American Girl Doll store, NYC
I was involved in a discussion on Twitter today and was reminded on the idea of the the third place. It was a topic that I used to write about about a great deal and with everything happening these days, guess it's kind of fallen off my radar lately. If you don't know the idea of the third place, it's this:
In community building, the third place is the social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home ("first place") and the workplace ("second place"). Examples of third places would be environments such as churches, cafes, clubs, public libraries, bookstores or parks. In his influential book The Great Good Place (1989), Ray Oldenburg argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place.
When you look at how companies like Google, Facebook, etc., built their offices, I always thought they were built to really combine the second and third places together. For younger generations, so much of their social life was built around their work environments. For my Dad's generation, you worked and you mainly went home after work. During the dot com boom, they created offices that were for both work and socializing and the Google's of the world took it even further. You could do everything but actually sleep there.
Thanks to Covid, we're all working from home these days and while we talk a lot about how working from home is impacting our businesses, I haven't seen a lot of discussions about how working from home is impacting our social experiences. Yes, we know that covid has seriously impacted socializing right now, but even when Covid has left us, it seems like working from home is with us for the long term.
And that's where retail has an opportunity to step up. Back in 2011, I wrote:
We're missing a big opportunity to emphasize just what makes place special. As I've said in the past, I continue to think that there's a coming trend to socialize the retail environment instead of just merchandising the real estate space.
When Sydney was very young, we used to eat at a Burger King near our house quite often because they had an indoor playground. And it's not just about the actual playground. Since she's an only child, it was about Sydney's desire to play with a group of other children her age and the social aspect of that experience. It's not about the food there (sorry Burger King!), it was about it being a Third Place for Sydney.
So, what is the value of real estate for retailers today? If, thanks to the Covid and the internet people are much more comfortable getting their purchases sent to them, rather then getting them right away, do we need that much space dedicated to merchandise? So, if we can do away with the inventory portion of most retail spaces today, what else would you do with the space? How could you make it a much more social environment, rather than being a retail environment?
And if, thanks to the significant structural changes being made to our work structure, I think that there's a huge opportunity today. I continue to think that there's a coming trend to socialize the retail environment instead of just merchandising the real estate space. And the more we try to use the space for our purposes rather then our guests, the more they'll stay away.
Writing in their Dialogue, Gensler designer Kathleen Jordan talks about how retailers are adding to their experiences:
Familiar “ands,” such as a coffee bar or DJ booth, are commonplace. These added amenities draw from hospitality and are meant to personalize the retail experience and increase how much time consumers spend in a space—the “dwell time,” according to Gensler’s Kathleen Jordan. The right amenity doesn’t compete or distract with the product being sold, but offers a complementary use and a respite that allows consumers to recharge and extend their day.
Starbucks Reserve NYC
Starbucks is almost always one of the first examples given as a third place and their Starbucks Reserve is no different. I've had the chance to visit the original in Seattle as well as the location in Lower Manhattan, pictured below. With more menu choices and an actual bar serving alcohol, they are building on the environments that have driven them for years. Of course, in reaction to Covid, they are also building more drive-thru and pick-up locations., but they are not losing sight of what made them in the first place. A recent article in Restaurant Business about their efforts:
“As we started opening limited seating in our stores with very limited seating, it was immediate,” CEO Kevin Johnson told investors on Wednesday. “Customers were there. They want to be part of that community.
Back in 2017, long before we had ever heard of Covid, Retail Customer Experience had this to say:
Remember that for thousands of years the most powerful social experiences have happened where people gather. Whether it's a street fair or soccer game, a church or a coffee shop, people will always crave company. And what could provide a more engaging and social experience than shopping together? A show-stopping display, the big reveal as a friend emerges from the dressing room, an immersive installation — these occasions beg to be shared. The most compelling social media experiences begin with in-person social interactions.
As we wrote about here, retailers need to be thinking about their post-Covid strategy now, to be ready for when we get back to normal. I had the same challenges writing about the theme park industry right after 9-11. In the weeks after those horrible attacks, I spoke to many colleagues in the entertainment marketing field who all asked the same question: How do we go back to our business in the face of such a tragedy? What we do seems so trivial in the face of such tragedy…so unimportant. I, too, asked the same questions and wondered how I would get back to "business as usual" after these events.
Thanks to encouragement from industry friends and a great editor, Pat Esgate, I wrote a piece entitled The Great Good Places, where I talked about the important need to create fun. I wrote then:
As I thought more about it, the need for fun is a global experience. We may have fun in different ways, but we all like to have fun. Fun is one of the greatest tools we have to create a world of understanding and -- potentially -- peace. Hate can’t thrive in an atmosphere of fun.
Let’s ask how can we create experiences that bring people together to share a common, joyous activity. What we need today is more ways for people to come together and share joy—and that’s what we do. So celebrate the joy that you create.
Retailers now have a huge opportunity to recreate themselves for a new world. For 10+ years, I've been asking Why More Retailers Don't have Genius Bars and maybe this is the time to experiment and add new ideas. The large department stores that seem to be dinosaurs today, were once the forefront of retail experimentation. They were social experiences, where people gathered to be educated, to see the latest and to see each other.
The point is, that as consumers become continue to grow even more sophisticated in their expectations, retailers need to change their approach. I can shop online if all I need is shopping. I go to the store to receive service and I’m expecting more & more. Make my shopping experience my enjoyable. More helpful. More convenient. More of an experience.
If we do lose the office complexes that have been built the last decade or so, people will need new environments to be social and socialize. For decades, teens have used the mall as their socializing place, now more of us might be looking for a new place to hang out.
Retail can be the new (old) third place. As Ray Oldenberg said, third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place. Today, more than ever perhaps, we need our third places as a society and what better way for retailers to help than to be our gathering places.