Stores must 'master the experience' of shopping to ultimately succeed, retail experts say
The phrase "retail is dead" may ring true for some metro Detroiters after witnessing the closing of malls such as Northland Center in Southfield and the Summit Place Mall in Waterford Township — now vacant symbols of times when more families would spend a day at the mall. Yet experts would argue that retail store shopping is not dying but changing quickly and dramatically. Take, for example, the Whole Foods Market in Midtown. The organic and natural food store uses recycled materials from scrap yards in Detroit for store signs, and a collage made by a local artist designates the deli. Painted on the wall above the dairy section are the words "Detroit Proud to be Here," while another wall features a painted grid of the city of Detroit. Whole Food Market's efforts to connect with the Detroit community is a theme common with such national retail stores attempting to emulate the "support local retail movement," said Jeff Stoltman, an associate professor of marketing at Wayne State University. He said local grocery stores sometimes can't afford signage, so they use chalkboards instead to list products and specials. National retailers emulate local grocers with chalkboard signs, as well as featuring more natural materials like wood in their stores and using more earth tones in the design.
