Retail Solutions for Melbourne

July 9, 20090 Comments Tagged: melbourne, music, Public Space, retail

According to LineFeed - Melbourne, although being one of the top places to live in the world, has three major problems to contend with. They mention briefly the first two, broadband and transport (surely these are Australia-wide problems too) but focus their attention on the third, Retail.

The say that in comparison to Melbourne's great emphasis on entertainment (arts/culture and fine dining) there is very little in the way of quality retail. They propose four very interesting themed retail ideas to solve the problem.

Local is the name of the food themed suggestion. They envisage an inner-city building transformed to allow the growing of local produce. They see producers coming closer to the consumer, resulting in less transport costs, fresher food, and victory for all. From my experience living in Christchurch, being only minutes from somewhere you can buy fresh produce from the people growing it is wonderful. This sort of concept would be an excellent idea.

Format is a new concept for a music store, drawing from both the past and the future. The vision is of old-style listening booths (as those from the 50s and 60s) with the possibility of listening to any album/track/anything digitally. On having made your selection you would be given an option of how you want the songs provided, whether digitally, or physically. I think this is an awesome concept, somewhere I would love to shop.

A concept specifically for niche magazine and zines, Kiosk is seen as a small intimate space. There would be multiple small shops, with warm inviting interiors in order to enjoy and purchase these publications. This seems particularly suited to Melbourne.

London Store is a proposed concept for a large building in the heart of the city that will house a number of boutique international brands within it. I guess similar in a way to David Jones does things, but more exclusive.

I think certainly there are some ideas of this batch that are better than others (I love the idea of Format especially), but they are certainly worth more thought. What do you think?