What would a store look like if it were a magazine?
In 2010 Rachel Shechtman asked herself the same question, and set about finding out, creating Story, a unique and innovative retail concept built on the basic principles of magazine.
As Shechtman, who also runs her own consulting firm, related to the 2013 Westfield World Retail Tour from the floor of her New York store, Story is a space that “has the point of view of a magazine, changes every four to eight weeks like a gallery, and sells things like a store”.
“Basically we are a living magazine,” she explains.
“A magazine tells stories by writing articles and showing pictures. We tell stories by curating merchandise to bring a story to life around a certain subject matter and different interactive events.
“We also have sponsorships which are our version of publishing. We charge companies money to put their name in our store.”
Every four to eight weeks, Story shuts down for up to two weeks to set up for a new story-based theme. The store is stripped bare and everything is changed, from the fitout and fixtures to merchandise, in order to reinvent the 2000sqft space for a new theme.
When the Westfield World Retail Study Tour visited the Chelsea store, the theme was Design Story. Previous themes have included His Story, Colour Story, Art Story, Making Things Story, Wellness Story, Home for the Holidays Story, New York Story, and Love story.
At the time of going to print, the current story was America Story.
Story’s logo, designed by Stefan Sagmeister is key to brand, using the O styled as parentheses, the centre which is changed to communicate each theme.
On the back wall of the space a large, permanent, backlight version of the logo is the centerpiece. For the Design theme, when viewing it up close, the entire frame was filled with petri dishes of coloured bacteria.
Experience
As the store operates on a different premise to a traditional retail store, Shechtman also measures its performance differently.
“We look at what we do as experience per sqft, and since we have two revenue streams – we make money from selling products but we also sell sponsorships – we don’t live and die by sales.”
This approach seems to have paid off, literally. While many retail businesses are lucky to break even in their third year of business, Story has been profitable since year one.
Sponsorships can cost anywhere between $75,000 and $175,000 per story theme. Most merchandise in the store is supplied on consignment.
“When you look at the amount of time people spend in stores, walking by stores, and engaged with stores, why shouldn’t we be a media store?” Shechtman asks.
“I like to call ourselves a dating service – we just use storytelling as a matchmaker between brands and consumers.
“Taco Bell couldn’t sponsor a Colour Story because that wouldn’t make sense. But Benjamin Moore wants to be at the centre of a conversation around colour, and they know more about colour than any of us here do, so they become both content and enabler at the same time.”
The beauty of these sponsorships for Shechtman and her team is the ability to weave a story and provide a true experience.
For the Making Things story, only 25 per cent of the store had product for sale, with the rest of the space made up by experiences.
Throughout Making Things customers could make sunglasses and card holders on an instore laser cutting machine, and a 3D printer allowed for the creation of objects.
During New York Story, sponsored by New York company, Hella Bitters (bitters for cocktails), the store hosted mixology classes, and an Italian grandmother taught shoppers to make fresh pasta.
Community engagement is a crucial element to the store’s success.
“Every story needs different points of view, and we say we know a little about a lot of things, so we bring experts in.”
The future
Shechtman is keen to open more stores, but will continue to approach each creatively, instead of resting on the laurels of the New York store.
“There will be other stores. I think it would be Los Angeles and London next. Other than London it would be a joint venture because we have no interest in operating in another country.
“I also think there are other ways of using the model. When we started I was very rigid about what it should be and how it had to be done.
“But if Story was going to Chicago, maybe it wouldn’t change every four to eight weeks, maybe it would be in the Sears Tower, and it would be Chicago Story, and it would change content, but it would always be local to people from Chicago.
“If it were in a Westfield Mall, maybe there would be three Story’s. In one part of the mall you’d have His Story, in one part you’d have Kids Story, and in another part it would be Her Story.
“There’s a lot of opportunities to do other stores and give license and freedom to the concept.”
This story originally appeared in Inside Retail Magazine’s August/September 2013 edition as part of our exclusive coverage on the 2013 Westfield World Retail Study Tour.
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