This past July, the Apple Piazza Liberty opened in Milan. Above is a photo from the opening via Apple. There’s a band playing in the middle of the piazza. The store is central to Apple’s vision of transforming its retail locations into “town squares.” And in… Read More
This is an excellent talk by NYU professor Scott Galloway about Amazon, online grocery, and many other aspects of the retail landscape. The bits about Amazon’s scale and reach are fascinating. There is about 30 minutes of him speaking quickly and then another 15 minutes… Read More
This piece in the New Yorker about how e-commerce, and in particular JD.com, is transforming rural China is worth a read. In typical New Yorker fashion, it’s a good long-form read, but one that you can also listen to if that’s your thing. What’s immediately… Read More
At the end of last year, Slate hosted a “pre-design community meeting” for the redevelopment of Corktown Plaza in Hamilton. It was the first time we hosted a meeting like this. We learned things that evening and this May 24th we’ll be hosting our “pre-application community… Read More
Here is an interesting article from Loose Threads that talks about the profound impact that data and fast fashion are having on apparel brands, transforming them from supply-driven businesses to demand-driven ones. It adds a bit more nuance to the trope that tech is disrupting… Read More
This morning the first Amazon Go store opened to the public in downtown Seattle. It’s more convenience store than grocery store, but the big deal is that there are no cashiers and no lines. You enter the store through a gate and with your phone… Read More
Amazon released its shortlist of HQ2 cities this morning. Below are the 20 metropolitan areas. They were selected from 238 bids, so this shortlist represents 8.4% of the original pool. Atlanta, GA Austin, TX Boston, MA Chicago, IL Columbus, OH Dallas, TX Denver, CO Indianapolis,… Read More
Here are a couple of cut-up snippets from a recent post by Seth Godin titled: “Waste and the new luxury.” Luxury goods are built on a foundation of waste. The front lawn is a luxury good, a sign that you don’t need to graze your cows… Read More
A friend of mine was in Scottsdale last month for an ICSC conference where Garrick H. Brown (VP of Retail Research for the Americas at Cushman & Wakefield) delivered this retail presentation. My friend flipped it to me this week and below are a couple… Read More
Sidewalk Labs recently ran a thought experiment where they came up with 5 possible scenarios for the future of retail and, more specifically, what they may mean for our streetscapes. You can read all about them here, but my mind lumps them into 3 broad… Read More
BRANDON DONNELLY 