Concept2watch

Bill the Butcher

From Feb 2011 | By Liz Parks | Tags: Concept2watch, Worth Watching

Liz Parks

Bill the Butcher took a page from Northwest neighbor Starbucks in developing a retail concept that, through product quality, merchandising ingenuity and entertaining, knowledgeable service, turns what has customarily been a commodity shop into a lifestyle shop. Specifically for its creators and its growing legion of customers, it is almost a love song to grassroots farming.

The beef, veal, pork, lamb, goat, poultry, game, homemade sausages and cured meats that Bill the Butcher sells were all raised by ranchers who farm and ranch organically or naturally.

Large-scale Concept

From Sep 2010 | By Liz Parks | Tags: Concept2watch

STORES Weekly Newsletter

Liz Parks

Destination XL (DXL)
Canton, Mass.
Locations in Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas and Memphis, with plans for up to 100 stores by 2015
www.destinationxl.com

Casual Male Retail Group has introduced Destination XL (DXL), a retail concept it hopes will increase the company’s per-store operating margins by 10 to 20 percent and double its share of the big-and-tall market.

Small Treats, Big Plans

From Aug 2010 | By Liz Parks | Tags: Concept2watch, Worth Watching

Liz Parks

Crumbs Bake Shop
New York City
26 stores in Metro New York and California, with plans for another six by year’s end
Founders/co-owners: Jason and Mia Bauer
www.crumbs.com

Crumbs Bake Shop is cooking up national expansion plans built around its signature item – cupcakes.

Couple Jason and Mia Bauer traded corporate life for entrepreneurship in 2003 and now oversee a chain of stores that numbers two baker’s dozen. The stores, in turn, are supported by regional commissaries where the delectables are made from scratch and distributed overnight.

Ensemble Performance

From Jun 2010 | By Liz Parks | Tags: Concept2watch

CONCEPT2WATCH

Liz Parks

Crazy 8
San Francisco
Parent company: The Gymboree Corporation
86 locations
www.crazy8.com

The flowered poncho top – 100 percent cotton batiste with back buttons and an attached jersey -- is airy and fashionable, a perfect complement to a pair of cotton twill white jeans. These, in turn, can be paired with a floral-trim terry sunhat, gems and jelly styled flip flops and a plastic bead necklace.

Meals in a Flash

Six U.S. locations, with plans to franchise up to 1,000 more in five years

From May 2010 | By Liz Parks | Tags: Concept2watch, Worth Watching

STORES Trends Newsletter

Liz Parks

Six U.S. locations, with plans to franchise up to 1,000 more in five years

MyMenu
Chicago
Founder/chairman:
Mac Voisin

Are you busy, with no time to cook but tired of eating out? Would you prefer to eat a healthy, tasty and affordable meal without having to fuss?

If you live in Fort Wayne, Ind., or Madison, Wis., you’d likely be patronizing MyMenu, a two-year-old chain based on Canadian retail staple M&M Meat Shops. And if Mac Voisin, the founder and chairman of both chains, has his way, there’ll be one near just about everyone within the next five years.

Figure-flattering Formals

From Apr 2010 | By Liz Parks | Tags: Concept2watch, Trends Newsletter

Liz Parks

Sydney’s Closet
St. Louis
Founder/president: Phyllis Brasch
Librach
www.sydneyscloset.com

One of the best ways to ensure that a new retail concept will succeed is to fill an unmet need. That’s what Phyllis Brasch Librach did when, in 2002, she opened Sydney’s Closet, a specialty apparel store providing stylish, affordable and trendy special occasion dresses for plus-size women and girls.

Yak and Track

Platform allows retailers to monitor in-store shopping patterns via cell phone

From Nov 2008 | By Craig Guillot | Tags: Concept2watch, Information Technology

Worth Watching

Platform allows retailers to monitor in-store shopping patterns via cell phone

Like it or loathe it, retailers know that consumers yakking away on their cell phones while shopping is likely here to stay. That might not be such a bad thing, as a new technology promises to help retailers use cell phones to track the patterns and behaviors of in-store shoppers just as they would those who shop on the web.