Am back in NYC for a couple of weeks in my stomping ground for the past 15 years, Tribeca. I’ve been super impressed by the entrepreneurial retail spirit and sense of adventure being shown in the Downtown neighbourhoods, as outlaws and pirates brave the increasingly turbulent waters and fly their Jolly Rogers in the face of the Mighty Amazon. The big and the small are adapting, experimenting, creating and innovating in bricks and mortar retail.
New York magazine did a great feature story on the rise, and fall, and rise of bricks and mortar retail in Soho and Tribeca last week. Check these out:
· My favourite Soho indie book store McNally Jackson has just opened in Williamsburg with two more outposts on the way.
· CW Pencil Enterprise on Orchard St – a pencil vending machine selling vintage advertising pencils for .50¢, a sharpening station, a pencil testing area and a sticker department – with each shopper buying about 12 pencils per visit.
· Roman and Williams Guild – art, flowers, books, furniture and a French restaurant.
· Homecoming – flowers, coffee, books, homewares and an apothecary on Franklin St.
It’s not Either/Or. It’s And/And.
KR
