ection nationwide. The New York City location features city living-appropriate products, such as compact appliances and small furniture, to add to the national merchandise assortment of kitchen and tabletop products, home textiles and décor. The ‘curated collection’ includes emerging brands such as Estelle Glassware, GOODEE, Otherland, and Serax, as well as established brands including Boll & Branch, Dyson, Staub, Marimekko, Matouk and Moccamaster.

The new NYC store, which features an immersive room-by-room experience akin to Ikea, will showcase a number of New York-born brands, institutions and businesses, such as décor and homewares from the MoMA Design Store, a dedicated BEVERLY’s installation and products from Quiet Town, Beni Rugs, Bole, Dusen Dusen and Thompson Street Studio.https://68d1517c7bb81560f65f98e4fd0f9f78.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

The MoMA Design Store partnership with Nordstrom will see MoMA concessions roll out in Nordstrom stores across 10 US cities, with the approximately 200 items ranged focussing on home products. Later this year, another partnership will see the MoMA Design Store set up a concession in Berlin’s KaDeWe department store, marking MoMA’s first physical location in Europe.

Maserati takes shopping mall car shopping a step further

Building on Tesla and Subaru’s use of shopping mall environments for car experiences, luxury Italian automotive marque Maserati has launched a series of events in Westfield London, Europe’s largest shopping centre. It’s ‘On the Move’ theatre is part of the Situ Live ‘immersive retail experience’ which showcases lifestyle brands in more than 7,000 square feet of venue space. Maserati is using its theatre to launch its new MC20 super sports car, with further new vehicle launches in the future. The retail experience includes a digital platform where shoppers can access product specifications and scan a QR code to purchase – including a car worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Elsewhere in automotive, Hyundai and Amazon now have a partnership where you can buy a new Hyundai from their Evolve showroom on the Amazon platform.

Luxury apparel brands get personal

In what sounds like a twist on the Shoes of Prey concept, UK-Italian luxury footwear brand Malone Souliers, whose shoes start at more than AU$500 a pair, have created a digital made-to-order platform to allow customers globally to create their own designs. The made-to-order service enables shoppers to customise staple styles, with new colour palettes and material selections, offering more than 6000 possible combinations in total. Customisable components include the uppers, straps, heel height, and initials on the sole.

The launch of the made-to-order platform comes alongside the introduction of a new campaign entitled “Make your Mark”. 

Meanwhile in the USA, luxury streetwear company AgniAtelier has brokered a partnership with the New York Giants NFL team to launch a range custom-made for the Hispanic community, who represent a large portion of the Giants’ fan base. The limited edition collection, dubbed ‘Los Giants’ and ‘Made in NY’, has been created to celebrate Latino Heritage Month. It includes hoodies, t-shirts, crewnecks and socks. AgniAtelier founders Gonzalez and Peña are also working with the Giants to support students from The Island School on the Lower East Side of Manhattan with resources to learn about fashion, entrepreneurship and the sports industry.

Introducing Canada’s Muji of marijuana 

Canada’s cannabis retail is maturing, evidenced by the third store opening of upmarket cannabis retailer Tokyo Smoke. Now operating across the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta and billing itself as ‘elevated cannabis products and accessories’. the chain offers flower, pre-rolls, vapes, edibles, beverages, topicals, extracts, oil, capsules, sprays, and cannabis related accessories. 

Dubbed the ‘Muji of marijuana’, Tokyo Smoke stores feature clean lines, industrial lighting, island displays, and highly knowledgeable staff with a minimum of two years spent in the marijuana industry. Tokyo Smoke helps shoppers navigate products using a proprietary system of ‘Cannabis Experience Intent’. Touchscreens located around the store provide further product information and ingredients ratings and definitions.

Fast food gone fancy

A McDonald’s located in a luxury Greek revival and Italianate-inspired 19^th century mansion in Freeport, Maine in the USA has recently undergone a refurbishment. Originally launched in the Gore manor house in 1983 as the only way the town’s residents would agree to host a McDonalds, the outlet serves lobster rolls among other gourmet delicacies. The restaurant features grand fireplaces, wooden dining rooms with wooden booths and industrial style lighting. The only sign heralding the site as a McDonalds is a very small ‘M’ on the lawn, although recently a drive-through was added to one side of the building and there are the usual touchscreen self-service kiosks inside.

Meanwhile, Taco Bell’s new ‘Defy’ concept store is set to open in Minnesota in the USA’s Midwest in 2022.  Designed to serve more customers in a smaller footprint than existing stores, the Defy store will feature an elevated kitchen delivering food to customers contact-free through a lift system, effectively a modern-day dumbwaiter. Multiple drive-through lanes, paired with integrated e-commerce touchpoints and lanes dedicated specifically for pickup and delivery are designed to minimise lines of cars.