Bored in stores

[abut123]

What do you guys think about stores offering beverage bars? They would serve wine, beer, coffee and tea to help improve the shopping experience.

[greeneyedgirl107]

@abut123 I LOVE the tea idea!  With all the wellness trends, that would be fun to try.  I like Aveda's "Tea The" and really enjoyed drinking it in-store.

[WinglessOne]

@abut123  Some stores do. My local Nordstrom does: there’s a bar out in the open in the middle of the second floor. (It’s separate from the closed-off restaurant on a higher floor, and it’s open year round.) I always chuckle about it because it’s on the men’s clothing floor... way to stoke those genderized stereotypes, Nordy. 😄 (Yes, I’m sure the reason it’s on that floor is because they didn’t wanna give up valuable retail space on the other “women-centric” floors, but still.) But it’s a nice place to relax and enjoy a drink in the middle of a shopping trip. 

Sephora stores in the US are generally too small a space to realistically do this, I think, plus they’d have to get local liquor licenses. But having browsed beauty products with champagne or beer in hand at Nordstrom during their holiday parties, I can say it adds to the experience. On the other hand, sometimes it’s hard to test/swatch products when you’re holding a drink in one hand... you have to constantly find a place to set your drink down so you can play with testers. Some folks forget to pick their drinks back up. Drinks get spilled—eh, accidents happen—and I’d hate to see testers ruined that way. 

[abut123]

Thanks for your input, that is a good point about the testers and issue of holding a drink. I think a good target audience, again not to stereotype but looking at many trends, could be husbands or significant others dragged to the store by their wives. I think it would be a good way for them to relax and prevent them from getting too irritated. However, referring back to points you said, I think a good way to combat the issue of multi-tasking would be to additionally have a small seating area; a couch and a few chairs perhaps, to truly let people relax and take a break from shopping if they wanted.