of casualties in the last couple of years. You’ve got to take the spots when they become available, so we pushed ourselves,” Spencer said. There are six Pillow Talk stores in the pipeline due to be completed in the first quarter of next year, the latest scheduled to open in Bendigo this week. Pillow Talk opened its first store in Brisbane in 1977. A family owned and operated company, it was one of the first to introduce the continental quilt, boomerang pillow, and large scale single product merchandising. Now there are 50 Pillow Talk stores – the Bendigo store will be the fourth one in Victoria with the remainder split almost evenly between Queensland and NSW. The latest Muse store opened in April in Tweed Heads and the next is scheduled to open in Sydney around August. The concept of Muse centres around building a house within the store featuring different zones offering a variety of decorating solutions assisted by technology. “We wanted to create a ‘website’ you could literally walk into, but a ‘website’ that was a home, that was comforting, and above all, entertaining for our customers,” said Spencer, who was co-creator of the concept. Though the business attracts strong online interest, there’s been much feedback that customers continue to search out and enjoy the bricks and mortar experience. “I think it is very telling – that’s become a stronger and stronger message, basically people do want that bricks and mortar experience as well as online,” she said. Each zone – bedrooms, lounge rooms, the veranda, bathroom and hallway – has been fully decorated. Customers can relax on couches, shop all SKUs of the business on iPads or take in visuals on giant screens, one of which caters specifically to children. A concierge takes care of shopping bags while customers shop in the centre, or they can opt for same day delivery. Sliding barn doors enable the rooms to change shape. “The whole shop is almost a changing theatre,” Spencer said. The first of the Muse stores opened in the Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly in October followed by the opening in late December of the Pacific Fair store on the Gold Coast. The Pacific Fair Shopping Centre is undergoing a $670 million redevelopment and the Muse store is located in a new section and well situated, right at the entrance where the trams stop. With smaller, 300sqm to 400sqm footprints, Muse stores enable Pillow Talk to open in smaller locations than the larger 1200sqm format requires. Another reason for developing Muse was to attract a younger, different audience that doesn’t usually go to homemaker centres. “I wanted to talk to a younger customer and appeal to them. Once they’d seen a Muse by Pillow Talk store in a shopping centre then they might – as we are finding – come to our bigger shops when they wanted to do a serious home renovation or a serious shop,” Spencer said. “I also thought that we needed to offer something different. There’s a lot of talk about community spirit and retail is going back to that; build a community, give customers some extra special service – they want to feel a part of your company and your brand, not just be sold to all the time.” By the end of 2015 the company will have four Muse stores and then work towards 15. “In the next 18 months – starting from January – there will probably be 11 more.” Muse is located in A grade shopping centres and the company is now being feted by other such centres. “We are being approached now to expand the concept, which is wonderful. That’s been very exciting and gratifying for us after all the work we have put into it,” she said. The company doesn’t intend to restrict itself to A grade centres, however. “The [stores] will be different sizes and concepts within that brand for different types of shopping centres and demographics.” This story first appeared in Inside Retail PREMIUM issue 2047. To subscribe, click here.