A key session on Day 2 of NRF’s Retail Big Show was a deep dive into the interplay between retail, community dynamics, economic resilience and the quest to build stores that serve as neighbourhood cornerstones.
Kevin Kelley, Principal and Co-Founder of Shook Kelley, joined Shannon DeVito, Senior Director, Books with Barnes & Noble for a fireside chat exploring the impact of retail on community and creating store environments that tap into discovery, delight, escape and social bliss.
Both Kevin and Shannon spoke passionately about retail design and place activation. Kevin started with how people were feeling.
“We ask customers regularly, ‘What makes you feel safe and secure in an uncertain world?’ These are really difficult questions, because right now people aren’t feeling safe.”
“During times of uncertainty, attachment to things intensifies and makes us feel safer. It starts with our biological need for a sense of safety, but then it becomes a behavioural kind of habit that we see and ultimately becomes part of the cultural minutiae.”
“We don’t just seek attachment from others, but from things and places. People are attached to vinyl albums, Matchbook cars, Fender guitars or baseball cards.”
“The last couple of years the Labubu has taken off. We think about it as a ‘trend’ but it’s really a behavioural adaptation to society’s pressures and it’s allowed adults to express themselves.”
“As I said earlier, in this kind of dangerous world right now, where people feel a sense of danger, they are naturally craving that sense of safety and that sense of attachment.”
“During such times we see nostalgia increase.”
A good example used was attachments to old analogue systems. You will find businesses now selling old analogue dial-up phones, that you can connect to a digital 5G system. People find peace in simplicity.
“There’s this sense of returning to ‘bonfire’ moments, a time when we gather around a fireplace, and talk to one another. There is a growing need for social connectedness.”
Examples included ‘CicLAvia’, which closes streets to car traffic and opens them for people to walk, skate, bike, play and explore parts of Los Angeles County. CicLAvia is not a race. There’s no starting point or finish line—people begin where they like and enjoy the day.
“We do a lot of work with Harley-Davidson. We try to find ways to get people who are generally afraid to interact with others, to break down those barriers and come together.”
“We hold a lot of events in the parking lot and when designing the stores, we’re thinking about how we can create rock shows, car shows and events in car parks.”
“Mercado in Costa Mesa is a Mexican grocery store chain. During the pandemic, while everyone was doing ‘click and collect’, we focused on the physical store. Redesigning it away from the traditional aisle and grid layout to themed zones. We were really focused on convening people around the authentic flavours and tastes of Mexico.”
“The result was phenomenal, a 600% increase in sales from their normal stores to about US$1.7 million a week.”
“In Canada, we work with the chain that is trying to distinguish itself from grocery competitors. In the meat department, we built a smokehouse. Now there is physical sensory activation that happens.”
Shannon from Barnes & Noble then took over, explaining the design strategies they use to bring people together, localise their offer and create positive experiences.
“We were once a traditional retailer instead of a bookstore, and there’s a very big difference.”
“Our biggest opportunity for turnaround was really about designing and doubling down on that ‘connection’ and ‘experience’. One of the biggest things was really to design for local interest.”
“All of our stores now look different – they have been ‘localised’. They sell the same ranges, but layouts are left to the store. That way, each store can adapt to local tastes.”
“We moved away from strict planograms. Instead, we taught the tenets of being a good bookseller. We allow stores to judge and change layouts. Our booksellers feature their favourite titles within each store.”
Shannon provided examples where stores in areas with older customers would promote history, or WWII books. But in areas where the demographic was younger, those stores promoted young fiction.
“I started as a bookseller in one of our Cleveland stores, where I would wear costume characters for story time. We have fun in our stores.”
“Book shops are third places, meeting spaces, where like-minded people come together to explore. We encourage customers to linger, to sit and read. Shopping in a physical bookstore is a very different experience to ordering books online and unwrapping them upon delivery.”
“I think that’s where this connection point really comes in.”
“Localisation has become so important for us. Stores promote the local authors. We do midnight launches on horror or thiller titles and we do brunch launches for Romance.”
“We want people to spend time in our stores. It is about creating that community space, that third space which I know comes up a lot.”
