Google Is Poised To Open Its First Permanent Retail Store (adage.com)

Google is planning to open a 14,000 square-foot retail store in Chicago's Fulton Market district, according to local media reports from Crain's Chicago Business and Chicago Tribune. While Google has opened pop-up stores in the past, this would be its first permanent location. Ad Age reports: In 2015, Google abandoned plans to open a store in New York City, after spending $6 million renovating the 131 Greene St. location, Crain's New York Business reported at the time. The Chicago store would give Google a bricks-and-mortar location to show off its expanding line of products, including Pixel phones, Daydream VR headsets, Nest products and more. The location Google is eyeing in Chicago is just a few blocks from Google's Midwest headquarters. The Fulton Market neighborhood, part of Chicago's West Loop, is formerly a meatpacking district. It has been transformed in recent years and is now home to some of Chicago's hottest restaurants. The report notes that there's still a future in brick-and-mortar locations, citing Amazon's interest in Whole Foods and the fact that retail stores have been a key part of Apple's strategy. Microsoft operates stores in 35 states.

Comments

the hook is in online integration

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The hook for brick and mortar now is in online integration.

It's nice to have someplace you can return the stuff you got online, without having to ship it back. It's nice to have a showroom for certain items. Someplace to get service. Faster, cheaper, or both shipping if you order and then come and pick it up.

Re:Desperation?

[MightyYar]

Chromebooks are awesome if you have kids or if you are the de facto IT person in your family. Support consists only of fixing hardware failures and resetting forgotten passwords, occasionally disabling a rude extension. Beats the shit out of spending a full day cleaning up Windows.