination to look and search in order to get ideas than we think. The shop should show the client the way to creativity and ideas. Lead them by examples(s). This is true for fashion and non-fashion. The best sales are compound sales!
5. Friendly and cooperative sales staff
   Seems to be a given but amazingly it is not! Scientific research has shown that customers remember people much better than things. When we tested this theory in our chain of 102 specialty food stores it showed beyond any doubt that a friendly gesture or smiling face lasted .The colour of our flooring nobody remembered though. And we spent months deciding and selecting the floor and the colouring.
6. A point of rest ...
   Make sure that customers have a point in the store they can rest or take a short break from shopping. Not a resting place but a point of rest to gather your thoughts and possibly try and taste.
7. Be honest !
   Show prices – don’t hide them – even in the window. Tell stories of products and origins but ensure total honesty. It pays!
8. A great checkout experience
   What is the customer’s last impression of your store? The checkout experience! Make sure the checkout counters are clean and interesting (avoid clutter) When the customer needs to wait, shorten their time by making sure they are “entertained “or not left unattended… Great packaging does not need to be expensive, but helps to re-enforce your stores image and the client’s experience.
9. Be your OWN customer
   Go out the store and listen to your customers when they come out after visiting your store…. That is the time they will voice their opinion that is the moment they will tell the truth as they feel it.. Enter your own store as a customer – detach yourself form your own store – and try to experience what they experience. Be critical and honest! It pays to let mystery shopping take place from time to time …
10. Cleanliness
    Though all of us feel that like our homes the store should be clean, cleanliness is not only a clean floor but much more:

• Mirrors and windows must be clean
• Doors always clean – no fingers or hand prints or even footmarks
• Dust – the eternal battle – must be removed always
• Fixtures tidied , all the time
• Behind the counters – when in line of sight – neatness.
• No buckets, Mops or any other cleaning paraphernalia in the customer’s line of sight.
• I know you guys always clean … but we do not need to know and see how!

Visit our Retail Consulting Website for expert advice!

Travelled for retail business to Lisbon, recently. Lovely city which combines the best of all worlds! The best of the past and the best of today. Great architecture, fantastic avenues and quaint small streets in the old city  with modern and traditional retail.

Modern retail and traditional side by side in a vsist to Lisbon, Portugal - a vist to the past and present...
 
Hotel “Jeronimos 8”
A stylish modern boutique hotel developed in an 18th century Royal Palace opposite the Jeronimo Monastery, built in 16th century grandeur of a world city! Location in the Belem area. The hotel is modern and with great clean lines everywhere. Rooms are neat and well fitted with great beds and linen.Which is, in my opinion, a must for weary travellers.

The hotel is located walking distance from many great museums and monumental buildings as well as the Belem tower on the river Tagus. It also is a 3 minute walk from another Lisbon Institution, Pasteis de Belem.


This great pastry store founded in 1837 makes the world famous sweet pastry pasties that are covered by cinnamon and made according to a “secret “recepy already since 1837! They sell over 1500 each day every day of the year. Wonderful with a small coffee (eat your heart out Starbucks!) for less than 2 US$ for pastry AND Coffee…..





Price for 5 people, includes wine???? Euro 57, 00 for a 3 course meal! Less than US$ 10 per head! And Cash payment only! 

Now for the contrast ...

"Beelieve" it or not... Over the past few years, there's been a surge of interest in urban beekeeping, mostly on a small scale by amateur beekeepers. Fortnum & Mason is now taking the practice to a new level—the famous London retailer has placed four hives on the roof of its 181 Piccadilly building. From where, as Fortnum's describes, the bees are able to "fly high above Mayfair, visiting the grounds, gardens and squares of the best addresses in London, gathering rather superior nectar." (The colony was previously housed by Fortnum's in Shropshire and Oxfordshire.)

Delicate Urban Honey
Pollen from chestnut and lime trees, as well as a wide variety of other flowering plants, is expected to make for a delicate urban honey, which will be on sale from May 2009. A 227g jar of Piccadilly Honey will be priced at GBP 10. Completing the picture, Fortnum & Mason offers an upclose view of the palatial beehives via two webcams.

It's a wonderful example of a retailer and food brand taking an uber-local approach to food production, and creating a still-made-here story that consumers won't be able to resist ;-)

Website: www.fortnumandmason.com

Whatever Parisian pastry chef extraordinaire, Philippe Conticini, does gets noticed. At La Pâtisserie des Rêves (the patisserie of dreams), in the chic 7th arrondissement in Paris nothing in the design of the sleek 29 square-metre boutique is reminiscent of a traditional European konditorei.

Most strikingly, the stars of the space — the desserts, cakes and pastries — are displayed on a round platform in the centre. Each of the 15 culinary masterpieces is presented under its own temperature-controlled glass bell suspended from the ceiling. Customers order their selection from the staff, after which each order appears directly from the kitchen. Both ideas evoke the feel of a meticulous laboratory where precious specimens are handled.

Conticini has been in the culinary limelight for more than two decades with his own TV show, several books, restaurants and awards.

What a great retail concept, 6,000 square-foot M.A.C Pro space in New York.
Occupying an entire floor at 7 West 22nd Street, the facility is divided into two separate sections, each with its own entrance: A retail / studio and a training area. Unlike other M.A.C Pro stores around the world, this is a full-blown retail / studio and experimentation facility for make-up artists and beauty professionals. With its dramatic open layout, the space is a true feast for the eyes.

M.A.C Pro's New York store is completely dedicated to serving the pros. At the mixing station, they can hone their skills, test samples and experiment with the product with all of the tools of the trade nearby. The reference library is stocked with books, magazines and other reference materials for those who want to learn more or do research. At the photography studio, they can record their processes and their results. A separate training area, a kitchenette and bathrooms with showers make this an ideal space for some serious learning.
Makeup Art Cosmetics (MAC) launched in 1984 when two Canadians, makeup artist and photographer Frank Toskan and beauty salon owner Frank Angelo, opened a single counter in the basement of the now-defunct Simpson's department store in Toronto. Staffed by professional make-up artists, determined to become the ultimate color authority in make-up, and blessed with an outrageous sense of drama and theatre, M.A.C gained huge popularity among professionals and consumers. The Estee Lauder Companies bought 51 per cent of M.A.C in 1995 and the rest of the shares in 1998. Sleek stores, a vast array of color options, and a sense of professionalism and artistry are still the hallmarks of M.A.C that now has more than 750 stores in 50 countries. By Tuija Seipell.

Courtesy: www.thecoolhunter.net

One area I’ve been paying a lot of attention to in the past five years is packaging. More often than not, packaging is the reason for the success or failure of the product, not the actual product itself. It’s been proven that the design of the the package is one of the top 3 reasons people buy something, just behind the price and the primary need the product fulfills.

The hotel: the EXCHANGE
Sleeping in fashion... This new hotel will be designed by selected students and graduates from AMFI Amsterdam Fashion Institute. They will be made responsible for the interior decoration of the 63 one to five star rooms. For this they will work with Dutch artisanal textile producers. All rooms will have a specific design, like models on the catwalk. The interior design is characterised by its diversity: fresh and playful, sexy and comfortable, daring and classical. For a full press release, read more


The above photo is of their other Hotel in Amsterdam.
www.lloydhotel.com/

This year, prepare for ‘business as unusual’. For the first time, there’s a global understanding, if not a feeling of urgency that sustainability, in every possible meaning of the word, is the only way forward. How that should or shouldn’t impact consumer societies is of course still part of a raging debate, but at least there is a debate.

Meanwhile, in mature consumer societies, companies will have to do more than just embrace the notion of being a good corporate citizen. To truly prosper, they will have to ‘move with the culture’. This may mean displaying greater transparency and honesty, or having conversations as opposed to one-way advertising, or championing collaboration instead of an us-them mentality. Or, it could be intrinsically about generosity versus greed, or being a bit edgy and daring as opposed to safe and bland.

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In short, with even more people sharing, in real time, everything they do**, buy, listen to, watch, attend, wear and so on, and with even more search engines and tracking services making it easy to find and group these ‘live dispatches’ by theme, topic or brand, this year will see ready-to-buy consumers tapping into a live stream of (first-hand) experiences from fellow consumers.
* Consumers’ ingrained lust for instant gratification is being satisfied by a host of novel, important (offline and online) real-time products, services and experiences. Consumers are also feverishly contributing to the real-time content avalanche that’s building as we speak.

** As more people are reviewing and contributing, the sheer mass of opinions will lead to a real-time stream of information, findable and viewable to all. In addition, online access and device convergence will allow more on-the-spot reviews. Twitter is the much-deserved poster child for real-time reviews: it has established itself as the real-time snapshot of what people are thinking/feeling/experiencing and yes, reviewing, around the world.

Next: Just because they can (Twitter's Direct Messages come to mind), consumers who will need more specifics after reading a review, will want to get in direct touch with the reviewer. And because of the self-selecting nature of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, these direct conversations will actually be welcomed by the reviewer, too. By posting reviews for his peers, he or she is almost angling for a follow-up. This will lead to real conversations between like-minded customers and potential buyers, without the brand even being able to monitor what's being said about its products, let alone being able to respond.

So expect numerous services to capitalize on this burgeoning ‘global brain', and its endless real-time reviews and verdicts. Just one example:

• EezeeRator is a free travel companion from French Air Valid that allows passengers to post airline reviews while in flight. Travelers need only download the application—an Android version is available now, with iPhone software coming next month. With an on-board wifi connection, they can then use the application to search for airline and flight information, post reviews, and send messages, tweets and pictures in real-time from their phones. All messages are moderated by the EezeeRator team, and a GPS function confirms that users are where they say they are.

Oh, and how to deal with REAL-TIME REVIEWS? Either outperform so reviews will be positive, or adopt a radical 'beta-mindset' (re-read our FOREVERISM briefing for more on this) which means you involve customers in your development processes from day one, eliminating the possibility of out-of-the-blue bad reviews upon launch.

Love this stuff? Then do re-read our TRANSPARENCY TRIUMPH and NOWISM briefings, too. No rest for the wicked!

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And no, we’re not referring to companies / advertisers making money from personal profiles (jeez....), even though they’re dying to ‘mine’ personal data to serve up 'relevant' ads; we're putting our money on data and profile mining by its rightful owners, i.e. consumers. Hence the MYNING, not MINING. Opportunities:

• Now that hundreds of millions of consumers maintain some kind of online profile/presence, who's going to set up an intermediary representing consumers who are willing to disclose (parts of) their purchasing intentions, and then invite companies to put in bids?
  
  
• With personal profiles (which are the nucleus of one's personal brand) representing an ever-greater emotional and financial value, expect a burgeoning market for services that protect, store, and, in case of emergencies/death, arrange handing over of one's digital estate to trusted others.

Examples:

• For guarding personal brands, check ReputationDefender and ClaimID.

• For storing, protecting and handing-over individual data, check out Swiss DNA Bank, which launched in August 2009, offers ultra-secure DNA storage that meets Swiss banking regulations. For a one-time fee of USD 399, customers can store both their self-swabbed DNA and up to 1 GB of digital data, forever. The DNA and the web servers are held in a former Swiss military underground nuclear shelter in Gstaad. Customer's heirs can buy access to their relatives' shared data for USD 69. For consumers eager to keep confidential info out of the wrong hands, the digital data storage can also be purchased individually for USD 299.
  
  Similar digital afterlife services worth checking out: LegacyLocker, Death Switch and Slightly Morbid.

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