In a new blog post, Google introduced its “first-ever bodily retail retailer” will launch this summer season within the Chelsea neighborhood of New York Metropolis. The corporate says the “Google Retailer” will characteristic the predictable assortment of Google {hardware} like Pixel telephones, Nest units, Fitbits, and every little thing else the corporate makes, together with repairs, workshops, and tech assist.
When you’re considering “There is not any method that is Google’s first-ever bodily retail retailer!” Google’s assertion is a reference to a everlasting, freestanding retailer. The corporate commonly does momentary, seasonal “pop-up” shops on a regular basis across the holidays, and it has a small model retailer within Finest Buys within the US in addition to related offers with different shops worldwide, like a bigger retailer inside Curry’s PC World in London.
By our rely, that is Google’s fourth try at a freestanding, everlasting retail location. Who might neglect the primary try, the Google Barges, a fleet of container ships that Google secretly bought beginning in 2010 as a way to create floating retail showrooms that may presumably journey the world whereas pitching futuristic merchandise like Google Glass. (What a time that was!) By 2014, regulators had gotten wind of Google’s plan, and fire-safety issues torpedoed the challenge.
In 2015, we discovered about plans for a “flagship” retail store, this time within the SoHo district of NYC (a bit south of the present location). Google leased a 5,000-square-foot house and reportedly spent $6 million renovating the constructing earlier than mysteriously strolling away from the challenge and deciding to sublease the constructing.
Attempt #3 was in 2018 in Chicago, the place the Chicago Tribune mentioned Google was planning a flagship retail house within the Fulton Market district. Eight months later, a follow-up report mentioned, “Google halted plans late within the leasing course of.”
Google’s earlier retail makes an attempt have not taken off, however with an official announcement, this retailer in New York Metropolis is additional alongside than any of these different “rumored” shops over time. New York was the primary place Google expanded to after California, beginning in 2000, and in the present day the town is dwelling to Google’s greatest campus outdoors of the principle headquarters in Mountain View. Along with the Manhattan headquarters on 111 eighth Ave., the corporate purchased the Chelsea Market constructing (a famous mall/meals court docket) for $2.4 billion in 2018 and introduced an growth into Hudson Square. This new Google Retailer can be proper in the course of the Google NYC Campus.
