Google to venture where Apple soared and Microsoft crashed – physical retail
- Reference: 1621614130
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/05/21/google_chelsea_store/
- Source link:
Well, as in person as pandemic restrictions currently allow. Google notes that shopping has changed "forever" due to COVID-19 so plans to restrict numbers of punters and keep everything as squeaky clean as possible.
There's an obvious joke to be made about how would one achieve social distancing with a Google employee looking over your shoulder (as many suggest its products do) but we're far too classy to snoop stoop so low.
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The store is due to open in the summer and is located in Chelsea. It will be part of the company's urban campus in the city.
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The new Google Store in Chelsea, New York City
As for what will be in store, users can expect to get their hands on the company's gizmos from Pixel phones and Pixelbooks to Fitbits and Nest devices. Orders can also be picked up and, more importantly, broken devices fixed and guidance sought from actual humans rather than the tiresome chatbots and AIs common to Google's online properties.
It's an interesting move. So far, out of the tech giants seeking to flog their in-house gizmos, only Apple has really made a success of the brick-and-mortar retail store. Microsoft's adventure was infamously disastrous and the operation [6]was eventually shuttered last year , although the New York store on Fifth Avenue lives on as a "Microsoft Experience Center".
Presumably meaning you get to watch [7]Azure crash in person.
Google, however, thinks consumers will be beating a path to its door and we imagine that more stores will follow should this first attempt (yes, we know there have been popups in the past) be a success.
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If not, well, just as Microsoft has a Raiders -eque warehouse where even now Windows 10X is being nailed into a crate to be stored alongside Zune, Groove, and Windows Home Server, Google has its own [9]graveyard where doubtless the retail experiment will be swiftly consigned if things don't work out. ®
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[1] https://blog.google/products/devices-services/google-store-nyc
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YKgtlUaFsC-BZIfg1dd1xQAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YKgtlUaFsC-BZIfg1dd1xQAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YKgtlUaFsC-BZIfg1dd1xQAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/05/21/googleshop.jpg
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/26/microsoft_store_shutdown/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/20/microsoft_azure_outage/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YKgtlUaFsC-BZIfg1dd1xQAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://killedbygoogle.com/
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
They don't need a shop to sell your personal data.
Do you...
have to turn on Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS on before you enter the store?
You don't need to turn location services on, as its never off.
Re: Do you...
They'll have a bit of kit that detects any iPhones and sounds a siren 'Warning Apple User On Board'
Then 10 salesdroids will descend and begin the conversion process.
I am joking but TBH, I don't see the point of this store. They have a mighty high bar to get over if they are to compete with the Apple Store. MS tried several times and failed so did Samsung.
Why don't they save on property rental and just fill a landfill with their crippled / artificially obsolete devices directly?
Yeah, I'd keep my resume up to date if I worked there
These vanity stores never go anywhere. Google and MS both have the same issue, where there hardware, good or bad, is always a second thought to the core biz.
Apple however, is a hardware company first. So they make enough stuff to have a walk in store make sense.
Re: Yeah, I'd keep my resume up to date if I worked there
Google do have some hardware, though: Chromebooks, Pixel phones, Nest gizmos, Chromecast, Fitbit, maybe a place to try Stadia. It all seems a bit more together and useful than what was in the MS stores.
Wow!
That’s really exciting. Uh, as exciting as a Microsoft Store. Or something.
How long will it last?
Google is pretty famous for starting something and then quietly killing it a year or two later. I'll bet this store is no more by the end of next year.
Re: How long will it last?
I'm still in shock at how they actually finished building the whole thing.
They opened a store in London about 6 years ago.