Of the new E-numbers, the E for Energetic is truly trend! 
Evermore juice bar and salad bars are opening up, serving healthy and fresh food that vitalizes our life. In Amsterdam on the Haarlemmerstraat some 10 years ago a newcomer from Aruba named Jay opened a juice bar with a difference…


Wheatgrass
Various types of real grass (wheatgrass and not the smoking kind!) are cultivated and grown in his juice bar basement. They are freshly cut and in the blender will give you a green shot of healthy vitamines that will vitalise your day.

Jay has developed some 40+ energy juices that will give you energy
Suddenly – in this time of energy and health- this quaint juice bar has been discovered and Jay now even gives lectures and demos for sportsclubs and companies in how to prepare healthy drinks and food. I noticed a stall that seemed just as quaint as Jays store during my recent visit to New York at Union Square Organic market.

www.JaysJuices.nl

GARTINE Lunch restaurant http://www.gartine.nl/ Located in the Taksteeg , a small alley in the centre of Amsterdam is a small (6 table) but great place for lunch. This early 17th century establishment - it has always been a tavern of sorts- serves great lunches and with lovely service (service is unfortunately a rare find in Amsterdam )


Fresh and organic sandwiches at modest prices. No alcohol is served but fresh fruit juices, no problem. The restaurant used to be a tavern and the quaint entresol has served in the olden days for “displaying “the ladies of pleasure that solicited there in the 17th century.

A difficult place to find  but worth the search once you’ve  found it! Great magical and mysterious bar based on an old Apothecary . Magic drinks and  many outlandish combinations. You’ll find the in Chinatown 9 Doyer Street Apotheke, NY  www.apothekebar.com/


Great bar , impressive look and based on the time that America did not drink alcohol (in public)
Fantastic  Bar menu, worth the visit 433 east 6th street. Death& Company, NY http://www.deathandcompany.com/

Too often I come across stores that disregard routing (customer flow) in their stores. It seems to be more important to design the fixtures and fittings with the result that lots of effort and time is spent on how the look of a store should be. However more often than not retailers ignore the fact that they can and should guide the  customer flow in their store(s) store.

During a walk through town  I recently came across this effort...

Case
Centre of town, main shopping street (lots of tourists there too). Store with a fairly narrow front and rather deep, with a dog leg to the left at the end. Colours grey and white with strong lighting high on the ceiling only .
Gift store based on idealistic and fair trade principles.

MISTAKES...

1. Entrance: Here immediately a table presentation with top signage placed as barrier thus blocking free entry into the store and above all if customers don’t like what they see on this display they are 'bounced' out of the store …..
2. Lighting:  Apart from the height of the lights there are no “guiding” lights anywhere. By guiding lights I mean incidental lighting that guides the eye of the customer, brings down the height of the ceiling and as result guides the customer through the store.
3. Back of the store:  Here we have – in this case – the checkout counter in front of a rather bland wall with a heavy worded mission statement. As result of the bland  colours and the uninspired lighting, there is no reason for the customer to become curious or go to the back of the store. And since there is no possibility at the front to show that the store continues to the left in the back, a great opportunity to 'lure' the customers to the back and the rest of the store is lost. Naturally the placement of the counter at the far end brings the customers that have selected merchandise in the front to the back .However too often too late to continue shopping – decision to buy was made earlier!

Conclusion
Colours, lighting (types and placement) as well as positioning of fixtures can have a great impact on the possible willingness by customers to move around in specific- pre determined - ways in the store. As result the flow of customers in the store is often  restricted  and unpredictable which in turn creates a loss of potential sales and success or failure of certain product categories.

Here’s a great idea . developed in the Us more than 10 years ago ( only unfortunately in the US and Australia sofar) by tw travellers that thought it was far too cumbersome – and often too expensive – to get the right gear together to take on the plane.


Hence the website and stores Flight001!

Great idea and attractive products make travel much easier. Especially in a time where checks at airports and  limits of stuff you can take on board make life so much more difficult for the weary traveller Flight001 has great ideas and help is at hand!

Flight 001 Travel necessities
www.flight001.com

It seems that there is a real change a foot in retail Food marketing. The new E numbers are slowly becoming more prominent allround:

• ELEGANT
• EMOTIONAL
• ESSENTIAL
• EACHOTHER 
• EVE

The consumer mood as result of the world financial and banking crisis, turned off the attitude of grab and spend and  moved away from EGO over to EVA. In new Food Retail we see clearly what that means .

ELEGANT & EVE  
Instead of flashy, cool, fast, minimalistic and  Male to elegant and Eva. Vosges Haut chocolat  in Paris  www.vosgeschocolate.com
EMOTIONAL instead  of RATIONAL
Warmer and more overpowering colour combinations take the place of the whites and blues. We want to feel comfortable rather than reasonable ……
www.ifancyasnog.com




ESSENTIAL & EACHOTHER
Real, honest and Organic. No more quick and nasty  but  energetic and  real. We are more concerned about eachother and the planet now than about the individual.
www.daylesfordorganic.com



Look also at the new Starbucks concept in Seattle called 15th Avenue... not even called Starbucks anymore!
www.streetlevelcoffee.com