“When we finally got let out of our collective time-out corner, we really wanted to go do stuff,” retail consultant David Greensfelder told the Los Angeles Times for their recent report on the shopping scene in the area. “Generally speaking, we’re still really wanting to go do stuff.”
“The conversion of stores where customers were passive consumers to places where they participate in the action reflects changes in shopping habits brought on by the internet and a growing desire among many young people for shared experiences,” the newspaper wrote.
The recent article gave numerous examples of what people call “experiential” retail (even if they don’t always understand what that means) throughout the great L.A. area, noting that the concept is not exactly new, tracing it back to Chuck E. Cheese and even earlier interactive retail businesses. As Greensfelder put it, “hazy pandemic memories of anxious confinement and forced distancing from other people are playing a part in the trend too.”
Among the retail places included in the story, many of which replaced more conventional retail outlets, were:
- Holey Moley, a miniature golf course in a former food court, where every hole is designed as a tiny movie set intended to be Instagramable, on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. It turns into a cocktail and karaoke lounge in the evenings.
- Pickle Pop, a pickleball court with a restaurant and clothing store, in what had been an Adidas footwear store, also on the Promenade.
- A former Santa Monica clothing store now called Outlandish where livestreaming is now broadcast from, selling a variety of goods live online.
Other locations cited in the report included Cosm, an immersive theater with an 87-foot wraparound screen where viewers can watch sporting event and entertainment performances; a Titanic exhibition employing AI virtual reality headset where you can walk through a simulated ship (before it sank) and a game center where people can play Squid Games using VR gear.
Greensfelder sees all of these places appealing to Next Gen customers. “Among Gen Z, you’re seeing a huge desire to actually have in-person experiences again, they’re going back to the mall. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that this cohort is very experience-driven, as opposed to material thing-driven. They also want to have the experience be in person.”