After experimenting by selling direct to the public from kiosks at five major US airports, Google is reportedly about to open its first flagship store in Manhattan — just yards from its arch rival Apple.
It’s claimed the tech giant is about to sign the lease on a 4,100sq ft Greene Street, New York, shop that nudges shoulders with high-end fashion retailers such as Stella McCartney and Tiffany, and is less than a block away from one of Apple’s highest grossing stores.
Unlike the departure lounge kiosks, its believed Google will also offer advice and servicing at its Manhattan’s SoHo outlet, much as Apple does through its in-store Genius Bars. The closest it has so far come to Apple’s highly successful model is to have Google-trained employees within 50 PC World-Dixon’s stores in the UK and hundreds of US Best Buys to advise on its software and promote its Chromebook computer.
The company will be following the lead of its other major competitor, Microsoft, which has recently started to open a chain of stores to allow customers to play with products before buying. It hopes to have its first “Google Store” open by the summer — before rolling others out across the States — and in time for the launch of its new range of Google Nexus smart phones and tablets and its Chrome browser.
Executives who gave the go-ahead for the Google store network are thought to have been influenced by the imminent and highly publicised launch of its wearable tech, Google Glass, and the thinking that consumers would want to try the product before buying.
It’s not known how much Google is paying for the lease of the Greene Street premises, but analysts say SoHo’s rising popularity is pushing up rents and property prices. Average rents have doubled to more than $300 [£180] per sq ft in the past two years.
“This could do for cobblestone Greene Street what the Apple store did for nearby Prince Street,” said Richard Hodos, a retail leasing broker at CBRE. “This is going to be an attraction that will generate excitement for Greene Street that people will certainly want to come and see.”
After months of speculation — and clashes with authority — another of Google’s marketing projects looks as though it is about to be unveiled. Google’s “mystery barge” has arrived at its new home in the California delta after the 50ft tall vessel was ordered out its planned San Francisco mooring. Part of a three-vessel fleet that would cost Google $35m [£21m], construction was halted late last year when it emerged the barges lacked the proper building permits. Google decided to move the project, supposedly set to serve as an “interactive technology centre”, to the Port of Stockton.
“We are catching our breath before announcing the next chapter of this project,” was all a Google spokesman would say.
Previous Post
US Commercial Insurance Prices Rising
