Innovative Ideas to Boost Melbourne’s Retail Market

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