Word: stores
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...mutual respect?an example to their 40,000 teammates. "He's a Buddha. He's incredibly wise and a brilliant retailer," the California-based Robb says about Gallo. "Walter's much more of a risk taker and always two or three steps ahead. And he's a brilliant store designer," the Boston-based Gallo says of Robb, who designed the Austin flagship, among other stores...
Another thing about the Austin flagship: it is a she, like a yacht or a sports car, not a he. "See how this is softer, more rounded, more curved, more welcoming?" asks Robb, pointing to the lines of casings and walls. "A store design is about creating an intimacy or a connection. This is a more feminine design. The colors are warmer, shapes softer. The world was overly masculine in the 20th century, and it needs to be more balanced in the 21st...
...appears art directed. Vegetable displays are torn down and put back up nightly. Strawberries are stacked airily in their baskets to resemble Chinese lanterns, a technique pilfered from Asian fruit markets. Over in prepared foods, cut fruit and portobello-mushroom kebabs are designed by a woman who travels from store to store training team members to do the same. "Shopping is 60% impulse, so the more the food is presented in a beautiful and exciting way, that all becomes part of the experience," Robb explains...
Inspiration comes from surprising sources: amusement parks (there are benches for fatigued shoppers and touch screens for lost ones); New York City (a nut cart offers a plethora of fresh roasted nuts in exotic, non--New York flavors like chili lemon); even stores like Best Buy (which has lent technological inspiration). And "we're totally impressed with the Apple store," Gallo says...
Last year, to much fanfare, Whole Foods launched a lifestyle section in its Whole Body department offering organic adult and baby clothing, towels, sheets (cotton is more heavily sprayed with pesticide than any other crop) and vegan shoes. That area, however, always seems emptier than the rest of the store. But Whole Foods may simply be repeating an experience it has encountered many times in its 26-year existence: landing on an idea that is ahead of its time and then waiting around as the world catches...