Image credit: Getty Images, Jesse Swallow/Flickr
PSFK recently wrote about Monocle’s Top 25 Most Liveable Cities 2009. Even though Melbourne made it into the top 10, Michael from linefeed has some innovative store concepts to boost the city’s retail sector.
Believing that the city lacks quirky, niche stores Michael states;
When I think of shops in Melbourne I think of florescent strip lighting and garish painted signs (spotted on shop front in Brunswick Street — ‘Annual Closing Down Sale’). And I mean Chapel Street [Google Maps]… is that really the best there is? Nowhere is there the warm functionality of a Muji or a Habitat (New Zealand and Indonesia have Habitat stores – is it assumed that Australian shopper’s lack the sophistication to support these sorts of ventures?) or the sparky vitality of Uniqlo or Graniph.
A new take on the convenience store, ‘Local’ would sell two forms of produce; “Unprocessed” – fresh, affordable, un-processed produce, exclusively sourced from local farmers; and “Pre-Prepared Meals” – created by ‘Local’ kitchens, using goods from the “Unprocessed” section of the store. To further reduce costs to the consumer all products would carry ‘minimal-fuss’ packaging. Supporting Melbourne-based industries Local also attempts to close the gap on the lack of quality take-home meals within the Australian market.
A revamp of existing music / entertainment stores, ‘Format’ would lose the “tacky” and wasteful product packaging in favour of digital music files. To bring some tactile quality to shopper’s retail experience Format would adopt the personal ‘listening booths’ often seen in 50’s and 60’s cinema. Customers can choose to either burn their choices to CD, upload to their iPod / USB or have files sent via email. Promotional products will also be available in-store, with particular focus on collectible or “keep-able” items such as limited edition posters and vinyl.
Purely focused on supporting the best independent magazines available worldwide, ‘Kiosk’ would be small in size, presenting a warm, intimate vibe to consumers. As small run magazines are often costly to source the small store size ensures running costs are kept to a minimum. Kiosk is purely about magazines and will never carry alternative products / “distractions” typically seen within news agencies.
The London Stores building already exists within the center of Melbourne’s CBD, but has often “struggled to retain tenants.” Linefeed proposes the ten storey space be used to bring interesting global brands to Australia’s shores. London’s Habitat, Eat, Marks & Spencer Simply Food, Yauatcha; Paris’ Ladurée, Paul; and Tokyo’s Muji, Uniqlo, Aoyama Book Center would all be showcased within the space. Michael also sees areas dedicated to an evolving showcase of feature brands in the form of “pop-up style outlets”.
Ideas: Retail Ideas for Melbourne via Super Colossal
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http://www.magnation.com is already in melbourne. it sells purely magazines and presents ‘a warm, intimate vibe to consumers.’
July 16th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
pv: MagNation is a different idea to the Kiosk concept. They’re still trying to incorporate more and more add ons, whereas Kiosk is about shrinking that idea down to it’s bare bones. This article has been edited. I suggest reading the original here… http://linefeed.presspublish.info/2771
July 17th, 2009 at 3:40 am
When i was in their store, all i saw was magazines. I think magnation sells other stuff on the top floor but essentially it’s the Kiosk idea.
And while i liked the ideas proposed in your original article, I disagree with the statement ‘retail in melbourne sucks.’
Chapel St is OK but if you stroll down Greville, Brunswick, Smith streets – or down the many hidden laneways of the city, you’ll find plenty of quirky, niche stores (alphaville, don’t come, outre, claude maus, Chiodo, polyester.)
Melbourne is a city you really need to discover to fully appreciate. Just like its cool-but-famously-elusive bars, Melbourne’s cool retailers aren’t found amongst the ‘florescent strip lighting’ of the main streets.
July 17th, 2009 at 7:38 am
pv: I grew up in Melbourne, have visited on a regular basis and have recently returned to stay for a while. It’s very noble of you to defend the city and it’s short-comings but it is this very ‘protectivism’ that prevents Melbourne from progressing and claiming it’s crown as the design capital it should be. Retail in Melbourne compared to many cities on Monocle’s list are shabby. Even the niche shops.
Discount stores proliferate on main streets where there should be exciting clothing and department stores. Supermarkets offer below grade produce and play nauseating adverts for themselves over their tannoy systems. There’s no real affordable quality furniture stores offering an alternative to our sole Ikea store (which regularly runs out of stock anyway). The humble sandwich has been obliterated in favour of over-blown toasted monstrosities. Places like Alphaville and Chiodo just don’t compare with similar offers in cities outside of Australia.
I could go on and although these things seem petty it’s this attention to detail (retail is detail) that Melbourne now lacks. I have to agree the bars, restaurants and architecture is top notch though, we jut need an innovative retail scene to match.
July 18th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I have to agree with this being a wannabe designer myself I tend to visualise things in life a little bit different to your average Joe. Having just moved to Melbourne from the UK the retail concept seems to be a bit lagging behind the times here! (and what is with the xmas in July thing haha)
On a more serious note every place I have visited so far have these gawd awfull shops with POS spewing all over the place and stock left right and centre with just enough room to actually get yourself in the door.
As much as I would love to go into detail here this wasn’t actually the page I was looking for ha. If anyone in Melbourne is looking for a design mind hit me up!
July 19th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Here’s a real life challenge for you all! I have 2000sqm of prime commercial CBD space about to become available. Really want to lift that bar and create a viable and appealing new concept for Melbourne. Your ideas, your investment.
July 30th, 2009 at 2:45 am