by Kevin Coupe
On Friday, MNB reported on the closing this weekend, barely a year after it opened, of the ‘365 by Whole Foods’ store in Bellevue, Washington.
Now, I’ve been thinking about the closing, even though it was a store with which I never was particularly impressed. And I have an idea … even though, to be clear, I have no inside information nor any sort of confirmation about Whole Foods’ lease obligations.
But … wouldn’t it be interesting if Amazon, rather than just abandoning the space, decided to do something innovative with it.
For example, since it has its own dedicated parking lot, they could use part of the store as an Amazon Fresh Pickup location. And they could carve out part of the space for an Amazon Books.
But the other thing they could do is take the remaining space an turn it into an Amazon Smart Home Store. I could imagine them mocking up various rooms of the house, and then allowing shoppers to explore ways in which they could use Amazon’s various technologies to make their lives easier, more convenient, more interesting, more, well…amazing.
It’d be a limited test … but it would be in a location where it could be easily monitored and adjusted, depending on what works and does not. It’s be like an Apple Store, but on steroids.
Again, I have no inside information. There may be a thousand reasons this couldn’t and shouldn’t work. But if they tried it, I’d bet they could turn what always struck me as a lousy location into something that a lot of people would like up to see, and that would only bolster the brand.
Just an idea. I think it could be an Eye-Opener.
On Friday, MNB reported on the closing this weekend, barely a year after it opened, of the ‘365 by Whole Foods’ store in Bellevue, Washington.
Now, I’ve been thinking about the closing, even though it was a store with which I never was particularly impressed. And I have an idea … even though, to be clear, I have no inside information nor any sort of confirmation about Whole Foods’ lease obligations.
But … wouldn’t it be interesting if Amazon, rather than just abandoning the space, decided to do something innovative with it.
For example, since it has its own dedicated parking lot, they could use part of the store as an Amazon Fresh Pickup location. And they could carve out part of the space for an Amazon Books.
But the other thing they could do is take the remaining space an turn it into an Amazon Smart Home Store. I could imagine them mocking up various rooms of the house, and then allowing shoppers to explore ways in which they could use Amazon’s various technologies to make their lives easier, more convenient, more interesting, more, well…amazing.
It’d be a limited test … but it would be in a location where it could be easily monitored and adjusted, depending on what works and does not. It’s be like an Apple Store, but on steroids.
Again, I have no inside information. There may be a thousand reasons this couldn’t and shouldn’t work. But if they tried it, I’d bet they could turn what always struck me as a lousy location into something that a lot of people would like up to see, and that would only bolster the brand.
Just an idea. I think it could be an Eye-Opener.
- KC's View:
